By the time they made camp that night, Blade and the others lightly wounded found their fevers were passing off. The more seriously wounded were slower to recover. They tossed and turned and moaned all night, and a second man went into convulsions. Swebon and the priests let Meera take charge of him.
«The Forest Spirit has blessed her greatly,» said Swebon. «Young as she is, she knows as much of caring of the wounded as any of our priests or women. She also seems not to care whether the man before her is Yal or Fak'si. That gift is even more rare than the skills of healing.»
Swebon shook his head. «I no longer can doubt it. That both you and Meera have come to the Fak'si at this time-it is a sign. I think it is a sign of some great change coming to the Fak'si. I only hope it is a good change.»
Blade nodded. «I do not know much of signs and omens. But I know I have found a home among the Fak'si, a friend in you, and a strong woman in Meera. This says to me that things will change for the better.»
Blade was quite sincere in hoping that all the changes coming to the Fak'si and the Forest People would be for the good. They had enough problems already. He was also glad to see Swebon in a mood to look for omens and expect changes. That should make him more open-minded about any new ideas Blade might offer. Those ideas were now beginning to take a definite shape in Blade's mind.
Thanks largely to Meera's nursing, the convulsing man didn't die. His fever broke just before dawn, and so did all the other fevers, both high and low. The seriously wounded were sleeping like exhausted children when the able-bodied and the lightly wounded loaded them into the canoes for the day's journey. They slept most of the day, and only awoke when they were being carried out of the canoes into the night's camp.
When they did wake up, they were clear-headed, but weak as kittens and ravenously hungry. The hunters and fishermen were kept busy catching dinner, and the cooks kept even busier preparing it. Blade found that his own appetite was returning. He also found that the Shield of Life over his shoulder was beginning to prickle and itch. The wound itself no longer hurt at all, but the itching rapidly became uncomfortable, then positively maddening. From the strained expressions of the other wounded, Blade guessed they were all having the same trouble. He decided to leave the Shield alone. He still had his doubts about Fak'si medicine, but interfering with a wound that seemed to be healing fairly well was never a good idea, no matter how weird the treatment you'd received for it.
Because of the wounded and the prisoners, the raiders returned home by a different route than they'd used coming out. This one was considerably longer, but didn't involve any overland portage. It did involve passing along a stretch of river swarming with Horned Ones, but Blade was able to help out there. He showed how to make and use the jawbracers. By the time they reached the dangerous stretch, there were half a dozen carefully-made jaw-bracers in each canoe. Blade's status among the Fak'si went up another notch.
Meanwhile all the wounds were healing with amazing speed and practically without complications. Within five days Blade's Shield of Life turned from gray to brown and started cracking and peeling around the edges. One of the priests examined it and decided the time had come to remove it.
With a knife he picked away most of the dried Shield, then washed away the rest.
The wound underneath was going to leave a scar, but that didn't worry Blade. He already had more than his fair share of scars, picked up in one Dimension or another. What impressed him was that the wound was almost completely healed, with no sign of infection.
This wasn't an isolated miracle, either. One by one over the next few days the Shields of Life came off the wounds, and one by one all the wounds appeared as clean and well-healed as Blade's. By the time the raiders returned home, eleven days after the raid, only three men were still wearing their Shields.
Blade still found it hard to believe, but after a while he thought he understood what happened with the Shield of Life. The combination of kohkol sap and uglyfish gland made a powerful compound with several different effects on the human body. First, it acted as an anaesthetic, numbing damaged nerve tissues. Second, it acted as a purely natural disinfectant by stimulating the body's own defense mechanisms-specifically, stimulating the production of white blood cells. That accounted for the absence of infections, at the inevitable price of the fever as the white blood cells multiplied and fought their battle. Finally, the Shield of Life seemed to stimulate cell growth in general, and therefore the regeneration of damaged tissue. That explained the rapid healing of all the wounds, with a minimum of scar tissue.
In short, the Shield of Life was nearly the ultimate treatment for any sort of wound. No wonder the Forest People had been able to indulge in their tribal wars for so long with so little damage! Not only did they keep the bloodshed down, they had a reliable method of dealing with many of the wounds that did happen.
When Blade realized what the Shield of Life really was, he would have made any sort of bargain at all to be sure of getting a large sample back to Home Dimension. With a gourdful to analyze, the biochemists there should be able to synthesize it. After that many things could happen, most of them good.
He was also going to be able to pay the Forest People for their gift of the Shield of Life. There'd been some sleepless nights in the riverside camps, and during those nights he'd finally realized what the Forest People needed to fight the Sons of Hapanu and the Treemen. He'd also figured out how to make the weapons, although he'd need to make some private experiments before he could be absolutely sure. He'd have to start by talking to Swebon, who should be in a mood to listen. Then he'd go to work-and see what happened.
Chapter 11
Blade was so busy working out his ideas that he didn't join in the celebration of the raiders' victory. He wandered about, mostly watching the carpenters and bowmakers at work. He not only ignored Meera, he ignored all the village women who wanted one of the great heroes of the raid against the Yal to take them to his sleeping mat. Lokhra put the doubts he was arousing into words.
«If the Yal woman had you in her grip, we would understand. She is very beautiful, wise, and strong. She is a good woman for you. But you do not take her either. She serves you only as a little girl or an old woman might do. Yet you still look at no other woman. Did you take a wound to your manhood, Blade?» The question might have been insulting, except for Lokhra's tone of voice. She seemed really worried about Blade's strange new habit of ignoring women.
Blade decided he was going to have to come up with some sort of explanation. «You do not need to praise Meera to me,» he said. «I know the kind of woman she is. But that does not matter. I have had a vision.» Visions and dreams played a large part in the religion of the Forest People, so this would seem a plausible explanation.
Lokhra's eyes opened wide and she made a gesture to turn away bad luck. «May you say what kind of vision it was?»
«I can say what I have seen so far. It was very clear. I saw that a great change might soon come to the Fak'si, perhaps to all the Forest People. I saw also that if the change came it would come through me.»
Lokhra's eyes opened even wider. «What kind of change?»
«This I did not see. I saw clearly that I would have to wait for a second vision to know. I also saw even more clearly that I should not lie with a woman or drink beer until the second vision came.»
Lokhra moaned faintly in awe and pressed her forehead against Blade's feet, then against the floor. When she rose, she asked, «May I speak of this to others?»
Blade laughed. «Yes. It is no secret. Be particularly sure to tell the women. I would like them to know that my manhood is still with me. In time I will prove it.»