Page 109 of Phoenix's Fire

"Deenah, don't," said another woman out of sight.

"Helah," chided the woman who must be Deenah, "it's the Atwood girl." She looked back at me without slowing. "What's your name, child?"

"Callah, ma'am," I said just as my eyes landed on Helah.

She was in the dressing area, sitting on one of the stone benches. Her dress was in shambles. Blood stained her chest and left sleeve. The collar had been severelytorn, but that wasn't the biggest problem. A jagged cut before Helah's ear was bleeding profusely.

"Apply pressure to that," I ordered without thinking. "We're going to need cold water to staunch the blood. How deep is the cut?"

"See?" Deenah asked her friend. "She's been healing the hunters."

"I'm not a hunter!" Helah hissed.

"You are Righteous, and God has given me this gift to help our people," I said even as I moved to take the cloth Helah was using to clean her face. "What happened?"

Immediately, both women tensed and fell silent.

"What I need to know," I explained, "is if the injury was caused by something dirty. A hand, a dusty table, or anything else that could cause an infection."

"Yes," Helah whispered. "A rod."

Those words made tingles race down my spine. Pressing the cloth against the woman's cut, I glanced back at Deenah. "Can you find me a needle and fine thread? When you get that, go to the kitchen and get a mug of boiling water. Put the needle and thread in it. Also, get a cloth soaked in ethanol. They use it for cleaning the preparation surfaces."

"What are you going to do with that?" Helah whimpered.

I bent to look in her eyes. "I'm going to do the work God has asked of me, and repair your damage. I'm sorry, I don't know your name. Mrs..."

"Porter," she said. "That's Mrs. Hinton."

I nodded to show I'd heard. "Mrs. Porter, can you press this to your injury as hard as you can stand? I'm going to get a few more cool cloths to see if we can slow the bleeding, okay?"

"She can't have stitches," Deenah said. "What will the hunters think?"

I lifted the cloth enough to see the wound. It definitely needed to be closed, otherwise the healing would take much longer. And yet, I was pretty sure I could do this in a way that wouldn't be too obvious.

"Just two," I told her. "The bleeding will hide it, but they will help the healing."

The women exchanged a look as if trying to decide if this was worth it. I couldn't blame them. They weren't younger wives. These ladies had to be well into their thirties, so they had likely suffered plenty at the hands of their husbands.

"Look," I said, guiding Helah's hand to the cloth to press at her own wound. "we're all taught how to heal our hunters. It makes no sense for a healthy and hale woman to be risked for something as unfortunate as an infection." I turned to grab two washcloths from the stack near the showers and grumbled, "and why should we heal them but not each other?"

"She's the healer," Deenah told her friend. "The one Mrs. Worthington has been talking about."

"She's agirl," Helah shot back. "She can't understand how a husband would react to his punishment being removed."

I heard them as I began to soak both washcloths in the coldest water I could getfrom the sink. Yes, to them I was merely a child. Legally, I still was - for a couple more months - but even a child could see this was wrong, couldn't they?

Once the cloths were wet, I headed back. "If you don't want me to sew it, at least get the alcohol?" I begged. "That will sting, which could be seen as more punishment, if you wish. It will prevent an infection, though."

"Do that," Helah said to Deenah.

"I'll be right back," Deenah promised.

So I lifted the blood-soaked cloth and began cleaning away the extra blood with the clean, cold one in my hand. Helah just hung her head, making no effort to resist.

"Men have tempers, child," she said. "At your age, I'm sure they all seem so charming, but the honeymoon period does not last long, and then your failures will infuriate him."

"I know," I assured her.

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