John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 77

Waking found me in bed with all my mates; at least I assumed it was all of them since the bed was nearly full. I couldn't really see well enough in the low light to make a detailed count so there was no way to be sure it was all of them and it didn't really matter. What it did tell me was that I had slept through since drifting off after Eileiea stitched me up.

My next realization was that my leg wound didn't hurt; it didn't even itch. My balls did itch though and it made me wonder what was causing that until I remembered that my balls had always started itching any time I had morphine. Seemed like Ralph had given me a dose of morphine just as it had seemed he had, I couldn't figure that one out since there hadn't been any sign of a needle stick at the time.

This got me to wondering about Deimeta's treatment. Near the end of our conversation, Ralph had suggested letting Deimeta get by on Eileiea's tea and promised that he would take care of her in other ways that wouldn't be apparent. How in the hell was he going to do that? He had done it though because even from the few minutes I'd talked to Deimeta, before Eileiea came to treat me, I'd been able to tell that she was feeling a lot better than she should have from only a cup of tea.

As I considered this, it was obvious that Ralph was even more than he had let on. According to my understanding of Artificial Intelligence or real intelligence or whatever Ralph, Frank and Phil actually were, they were still confined to some hardware somewhere and they shouldn't be able to manipulate physical things. In my thoughts they were like a brain with no body. Clearly they were more and just as clearly I didn't know how much more they were. This all seemed like another mystery for me to try puzzling out.

The puzzle would have to wait because I intended to do some old-fashioned problem solving today if I was able. I intended to get up, get dressed, eat and then fork Red and get on the trail of the assholes that had caused this trouble and then run off. Squirming my way toward the edge of the bed without waking my mates was the next trick I tried.

It didn't work out. Eileiea was awake on my first wiggle.

"How do you feel John?" she asked in a whisper.

"I don't understand it Eileiea but I feel fine, even my wound doesn't hurt at all."

"Are you ready to get out of bed?" she asked, still whispering.

"Yes, I need to go to the bathroom and if it isn't too long until sunrise, I am going to get ready for the day. There are many things that need doing today."

"I guess there is no need to whisper then because we are in the middle and everyone will be roused before you get to the edge whether we whisper or not," she said and didn't bother keeping her voice low this time.

It woke several more of my mates and their questions about my condition woke more and so on until they were all awake and wanting to know how I was. Eileiea tried to tell them that I appeared to be doing fine but they would have none of it and kept asking me.

"I think that I'm going to be fine. I won't know until we make room for Eileiea to take the bandage off and look. It was only a flesh wound anyway and I was never in danger of dying from it."

"It was only a flesh wound but it was very ugly and it was big. You are right that it wouldn't have killed you but if it festers you could become very sick and could even die from that. Let us make room to check the wound now," she said.

My mates all pulled back a little until I could lie on my side so Eileiea would have room to get the bandage off. She took her time with it but soon enough my wound was revealed.

"It is not festering and it looks much better than I thought it would. It is healing very well," she told us.

I convinced them to let me out of bed then; Jaada, Geera, Dalia, Shelalliea and Delia headed for the kitchen to start the coffee and breakfast while Xailieta and Margeeta went over to see about Baatiea and Beetiea. Yareela and Yaroola said that they were going to sit in Deimeta's room, watching over her until she woke. The rest of them took me to the bathroom and gave me the most careful shower I'd ever even heard of.

When I was clean and dry they took me back to the bedroom where Eileiea put a new bandage on my leg. The others then dressed me for the day and led me out for coffee and later breakfast.

The worries my mates had harbored about my well being were reflected in the quantity and quality of the things they brought for my breakfast. The initial serving required two plates and a bowl and it included ham, bacon, eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy, pancakes and maple syrup. On my best day I couldn't have hoped to eat it all and I told them this.

"We wanted to make sure that you had plenty of everything, eat what you want and the pigs will enjoy whatever you don't want," Dalia told me.

The pigs were going to eat well this morning because I could see at least enough for two more servings over in the kitchen.

I wondered what time it was and how long it would be until the sun came up. There was no way to tell from inside the cave and I wasn't going to get up from the bounty in front of me to go look outside. I knew that it must be early though because no one else had come in to eat yet.

"Does anyone know how long it will be until sunrise?"

"I don't think the sun will be up for another hour at least," Kateata said.

"Good, I'm getting an early start then."

"You are going to stay still and rest today aren't you?" Maia asked me.

"No. I am going to go out and find the two that slipped away yesterday and I hope that you and Merita will bring the wolves to help me."

"Eileiea, please tell him not to go out with his leg still wounded," Gema said.

"It won't do any good to argue with him, he will do as he pleases. Anyway, his wound is already in much better shape than we could have hoped for. In fact I can't believe that it has done so well already. If it were anyone else, I would expect them to be lying in bed moaning and feverish now. I don't know whether it was the spirits or not but John's wound is nearly healed." Eileiea told them.

"In that case I will be ready to go as soon as you are, the two of them not only injured my mate but nearly killed our precious Deimeta, I am ready to get my hands on them," Dieta said.

