Chap. 232 Headache

 

Chap. 232 Headache

The sun had set. Several dragons were launching in the last of the light, flying towards the mountain for the night.

Are you going to spend all night out? he asked Raventh.

I don't know. I'm still talking to the others. I'll be in after a while.

Okay. What about Siskin?

I think he'll be joining you in the weyr, but for the moment, he's still flirting. He thinks he has a chance at a gold.

K'ndar laughed.

He made his way to the trough. It didn't really need much water. Nevertheless, he operated the faucet to start it filling. He looked up at the sky as he waited, seeing the first stars coming out. By the egg, I love the stars, even the ones that I don't know their names.

A bolt of light flashed behind his eyes from the hammering blow to the back of his head. He shouted in pain. A force shoved him head first into the water. He felt it pushing him towards the bottom, his legs pinned against the side. Blind with pain and terror, he screamed.

The pressure on his back doubled, then tripled. He flailed his arms, helplessly. Then, just as suddenly, he heard a shriek and the pressure on him vanished. He pulled himself out of the trough, coughing, choking, trying to get his wits together and air back into his lungs. His head swam in agony so blinding he tottered.

He heard Siskin's enraged screeching. He turned to see a stranger, swinging a cudgel at the fire lizard swirling over his head. Despite the growing darkness, K'ndar could see blood streaming from the man's face.

"No!" he shouted, distracting the man, and Siskin darted out of the cudgel's reach. The cudgel came at K'ndar's head. Trapped between the trough and the man, K'ndar had only one way out...through. He ducked the cudgel, and as it passed his head, he charged and hit the man in the nose as hard as he could.

He felt it break. The man shrieked and fell to his knees. With one hand, he swung the cudgel at K'ndar's shins. K'ndar kicked, catching the man under the chin. He heard a crunch. The man fell back, blood spurting from his mouth. Siskin returned, going for the man's eyes. He rolled over, covering his head.

Raventh landed on the other side of the trough, roaring. Corvuth was right behind him.

"What in the shaff is going on?" he heard D'nis yell.

The stranger scrambled to his feet and ran.

Siskin went after him, with a crowd of fire lizards by his side.

He attacked you! Raventh said.

I...I..my head hurts so bad K'ndar said, so much in pain he could hardly breathe, but forced himself to take in huge lungfuls of air.

"What! What is going on?" D'nis shouted. He was naked and still wet from the shower.

"Corvuth said you.....who the shaff was that?"

K'ndar put both his hands on his head, trying to keep it on his shoulders.

"I don't know. He hit me from behind, tried to drown me in the trough. Oh, shaff, this hurts so bad, so bad, am I bleeding?"

D'nis, beginning to feel the night chill on his naked skin, grabbed K'ndar by the arms. "Shaff yes, you're bleeding. But there's a lot on the ground, that can't be all yours! Come in to the weyr. Can you walk?"

"I can walk, but D'nis! Where's Siskin?"

What can I do to help? Should I have chased the man? Raventh interrupted, his voice thick with worry and anger.

No. Call Siskin back.

I can smell blood. You need a healer.

I do. Call Motanith. Tell Francie I need a healer. 2001 Belior.

I remembered my address, even with my head splitting in two, he thought.

______________________________________________________________________

"You'll have a big lump, K'ndar, and a headache for certain, but I think you're lucky, I don't think you've a concussion."

She'd wrapped thick bandages around his head, even covering his ears. She placed her scissors and razor in a bucket full of alcohol and stepped back to look at her work.

He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, wary of moving his head any further than necessary.

"What's a concussion? And can you give me something for the pain? My head is splitting." He was dismayed to see D'nis-who'd dressed-on his hands and knees, cleaning up hair and bits of bloody bandage off the floor. My weyrleader? Doing drudge work? But there are no drudges at Landing.

"No doubt. A concussion, to put it simply, is a bruised brain. You've a large gash on your head, but it didn't break the skull. We have a thick layer of skin on our heads, that's where all the blood came from, but it's stopped. You shouldn't lose any more. Call my clinic tomorrow and I'll have someone come by to check on you and change the bandages. Call my clinic IMMEDIATELY if you start vomiting, okay? In the meantime, I've slathered the wound with numbweed, and I'll give you some to put on it later. I don't know if you'll need stitches, I'll re-assess it tomorrow. Sorry about your hair, I had to cut it away from the wound, so it will look odd until the hair grows out."

She dug through her emergency aid kit and pulled out several packets of powder. "Put one of these packets in a mug of warm water, drink it, and the pain should ease up," she said, "One dose every 6 hours. Not sooner...it's powerful stuff," she said. "And no alcohol for as long as you're taking this."

K'ndar tried to shake his head. "Stop that," the healer said,"Don't do that."

That was an easy order to obey.

"Okay. Don't worry about alcohol, I don't drink it. I'm allergic to it."

"Huh! So am I," she said.

That astonished..and delighted him.

"Really? I thought I was the only one on Pern," he said.

"No, lad, but it's not common. I know of only one other person like us."

D'nis got off the floor and reached for the packets. "Here, give that to me, I'll do it," D'nis said, feeling useless. Threadscore, he could provide first aid for, but a head wound?

