UNSHEATHED

Chapter Fifty

Liran listened to one of his patient's body rhythms, seeking for the gentle hum of healthy. Instead he heard a slight dissonance. He frowned, shaking his head as he wondered why the soldier would still be struggling to get back his strength. Clearly they had missed something.

The infirmary was quiet at this hour. He had dismissed the others to rest and promised to keep watch on their charges until the middle of the night, when he would wake Adina to replace him, but he knew he wouldn't. He could go days without sleep, and it had been much too exciting this day to settle his mind enough to rest.

He reached further with his mind into the soldier's body, this time looking rather than listening. Blood flowed well in the area where the arrow had pierced the muscle of the thigh, and that area was now whole, the flesh knit together once more. So it wasn't in the muscles. How deep had the arrow pierced? Perhaps it had nicked something more vital.

He followed along, checking as he went for wholeness. These were tiny, incremental steps he made along the path of the soldier's leg. He followed deeper into the middle, toward the bone. The sheath of the muscle was well attached here and the bone whole and unscathed. Liran frowned again. Until he found the problem, the man would fail to thrive. Better he spend the time now rather than the maru later when the wound, wherever it was lurking, began to fester.

He found a spot where a vein had been nicked by the sharp arrowhead just enough that blood oozed out into the muscle, making it purple and stiff. With just a bit of maru he would seal it and a little more to flush the muscle around it of excess blood, and all would be right. He smiled.

Having made his repair, Liran withdrew his consciousness from deep within the body he had been scanning. He sighed, rolled his shoulders and his neck to relieve the tension that often built while his mind was occupied with his work. He heard footsteps outside. He wondered if there might be a new patient in need being brought in.

The tent flap was lifted open by a guard and Elena walked in. Liran smiled before he realized it, and then straightened his expression. It wouldn't do to let her know what he felt, especially when nothing could ever come of it. It made him sad.

At least she would be his friend.

Beside Elena was the little girl of the Gelhirinim who they had found earlier that night and behind them followed a Hilliri soldier, dressed in Paracha grey and tagged with the markings of a sentry. The man looked puzzled and troubled. Liran stood and approached the group.

"Is someone ill?"

Elena kept her face steady and neutral.

"My Lord, this sentry was singled out by the children for some reason. Could someone check him to see if he is ill?"

Liran realized with distaste, what it was that she really wanted.

The sentry looked troubled. If he was in some way compromised, as Maranus had been, he appeared not to know it. Liran showed him an empty cot.

"Sit here."

The man looked a little daunted, most probably by his height, but he sat. Liran was used to that.

"May I have your permission to check that you are well in body?"

It was a traditional Marulan request. The man nodded.

The child moved up under Elena's elbow and hugged her waist and Elena put an arm around her small shoulders. She watched with eyes wide as Liran leaned over the sentry and placed his hands on his chest. Much like the last patient, Liran allowed his mind to travel down into the man's body, listening for sounds of health or illness.

Every body had its own sound. Some were deep and resounding, others lighter and feather like, but good health sounded different from illness. Liran didn't like the note this man's body gave off, while it wasn't the sound of sickness, it wasn't right either.

After a check of his whole body, it didn't appear that there was problem in this area. If Liran chose to riffle through the man's mind, however, he would be trespassing in a way that wasn't considered respectable for a Marulan. While Liran had not trained in one of the traditional Marulan Colleges, he had learned to respect the individual's rights just as if he had. There was a danger in ignoring a potential problem, and he hadn't allowed Maranus to go without being checked, nor would he allow this man either.

As he sank his mind deeper into the sentry's own, he caught bits of stray thoughts. Liran had barely burrowed into the first layer of the man's mind when he was assaulted by a sudden rage which hit him like a wave. A good Marulan does not waver under such circumstances, and Liran had developed a disciplined mind over the years. The wave washed over him and left him unchanged, but in it he caught bits of stray thought: SHE SHOULD NOT BE LEADING US. HE IS UNWORTHY OF BELONGING TO THE HILLIRI RACE. HOW DARE THEY CHALLENGE ME WITH THEIR PUNY LITTLE ARMY?

It took all Liran's concentration not to break contact with the mind that shot out these forceful thoughts. They didn't belong to this man, certainly, for he appeared obedient enough, but these thoughts were being whispered into his mind until he might own them for himself and turn the man into a tool of the enemy. Remembering the story of how Dahlia had been overtaken by the Guardian Korr who had used his voice through her to speak to Elena, Liran realized that this sentry was being used in a similar way.

He may be a Guardian, but this adversary was spreading himself thin if he was infiltrating the minds of many people. Liran felt confident that he could exorcize this lingering fragment of the enemy and return the sentry to his duties.

He picked through the strands woven into the man's mind and lay aside those that felt wrong and dissonant. He then took those strands, crushed them and then burnt them in a virtual mind-fire, until there was nothing but ash which blew away with a sweep of his consciousness. He felt the sentry's body settle a little, as if a tension had been eased. Liran withdrew, satisfied that he had won a small victory against the great Guardian.

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Cheers!

Rebecca