"You and Ameliea are welcome to come with us if you really want to, and I assumed that most of you would want to join me but if Shatalto lived through the night someone will need to stay with him while I am gone today. He needs to be reminded often of the pain and suffering he will soon be going through."

"That would be an even better way to spend the day, he lived and he is tied up in the practice cave right now with all the wolves watching him. I think Merita made them understand that they weren't supposed to bite him very often. I think that he was confused at first when the wolves that had never bothered him before were suddenly very angry any time he moved even the tiniest bit," Ameliea said.

"That will probably be the least of his surprises. Did you look at his leg Eileiea?"

"Yes, his knee was destroyed. Jalayla did a good job of stopping the bleeding and after you fell asleep Raalto, Racaato, Bigglieo and Barago held him still while Jalayla and I straightened his leg and put a splint on him. If he does not fester and if his lower leg does not swell and get rotten, when it is all healed I think his leg will still be nearly useless. It will probably be as if there never was a knee there," she said.

"I don't think we are going to give him enough time to heal and I don't see any point in taking the chance that his lower leg might swell and rot. If you have time today you might ask Ralph to show you the best way to cut his leg off above the knee. I want him to live for a while but I don't care whether he will ever be able to walk again or not. In fact I'm sure that he will not live long enough to try."

"Very well, if that is the case then I already know how to cut off his leg but I will need to make a special drink to make him sleep while I do it," she said.

"Eileiea, you are a healer and I am not going to ask you to inflict pain if you don't want to. I am going to ask you to consider that the man you will be treating was involved in trying to kill your mate and that he didn't care if little Deimeta got hurt or killed in the process. Are you sure that you must give him medicine to keep his pain away."

"Now that you mention it the medicine for pain is not necessary but it will be better if we drive stakes into the floor and tie him to make sure that he doesn't cause himself more damage with wiggling and squirming, especially after he learns we will be cutting his leg off. It would be hard for the men to hold him still enough.

"I have all ready treated people that were not kind to me before they were sick or injured. I know ways to make them sorry for that previous treatment while still making sure that I do my best to keep them alive," she said with a tone that made me shiver.

"If it can wait until we get back I would like to be there while you are helping him."

"It can wait, after all, if we are going to cut the leg off anyway what does it matter if it festers and swells a little?" she asked.

I was surprised that all this gruesome talk seemed to lift the spirits of my mates instead of the opposite. Apparently they weren't far enough into civilization to have a concept for the humane treatment and hopeful rehabilitation of dangerous criminals. They did possess an active thirst for punishment and revenge though and in this case I couldn't find any fault with that.

In the civilized world most people detested murders and many thought that the death penalty was justified but mostly it was an academic point to them. Most people in the civilization I'd come from were far removed from such things.

Here and now I was recovering from an attack on myself and my daughter. To me, being directly involved with the attempt left no doubt about what had happened. It wasn't as if I didn't know exactly what had occurred. I didn't need a jury of Shatalto's peers to tell me that he had tried to kill me and that he didn't mind who else got hurt or killed in the process. I knew very well what he had done and I also knew what it had earned him and his compatriots. Those that were still alive were going to have a long and painful death.

I didn't know whether the death penalty really discouraged others in the population at large from committing crimes or not. I was going to perform a little experiment of my own to find out though. I intended to make sure that the begging and screaming of those responsible for this latest attack were heard by most of the people here. There would be no doubt what was waiting for anyone else that tried something along the same lines.

Was this going to be revenge? Hell yes it was and I knew that everyone would understand it. I also knew that almost all of them would approve.

Raalto and Racaato and their mates came in about then. They were all surprised to see me up and about and they said so. I explained that Eileiea was an excellent healer and that I felt almost totally well already. Eileiea blushed at my praise and made herself scarce in the kitchen.

"Are we going after the others today then?" Racaato asked.

"Without a doubt. I think Merita, Maia and the grown wolves will be helping us. I doubt that it will even be very hard to find them."

"I'm sure that it won't. With all the planning they must have done they neglected one important part. It seems that they didn't make any provisions for what would happen if they failed. Shabago and Kartogo did manage to escape but after questioning their mates I'm sure that they didn't take time to gather any of the things that they will need desperately to live out in the wild during this weather. Neither took anything that could be used for a shelter nor any food. They basically ran off with only their spearcasters and whatever else they were wearing. They didn't even take sleeping furs," Raalto told me.

"Maybe we should hurry to make sure that they don't die before we can kill them."

"I think that you are right, especially in Shabago's case. He wasn't even much of a hunter," Racaato said.

Danlo came in then and after more talking and planning and after they'd finished eating we gathered what we thought we needed and headed to the horse cave. I had managed to keep the hunting party down to Danlo, Racaato, Raalto, Merita, Maia, Shelalliea and myself. I was delighted that I'd been able to keep it so small.

After we were mounted we started off downriver seeking Kartogo. He was an accomplished hunter and he was also headed more directly toward other camps. In my opinion this made it more likely that he could reach a place to hide out.

