Ander - Part 5: Subchapter 76
76
"Shekka, you're a real mess, and I say that with love."
"Go to hell, Wardo."
"From the looks of things, you beat me to it."
She brandished a bloody piece of broken arrow at his face, but she was off by about three feet. Her eyes had faded to the pinkish colour of crushed berries, but her 'little window of vision' (as she called it) had not returned. It was a wonder she could still perform her doctoring duties at all, but then again, she'd been operating in almost total blackness for the better part of a decade, so what did he know?
There were only two patients left in this charming little tent; Hyker and Denko. Hyker was still unconscious, the lazy bastard, but Wardo didn't mind. It would certainly make things easier if he didn't wake up too soon, and to be honest, he found Hyker's whole facial situation almost comical. First he had lost an ear, and then he went and decided to get the rest of his face grated off by a tree. Now, if only something could happen to his remaining ear it would complete the tableau.
"Er, excuse me?" Denko asked, casting a wary eye over the breathing corpse lying right next to him. "Will I be all right?"
Shekka groped around in the corner and came back with a walking stick. She shoved it into his arms and said: "There. You'll be a cripple for the rest of your life. Welcome to my world."
"Wait, what?" He looked from Shekka to Wardo and back to Shekka again, an incredulous look on his face. "Is that true?"
"How the hell should I know!? Get out before I cripple you even further!"
The way Denko scuttled out of that tent, fumbling with his new walking stick in a panic, was absolutely hilarious. Ordinarily Wardo would have swallowed his laughter, but now that he was Chieftain he could just let it out whenever he wanted. He threw his head back and laughed.
"Why are you in such a good mood!?" Shekka shrieked. "Get out! I still have one more moron to tend to and you're in my way!"
"Oh, Shekka." Wardo wiped away his tears. "Is that any way to speak to your beloved Chieftain?"
"You may be the Chieftain out there, but in here, I'm the Chieftain, and I want you out!"
"Why with all the hostility? I'm here to help you, Shekka."
"You can't help me with this. You can't... can't..."
_Ah, crap, there she goes again,_Wardo thought, watching her sway to and fro. He considered running up to catch her, but then again, letting her take a faceplant into the mush that used to be Hyker's face would be way more entertaining.
No such luck, though. She grabbed the edge of the table just in time to keep herself upright, panting and wheezing.
"You all right there, Shekka? You're looking a little woebegone." Wardo watched her carefully. She was exactly like this when she almost stumbled into the Pit, and she had gone into this state briefly again while she was pulling the arrows out of Ivio's feet.
She blinked her messed up eyes and looked around, not seeing anything. "Hezzi?" she croaked. "Hezzi? Where is that boy...? Hezzi!"
"Urgh." Wardo ran a hand across his face in frustration and wondered what to do. Del's old mate used to be like this in the final years of her life, always walking around looking for a brother who'd been dead for the better part of a decade, but that old bag was older than dirt. Shekka was no spring doe, of course, but it was a little early for her to be losing her mind like this, wasn't it? Well, to be fair she'd probably lost it years ago, but not her smarts, that was what he was getting at. Now, though...
"Hezzi?" She reached out with both hands, knocking over pots of medicine and preserved herbs. "Hezzi? Where are you?"
Should he just wait for her to... 'come back', or should he intervene? He couldn't make much use of her while she was like this.
Or could he?
"Hezzi? Oh, Cora, please, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Hezzi... Please, where are you?"
"Hezzi's gone, Shekka."
She looked at him with those weird, bloody eyes. They were creepy enough when they were white, but this was downright disgusting. "He's gone? Where did he go?"
"Well, he's either dead in the woods somewhere, or he's on his way to meet up with the Foxes."
"The Foxes!" Her fur stood on end and her muzzle crinkled back to expose her teeth. "The Cora told me all about them! They're the ones who murdered Kadai! They poisoned him!"
"Whoa, Shekka, what the hell!? Keep your voice down!"
"It was the one called Sarah! She poisoned him! She took him away from me!"
As interesting as it was to listen to Shekka's demented raving, he'd rather she didn't go around yelling about how the previous Chieftain was poisoned. He gestured for her to calm down, then remembered she couldn't see it. "Calm down, Shekka! I mean it!"
"She took my mate, and now she wants to take my son? Well I won't have it! I'll tear her throat out for what she's done to my family! I'll -"
She froze in place, then slowly came back into herself. She rubbed her temple and took a slow, careful breath, like someone who had nearly choked on a bone.
Her eyes had darkened to the colour of blood again.
