Snatched by cmsix

Chapter 33

By the time we were within five hundred or so yards of the Calak I knew something was wrong, and I signaled for a halt.

"I can smell sickness at the Calak, and I think it is from wounded men. I even think I could smell that some of them are dead, newly dead," I said.

"Can you be sure it isn't some disease?" Shaton asked.

"No, I can't be sure, but I don't think that's what it is. Maybe I should go ahead and check to be sure. I will signal you with two quick shots if it seems safe for you to come ahead. If it is more than two, wait for me here for at least an hour, and then return to the others if I don't come back in that time."

They agreed and I went ahead. I found much distress in the Calak when I got there. They were so distracted they weren't even amazed by me riding up on a cashda. I dismounted and hobbled Red about a hundred yards from their camp and then walked in.

It was a smaller Calak than ours; actually it was more like the normal size, probably twenty-five adults, and maybe five or six children of various ages. The alarming thing was I could see several dead bodies and a few more men lying on the ground, obviously injured. As I approached, three women came to meet me.

"My name is Carl. My Calak is moving through not far from here. I came to see if you were having problems and to ask if you needed help. We have two healing women," I said.

"How did you even know we were here?" the obvious leader of the three asked.

"Are you the leader's mate?" I asked her.

"I was. He was killed in the night. I ask again how you knew we were here?"

"I am Meseeka. My sense of smell is very acute. I could smell your Calak from where I was riding, and when we came to introduce ourselves I could smell injury and death," I said.

The other two women gasped when I told them, but the leader's widow only asked another question.

"You said we, are there other's with you?" she asked.

"Yes. My mates, our Zakat, and a friend stayed back and let me come to make sure it wasn't disease that I sensed," I said.

"Oh. That was wise of them, and yes, if you can help we would appreciate it. My name is Mayta, this is Shalene and this is Geeta," she said, pointing to the other two women.

"Do not be alarmed, but I am going to make two loud noises to signal the others to come here," I said, and after they nodded understanding I pulled the Glock and fired two shots into the ground.

They still flinched at the noise and the others in the camp were all looking our way now, but none of them approached. Shaton and the rest of my group rode up shortly and everyone except Nita stopped and hobbled their mounts near Red to walk the rest of the way. Nita rode right up to me, handing me her reins and taking her medical bag from where it was tied to her saddle before she dismounted.

"Can you send someone back to the others to ask Darita to come also," she asked me.

"Yes, do what you can and I'll send for her and the rest of the medicine," I said, and she headed to what was obviously the Calak's own healing woman, who was bent over attending to an injured man.

When the others reached me Shaton and Denac said they would go back for Darita, while Shaeta, Jekaycey, Katia, and even Lanita went on to the camp to help.

"Can you tell me what happened?" I asked Mayta.

"Yes. A group of six loners came yesterday and wanted to join our Calak. We told them that there were only two unmated women here and that we felt no more than two of them should join us. The largest of them wanted to fight to see if he would be accepted and so it was done. Zakat defeated him, but we did accept him into our Calak; however, he did not want to join us after he was defeated and they all left.

"I thought it was very odd that he had been accepted but then didn't want to join, but it didn't seem to matter. It did matter though. Last night they all crept into our camp. They made some noises outside, pulling at the hut where we store our hides. It woke Zakat and he went out to see if it might be a wolf or something else trying to steal meat.

"As best we can tell, three of them were waiting outside the hut, and they attacked Zakat with clubs and knives as he came outside. He shouted and the other men woke and came out to help him.

"Our men were able to drive them off, killing four of them and wounding the other two, but they killed Zakat and another man, and wounded five more. Natalia, our healing woman says two of our men will probably die from sickness of their wounds," Mayta said.

"That is awful. Our Zakat was wounded badly a few weeks ago and it was also by a band of loners, or by their leader at least. They were holding women captive, women from a Calak they attacked in the night also. They had killed all the men, and some of them even killed all the male children," I said.

"We heard of that, from a younger male that was wounded in the attack. He found his way to us and we have been trying to help him recover, but he still has a fever that Natalia cannot seem to cure," Mayta said.

"Maybe Darita and Nita can help him too. Our Zakat had a bad infection also, but they were able to cure it. They will probably be busy for now, but will look at him when they are done with the wounded here," I said.

Denac and Shaton came riding back up then, with Darita, Caloe, Caltort, and Shata in tow. They all dismounted near Red, except Darita, who rode on to me, leaving me her mount to deal with.

Caloe was the first of the others to reach us, and I introduced her to Mayta, and the others and let her take over the conversation while I went to see if I could help Nita and Darita with their work.