In the deep snow we would have had no trouble following his footprints but we didn't even have to worry about that. When Merita and Maia set the wolves loose on his scent they took off in a dead run and we had difficulty keeping up with them.

The wolves had much more stamina than even our horses and Merita had to whistle for them to stop twice so that we could catch back up to them. We found Kartogo after only three hours. The wolves were far ahead of us again and we heard him yelling and the wolves growling before we caught up.

When we got close enough to see what was happening the wolves were surrounding Kartogo but back about fifty feet from him. If he tried to move to get away one of them would rush toward him and if he tried to cast a spear that one would back off and another would rush from his blind side. We could see that he had already wasted three spears and was now being more careful, knowing that when he had used them all he would be dead meat.

I knew that he was dead meat anyway and when we got close enough I had Maia call the wolves off. Kartogo looked our way and it was plain that he didn't know what he was going to do now.

"Kartogo, put down your spearcaster and spears. We have caught you now and you are going back with us."

He realized that he had no options but I could tell that he still wanted to run. We had other fish to fry so I told him more.

"If you run we will shoot you in the leg and then catch you. When we get back to camp I will have the healer cut your wounded leg off. Do you want to spend the rest of your life with only one leg?"

I didn't bother to tell him that the rest of his life wasn't likely to be very long. He finally put down his weapons and I told him to head back for camp while Danlo collected them. I asked Maia if she thought one wolf could keep Kartogo headed for camp now that he had no weapons. She and Merita both agreed that one could do the job but Maia said that she would stay with King and the two of them would make sure Kartogo didn't tarry on the way home.

The rest of us turned back and headed off at a gallop, intending to get down to corralling Shabago. When we were back at our camp we all went inside for coffee and a sandwich or two. I was happy to see Deimeta at the table with her little coffee mug and her breakfast in front of her.

"Daddy, I'm so happy to see that you are better today," she shouted as soon as she saw me.

"I am happier to see that you are better, I was very worried about you."

"But I wasn't bleeding Daddy and you were," she said.

"That is what had me worried Deimeta, you didn't know that you were bleeding but you were. That big bruise you told me about was where you were bleeding but it just wasn't coming out of your skin."

"How can I bleed if it doesn't come out of my skin Daddy?" she asked.

"Your blood has certain places that it is supposed to go inside of you. When you get a bruise it lets you know that something has happened and that some of your blood went somewhere that it didn't intend to go. The bigger the bruise, the more blood."

"I didn't know that Daddy and I must have done much bleeding, look at my bruise," she said and pulled her little Wilma dress up under her armpits, wincing a little from the pain as she did.

Almost all of her chest on the right side was black and purple and it had spread over a good portion of her left side. It was darkest right where the impact must have been but she had been correct last night. It was impressive. I bent to kiss her cheek and asked her if it hurt.

"It was very sore this morning when I woke and it bothered me so much that I wasn't even hungry but Eileiea gave me some more of that wonderful tea and in just a few minutes it hardly hurt at all and I was starving," she said.

"Maybe I should have some of that tea."

"I have some in my mug Daddy, try it," she said and held the mug up for me to have a taste.

I could tell at once why she called it that wonderful tea. It was flavored with a lot of honey and I'm sure that the actual taste of the tea couldn't be found. If a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, there was no doubt that making the medicine half honey did an even better job.

"That is delicious tea."

"Yes, I might be sad when I am well and don't get anymore of it," she said, teasing.

"Don't worry about that, I'm sure that if you want more tea after you are well that Eileiea will make it for you often."

"Oh I know that she will Daddy, I was just teasing you," she said smiling again.

"Well I'm afraid you'll have to get another kiss for that and then I'm going to sit down for some coffee and a sandwich."

"Have you been out looking for Kartogo and Shabago this morning," she asked.

"Yes and we found Kartogo."

"Where is he, did you kill him. He deserved it for what he help them do to your leg," she said.

"No, we didn't kill him but I don't think he will get to live much longer. We made him give up his weapons and now Maia and King are making sure that he comes back here."

"Maybe King will bite him on his big butt on the way back," she said.

I had to laugh at that and so did most of the rest of us. Deimeta laughed too.

"I'm sure that he will. After we eat a bite and have some coffee we will go look for Shabago."

"Just don't get too tired today, I might feel good enough tomorrow to go and play with Darta and I'll be wanting you to come with me," she explained.

"If Eileiea says you are well enough to play with Darta tomorrow I promise that I will go with you."

"Good, I think that I'll go and find Malooto now, I want to show him my bruise and brag about it," she said.

"That's fine but I want you to ask Failiela to go with you. You do know that she is the one who saved us yesterday don't you?"

"Yes I know, Eileiea told me. I'll go and ask her now and then we'll go and show Malooto my bruise." she said and then scampered off.

When Roweea had learned that Maia and King were herding Kartogo back she had saddled up and rode down to help but the rest of us drank our coffee and ate a couple of sandwiches before we headed off. As we left to see how Shabago had faired during the night Merita made the wolves stay closer to us this time. We didn't want to take any more chances by letting them face an armed man alone.