BLOOD QUENCHES BURNING
1544 4D
The train glided into the deep City station and stopped with a lurch. Alliji and Hings-Wen got Andrew onto a gurney and wheeled him out of the bed car into the bright lights of the platform.
“You’re going to the hospital in Naga,” Hings-Wen said. “We asked to haul your slab of meat up there, so they let us.”
“Where’s Leil?” Andrew asked. His side felt better, and the plast had been changed.
“The women are meeting us up there,” Alliji said. “Nexi‘s coming too.”
They took one of the larger lifts, and exited at the main hospital level in Naga Zone. Here the understreets seemed wider, lighter, less filled with people and plants and noise, than in Sobi Zone; but Andrew remembered the wild sky, the sweeping plains, and the star-crowned mountains; and now the City felt cramped and stifling.
He arrived in a small arch-ceilinged ward where three other soldiers lay. The beds were all lined up parallel with heads at one wall, about two strides apart; multicolored supply tubes ran to them along the ceiling-wall edge, and the drainages ran along the floor.
Two of the patients were being readied for the long-term regen tanks, pairs of doctors sculpting away dead tissue; they had lost chunks of skin and flesh at Abridor. The remaining one had broken a leg at the South Fall, and a bonewelder was wrapped around her left thigh. She thumbed a datasheet, bored, looking for a sensi feed.
As soon as he was moved into the hospital bed, a swarm of people bustled into the room. Alliji and Hings-Wen greeted them; Nexi was there, and Raul and Norwell, and between the two big brothers came Leil. Andrew‘s heart skipped a beat as he spotted her.
Leil came to the side of his bed, and her eyes shone with concern. “Andrew, what happened? Abridor was terrible, and I heard just a few words about you being hurt, and I couldn’t find out--“
He grabbed her and pulled her down to him and kissed her hungrily. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “Two days in the tank, and then I’ll be home, and tell you and Engel all about it. How is our boy?”
“He’s fine.”
He kissed her again. The instant her lips touched his, he filled with passion and longing. He held her so long that he didn’t notice the gabble in the ward die away to silence.
“What? I’m busy.”
“Andrew, there’s someone here.” From Hings-Wen‘s tone, it was urgent. Andrew released Leil, who stood up and turned.
Mentrius stood in the doorway. He wore the Astran colors, and he carried two sidearm beam guns. His face looked gaunt and drawn, but he carried himself stiffly erect.
“Come in,” Andrew said.
“Mentrius—" Leil began.
Andrew interrupted her. “Leil, let him come.”
Mentrius looked first at Andrew, then at Nexi and Alliji, then at Leil. “This is difficult,” he said. “It would have been easier to fight or die than do this.” He came slowly forward until he stood beside Leil at Andrew‘s bed. Nexi and Alliji started to move closer; Andrew gestured them back.
Mentrius turned to them. “Will you leave us alone for a few minutes? You too, Leil?”
“Andrew, what is going on?” Leil asked.
“I’ll explain it later,” Andrew said to her. “Will everyone leave us, please?”
Reluctantly, they filed out.
Mentrius bent close to Andrew. “Triesh doesn’t know I’m here. He’d be unhappy.”
“What do you want?” Andrew asked, in a soft voice.
“I don’t want anything except to offer you bridgeblood.” Mentrius held out his hand to Andrew. “I brought the weapons for that.”
Andrew was stunned. “But that breaks… Doesn’t your coll forbid…" He took Mentrius‘s hand as if it was a stabilizer. They both kept their voices low.
“Tell everyone here that I don’t want my family to know that I did this,” Mentrius said slowly, the words coming hard. “I owe you my life now, damn that. I’m not a man to forget such a thing. And I want to get this done before I lose the courage.”
“You’re sure you want it?” As he spoke, Andrew wondered how his own brothers would deal with the news. Bridgeblood would bind them to spare each other and their families, as if they were brothers themselves.
“Yes. Come on, hurry up, before they get worried and come back.” Mentrius looked back at the door.
“My word runs with yours,” Andrew responded softly, in the opening phrase.
“And our words are our blood,” Mentrius responded, handing one of the beamers to Andrew. The gunsight was sharpened to a fine edge, with a tiny point at one end.
“Here is my word.” Andrew used the gunsight to prick his wrist.
“Here is my word.” Mentrius drew the other weapon and did the same to himself.
Each man bucked a cartridge from his gun’s chamber, and dipped the primer end of the cartridge in his own blood. The primer cover absorbed the blood, staining red-brown; the blood would deactivate the primer, making the cartridge nonfunctional.
The two men exchanged the cartridges; Mentrius pocketed Andrew‘s, and Andrew slipped Mentrius‘s into a bedside sack.
Andrew thought clearly, What am I doing? He said the next phrase of the ritual: “Blood quenches burning.”
“Blood quenches burning,” Mentrius replied. He took back Andrew‘s weapon, holstered it along with his own, and finished, “Thank you, Andrew Luce. The bridge stands.”
“Thank you, Mentrius Adrili. The bridge stands.”
The tall Astran stepped back, smiled lopsidedly, and inclined his head to Andrew. He turned, and was gone.
Leil, Nexi, Alliji, Raul, Norwell and Hings-Wen crowded back into the room. Leil took Andrew‘s hand and asked, “What did he want? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“Not at all,” Andrew said. “Look.” He reached in the sack and withdrew the still-drying cartridge. “I want all of you to respect Mentrius‘s wish to keep this secret. His family especially is not to know.”
“Bridgeblood? Shit!” It was Norwell. “You made him our brother? Andrew, what did you do?”
“I don’t know. I just did what seemed the best for everybody. Some day the fighting has to stop.”
Raul burst out, “So you think you’re going to do it this way? Damn! Just like Martin, too. Too bad he couldn’t be here today to celebrate with you. Come on, Norwell.” The two younger brothers stamped angrily out of the room. Nexi and Alliji stayed, watching them go.
“You’re making it hard on them and us,” Alliji said.
“I know,” Andrew replied. “The colls keep fighting, and who wins? That’s what I want to know.”
Nexi said, in a flat tone, “While you were gone, the Astrans took three more of ours, over in Rumchi. Who won there?”
“I know!” Andrew flared, “Everybody tallies the dead. Who tallies the living, to see how many we can keep alive?”
His friends were silent.
His wife bent close to him, and her face was radiant. She said, “Andrew, I love you.” and slid her arms around him where he lay, and her hair covered his face, and her breasts pressed his chest. Then she whispered, “Will your brothers be all right with this?”
Andrew ran his hands up her back. “I’ll make sure they are.” And maybe then, he thought, relief and joy rising through his doubts and apprehensions, the feud would be done.
