Aftermath

by Meiling Colorado

  The five-car caravan ground to a halt.

  Benton put his hand on the boy's forehead and shouted at Terence, ¨Find Leiren! Now!¨ But the rugged man didn't move. Looking up sharply he saw the reason why. The two men were staring at Ren's hands, a horrified expression on both stony faces.

  ¨What the…¨ Looking down, he gasped, trying to wrap his mind around what his eyes were seeing. Twin tongues of flame licked across Ren's open palms, across his wrists, and up his bare arms. And now, the boy's eyes were open, dark and haunted, as he looked on in wide eyed horror at the freak show taking place on his own body. Only seconds must have passed, but it felt like ages until Benton was able to snap out of his paralyzed state, and react. Grabbing the jacket behind his nephew's head, he threw himself on the boy, wrapping him in the cloth, choking the oxygen from the devilish flames, smothering them. He recognized a voice, his own, yelling Ren's name hoarsely, sounding strange, panicked.

  This was madness.

  A hand on his shoulder made him turn his head and to his relief he saw the one person he trusted could make sense of this insanity. With surprising gentleness Leiren pulled him back, slim dark hands soft yet commanding.

  ¨Go stand outside, Benton. It's over now,” she said matter of factly, as if they were still back at the hall in the settlement, discussing the weather.

  ¨It's stifling in here, I need more room and you all need some fresh air.¨

  The woman must be a master of understatement, thought Benton numbly as he joined the people now beginning to gather around the car. Giving her a minute or two to check the kid, he leaned against the front door of the car, trying to understand what had just happened. How come Ren wasn't howling in pain? He must be in shock not to feel those burns. That was the only thing he could come up with.

  ¨How badly is he hurt?¨ he managed to croak finally as she moved away from Ren, who was now sitting back, eyes closed, face ashen.

  The Healer's grey eyes turned to him, a strangely distant look in them.

  ¨Hurt? Not at all, it would seem.¨

  ¨But what about...¨ started Sam, and stopped as she held up a hand. He started again, defiantly, a sign to how upset the man was. ¨We all saw…¨ She shot him a sharp, meaningful glance and he subsided with a muttered curse.

  Turning back to Benton Leiren paused, then seemed to come to some sort of decision. ¨We'll talk about it when we camp,¨ she said abruptly. ¨Now all he needs is something to take care of his temperature and some water to wash it down with. Lillith! Come child, bring me my bag! The sooner we're on our way the better.¨ And so saying, she turned her back on them and concentrated on the boy. Even though still in the dark about what had caused the fuss everyone rightly took this as a dismissal and headed back to their respective cars without protesting. Leiren's words were akin to law, and she knew it.

  The three men looked at each other, Terence shrugging sheepishly. They all knew what they had witnessed. Those flames had been there, the heat had been freakishly real. Leiren knew something, too. That much was certain whether she wanted to discuss it or not. Sam scratched the hair at the nape of his neck and shook his head thoughtfully. They could see no marks on Ren's hands and arms…he just looked sick and badly shaken, as well he might.

  Shaking his head in an effort to clear it Benton looked up just in time to catch sight of an unmistakable female figure clad in faded shorts and a red t-shirt. His breath catching in his throat, he just stood there, blinking, as she walked away with Yeshra and a limping Resnan.

  Serbell.

  Watching as Serbell reached the car and got in the driver's seat he wasn't sure she wasn't a figment of his imagination caused by the stress and heat of Ren's spontaneous combustion, or whatever that had been. Feeling his grip on his sanity at that moment was precarious at best, he turned to Leiren, who was now efficiently putting the contents of her medicine bag away, while quite obviously blocking Lillith's attempts to peer over her shoulder at Ren.

  ¨Was that Serbell I just saw?¨

  ¨It probably was.¨ The wise woman was still intent on putting things up, thin dark braids hiding her face to his eyes, so he couldn't see her expression, though she sounded amused for some reason. He braved another question. ¨But how....I didn't hear her name on the list...¨ He thought he heard a soft chuckle escape the wise-woman's full lips, but with her back turned to him he couldn't be sure. ¨You can ask her yourself when we stop for the night,¨ was all she said.

