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another figure eed from the smoke and stood beside Matthew&039;s pallet He looked into her face Without speaking, she took up a pinch of the exquisite garbage and put it into her ownit as a display of its worth

Matthew couldn&039;t believe his eyes Not because she&039;d voluntarily eaten it, but because she was the dark-haired, thin irl he&039;d last seen at Shawcoed, both in de, more chestnut colored than truly dark brown, and on her head was a tiara-like toque fores of ruddy paint had been applied to her cheekbones Her eyes were no longer glazed and weak but held deterarment adorned with a pattern of red and purple beads down the front

"You!" Matthew said "What are you doing h - " The thue past his lips Matthew&039;s first impulse was to spit, but the deing his throat with the other

Matthew had no choice but to s it The stuff had a strange, oily texture, but he&039;d tasted cheese that orse In fact, it had a complexity of tastes, some sour and some sweet, that actually well, that actually called for a second helping

The girl - Girl, he recalled abner saying with a laugh when Matthew had asked her name - moved away into the fire-thrown shadows before he could ask her anything else The demon continued to feed him until the boas eue picking at seeds in his teeth There was no answer The dean to also move away "This is Hell, isn&039;t iti" Matthew asked

"Se hapna ta a noise

In another moment Matthew sensed he was alone Up above, he now could h the smoke haze what looked to be wooden rafters - or rather, small pinetrees with the bark still on therew heavy There was no resisting this sleep; it crashed over hireen sea wave and took hi a sleep for the ages, absolute in its peace and silence and then, a voice

"Matthewi"

Her voice

"Can you hear mei"

"ahhhhh, " he answered: a sustained, relaxed exhalation of breath

"Can you open your eyesi"

With only a little difficulty - and regret, really, for his rest had been so deeply satisfying - he did There was Rachel, her face close to his He could see her clearly by the flickering firelight The dense sone away

"They want you to try to stand up, " she said

"Theyi" He had a burned, ashy taste in his er wore the third eye, cawas made plain

Two of the fean to work around his head He heard soht it ht be - and suddenly his head was free topain in his neck muscles

"I want you to know, " Rachel said as the two females continued to cut Matthew free from his pinewood pallet, "that you&039;ve been terribly injured The bear - "

"Yes, the bear, " Matthew interrupted "Killed me, and you as well"

She frowned "Whati"

"The bear It killed - " He felt the straps give way around his left wrist, then around the right He&039;d stopped speaking because he realized Rachel wore her wedding dress On it were grass stains He sed thickly "are we not deadi"

"No, we&039;re very h If they hadn&039;t come when they did, you would have bled to death One of them bound your arm to stop the flow"

"My arm" Matthew remembered now the terrible pain in his shoulder and the blood dripping froers of his left hand He had a sickened sensation in the pit of his stolance at the limb, he asked, "Do I still have iti"

"You do, " Rachel answered grimly, "but the wound was very bad as deep as the bone, and the bone broken"

"and what elsei"

"Your left side You took an awful bloo, three ribs how ht arerly touched his side He found a large patch of clay covering the area, adhered by soe underneath that to indicate so else pressed directly to the wound

"The doctor made a poultice, " Rachel said "Herbs, and tobacco leaves, and I don&039;t knohat all"

"What doctori"

"Ulanced toward the watchful demon "This is their physician"

"My God!" Matthew said, dumbstruck "I ht, " Rachel answered cale How far it is from Fount Royal, I can&039;t say We travelled over an hour froei You mean I&039;ve been doctored by an Indiani" This was absolutely unthinkable! He would have preferred a dee one!

"Yes and well doctored, too They have been very kind to me, Matthew I&039;ve had no reason to fear the for Matthew to stand The tos that had secured his ankles, then had withdrawn "Hapape pok pokati!" He reached out, picked up the woven mat that covered Matthew&039;s torso, and threw it aside, leaving Matthew naked to the world "Puh! Puh!" the doctor insisted, slapping his patient&039;s legs

Reflexively, Matthew started to cover his private area with both hands His right hand went quickly enough, but a searing pain shot through his shoulder at the ritted his teeth, fresh sweat on his face, and made himself look at the injury

His shoulder all the way past his elborapped in clay, and presumably other so-called e The clay also was smoothed over a wooden splint, and his elboas ie of the clay to the fingertips, the flesh was hastly sight, but at least he still had the arm He lifted his free hand to touch his forehead He found another clay dressing, secured with the sticky paste-like ashed, " Rachel said "Do you think you can standi"

"I ht, if I don&039;t fall to pieces" He looked at the doctor "Clothes! Do you understand ain slapping Matthew&039;s legs

Matthew directed his appeal at Rachel "Might you please get me so you as covered with blood They perforht, and burned theh hi have we been herei"

"This is the fifth rasp of the Indians! Matthew couldn&039;t believe it Four whole days, and they still had their scalps! Were they waiting for hietheri

"I think we&039;ve been summoned by their mayor, or chief, or whatever he is I&039;ve not seen hi on"

"Puh! Puh!" the doctor insisted "Se hapape tato face the inevitable "I&039;ll try to stand"

With Rachel&039;s help, he eased down off the pallet onto a dirt floor Modesty called hih they were fairly stiff The clay dressing on his broken arm was heavy, but the way the splint crooked his elbow made it bearable at his left side his ribs thundered with dull pain under the clay and poultice, but that too could be borne if he didn&039;t try to breathe too deeply

He kneould have been instantly killed if Jack One Eye himself hadn&039;t been so old and infirer years would havedeath by disembowelment such as Maude&039;s husband had endured

The Indian doctor - ould have been naked hi his groin - walked ahead, to the far side of the rectangular wooden structure that housed a number of pallets Matthew realized it was their version of an infired with stones, but froe pile of ashes nearby it was evident a sed in here

He leaned on Rachel for support, if just until his legs grew used to holding hiain His mind was still hazed It wasn&039;t clear to him now if his amorous encounter with Rachel had been real or a fevered dreaht on by his injuries Surely she wouldn&039;t have crawled up on that pallet tohad occurred between theht it have happenedi

But here was so with other clay cups and wooden bowls and carved bone pipes around the fire, was the broken half of Lucretia Vaughan&039;s heart-decorated pie dish

The healing savage - ould have made his compatriot Dr Shields blanch with terror - drew aside a heavy black-furred bearskin froht flooded across the floor, er "I have you, " Rachel said, leaning into hireat excited cla Mattheare of a brown an to shout in a voice whose irritated tone was universal: Stand back, and give us space to breathe!

Rachel led Matthew, naked and dazed, into the light