Almost right away I saw why Natalia had thought at least one of the men wouldn't make it. He was sliced across his abdomen from one side to the other, just above his navel. The other one had an even longer wound down and across his back. Without serious disinfection and stitches both of them would probably die of infection. Just then I thought of something in my steamer trunk that hadn't crossed my mind since I joined Shaton's Calak, soap.

I had two unopened bars of Ivory and one partially used one. They weren't disinfectant soap or anything like that, but I knew they would go a long way toward cleaning the wounds, if the men could stand it. I called Nita to me and explained. She thought it was worth a try.

I hobbled the horses Nita and Darita had ridden up and took Red's hobbles off and mounted. I knew there'd be a lot of fumbling around looking for my soap, since the trunk was on a travois now, instead of its cart, but there was no help for it. Right at the last I asked Caloe who was in charge of our group.

"I didn't tell anyone anything, I just came along. Shata, perhaps you should go back and get them settled in for a short stay," she said, and Shata agreed so Denac took the hobbles off the horse she'd ridden here.

It didn't take Shata and I long to get back. She took over and let everyone know we'd be staying here at least for tonight. Chalti helped me get my trunk off the travois and I found the soap and my soft bristle hairbrush almost right away. I also grabbed the eight-quart saucepan that I hadn't used in quite a while.

Nita was waiting for me when I got back, and I took a few minutes to explain what she needed to do with the soap. I felt stupid for not using it on Shaton when he was wounded; then again, I hadn't had it with me then either. She looked a little dubious. So I explained that it was going to hurt like hell to the men, but that it would be worth it to save their lives, even if they didn't think so while they were being treated. I suggested that she have them bite on something leather while she was working.

Damned if that hadn't been prophetic. They did use a folded piece of leather to keep from screaming and from the way they bit down on it and the way the muscles in their necks and back corded up it was plain that they needed it.

I watched the whole thing, on both of them. I wanted to make sure that Nita scrubbed hard enough without overdoing it. I needn't have worried; she did it exactly as I would have. They both ended up with a nice pink foam over their cuts.

There had been a slight delay after we boiled the brush in the saucepan so we could boil some more water for rinsing and let it cool. Here and now there just wasn't a good way to cool boiled water, and we had to go through the whole thing twice.

Stitching them up was another amazing torture for the two. Of course the needles had to be boiled also, and I worried about what we'd do when the little bit of sterile suture I had was used up, but that was a worry for another day.

Of course the other men had assorted big gashes that needed to be dealt with too, and it required the same amount of boiling the brush and the water for each iteration. It was nearly dark before Nita, Darita, and Natalia finished with all the patients.

The young male from Nita's former Calak was the last one they looked at. Nita was glad to see him alive, after thinking he'd been dead all this time. She asked me to look at him with her.

His wound was healed by now, but it only took the back of my hand against his forehead to tell he was still running a low-grade fever. I was certain that a course of penicillin would fix him up, sooner or later, and we started him with half of a one-thousand milligram tablet.

Since I assumed we were finished doctoring, I was happy. It turned out that we still needed to give more instructions though. Everyone assumed that the men should return to their huts, but I put my foot down. The nights were warm now and there was nothing in the huts that could do them any good and plenty in them, where people lived so closely together, that could do them harm. There was a lot of grousing and complaining but I had to insist, and finally Mayta backed me up.

In the first place we didn't even have anything for proper bandages. The Calak had supplied some of their thinnest skins for wraps, but there hadn't been time to boil them and then dry them, and I had considered them the lesser of two evils. I didn't intend to take any more chances.

Denac had arranged for the bedding for my mates, Lanita, and I to be brought here and he'd even sent my steamer trunk, in case I might need something out of it. I considered it a good way to lead by example since we would be sleeping in the open too. I did realize that I'd been lax by not teaching my people to make soap though, and I intended to cure that lapse as soon as we were settled into our new home.

Sleeping out in the open made sure that we'd be awake at first light the next morning. Nita, Darita, and Natalia went to check their patients and administer the next dose of penicillin as soon as they were dressed, while Shaeta and Katia helped the Calack's women with breakfast.

Not five minutes after we'd finished eating, Denac rode up and told me that Caloe wanted to speak to me as soon as I could get back to their campsite, so I saddled Red, told my mates and Lanita about the summons, and then Denac and I rode back.

Caloe didn't waste much time with preliminaries.

"I would like for you and your family to stay here with these people while the rest of us finish this trip. While you are here I want you to convince them to join us. They are too small to stay separate now, and they don't even have a Zakat. Mayta doesn't think any of the remaining men will make a suitable Zakat, but she is hesitant to have them join us," Caloe said.

"Do you have any idea why she is hesitant, and do you think I can be more convincing than you were?" I asked.