  What on earth can she find amusing about all this? Women were nothing if not confusing. Unless she was just spiteful enough to be enjoying his distress. Some women were like that, he knew, but though the Healer could be said to be many things, not all of them positive in some eyes, he had never considered Leiren petty. As for her response...Hell yes. He did have a couple of questions for Serbell.

  The next moment however, as she moved away from the car and looked up at him, he was sure he must have imagined the note of laughter in her rich voice. Nothing could have been more serious than her expression.

  ¨As I said before, the kid is okay. This time, anyway. We need to talk.¨ She darted a quick glance at Ren, now looking up at the car ceiling. ¨Later, when we camp, come to my tent.¨ Pausing, she seemed to ponder her next words.

  ¨Whatever you do, Benton....don't let him go back to sleep.¨

  CHAPTER 7

  CAMP

  ¨Be quiet, girl!¨ snapped Leiren, irritation breaking through the already thin veneer of her patience. ¨I'll have no more of your questions now. I have enough on my mind as it is.¨ And Lillith had to comply of course, subsiding into a mutinous silence, bristling with indignation.

  Her father didn't say anything, of course, but he did take his eyes off the road for a moment and glanced at her with some compassion. Lorenna patted her knee comfortingly, and she shot her a dirty look, regretting it almost instantly. Her fellow apprentice wasn't to blame, after all.

  The only one who had an inkling of what was wrong with Ren was their teacher, she thought bitterly, and she was choosing not to say a word. Lillith could feel that something.... something was badly off with him. She had never seen anyone look as scared as those three men who had been in the car with him, and Benton never looked worried. Damn. Ren was her friend, after all, she had a right to know, she thought, craning her neck to see the car following them.

  ¨Stop with the fidgeting!¨ Leiren's voice lashed out like a whip and Lillith jumped and sat back fuming.

  Really, the woman was insufferable today, her temper on an even shorter leash than usual. Both Lorenna and her father looked pretty tense, too. It really wasn't fair.

  Trying to calm herself she emptied her mind and focused on her breathing as she had been taught, but it was no good. Ren's waxen face kept intruding on her thoughts, sitting as he had been there in the back seat like a broken puppet. What was wrong with him? The more she thought about it the angrier she got, until she felt like her head was going to blow up in fury.

  In fact, she thought distantly, she had never been this angry before in her life, and the anger seemed to be building up, bubbling and frothing in her bloodstream, feeding off itself. Looking at the back of the Healer's head she seethed, trying to control her temper. She knew it was childish but still, she couldn't help thinking of gripping the long thin braids and yanking them down. One...good...yank...

  The next instant she was staring full on at her teacher's eyes, narrowed to dangerous grey slits.

  ¨What did you just do?¨ It was a hiss rather than a question. Lillith gasped, fear and panic choking her, looking around for a way out of a situation she didn't understand. Her frantic gaze caught sight of the other apprentice, looking as perplexed as she herself felt. Had she pulled her teacher's hair? Could she have lost control to such an extent? Surely Lorenna would look reproachful if that were the case, not puzzled. She managed to whisper, ¨I didn't move…you told me to stop fidgeting.¨ She hadn't, had she?

  Leiren's expression said she was unconvinced but, after a close scruti
ny of both apprentices' faces she turned back and faced forward again. Whatever she thought Lillith had done she had no time to dig right now, it seemed.

  Relief flooded Lillith, and she sagged back in her seat letting out a breath she was unaware she had been holding. She heard a twin sigh from Lorenna's side, and saw her father darting a quick look back at them in the rear-view mirror, a worried expression on his face. They were all uptight, and Leiren's edginess made the situation worse since no-one knew which way the woman was going to jump.

  That had to be it. Because she hadn't done anything, had she? Did thoughts count? Somehow Lillith didn't put it past the Healer to be able to read her thoughts if she put her mind to it. Shuddering she tried to melt into the car seat and concentrated on pretending not to be there.

