hear. “You’ll heal quickly. You’ll feel better in the morning and be amazed at how well you feel the day after that.”
The man at my feet shifted his eyes to the left and right. He was about my age as they all had been, and I remembered his eyes and his unusual hair if not his name. He had shaved the sides of his head and left a broad stripe down the middle, which he had dyed with yellow poppy powder and fixed with beeswax. “Is it safe to move?” he asked.
“Yes, it is.” I extended a hand to help him up, and he groaned as he grasped and pulled. “Remind me of your name again?”
“Sudhi Khorala,” he said.
“All right, Sudhi,” I said after escorting him to the edge of the clearing, “stay here and I’ll get the others.”
The other two were women, though I supposed one was more of a girl. She had been the youngest of the Seekers and reminded me of my sister. She had blood on her face and streaks through it where tears had fallen.
“I’m still alive,” she whispered.
“You’re blessed,” I said. “Don’t worry. They won’t hurt you now,” and I helped her up.
She sniffed and wiped at her cheek, looking around at all the dead. “I thought I’d end up like the rest of them, nothing to care about anymore.”
“There’s still plenty for you to care about,” I said. “What’s your name?”
“Adithi Ghumaal.”
“Can you walk?”
“I think so.” She took a couple of experimental steps. She had to limp, favoring her left leg, but she joined Sudhi and Tamhan while I visited the third person. She was already sitting up, staring at the bloodcats in outrage. It was the girl with the distant stare whose name I’d never heard correctly. She appeared quite lucid now.
“Damn it,” she said. “I was supposed to die!” She picked one bloodcat nearby and pointed at her. “Hey. Why didn’t you want to eat me? Do I smell bad or something? Gah, that stings!” She sucked at her teeth and looked down at her chest, which was covered in blood. Belatedly I realized she was missing a piece from her tunic. And she realized she was missing something else, and her angry voice rose to fill the grove. “One of you shits bit off my nipple! What am I supposed to do with only one tit?” She swung around to me. “Is this going to grow back? Did you fully heal?”
“Well, yes, I healed fully, but I didn’t lose anything either, besides blood.”
She surveyed the damage to the rest of her body, wincing. “You know, this is a messed-up way to get a kenning.”
“Well, next week it’s spiders, so I think this is pretty good, all things considered.”
“Spiders? How do you know that?”
“I just feel it. And can kind of see it in my head. You might be able to as well now. Think about it. These bloodcats won’t be the source of the kenning for much longer, will they?”
Her eyes drifted up to the sky as she thought about it. “Oh. Oh! Euuhh! Nasty!” She shut her eyes tightly as if that would rid her mind of the mental image. “I’ve never seen spiders that big before. You’re right; this is better.” She cocked her head at me. “What did you say your name was? I didn’t pay attention.”
“Abhinava Khose.”
“I’m Hanima Bhandury. You know what’s amazing—besides being alive? I’m talking and you can understand me. I didn’t expect that at all! I mean, damn, everything hurts, but my mouth is working again, and that feels good.”
“It wasn’t working before?”
“No. Got hit on the head a couple of years back, and it did some damage. Kept me from speaking properly. I’d know exactly what I wanted to say and how to say it, but it never came out right. Everyone thought I was stupid and it wore me down till I was ready to make my exit, you know? No one would help and no one seemed to care, so I thought I might as well join my family. They all got crushed by the same building that messed up my head. But now listen to me go. I’m never going to shut up!” She grinned at the same bloodcat she had scolded earlier. “You can have my nipple. It’s not like I was using it. I’ve got my voice back, and that’s all I ever wanted. This is the best!”
Strange words to say amid all this death. But she