CHAPTER 11
Tho-Shiko did not seem pleased.
Jallin really could not be sure, but he knew when a kinto-shah's ears went back over their head like a little hat, it was not good. Jallin also saw quite a bit of his front two teeth. Kinto-shah didn't smile when they were happy, not like normal people would. When they were happy, their eyes were wide and their ears up on top of their head and cupped forward, and some of them quivered their whiskers quite a bit. But when they were angry, their lips curled like frying bits of bacon, and more and more of their orange teeth became visible. Their eyes also half closed. Their whiskers went back along their faces like the fins of a fish.
This was the look he gave as he stared down at poor Eja after the Narg guard left. Jallin didn't say anything about what happened. He could feel Auntie Hurga's warnings against it. They lay her out in the night air in the little road that ran from the gate of Master Tho-Nosho's compound to the back where the warehouse was. When the gate closed, Jallin suddenly felt very safe. Maybe the wind had stopped blowing around his bare ankles, or maybe he liked it better here than at the temple. For some reason, he thought a drellorin suddenly appearing in here was as absurd as the idea of a dragon fitting through a keyhole.
"Virl she live?" Master Tho-Nosho said finally. Jallin didn't really know if he wanted an answer or was merely asking himself. Auntie Hurga answered him anyway.
"I think she's just passed out, Tho-Shiko. Perhaps she bumped her head."
"Coughabout-vorrier I," he said. "She still cougher, yes?"
"Yes, Tho-Shiko, but I think she is getting better."
Finally, Eja awoke. She blinked her eyes, but probably couldn't see anyone very well. Shi-Feo held the lamp, but stood away. Kir-Tuko stood in the doorway to his greenhouse, waiting to see if he would be needed.
"Wha...."
"You're safe," Auntie Hurga said to her. "You had a bad fall and bumped your head on the way home is all."
"A monster," she said. “My tummy hurt, and I went to make, and I saw a monster. I don't remember anything else. What happened?"
Auntie Hurga sighed. "Yes, there was a monster," she said. "But you're safe and sound back in Tho-Shiko's house."
Now that she was coming around, they got her to her feet and took her to the hut where she and Jallin slept.
Auntie Hurga tucked her into bed, at which point she began to cough again. She hacked and choked, just like Jallin's mother, but mercifully for only a little while before she stopped and settled her head on the pillow again.
"Auntie?" Jallin asked her, when Eja was settled. The woman hadn't moved while Eja was coughing, not even to sit back and avoid getting breathed on. She rubbed Eja's head a little and cooed at her. Jallin repeated himself a little louder. She hissed him to silence.
"But Auntie, why don't I get medicine in my food like Eja does?" Jallin, in the little light that found its way in with them, saw Auntie Hurga's ear twitch a little. Long years of hard work put little creases along the corners of her features. She wasn't much older than Jallin, but looked like she was older than Jallin's mother sometimes, particularly when she scowled. It was the face a person gives the sun after long hours in darkness.
"You're not sick. Why waste medicine on people who aren't sick?"
"But the medicine isn't helping anyway. She's not getting better. She's getting worse, I think. If she doesn't get better...." Jallin couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.
"The...Protector will heal her," she said, briefly glancing out into the moonlit garden where Tho-Shiko, Shi-Feo, and Kir-Tuko stood like statues. Shi-Feo and the master of the house held hands in the night. What were they doing?
"She says the medicine is making her sick, making her stomach hurt. What kind of medicine is it? What's in it?"
"It's special medicine. I don't really know what's in it, or even what it's called, but I'm grateful to have it. But we can't be rude. It is out of the master's kindness we get it, and so long as you're not coughing, I can't ask for more of it. I know the...Protector...has plans for her. I don't think she's doing quite like your mother did. Your mother...well, she lasted a long time with this kind of cough, half a year or so, but it weakened her quicker. I think Eja's a strong little girl, and I know she'll get better. The Protector has plans for her."
Knowing what Auntie Hurga meant when she said 'the Protector has plans for her' made him flinch a little. It wasn't the Protector, but Trochaya.
When Jallin looked out of the hut again, ignoring the little song Auntie Hurga hummed at the coughing girl, he saw Kir-Tuko was still standing near the greenhouse. Shi-Feo and Master Tho-Nosho were walking back towards the main house, passing along like ghosts over the rows of vegetables and herbs in the garden. Shi-Feo stooped down and put her hand near one of the mageposts to feel the wind blow across it. Master Tho-Nosho obliged her and stood waiting, her other hand safely enclosed in his. His nose was tilted upwards into the night as though trying to smell the moon. Then, they moved on. Like two marsh mating flies finished with their moonlit meeting, they parted hands without a word. Master Tho-Nosho mounted the stairs first and went to his room at the end of the house. Shi-Feo not far behind, went the other way and into her own room.
And Kir-Tuko was still there. Jallin didn't know if he was watching them or him, but the old sho didn't move at all the whole time. Jallin thought of going and talking to him, but before he could step out of the hut again, the old sho turned and went around the back of the greenhouse into his shed where he slept. The night grew old and tired and fell asleep. Jallin did, too.
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