  Ren was trying really hard to ignore the silence in the car (was there such a thing as loud silence possible?), and figure out what had happened. The other three men kept throwing what they must think were covert glances at his arms and hands as if expecting him to burst into flames at any moment. Which would have been crazy, if it hadn't been exactly what had happened while he slept.

  Heck of a wakeup call, he mused wryly, but was hard put to find anything humorous in the situation. After all, if what he had seen running on his bare skin was real, he could have burnt all three of them and the car to cinders. The extraordinary thing was that he hadn't. He examined his hands surreptitiously and found not a blemish.

  So, what did that mean? The flames hadn't been real? As in a hallucination, evidently shared by the other occupants of the car? The fire had looked real enough in those couple of seconds after he woke up, still trying to shake the dream off, before his uncle barreled into him to smother it out. He'd even felt the heat.

  Heat...but no burns...on his skin, anyway. The jacket Benton had used to snuff the flames out was a scorched mess, and though his uncle had quickly stuffed it into a corner and nonchalantly laid his heavy frame on it with a knowing look, it was a chilling reminder of reality.

  It meant he was dangerous.

  Ren felt a sharp stab of pain as his mind registered this truth. A danger to himself maybe, certainly to others.

  Was that what his dream meant? That if he got too close to Lillith he would hurt her? Turning his face to the window so the others wouldn't see the desolation reflected on in his eyes, he saw the clouds had lifted, and the day had brightened.

  It did nothing for his mood.

  Glancing at his nephew's pointedly averted profile, Benton considered the situation. Ren was clearly hurting, if not physically, as he had been expecting, definitely emotionally. He himself knew not what to make of it. Maybe he could put it down to shock, but... Damn. The boy had not even appeared surprised at what had happened.

  Horrified, yes, but not surprised.

  Terence was driving now, but sleep was not an option. Even if he could have relaxed enough to attempt it, he knew better than to ignore Leiren's words. The whole fire thing had started while Ren slept so, until they had more information, they had to act on the premise sleep was a factor in what had happened.

  Aware they had an audience, albeit a necessarily discreet one, he leaned over and whispered, ¨Would you like to talk about it?¨

  The kid shrugged and turned his face even further toward the window. Benton sighed to himself. He had hoped Ren would trust him enough to confide in him. Well, he´ll have to talk to Leiren, he thought feeling a twinge of sympathy. Whatever was going on, she'd figure it out.

  Which left him with nothing to do except what he both wanted and feared most: think about Serbell.

  He was torn. He had been happy, no.... wait, elated to find out she was coming along after all. On the other hand, he'd made it clear he wanted to talk to her...and he guessed tonight would be as good a time as any. Not, as he had thought, in some distant future.

  Tonight.

  In spite of the butterflies the thought gave him he felt his determination hardening. This morning he'd been ready to lay his heart bare; he'd simply have to find the courage again, and this time he'd make sure nothing and nobody got in his way.

  Women might be known for being chatter-boxes, thought Resnan wryly as he shifted to find a more comfortable position for his tender leg, but that certainly didn't apply to his present company.

  He would have worried he was the cause, (not that he had done anything, but who knew what could set a woman off?), except for the tender looks and smiles his mother directed at him through the rear-view mirror as she drove. As for Serbell, he had had no real interaction with her for the last few days but when she did address him she was civil enough, so he was pretty sure there was no personal issue there.

  Maybe they were just thinking about what had caused the ruckus a couple of hours earlier. Having just woken up he'd been glad of an opportunity to stretch his stiff leg when the caravan had been forced to a stop, but they hadn't been given a chance to find out what had gone down since Leiren and her team of paramedics had appeared immediately.

  He could understand why old Garand had been so anxious to get her help, she was nothing if not efficient. The sight of his baby sister playing her role as an assistant had made him grin. She had stood next to the Healer looking all grown up.

  Frowning, he massaged his tense thigh muscle and stretched his leg out as far as the back of the car allowed. He did hope Ren was all right. He had learned to trust his nose in the last few months, and Lillith's scent told him she had been worried, though he couldn't have explained how for the life of him. It just did.

