"Yes," she said finally. "I'm ready."
"Then we'll go," Kaern said from where he was standing near the door to what he had told her was the “control room.” He reached a hand in and flicked off the lights, startling her, though he'd told her that he was going to do so.
The lights just went out like a flash, and it seemed otherworldly to her of a sudden. Elan hadn't been awake when he'd turned them on and hadn't seen the sudden transition then. She jumped a little in surprise, but managed to keep from saying anything as the darkness descended on them. A few seconds was all it took to adjust, and then Kaern was at her side and guiding her out and away from the cavern.
They emerged out into the fading light of the desert day. Kaern paused, judging the direction once again to be sure, and nodded off in the distance. "That way. Come on, lass. We've got some distance to make before we stop. We don't want to be caught out in the open wastes once the cold starts to set in."
Elan nodded in reply and shivered slightly, remembering the feverish shifts from searing heat to ice-forming cold that had happened to her just days earlier. She didn't want to be out in that ever again, at least not in such a state. The thought sent a shudder of dread through her system, though she suppressed it and followed Kaern as he set off.
A few hours later, Kaern was watching Elan's steps with some trepidation and wondering if perhaps he should have waited a few more days despite the food problem.
She was limping already, of course. He'd expected that, but the growing red stain on her bandages wasn't in the plan. He'd hoped that she wouldn't reopen the wounds so quickly but knew that it was possible. However, she really was losing more blood there than he'd counted on.
He checked the sun, tried to gauge their progress, and was somewhat impressed. Despite the pain she had to be enduring, they'd managed to make their way farther then he'd expected. If she could hold up just a little longer, they'd be to the oasis and he'd be able to check out her ankles more closely.
"You alright?" he asked gruffly, coming up beside her.
She gritted her teeth, he could tell, but just nodded in response.
"We're close," he told her. "Not much farther. Are ye drinking?"
"Yeah," she told him, patting the water bladder at her side.
He eyed it, noting that it was noticeably collapsed, and nodded. "Good. Keep drinking. When we camp I'll check your ankles and see if we've got anything to help."
She just nodded, her eyes grimly focused on the horizon as she put one foot in front of the other.
Tough girl, he thought appreciatively, recognizing the determination that was evident in her eyes.
He'd been there before, himself, that state of mind that took you away from the worst of your suffering as you doggedly refused to allow anything to move between you and your goal. Kaern was willing to bet that very little existed to her just then, other than the destination he'd promised her and the shadowing hint of pain dogging her every step.
He'd known that she was tough, just by the fact that she'd survived long enough for him to find her. He'd known that she was something special because she'd been able to call for help through the Dreaming. Now, though, he had to admit that he was finding a little bit of respect for the girl because he knew that she was hurting but she wouldn't let it stop her.
Having the determination to survive was different than finding the dogged drive to just keep moving when stopping would feel so damned good.
She's a tough little bit, mentally as well as physically, he grudgingly admitted to himself as he paced her, walking a few steps behind as they worked their way up the dune ridge. Maybe she won't get herself killed too soon after all...if she's got some brains to learn with, at least.
The oasis was about another hour's painful trudging along, but they reached it ahead of when he'd expected, so Kaern was fairly happy with their progress. Elan crumpled onto a stone boulder that had been washed out by the action of the spring, taking the weight off her feet, and she practically whimpered in relief when she did.
He let her rest, using the light of the full moon to gather some wood and set a fire near the boulder. A few minutes were all it took to get a merry fire crackling, and he turned his attention to her.
"Alright, lass. Let's be seeing yer feet," he said firmly.
She winced but nodded and started to peel off the bandages he'd wrapped there. Even Kaern winced as they pulled free at last, pulling crusted blood and torn skin with them. He used some water from his own skin to clean them off and eyed the wounds critically.
"Not as bad as they might be," he sighed after a moment, "but worse than I'd like, to be sure."
"I'm fine," she said grimly.
"No, ye’re not," he corrected her. "We should have stayed back there another couple days. My mistake, lass. I'm sorry."
"I'll be okay," she said tiredly. "I just need some sleep."
"Aye." He nodded. "Get some rest. I'll clean up yer feet and put some fresh, clean bandages on them for ye in the meantime."
She eyed him oddly, but conceded to his help as he half carried her to the sleeping pads he'd laid out. In a few moments she was covered in furs, all but her feet, and her eyes were drooping as if on command, despite his attentions to her wounds.
Kaern cleaned the wounds again, getting the sand and grit out of them, then broke open the medical unit. He wasn't certain how most of the stuff in it was used, but thankfully the Antecedents didn't gene lock medical equipment as a general rule.
They also had a tendency to make it as idiot-proof as possible.
Bless them, he thought as he drew out a small cylinder about an inch and a half in diameter and four inches long. The script engraved on the side of it was clearly marked and still as clean as the day it had been inscribed.
This End Toward Injury.
Kaern snorted, chuckling softly, as he pointed the cylinder in the direction indicated and pressed the big etched symbol he knew meant “on.” The device hummed in his hands, sending a shiver up his spine as it bathed Elan's heel with a white light.
Kaern supposed that he probably should have done this earlier, but he preferred not to rely too strongly on what little of the Antecedents remained. Among other things, much of their technology wouldn't operate for him at all, and for another, more important, thing, he didn't trust any of it as far as he could build it himself.
In a crisis, however, Kaern was a realist and a fatalist. He'd use anything he needed to in order to survive. After several passes, however, there were no visible changes in the injury, so he found himself examining the etched plate that lined the inside of the medical unit for hints.
The device he'd chosen was called some complicated name that used words Kaern hadn't bothered to learn when the language was actually spoken, so that didn't help him, but the directions listed under it explained matters in clear terms, so he sighed and went back to the job of treating the girl's wounds.
The device wasn't a miracle worker, obviously. The unit he'd found was an emergency kit, designed to stabilize a patient, not to cure them. One of the hospital units, or even the portable military ones, would have probably been able to completely seal the wound, on the outside at least.
This would only feed more energy into the patient’s cellular structure to encourage her to heal herself.
He sighed and kept passing the device over her injuries, knowing that any little bit of help could be of vital importance. It would be a long night, but he could handle that.
*****
Elan awoke with the sun for the first time in many days, blinking slightly as the light burned at her eyes, the chill of the desert night still clinging to the ground where she lay. The fire had burned out hours earlier, from the look of it, and there was a fine frost layer all around her. It took her some time to realize that the humidity must come from the oasis and the water it put out into the environment every day.