"Shekka? Are you back?"
"I..." She blinked a few times. "I think so. I'm not sure if... I don't... I'm sorry, I just... I feel so confused."
"I can see that."
"I think I'm finally starting to pay the price for coming so close to the Cora. I'm being burned like a moth that strays too close to the fire. Soon, he will call me up to be at his side, and Kadai and I will be together again..."
She was still a bit loopy, but at least she was better than before. Now would probably be the best time to fill her in on his genius plan, while she was still sane.
Heh, 'sane'...
"Say, Shekka? Do you remember the deal we made last season?"
Shekka was looking at... well, nothing, he supposed, but she did have her face pointed at a spot somewhere above and to the left. Maybe she was seeing her god again, or something. "I remember..." Her voice was all distant and dreamy. "That was the night Sarah started to kill Kadai. It lasted too long. Far too long... He didn't deserve to suffer like that."
"Er... right, right. Terrible shame."
I think you're still a little confused there, Shekka, Wardo thought. You're the one who made the poison, you're the one who put it in his food, and you're the one who watched him eat it. But whatever helps you sleep at night, I guess.
"Listen. The deal was that, if you helped me become Chieftain, I'd use my power to help you with your revenge. Remember?"
"Revenge...?"
"Yes, revenge. Revenge against Sarah, the Fox who manipulated and seduced a proud young family Wolf with her wiles, turning him into nothing more than a dirty adulterer, sneaking around behind your back. Even when he was with you, he was with Sarah in his mind, because she had burrowed her way into his head without you even knowing. And then, to top it all off in the cruellest way imaginable, she stole him away and made sweet, sweet love to him inside the Cora's Pass. Right inside our beloved god, if you stop to think about it. Blasphemous."
She growled from deep inside the shadows. Drool dripped from her fangs. With her red eyes, she looked just like a demon from out of her own sermons, which was perfect. If she could pull off the same kind of aura at the right moment, she could convince those fools outside to do just about anything. They probably didn't even need that much convincing in the first place, but if you're going to go to the trouble of doing something great, you might as well do it full out.
Wardo gave her his warmest smile, even though he knew the poor thing couldn't see it. "I have been a terrible business partner, and I apologise for that," he said. "You upheld your end of the bargain perfectly, and thanks to that, I became Chieftain. Now, the time has come for me to deliver on my half of the deal, just like I promised. In fact, I'll do more. So much more."
Her ears twitched and she narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but that angry snarl stayed right where it was. "More? What do you mean by 'more'?"
"You want to get your darling son back, right? That stupid, impulsive little rapscallion you love so much? What if I told you you could get him back and strike down the bitch that ruined your life all at the same time?"
For a moment it seemed like there was a flicker of hope in her eyes, or maybe it was just the blood slowly leaking from corners. Ew. He so much preferred the angry monster Shekka to this sad little hunchback Shekka. "Hezzi is gone," she said, "and that demoness might as well be on the other side of the world. You can't do it."
"Oh, but I can. You see, Shekka, we both have needs. I am bored and in desperate need of some quality entertainment, some real fun. You are angry and alone, and the way to fix that is to wreak vengeance on the one who made you so angry, and embrace the son without whom you feel so alone. So that's fun for me, and bloody vengeance and hugs for you. Luckily for us, the method to all three is right here in this tent with us."
"What in the Cora's name are you talking about?"
"Allow me to demonstrate." Wardo stepped up to the weird table filled with holes. Hyker was lying on top of it, his face a mangled ruin covered in medicinal leaves and herbs and ointments and Cora alone knew what else. "Hey there, buddy. How you doing? That nasty Danado did quite a number on your face, didn't he?"
Hyker didn't respond.
"He can't hear you, Wardo." Shekka said. "He's unconscious, and I doubt he'll wake up anytime soon."
"Do you think he'll ever wake up?"
"Of course he will. His nose and jaw are broken, half his teeth are missing and his face is badly lacerated, but none of those injuries are life threatening. He'll just be even uglier for the rest of his life."
"Aw, that's a heartbreaker. Too bad you're wrong."
"Wrong? What do you mean 'wrong'? I may be blind, but I'm still the witchdoctor."
"No Shekka. You see, Hyker here is hurt really,really bad. Everyone saw him come in. His face... it was all torn up. He was barely clinging to life."
Shekka frowned. "What are you saying? And what does any of this have to do with your miraculous solution?"
"I'm saying..." There was a rack of knives near the foot of the table, each one longer than the last. Wardo lovingly traced his fingers along the hilts, then pulled out the one at the very end. The long, curved blade shone brightly in the gloom like a giant's fang. "You did the very best you could, but..."