  Leiren, on the other hand, had smelled...focused.

  ¨How many people make up this community we're headed for, Resnan?¨ Serbell had turned round in her seat and was looking at him with those big dark eyes of hers.

  The girl was good-looking, if some nine or ten years older than him. Not that that had ever stopped him, he thought, grinning inwardly. Garand had been tickled to death by Resnan's success with the ´cougars´, as the old rascal called them. One of the reasons he had grown a beard too, he thought with amusement. He liked to think it made him look more assured, even when he was totally out of his depth with a woman. And there had been a couple of wild ones in these two years.

  Serbell, though…he understood enough about women to know he wouldn't want to touch her with a barge pole. Maybe it was his nose again, but there was a certain quiet intensity in her which spoke of deep, but turbulent waters, the kind that could drag a man under. He bit back a chuckle. As far as his instincts were concerned the girl could have been wearing a big Danger sign around her neck.

  That red-head, on the other hand…The fact that he was her fellow-apprentice's brother could be a point in his favor. Or not. Lillith could totally ruin his chances with a couple of choice words, he thought grimly.

  Bringing himself back with a jolt he considered Serbell's question. He understood her curiosity. Leiren was the only one he'd really had a chance to discuss any details with.

  ¨It's pretty small, I guess. I only spent about two weeks there before Garand decided to pack me off back to you guys. I'd say no more than about eighty to a hundred people. More teenagers and children than in our settlement, though.¨

  ¨So...¨ Serbell took a twisted piece of material and bound her long curls up in a loose ponytail. He was always surprised by how effortlessly women seemed to do that. He had been tempted to grow his hair out as well as his beard at one time, out of sheer laziness, but he probably would have looked a bloody mess.

  ¨What's the hurry? And why the mystery?¨ Everyone was just following Leiren and the Council on blind faith, she mused. Unless, as she herself did, they had another agenda.

  ¨All I know is that Garand felt something was ...heck, I don't know...strange, I guess, about that place. He gave me a packet for Leiren,¨ he grinned ruefully, and scratched his scruffy beard, a bit embarrassed by his lack of information. It made him look a right fool. He might not want to get involved with this woman, but he did have his pride. ¨For her eyes only
sort of thing, you know – so I guess she knows all the details. My job was to deliver it and bring you guys back.¨

  Serbell couldn't help looking skeptical. If someone had sent her off on a near suicidal mission with as little information…but then Resnan was still almost a child, in spite of that beard and that absurd way he had of winking at all the females. He must have

  spent the last two years totally dependent on Garand, so that had to count for something.

  ¨Was there any kind of medical emergency that you were aware of?¨ This from Yeshra, now scrutinizing her son on the cracked rear view mirror while she drove. She had voiced what was on both women's minds, of course. Why Leiren.

  And why, why, why Lorenna, Serbell groaned inwardly.

  ¨Well....There was a flu outbreak or something when we got there – fevers, high temperatures, that sort of stuff. But Sri, their doctor, took care of that.¨ Resnan couldn't help feeling uncomfortable. Sri and Garand had been pretty secretive and thick as thieves, and although he didn't know what their whispered conversations had been about he had a sinking feeling he could mess up if he let out the wrong information.

  He had few illusions on that score...trapped in a car for god knew how long, with two women, one of them his own mother? There was no knowing how much incriminating information he might unwittingly let slip. Man. He would end up saying white was black if they asked him long enough.

  The two women looked at each other for a moment, one of those looks only women can share, and he feared he was doomed. But no, to his relief after a pregnant silence Serbell turned back around and his mother's attention focused back on the road ahead. They seemed to have given up digging for now. Silence fell over the car again.

  Sri broke the gleaming surface of the water, sending small waves rippling in a large circle around him as he surfaced. Enjoying this unusual moment of solitude, he dipped his blond head into the water again, concentrating on the strange humming the water made in his ears. It was so different from everyday noises, and yet so similar to the way other people's minds sounded to him, until the last few months, that is.