Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 85272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
The work continued apace and no one noticed the white shapes with the bulbous red eyes that began appearing in the shadows of the wood…
Thirty-Five
Danni stooped and gathered the purple heads of wheat, threw them into the straw basket, and then moved on. This kind of work would have been severely painful to her nearly fifty-year-old back just a few weeks before. But now she stooped and gathered and stooped and gathered with barely a pause. Beside her, Navii moved with similar ease and speed.
Danni knew they had to move fast—the autumn rains were threatening overhead and a bad storm could ruin an entire crop. She only hoped that the men could cut fast enough to keep ahead of the weather.
Up ahead, she could see Brav’s broad back, the muscles flexing as he swung the heavy metal scythe. He was so strong, she thought admiringly. And he was faster than everyone else, too! He was already half a row ahead and—.
Just at that moment, a thin wailing sound cut into her train of thought. Looking back, she saw that baby Gazimba was crying in Yolii’s arms.
“Oh, dear!” Navii turned too, a look of concern and annoyance on her face. “What can be the matter now? I nursed him and changed him just before we left. Why is he so upset? Yolii?” she shouted, waving at her oldest daughter. “Yolii, what’s wrong?”
“A stinger!” The girl looked near tears herself. “It stung his little foot and now it’s swelling up!”
“Oh, dear!” Navii looked distressed. “He’ll have to go to the Mother Stone to be healed, but first I must get the poison barb out and they’re so small!”
She started to leave the line of harvesting women but Danni put a hand on her arm.
“I’ll go,” she told her friend. “You know I have…healing skills.”
She didn’t like to talk any more frankly about her background as a doctor but the other women seemed to accept that she had special knowledge and abilities without assuming that she was somehow bad or wrong for having them.
“Oh, would you? Thank you, dear friend.” Navii smiled at her. “Please let me know if he needs his mother.”
“I’ll take care of him,” Danni promised.
Luckily, she had slipped a tiny first-aid kit into the pocket of her white harvest dress—though she didn’t think she could afford to let anyone but Navii or Yolii see her using it. Beckoning to the young girl, she brought her a little beyond the group of children, who were being guarded by their older sisters, and into the shade of the nearby trees.
“I don’t know if we should be here.” Yolii glanced around nervously, her large purple eyes wide.
“We’ll only be a moment. Hold his little foot,” Danni instructed. Though much of her past had become blurry and indistinct, she had retained her doctoring skills and the urge to help people in need.
Opening her small first aid kit, she took out a pair of tweezers and quickly extracted the tiny, sharp barb and flicked it away. Next came a tube of cooling ointment which she dabbed on the baby’s tiny foot, instantly easing the sharp pain caused by the insect sting.
Baby Gazimba stopped crying at once. His little face unscrewed itself and he looked up at them with wide, wet eyes, as though wondering what was going on.
“Look at him—he’s all better!” Yolii whispered with awe. “Danielle, you healed him!”
“I only got rid of the barb and stopped his pain,” Danni said quickly. “The Mother Stone will do the actual healing later, when we bring him back to the village.” She gripped the girl’s arm. “Please, don’t say anything about this, Yolii. People don’t always understand my, er, gift of stopping pain.”
“I understand.” Yolii nodded. “I won’t say a word. I—” Suddenly her eyes got wide with fright and she clutched the baby tighter to her chest. Her mouth was trembling and she seemed to be trying to say something else, but she couldn’t get the words out.
“What? What is it?” Danni asked anxiously. The girl seemed to be staring at something over her shoulder. She had her back to the trees—was there someone behind her?
At last, Yolii got out what she’d been trying to say.
“R-riivers,” she stuttered, still backing away. “Danielle, run!”
Danni’s heart started pounding and she leaped forward…only to be yanked back when someone—or something—with horribly sharp claws caught her by the shoulder.
She started to shriek in surprise and fear, but a cold hand clamped over her mouth and a hissing voice said in her ear, “Mine!”
Then, as the horrified Yolii watched, Danni was dragged away into the woods.
Thirty-Six
Brav heard the piercing shriek coming from somewhere behind him and was instantly on the alert.
Dropping his scythe, he rushed back to where the women were just beginning to react to the frightening sound.
“Yolii, my sweet one—what is it? What is it?”