"Wardo? What are you doing?" There was an edge of panic to her voice as she fumbled around, reaching to grab at shadows. "Did you just take one of my knives? Hey!"
Wardo raised the knife and licked his lips. "In the end, he simply slipped away..."
"Wardo!"
Wardo plunged the knife into Hyker's bandaged face, right between the eyes, and a fountain of blood splurted straight up into the air. His limbs went rigid and a strangled cry escaped his throat as Wardo pulled the knife back out, covered in crimson so deep it seemed to merge with the darkness itself. "Slipped, slipped, slipped away..." he said, stabbing Hyker again and again and again. His arms twitched and blood gargled from the gashes in his throat, bubbling like a cauldron. After a while the twitching stopped, and the blood seeped away through the holes in the table, dripping onto the floor.
Wardo stabbed him one last time for good measure, plunging the knife into his brain all the way up to the hilt. Getting it back out again proved to be quite a chore, but after a moment of rocking the blade back and forth, it finally ripped loose, making a sound like rotted bark being torn from a dead tree stump. Wardo held the knife up to his eyes, mesmerised by the way it glinted in the dark.
There were little bits of grey mixed in with the red.
Shekka stumbled backwards and fell on her butt, whimpering like a frightened mouse. She groped against the walls of the tent, looking for a way out, but unable to find it in her panic.
Shekka-Kai, The Empty One, Witchdoctor of the Wolves. She was just a frightened little girl compared to him. A frightened, blind little girl.
"Calm down, Shekka," he said, using his most comforting tone of voice. "It's all right. There's nothing to be afraid of."
"You- You- You-" she stammered, pushing her face against the canvas. "You- Did you just- Did you...?"
"No, of course not. It was Danado who killed poor Hyker, just like his sister tried to kill me. Murder must run in the family."
"But you- I heard you! You- Hyker, you just-"
"Wow, I've never seen you this flustered, Shekka. You'd almost think you'd never killed before." He crouched down and held the blade up to her face. "Can you smell that?"
She scurried away like an insect. "You stay away from me! I'll scream!"
"Whoa, wait a minute, Shekka! I would never hurt you. We're partners, remember? You and I, we have a deal, and I always deliver on my promises."
"You're mad! Mad!"
"Perhaps, but this madwolf just ensured you'd get your revenge. What do you say to that?"
"You're m-" Shekka froze mid-scuttle, like some spiders sometimes do. She stared at him with those reddish eyes, not seeing anything, and her mouth slowly rounded into an expression of pure astonishment. She turned her head to the dead Wolf dripping on her table, and Wardo could almost see her putting the pieces together in her broken mind.
"The entire tribe almost went to war because of a single murder," he said, "and now we shall do so again. We'll get back at those treasonous bastards, and if the Foxes try to get in our way, we'll raze their village to the ground. It'll be so much fun..."
Shekka came crawling to him on all fours, reaching out with trembling hands. "But what of Hezzi? What will happen to him? Please, Chieftain, he's the only family I have left..."
Wardo smiled. "Don't worry, Shekka. I would never hurt your precious little drisa. He may have done wrong, but he is still the son of the previous Chieftain, and he was under the influence of those mongrels. I'll give him a full pardon and return him to your hands, safe and sound. Whether he gets punished or not, I'll leave to you. You are his mother, after all."
Real tears brimmed in her useless eyes, which might have made for a touching moment had they not mixed with the blood to make a rather unpleasant-looking pinkish liquid. "Thank you, Chieftain. From the bottom of my heart, thank you."
"It's too early to thank me, since you haven't even heard the best part yet." He revelled in the way she leaned in close, waiting for his words with bated breath. "If we find the one called 'Sarah', I'll leave her to you. You can do to her whatever you want. How does that sound?"
Her eyes went wide and those freakish tears spilled down her cheeks in ugly lines. Her smile was like a crack in her face. "Really?" she asked.
Wardo nodded. "Really."
She hugged him around the legs and rubbed her blood-smeared face across his knees. "Why did she do it, Wardo? I loved him so much, but she took him away from me! That murdering bitch! She killed Kadai!"
"There, there," he said, patting her lightly on the head.
"Thank you, Wardo. Thank you so much. I'll make her pay! I'll make her pay in blood! I'll rip out her tainted womb with my teeth!"
She's lost it completely... Wardo thought. It did not worry him, though. On the contrary, it delighted him. He smiled and tried his very best not to burst out laughing. This might become very interesting...
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