The Mantis Continuum - Book Four - 20. Chapter 20 - Sumi & Harakin

It was night.

The former child-soldiers Sumi and Harakin were making their way through the streets of Gate Town. They headed along the quiet narrow alleys that led away from Red Raven’s and toward a little eatery overlooking the water.

“Sumi, why didn’t you just open one of your doorways and teleport us to Mermaid’s Pleasure?” Harakin asked. “I’m hungry.”

“It’s nice out; I felt like walking.” Sumi chuckled. “You’re always hungry.”

Harakin replied, “The baked winkies they make at Mermaid’s Pleasure have been calling to me!”

“Really? I thought we were headed there for the tolgofish. That’s what I’m getting.”

“Oh, yeah, you’re right; that’s also good,” Harakin agreed, “but no one makes winkies like they do at Mermaid’s Pleasure.”

“I actually prefer the ones from the street vendor with the little cart a few blocks from the mystic’s house,” Sumi said.

Harakin looked surprised. “But the vinegar flavor is too strong in theirs.”

“That’s what I like about…”

A brief scream issued from a side alleyway. Sumi and Harakin paused, and they peered into the shadows as a bruised and bloody child came clambering into view.

Three men and a woman carrying blades were in hot pursuit.

The panic-stricken child stumbled and fell to the pavement, as one of the men raged, “No child of ours will be one of those freaks!” He looked at the woman and she pounced.

Sumi and Harakin both reacted instantly.

Harakin caused a shell of physical light to manifest over the child, and as the woman’s blade connected, it was deflected. The child’s mother futilely stabbed at the protective shielding, and she screamed in fury, but then Sumi’s whole body blinked and the raging screams of the four attackers were silenced. Sumi teleported them inside the concrete wall of one of the old military structures. Pieces of the four people stuck out like weird art; one whole arm, part of three different legs, the back of one man’s head, an elbow.

“Good, they can’t hurt anyone again,” Harakin said. She caused her shell of light to vanish and asked, “Are you okay?” but the child collapsed.

“I’ll get her,” Sumi said, and she reached down.

“Isn’t that a boy?” Harakin asked.

Sumi cried out in pain as soon as her fingertips came into contact with the child, and she winced back. “She burned me! Her skin is hot. She must be a Shift.”

Harakin carefully extended an arm and let her hand hover over the child’s forehead. “Oh, you’re right. I can feel the heat coming off… her? Are you sure it’s a girl?”

“My fingers, there are blisters forming. Maybe I’m wrong. Is he a boy?”

“What do we do with him?”

Sumi’s fingertips were screaming in pain, but she tried to ignore them. “We should probably take him to the mystic. The only other healer we know is Olona, but since the mystic has lots of experience with Shifts, I think he’s our best bet.” She slid her leather jacket off and placed it over the child. “Give me yours, too,” Sumi said. “These will at least give me a little protection from his heat.”

“Be careful picking him up,” Harakin said. She also laid her jacket over the child.

“Muunith,” the child whispered.

“What?” Sumi replied quietly.

“My name is Muunith.”

“Be careful picking him up,” Harakin warned.

“I’m not a boy,” Muunith murmured.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Sumi replied, tucking the jackets around Muunith.

“Mind her skin,” Harakin said.

Muunith added in a hoarse whisper, “I’m not a girl,” and the child lapsed back into unconsciousness.

Sumi and Harakin looked at each other.

“Okay,” Sumi replied. She carefully scooped up the abused child with skin like fire, and she opened one of her doorways and teleported them right to the mystic’s house.

Dotty Marbles and Auntie Peg were coming out the door.

“Hey there, gals!” Dotty Marbles said, then she saw the condition of the child in Sumi’s arms. “Oh, no, what happened to the little one?” She reached for Muunith.

“Be careful!” Harakin blurted out. “Don’t touch him! Erm… I mean them.”

“This is Muunith,” Sumi added. “I think she’s a Shift. Oh, right, I think they are a Shift.”

Harakin added, “Muunith’s skin is really hot. There were these people after him.” She growled at herself. “Sorry, them.”

Sumi asked Dotty Marbles and Auntie Peg, “Is the mystic home? Muunith is not in great shape.”

The queens looked at each other.

“He is, but he’s already got his hands full, and Lahari is still in a coma.”

“But what should we do with Muunith?” Sumi asked urgently. “The mystic knows how to handle Shifts, so he seems like the best option.”

Auntie Peg nodded, knocked on the front door, and she reentered. “Sorry!” she called in, “but we’ve got more to add,” and she stepped aside.

“This is Muunith,” Sumi said to the mystic as she entered, “but don’t touch them. Their skin is really hot.”

“Some men were attacking them,” Harakin added.

“Sorry,” Dotty Marbles interrupted, “we really need to run, so we’re going to get out of your wigs.” She and Auntie Peg left again.

Theolan, the mystic, and Bivon were in the house with Thech, Jzuna, and Fennah.

Harakin informed the group, “Muunith’s parents did this. We heard two of the grownups say Muunith was their child.”

“And there’s four fewer cruel people in the world,” Sumi added.

Bivon furrowed his brow. “What does that mean?”

“There were two other people with Muunith’s parents,” Harakin explained, “and the four of them are now inside a wall.”

No one spoke for a moment.

Bivon repeated himself hesitantly. “What… does that mean?”

Sumi replied, “I put them into the concrete.”

“Oh, okay, well, right,” Bivon said.

“What should I do with Muunith?” Sumi asked.

Theolan stepped up and recommended, “Maybe we should lay the child onto the tiles in the privy chamber.”

Sumi entered the room, lowered Muunith to the floor, and she looked at her hands. “Do you have a burn treatment?” she asked the mystic.

