A Place To Bloom

Article 62

Blue lowered his hind legs, bringing Miyani down to where she could kiss me. "'uŋi gæðudeɣa ʃa ki'i daxadeɣa."

She'd said she was going to meet a friend who had some information, so, whatever that was supposed to mean.

North beyond the city walls, the Terbulin mountains floated above the purple morning mist, the highest peaks crowned in bright orange snow with dark rock disappearing into the shadows. A blanket of trees rose and sank with the hills into the distance carrying the chorus of a million chirps, whistles, and caws.

With one last brush of his lizard face in my cheek, Blue carried her across the thousand yards of open plain into the deep jungle full of hungry critters and murderous enemy soldiers.

She peeked over her shoulder one last time and smiled at me before they disappeared.

It was a sin.

How could it be?

Chastity before marriage. That was the rule. I should have at least broached marriage with her. We were living in sin.

She doesn't see it that way, and neither should you. Besides, what if that's the last time you see her alive?

A sharp stabbing pain ripped through my chest and up along my throat. My skin crawled, and a deep chill gripped my soul. It shouldn't have mattered. I was supposed to have faith. I was supposed to trust in obedience to God, and here I was making excuses, indulging under the guise of war. I was weak.

The crisp musk of her pussy clung to my finger. God, I couldn't wait to see her again.

Presently, she had work to do, and I was supposed to see Dr. Zughi in the medical ward before breakfast. Already my stomach grumbled; last time, she had maize crisps with five colors of gooey deliciousness—creamy green stuff that smelt strongly of lemon and coriander, thick, rich brown stuff, cheese that stretched out for miles, and a red sauce with enough nice pepper to light a bonfire.

It was early enough without men clattering spears against shields or shooting practice dummies in the training yard to hear my footfalls in the grass on approach to the line of stone archways a few steps up from the ground. Most of the arches held a spider the size of my hand with a brown-and-white pattern along its body floating mid-air, but I found one who hadn't spun her web, yet. She was busy in the cracks between stoneworks above, wrapping a secret up in silk.

Inside, light came from paper ball-lanterns hanging from sconces along the columns between spiders.

I didn't see Dr. Zughi, but two-thirds of the beds were taken. A man had gauze wrapped around his head with a thick patch over his eye. The man next to him had a bandaged stump where his left foot belonged. Three others in the corner had sunken skin, and their whole bodies looked like one contiguous bruise. Two other men on the far side lay their heads to one side with their eyes gaped open, barely breathing, while a third one's face was covered in a sheet.

Several women I didn't know made rounds among them. One held one of those crystals to a patient, wrote down his color, and moved on to the next. Two other, much older women followed the lanky teenager, Shamuni, around while she showed them how to fold a bedsheet.

"Caleb!" Dr Zughi's high-pitched, girlish voice pulled to me from the corner of two folded-wooden partitions. She'd let out her cornrows, and a cascade of white curls framed her flat, dark-green face and gentle, yellow eyes.

I stepped towards her when a young girl rushed in to grab a washbasin piled high with bloody linens. She looked up and glanced sheepishly between the doctor and me.

Zughi waved her on with a warm smile. While the girl carried off the tub, the Doctor explained. "I've Article-62'd you. Come!"

Whatever that meant.