Holy City: Chapter Fifteen
“That red-eyed bastard. I bet he’s crawling on the floor of the desert, begging for water.” Green-eyes let out a hoarse laugh. His voice too dry for words, barely able to make sounds above a whispering rasp, the first stage of death in the desert. V kept his mouth locked conserving his words. Each time one opened their mouth in the desert; for air, for water, for help, it brought them closer to death. It was better to keep the mouth closed and the ears open.
“They will never make it to the valley, never make it to Damasia, they’re all probably dead now.” Green-eyes tried to laugh again but nothing came out of his mouth. His friend, brown-eyes, the one with the limp, did not laugh either. He collapsed on the desert floor.
The friend gave a sad smile looking up at his two companions. “My leg. I don’t think I can walk anymore.” Green-eyes and V stood above, looking down. “Rest, my friend.” Green-eyes said and then gestured to V to walk with him.
They walked many steps away from the friend, out of range of his hearing. Green-eyes did not look at V as he spoke. He looked out over the desert. “I don’t think there is any hope for him.” Green-eyes said. “I don’t think there is any hope.”
Green-eyes kept looking out over the horizon. Far in the distance there was nothing. “If we continue at this pace there will be no hope for us either.” Green-eyes looked back to V. V did not say anything.
“We can rest now. The sun will keep rising.” Green-eyes said. ‘We must rest during the heat of the day and travel by night. If his leg is better by the time the sun falls, we will carry on together. If it is worse….” He did not need to finish the rest of his sentence.
They walked back to brown-eyes, who had propped himself against a rock, trying to take cover from the unrelenting sun, but the rock gave no cover in the desert.
“We can rest now.” Green-eyes said and put his hand on the shoulder of his friend and sat down next to him.
V did not sit down next to the two men. He kneeled in front of them, down on one knee.
“May I see the wound?” V asked.
Brown-eyes nodded. V ripped the pants of the injured left leg. It took all of his strength to tear the fabric up the side of the leg. V could see the wound for the first time. It was below the knee. There was a hole in the skin, an open wound with red blood and yellow pus, but that was not the problem. The bone was not sticking out of the wound, but it was also not in the correct place. V could see that and he could feel that when he touched the leg.
Green-eyes stared suspiciously as V examined the leg. He continued to stare suspiciously as V clasped his hands, holding them together flat and then closed his eyes. Still on one knee, V’s hands started moving back and forth. His hands rubbed against each other, fast, like he was trying to start a fire. His palms moved faster, faster than fast, green-eyes thought he might be able to start that fire even without a stick of wood between his palms.
V opened his eyes. “This is going to hurt more than you can imagine,” he said, with his hands still moving fast against each other. Green-eyes thought he could see smoke rise from them. V turned. “Brace him,” he said. Green-eyes stood and held the shoulders of his friend pushing him down into the dirt.
V’s hands were still moving fast. “Relax your body,” he said to the man with the injured leg, which wasn’t easy since V had just told him whatever it was he was about to do was going to be very painful. Brown-eyes’ body tensed. “Breathe out,” V said like a doctor performing childbirth. Brown-eyes took a deep breath in and out. His friend continued to brace his shoulders
There was a loud scream. Then there was a loud snap and an even louder scream. A bone made a very loud crack as it moved back into place. Brown-eyes slipped out of his friend’s grasp and fell over on his side. He was set back up and V tore off the bottom of the pant leg. V wrapped above the wound and tied it off tightly, which led to another scream. Brown-eyes passed out from the surgery and fell over on the ground a second time, still breathing. V sat back, his work done.
Green-eyes continued to stare with suspicion. “What did you just do?”
“The only thing that could save him.” V said. ‘We will find out if it worked by nightfall. He will either be able to use his leg again tonight or he will not survive the heat of the day.”
Green-eyes did not know what to make of this stranger as the three of them sat next to the rock in the oven of the desert, morning warmth turning into afternoon fire.
Eventually, it was hard to see because of the blinding sun. The sun had reached its peak in the sky. Green-eyes looked down at V’s hands. They looked charred, like wood that had been scalded, but he could not be sure in the bright light, perhaps this was only an optical illusion of the shadows of the day.
Green-eyes looked up to V’s face. He couldn’t tell if his eyes were closed or open. He continued to look at V with suspicion. He would be suspicious throughout the day. If what V had just done killed his friend, he would find a way to get retribution. It did not matter that he had given up his friend for dead, there was no need to hasten such a fate, the code of the desert was to find a way to comfort the dying not torture them.
As they slept in the heat of the day, the desert air was sweet in a way it rarely is. The three men inhaled the sweet hot air and waited for the night when the sun would cease to boil their bodies and the moon would climb over the dunes to light their way once again. They had not made it far enough on their first day to survive the desert, both green-eyes and V knew that. They would either need to find water or increase their pace if they were going to make it to Lyonesse before death called for them.
“That red-eyed bastard,” green-eyes mumbled as he sipped the sweetness of the air in increasing breaths, his eyes closed, his face wrapped, beginning the dreams of sleep. “I bet he wishes he was here now,” green-eyes laughed, “instead of dying on the other side of the Aten.” Green-eyes laughed again then coughed and fell silent. The first day in the desert had not been a successful one. There was still much distance between the three men and the Kingdom of Lyonesse.
Next Chapter: Chapter Sixteen
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