Bebe Returns

 

Using sign language and facial expression, Sisseku helped Alithea gather up various medical supplies, some bandages and poultices that would help with minor injuries. Sisseku handed Alithea a package of the miner’s food carefully wrapped. Alithea wished Fallon were there in the long house to translate but she guessed that it would help comfort someone in great pain from an animal bite or broken bone. Sisseku indicated that it would spoil within two days. Alithea thought it might be more bother than it was worth. Hadn’t they spent the summer traveling through the valley and forest without strange potions?

She heard Drindl and Erthen outside the long hut and ran out to meet them. Erthen threw out his arms and Drindl handed the boy to Alithea. “What did Alanis Drindl show you?” Drindl blushed at the honorific.

“What’s Alanis?” Erthen asked, mispronouncing the title.

“It means honored teacher,” Alithea said.

“I learned a lot. We almost saw a wolfbear,” Erthen said. Alithea looked to Drindl who gave a barely perceptible shake of his head. “It was a broken branch and a piece of its fur. We found hairs in the bark of a tree where it rubbed its head.”

“You will become a master tracker one day,” Alithea said as she kissed the top of his head. “You are getting so big.” She lowered him to the ground and voiced a silent thank you to Drindl. She was afraid that he would be traumatized by the events of these past weeks but he was at an age of looking forward, not back. She wished they could stay here even a day or two before subjecting Erthen to the rigors of a journey.

“Here’s Bebe,” Drindl said, turning toward the slope that led to the castle. Sisseku signaled that she would rejoin Mellen in the hut. Alithea thanked her, then turned to wave to Bebe as she led the elephant forward. Drindl helped her disconnect the travois from the elephant harness.

“I want to show you something,” Bebe said to Alithea. “Drindl, could you show Erthen where the elephant corral is? They don’t need much leading, Mileku told me. They know where the food is.”

Drindl gathered up the boy in his arms and came alongside the head of the elephant, allowing Erthen to touch the large ear. The boy snapped his arm back as the ear moved under his touch. “That’s his ear,” Drindl said as he touched Erthen’s ear. “He waves it to help keep him cool.” He touched the boy’s nose and pointed to the curled trunk. “That’s his nose.” He let Erthen touched the wrinkled skin of the trunk.

“He smells with that?” Erthen asked in disbelief.

“He can do a lot of things with his nose. It is like a hand and an arm and a nose all together. Come on, let’s go take the elephant to his home,” Drindl said as he walked forward next to the elephant.

Bebe unwrapped the bundle on the travois. “I didn’t know which medicines you would want. I brought what I could carry for our trip.”

“Oh, thank you,” Alithea said as she rummaged through the medical supplies. “I was so upset yesterday.” She didn’t want to tell Bebe what she had done. “Do you think we need to leave so soon? There is so much we could learn at the palace.”

“That’s what I wanted to show you,” Bebe said, unwrapping another bundle. She held out the cornerstone plaque she had buried weeks ago on the beach below the palace. “This is from when Marten built the palace.”

“See we could stay there. So much history,” Alithea pleaded. “You especially, Bebe, know what this means. We need to teach the others of our heritage, the time before the great war between the tribes.”

“No, you don’t…,” Bebe handed her another plaque. “These were in a cabinet in a room next to the clinic.” She pointed out an unfamiliar symbol. “That’s the symbol for the queen and her kind. Read it.”

Alithea browsed the symbols, stopped at a halfway point, then began again. “These people have a sickness like the Glitl snake?” She traced her finger over the symbol for the snake, then looked up to Bebe. “I have been with the queen. She touched Erthen. We are not sick.”

“It’s not all of them, just some of them,” Bebe said. She picked up another plaque, then set it down and picked up one below it.”

“How many of these are there?” Alithea asked.

“More. Maybe a lot more in other places in the palace, Alithea. But the smell. A wolfbear, maybe several, came by after you left and had a meal with some of those soldiers. I didn’t want to come near them.” Bebe handed the plaque to Alithea and waited while she read.

Alithea pointed to several symbols on the plaque. “This is how they lost the war against these creatures. They got sick before the war barely started.”

Bebe pointed out the symbol for a bargaining tent. “They were trying to come to some negotiation with the furless creatures and got sick.”

“They all died?” Alithea asked.

“Most of them. That is on another plaque but I don’t have it,” Bebe said. “Not all of them have the sickness but some of them do. Either we kill all of them or we stay away from them.”

“How do they not get sick?” Alithea said.

“How does the Glitl snake not die from its own poison?” Bebe asked with a shrug.

“The queen might not have the disease but is not susceptible to it either?” Alithea asked, not expecting an answer from Bebe but intrigued by the possibility. She had cut up a Glitl snake once. “The snake has an organ where it keeps its poison. I wonder if these creatures have such a thing? How do they poison us? By biting or simply by touching?”

“Have you ever thought that is why they keep their distance from us? You came in contact with the queen but only because she wanted to use your skills.” Bebe paused, a stricken look on her face. “I have been in contact with one of the soldiers.”

“When? This morning?” Alithea asked.

“No, a week ago. I was in the clinic. He tried to copulate with me,” Bebe said. “I used the cripple kick. The queen came in. She thought I was you and was so sorry. I ran away.”

Alithea suddenly understood why the queen had been apologetic yesterday. “Did he touch you or bite you?”

“Touched me. Not there. Just my arm, I think. I got away,” Bebe said.

“You would have showed signs of sickness by now,” Alithea said. She stood up, looking toward the elephant corral. She reached out a hand to Bebe. “We can’t carry all these tablets, can we? We must leave them in a safe place. Maybe we could stay another day.”

Bebe stood, shaking her head. “Every two or three days, the caravans come from the south to take away the energy they dig in the mine.”

“Well then, Mellen and Sisseku should come with us. That’s what I told Fallon,” Alithea said.

“The journey would kill him. You know that,” Bebe said.

“The soldiers who come might kill all the villagers,” Alithea argued.

“No, they won’t. They depend on them too much. The soldiers want only what the miners dig up. The calf had some kind of sickness that poisoned the soldiers and the queen. That’s all,” Bebe said. She knelt again to bundle up the plaques. “We’ll make two bundles. One to take with us. One to keep here. We’ll bury them on the hillside behind the long house.”

Alithea looked at the sky, then lowered her gaze to the slope that led to the palace. Should she tell Bebe what happened? Maybe later. She looked toward the direction of the corral but Drindl and Erthen were not in sight. “Hurry. We’ll need food for the journey. Here, give me a bundle of the tablets.”