"I actually think she is more traditional than we are. I believe she would accept things gracefully if you offered to fight for the leadership of their Calak. You know that it is probable you would have no trouble doing it. It is likely that none of the remaining men would even fight to be Zakat," Caloe told me.

"Don't you think they would resent it?" I asked.

"That is something you need to discuss with Mayta, but under the circumstances I don't believe any of them will be offended. Many times men know they are not fit to be Zakat, and often they do not want to be."

"What of Mayta. Where will she expect to end up?" I asked, since I had a suspicion about it.

"Usually, when a Zakat is killed and his mate is a widow, she joins the family of the man that replaces him."

"Is that the only way?" I asked.

"There is never an only way. It might well be acceptable for her to become another mate for Shaton, if you do not intend to try for leadership in our Calak again."

"I do not intend that at all. I believe you know by now that I can do much more for our Calak if I am not Zakat. I will do my best to convince her either way, but I would rather she join you and Shaton. I think she was a good leader for them and she can probably be much help for you, if you will allow it," I said.

"Shaton and I have always been together and we have never considered another mate for him. I will admit that I am curious about it, especially now that I see how well you and your family do. I believe I would like it."

Needless to say this sort of negotiation was baffling to me. Think about trying to convince an American wife that she would be happier if she had a co-wife if you want insight into what I was thinking. I agreed to talk with Mayta though, and see what she had on her mind.

I didn't rush right back to the other camp, for obvious reasons. I was trying to think of ways to approach this little meeting with Mayta. Finally I decided to just see if she'd spit out what she had in mind.

There was still plenty of time for a talk before lunch when I got back, so I looked Mayta up. When I suggested that she bring her Calak into ours she didn't waste much time with double talk.

"I think it would be better if you entered our Calak as Zakat and then made that decision, or let your mates make it," she said, in as succinct a job of getting to the heart of the matter as I think I'd ever heard.

"I will be glad to do that, as long as you understand taking us into the other Calak is what I will do."

"Caloe told me you were probably the smartest and most plain spoken man I would ever meet. I see that she was right. You wouldn't want to be Zakat of your own Calak? Wouldn't you rather be our Zakat than be a member of that Calak?"

"No, for several reasons. The main one being I could be Zakat of that Calak if I wanted to be a Zakat. I won my fight with the Zakat when I entered the Calak. I refused to be the Zakat and let Shaton remain in that position," I said.

"I did not know that, and it makes me wonder why?"

"Because I was about to be mated and it would be the first Calak I'd have been in. I wasn't raised in a Calak. I knew that I wasn't up to the job. At that time I didn't even realize that the women made all the decisions," I said, and it was clear that I'd shocked her with it.

"But now, don't you think you and your mates can do an acceptable job as leaders of the Calak?"

"I'm sure that we could do an acceptable job, but it wouldn't be as good a job as Shaton and Caloe do, and it would be a waste of my best talents. I can do much more for the Calak if I'm free to be away from it when I need to be," I said.

"I don't understand how that can be."

"It would sound too much like bragging if I told you everything, and you might not believe me anyway. Three or four days in our Calak would convince you though.

"You haven't asked about the cashda we are riding, but I will tell you that I captured them all. It was my idea to do it, and I am the one who taught the others how to train the cashda to carry them and to work with the travois.

"Another reason that I would not hesitate to join them if I were Zakat here is the place they are going to live. It is by far the best place I have seen for a Calak. There are two large caves there, and either one would easily hold twice the numbers of the combined Calaks."

"But from what Caloe told me it would be a larger Calak than any I've ever heard of. How will we be able to find enough food and game?"

"We are already taking enough meat with us to last for half a year, and we have nearly eighty live thaka at our last camp that we will be moving to the new location as soon as we can. There are more than a dozen of the Calak staying at our last camp to tend them until we can come back for them.

"Also, since we now have the cashda to ride, we can roam much farther for game and we can bring it back more easily."

"I see, but what of me. Will you take me as one of your mates if you can become Zakat here?"

"That is up to you. I would gladly take you as another mate, but I will not remain Zakat when we rejoin my original Calak. I will also tell you that Caloe hopes you will mate with she and Shaton. With a Calak so large she will need the help," I said, and it was easy to see that it closed the deal.

"Very well. If you can win the fight, we will do as you think best. I also think that joining Caloe as another mate for Shaton will be best for me," she said.

"Good. I'm sure it will be best for all of us. Do any of the men here wish to fight me for Zakat?" I asked.

"I think Mondaut will. He is the largest man here, and I think it will be best if you win, but he is very strong," she said.

"I will do my best not to hurt him," I said, and it made her mouth drop open in surprise.