Alithea's Journey

 

As the afternoon sun shone on them, the injured woman nodded off to sleep. Alithea felt for a pulse and was satisfied. There had been little loss of blood. If she could close the wound, the woman might again return to work after a few weeks of healing. Would they give her that much time? If they put her back to work immediately, it would undo all Alithea’s work.

Would they have a surgery kit? Surely, they must. Something powerful had broken the rocks into jagged pieces. Creatures capable of such power must have learned to sew up wounds.

The ground below the travois inclined and hardened. They left the smoothness of sand for a well-trod path. As they rose above the beach, Alithea scanned the prisoner group, hoping to spot the others. She thought she saw Drindl stretch and straighten up his shoulders, but she couldn’t be sure. She worried that Alpen and Fallon would take on the guards. They lost sight of the beach and the ocean as the path turned, but within a few minutes, it came into view once again. Alithea wished for another time, a gentler moment when she could enjoy the breathtaking view.

Worried, she turned toward the front to see where they were going. Off to her right, she saw sparse beach grass, undulating dunes and behind that several tall buildings. As the caravan drew closer, she saw tiny figures running around in circles. People! Little people! Was this the school where they had sent Erthen? She drew herself up to see better.

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The figures disappeared briefly as they neared the crest of the path and then bumped along a grassy flat area. Her heart sank when she saw the unfamiliar movements. It was not Erthen or any of the People. There were small versions of the queen moving in that odd gait as they kicked a round object along the ground. Who were these creatures and where did they come from?

They passed under a great arch and into an open courtyard, then stopped. Two Fae warriors came around the rear and helped the injured woman from the travois. Alithea looked for the queen but there was no cloth side draped from her cabin atop the elephant. Looking up, Alithea watched the queen disappear into an opening high up in the wall.

One of the Fae warriors urged Alithea forward and she followed them to a side entrance and up a set of stairs inside the building. She had never seen a set of stairs like this. There was no sign of rocks that formed the structure. She almost stumbled as she bent to inspect their construction.

At the top of the stairs, a hard path led into a room. The Fae warriors helped the injured woman onto a bed raised above the hard floor. They turned and left, and the queen entered the room from another entry. As she approached, Alithea mouthed the words that Fallon had given her for surgery kit. The queen gave her a puzzled look and Alithea make a back and forth sewing motion with her hand above the injured woman’s wound.

The queen nodded and turned to the wall, which opened somehow. The queen turned with a sharp scalpel and Alithea’s heart leapt. Yes! The queen motioned to the opening and urged Alithea toward it. When she looked at the array of instruments, she gasped. Was this queen a surgeon?