The healer handed the packets to him. D'nis was headed for the kitchen when they heard voices outside the pedestrian door.

"Hello, hello! Security here, 2001 Belior? Security here," they heard a voice from outside.

"Siskin? Open the door, please?" he called.

The blue fire lizard was perched on the shelf K'ndar had installed for him, right next to the door that opened onto Raventh's bay. That door was open at the moment, Raventh having opened it so that he could watch every move.

Siskin chipped, always eager to show off. He flew to the door and hovered in front of the wave plate. The door swished open.

"Would you look at that!" the healer said, "He knows how to open doors?"

K'ndar smiled, proud of the blue's intelligence. "And a lot of other things," he said.

The Security men were the same ones who'd marched Marsh out a week earlier.

"Woof, K'ndar! You're a mess!" one said. "We've been alerted that you'd been attacked. What happened?" one said.

"I was hit by behind. I didn't see him coming. A man, I've never seen him before. He hit me in the head and shoved me in the water trough, he tried to drown me! Then he let up, I think because my fire lizard attacked him. He came at me with a cudgel and I hit him in the nose. Then he ran off, no wait, he fell down and swung at my knees with the cudgel and I kicked him. THEN he ran off."

It hurt to talk. It hurt to move his eyes. It hurt.

"Did you break it? His nose?"

K'ndar thought for a moment. He'd never punched anyone so hard in his life. He remembered how satisfying the sensation of cartilage flattening under his fist felt.

"Yes," he said, raising his fist to eye level to get a good look at it, "I think I broke it. I hope I broke it."

He twisted the fist, admiring it for its sudden change into a weapon. It hurt, a little, but not as much as his head. It was worth the pain. F'mart. F'mart! You taught me that. Thank you. I owe you a beer.

The other man was writing in a notebook. He looked up at K'ndar and said, "This is the second time we've been here. What IS it with you, K'ndar? Picking fights?"

"AVAST THAT, " D'nis snapped. Raventh rumbled, his eyes orange. The security man flinched and stared at Raventh with wide eyes. "He understood me?"

"Of course he understood you, " D'nis froze the man with his eyes, daring him to argue. "You are blaming the victim, sir. I was with K'ndar not five minutes before, we were alone. I'd just gotten into the shower when my dragon told me a man was pushing K'ndar into the water trough. I ran out just in time to see him run off."

K'ndar glared at the security man through a haze of pain.

"No, I didn't pick a fight, I'd never seen the man before. I was minding my own business outside my quarters. Nor did I ask for Marsh to steal from my quarters. It's YOUR folks here, picking fights with me!"

Stop talking so loud, his head said. Okay.

The first security guard put up his hand. "It's okay, K'ndar, and stand down, mate. He's right. Whomever hit him is on the loose, he might have come in with these folks today, I don't know. If we catch him, he'll have a story, I'm sure. If we have any doubts, the dragons will attest, but I believe you, K'ndar," he said.

"You've never seen him before?"

He shook his head, gently.

"Never. I can't even describe him, it was getting dark, I was coughing up water, and I was so blind with pain. My height and weight, I guess. A little older?"

"Did he say anything?"

"Not a word. Just hit me from behind and shoved me into the water trough and pushed me to the bottom. Hard."

The two nodded.

"Where's the cudgel?"

"I don't know. Maybe outside the dragon bay, where he dropped it. I think," K'ndar said. Why all these questions when he could barely think of his name?

"Right then. We'll pick it up, take it in for examination. We'll probably find your DNA on it, judging from the amount of blood you've lost, but sure as sunrise, we'll find his, too. One way or another, we'll find this man. Ma'am, you know what you need to do should someone come into your clinic with a busted nose. K'ndar, contact Security tomorrow to make an official report."

"Yes, sir."

They left. The healer finished her administrations. D'nis handed him a mug of hot water. He sipped it, forcing himself to drink despite the bitterness. He knew it would help.

"Who's your supervisor?" she asked.

Why are you asking me this, he wondered, cross with the pain.

"Raylan, of Science Division. Why?"

She smiled, understanding his testiness.

"Because you're going to be on rest tomorrow, maybe the next day. I don't want you dragon riding, or horse riding, or running, or doing anything more active than sitting in the sunshine. Walking is okay. Reading is okay. Understand? I'll report your condition to Raylan," she said. "Should you need more pain meds, just call the Healer's clinic and I'll see you get more. Remember, if you start vomiting, call the clinic immediately. Sir, can you help with that?"

She looked at D'nis.

"Of course," D'nis said, worried.

She turned back to K'ndar. "If you can, you need to get out of those clothes, maybe clean up a little? Don't get the bandages wet, but you need a bath, at least. You're bloody to your waist," she said.

He looked down at himself. He was still damp. Most of it was blood.

"Whoa," he said, shocked.

"Actually, it's mostly superficial, K'ndar. Head wounds bleed copiously. If you don't mind me saying so, you're pretty lucky. He could have fractured your skull. You must have a hard head."

For the first time in what seemed hours, K'ndar grinned, even laughing, gently.

"That's what my mum always said."