Now and again David lugged some poor soul into the surgery where Cara and the best of the jaran healers worked. Jo Singh had set up several huge copper pots of water to boil, to sterilize instruments. After depositing his unconscious patient on a table, David took a break from the wounded for a while and cleaned the crude instruments and boiled them and lifted them out to dry with a set of metal tongs.
He was standing there, sweating from the steam and the heat of the coals, when Gwyn Jones and a jaran woman brought in a stretcher. A blond man lay on it, looking more dead than alive.
Cara glanced up. Her eyes widened. "Vasil! Here, Gwyn, I'm done here. Bring him to me."
The transfer was made. "He's badly wounded," said Gwyn. "Do you think he'll make it?"
"You know him?" Cara's tone was sharp.
A ghostly smile passed over Gwyn's lips. "Not in that way, if that's what you mean. He comes to watch the acting. He has-what should I call it? — charisma, I suppose. And he's a handsome man." He paused, wiping his hands down his stained trousers. David could see the jaran man's face where he lay, unconscious, on his back on the table: a huge gash had ripped one cheek open, and his forehead was bloody and torn. His other wounds looked worse. "Or he was, at any rate. Will he live?"
"I don't know." She turned to examine him, and her two young jaran assistants huddled around her, aiding her, observing her.
David steeled himself and went back outside. In truth, the noise bothered him more than the blood. Some of them moaned, a reedy, grating sound. Some of them screamed as if they meant to rub their throats raw. Others lay there in stoic silence, suffering their agonies without a word. A few whispered, begging for water. Under a huge canopy lay those Marco deemed would not survive or were too badly wounded to benefit from the crude surgery available. Jaran attendants moved among them, relatives, perhaps, providing succor. David saw Diana there as well, carrying two flasks, soothing the dying with her gentle hands and voice. Oh, Goddess, he was tired. He found a corner of ground and shut his eyes. Mercifully, he slept at once.
The thunder of hooves woke him. A rider dismounted, saw David, and ran over to him. It was Tess's adopted brother, Aleksi.
"Where is the doctor?" he demanded. He looked wild-eyed, not at all composed as he usually was.
"She's-what's wrong?"
"Tess. The child is coming early."
"Oh, hell! I'll go tell Cara. Where is Tess?"
"I took her to the doctor's tent."
David sprinted for the surgery tent and burst inside. "Cara!"
She did not look up, "What is it, David?"
"Aleksi just rode in," he said in Anglais. "He says that Tess has gone into premature labor."
Cara's head jerked up. Blood trickled over her fingers where they rested on her patient's hips. "Let me finish here. Jo, you'll be in charge of equipment, Sibirin of the healers, until I can return. David, go with Aleksi."
David ran back outside. Aleksi had already commandeered another horse. "Where is the doctor?" Aleksi snapped.
"Coming in five minutes."
"She has to come now!"
"I'll come now. She's finishing with a patient. Come on."
They rode off together, across the hospital grounds and on through into the center of camp, where Cara's tent lay close by Tess's. They gave their horses to Vasha and went inside. In the inner chamber, Tess lay on her left side on the examination table, breathing evenly. She looked pale but otherwise composed. Maggie stood beside her, holding her hand.
"Tess!"
She twisted her head to look behind her. "David. Where did you come from?"
"Goddess! Let we wash myself first. What happened?"
"My water broke." The color leached from her face suddenly, and when she spoke, her voice was tiny. "Is Cara coming?"
"Yes. Let me wash. Aleksi, come with me."
"David, I'm scared."
"I know." He felt a great sinking gap in his chest at her words. Her fear terrified him. "Cara will be here soon."
"We sent Mitya and Galina to tell Bakhtiian and Charles," said Maggie. She rubbed Tess's hands between hers. "Katerina went to get her mother."
David went over to the counter, where the sterilizing unit lay. "Here, Aleksi, help me move this to the outer chamber." They lugged it out. Tess watched them go. David set it down and triggered it. "Now, do what I do. Listen, Aleksi, you're going to have to run interference."
"Interference?" Aleksi kept glancing back toward the inner chamber.
"I don't know what Cara intends. I suppose it depends on how the delivery goes, but Tess is so early… You're going to have to keep your people out of there."
"Ah." Having a job to do seemed to steady Aleksi's nerves. "Dr. Hierakis will use her machines to help Tess and the baby."
"If she has to. Charles is going to be furious."
"Why?"
David looked up in surprise. "Well, Charles wanted Tess in Jeds. It's dangerous…"
"I know childbirth is difficult for women, and that they die at times, and early babies usually die at once, of course, but Tess-" Aleksi's expression pinched in, and David saw how frightened the young rider was. "The doctor doesn't think Tess is going to die, does she?" His voice broke.
"Aleksi." He hesitated. He didn't know what to say.
"Is it because she isn't in the heavens? Was she never meant to have a child down here? Oh, gods." He lapsed into silence. David finished the sterilization procedure, and Aleksi mimicked him stiffly, jerkily. His whole body betrayed his agony.
David took in a deep breath. "Now. You go in and sit with Tess, and send Maggie out to sterilize. I'll have to do some arranging here-"
Aleksi went in at once. Maggie emerged. "Oh, Mags, this is awful. Let me see. We'll move some things aside, here, and get out this cloth. Oh, can you go outside and set several pots to boiling? We'll need lots of hot water, more as a cover than anything." Maggie nodded and hurried outside. In the inner chamber, Tess and Aleksi spoke to each other quietly. David could not make out their words.
At last, at last, Cara strode in. She stopped, surveyed the chamber, nodded once briskly, and then ran her hands and outer clothes through the sterilizer. She ran a damp cloth over her face and pulled a cap over her hair. "David, I'll want you to attend and Aleksi will have to keep everyone out." David followed her inside, and Aleksi retreated. "Well, Tess, what happened? I see. No, stay on your side. Let me attach this monitor here. Don't move, I'm running a scan,"
David watched as Cara ran the scan down over Tess's body. Tess faced away from them, lying quietly, working hard on breathing slowly. Cara's hand stopped dead over Tess's abdomen. An expression of horror passed over Cara's face. She made a tiny sound in her throat and fiddled with her fingers on the scanner, and ran it again.
"Cara, what is it?" Tess began to crane her neck back to look.
"Don't move!" Cara snapped. She sidestepped over to the counter, slotted the scanner into the flat modeler, and read the screen.
"Is the baby all right?"
"Fine. Listen, Tess, there's no telling how long this will take, but I'm afraid it'll be fast. Ah, here comes a contraction. Does it hurt?"
Tess took in seven tense breaths and let them out before she spoke. "Not much. And they're short."
"But damned effective. That's often the case with premature labor. Goddess, you're only twenty-nine weeks. Tess, if we were on Earth, I’d have few worries about saving the baby. But you realize-"
Tess shut her eyes. "Are you telling me it's going to die?"
"The conditions-"
"It's my fault for refusing to leave!"
"No, Tess! We're not throwing around blame here. You seem to forget there is another person involved in this transaction: yourself. Tess." She came over and took a tight hold on Tess's hands. "Tess." She bent and kissed her. David admired Cara's calmness, her ability to bury her emotions in order to act professionally. It was what made her so effective. "There's no guarantee that you'll react, or when it will hit if you do, or how badly, but I want you to promise me that you'll believe that I'll pull you through, that you'll trust me to do that."