He was staring at the unconscious form of the beaten child, but he turned from Muunith and gently took Sumi’s wrists to examine her hands. He looked over at his husband. “Theolan, will you please open a packet of silver mustard for Sumi’s burns?” He added to her, “It’ll hurt, but it’ll make the healing much faster.”

“Thech, Jzuna, Fennah,” Bivon said to them, “why don’t we head into the kitchen?”

Theolan led Sumi into the sitting room, and he began to prepare the burn treatments.

The mystic knelt beside Muunith, and Harakin stepped up behind him.

“Careful, they’re really hot,” she said.

Muunith’s eyes fluttered open.

“Hello, little one,” the mystic said in a quiet voice. “I’m a healer. May I look over your body and check how bad your injuries are?”

Muunith nodded and whispered, “Be careful. Don’t get burned.”

“Okay,” the mystic replied, “I’ll be careful.” He lifted the two jackets off the child and handed them to Harakin.

“Oh, honey,” the mystic said to Muunith, looking over the many wounds, “I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

In the room’s bright light, it was evident Muunith had suffered. Injuries covered much of their little body, and Harakin was brought to tears at the sight of them.

“May I please apply wound patches and bruise relief ointment to some of the places where you’re hurt?” the mystic asked, and the child nodded again. “My goodness, I can feel your heat,” the mystic said as he brought his hands close to Muunith’s skin. “I wonder how the salve will work.” He used a little wooden paddle to dab a tiny bit on one of the many bruises and it sizzled. “Muunith, did that hurt?”

They shook their head that it did not.

“It’s already burned up,” the mystic commented, looking down at his little jar of ointment and then at the bruise. “I don’t know if this will help at all, but let me apply some more.” The salve continued to evaporate as he treated the wounds.

A few minutes later, the mystic rose and returned the jars to his medicine cabinet. Muunith had drifted back into unconsciousness again on the cool tile floor, and Harakin and the mystic left the child to rest.

Theolan was just finishing the burn treatments on Sumi’s hands, and tears were running down her cheeks. “This’ll help?” she asked in a voice quavering with pain, looking over at the mystic.

“It will, and I’m sorry the silver mustard is painful to apply, but it will speed your healing. In a moment, it should diminish the pain almost entirely.” He stepped up to examine his husband’s treatment of her wounds.

“Sumi, Harakin, would you two like to join the kids and us for a little dinner?” Theolan offered. He nodded toward his husband and Bivon, as he applied the final bandage. “We’ve had a massive pot of oxtail curry simmering for hours.”

“Oh, yes, please join us!” Fennah called out, peeking around the corner from the kitchen and hoping to get a glimpse of what was happening.

“There’s plenty of food,” the mystic urged, “and I’d love the company.” He looked up toward the ceiling; Lahari was unconscious in her room upstairs.

Sumi and Harakin accepted the invitation, and they crowded around the kitchen table with the three children.

“Bivon, do you mind ladling everyone’s food?” the mystic requested.

“Not at all,” he replied with a smile.

“Harakin, there’s a little bottle of hot sauce in the cabinet behind you,” Theolan added. “Could you please grab it for us?”

“These are for Jzuna and Fennah,” Bivon said, handing two bowls to the mystic, who placed them in front of the girls. “This one’s for Thech,” Bivon continued. He scooped a larger bowlful next and added, “This one can be for Sumi or Harakin.”

A moment later, steaming dishes of curry were in front of everyone.

Jzuna floated beside her brother’s chair. She was still using one of her tentacles to cradle the stump of her limb that had been chopped off, but she reached out with several of her other arms to take hold of Thech’s bowl.

Everyone else could not help but watch her.

She poured some of the rich broth into Thech’s mouth, a little at a time, until it was gone and the bowl only held two fatty chunks of oxtail.

“It’s very sweet how you help your brother, Jzuna,” the mystic said to her with a smile. “You are both very compassionate little…”

-Kgrunkch!-

Thech had managed to grab one of the pieces of oxtail, and he shoved it into his mouth, bone and all. He was chomping it up with a horrible crunching noise. The others expected him to make a mess, but the unusual boy was not sloppy at all, and a moment later he swallowed and reached out for the second oxtail.

“Wow! You ate the bone!” Fennah declared.

The mystic chuckled in disbelief, and he watched Jzuna focus on her own food. Without touching it, her bowl of curry drained down to the pieces of oxtail, and they dematerialized.

“Aren’t you two just so unique? I’m so glad you’re both enjoying your…”

-Kgrunkch!-

Thech ate his second piece of oxtail with the same brutal noise.

“Thank you,” Jzuna’s voice said all around them, “this is really yummy.”

Harakin suddenly gasped and made a hissing noise. Everyone looked at her. “Sorry,” she wheezed, “too much hot sauce!” She grabbed her mug of water.

A weak voice called out from the other room, “Hello?”

“Lahari?!” the mystic cried, jumping up from the table, but Theolan shook his head.

“It’s the child.” He looked at Sumi and Harakin. “I’m sorry, please remind me their name.”

“Muunith.”

“I’ll check on them,” the mystic said, heading toward the privy chamber. He peeked in and was surprised by the radiant heat that filled the room.

Muunith was sitting up.

“Hi, there,” the mystic said gently. His eyes moved over the child’s many injuries. “How are you feeling?”

Muunith groaned. “My body hurts.”

“Would you like a little more medicine? Or are you hungry? We’re all eating dinner right now.” The mystic gestured toward the table and Bivon waved at Muunith.

Theolan stepped up behind his husband. “So many orphans,” he whispered.

“It’s heartbreaking,” the mystic replied✪