Free Kaya Stormchild by Lael Whitehead Page A

from a long
sleep.
    The Duchess
looked up at her as Kaya approached. The elderly woman’s eyes were
glazed with pain, but she smiled a wan smile at the
girl.
    “ Oh, my dear.
What bad luck. But I’m – I’m OK. It’s just a cut…”
    The Duchess
was clutching her upper arm with her other hand. Kaya could see
that the sleeve of her dress beneath the tight fingers was drenched
with blood.
    “ It’s
a big cut,” said
Kaya emphatically. “Here, let me help. I’m going to need to take
off one of your stockings.”
    Gently, Kaya
pulled off the Duchess’s right shoe. Then she removed one of her
knee-high nylon stockings. Working with quick, deft movements, Kaya
tied the stocking tightly around the Duchess’s arm, just above the
wound.
    “ It’s a
tourniquet,” she explained. “It will help slow the
bleeding.”
    Kaya replaced
the shoe. Then she took off the light sweater she was wearing and
wrapped it around the old woman’s shoulders.
    “ Wait here
until I see about Josh,” she said gently. “Tike, you curl yourself
up against her back to keep her warm, OK?”
    The little
otter nodded solemnly and immediately pressed his body up against
the Duchess.
    Kaya hurried
to where her friend lay on the rough sand. Josh’s leg jutted at an
odd angle.
    “ I think it’s
broken,” he muttered between clenched teeth. “Kaya, those jerks got
away! What are we going to do?!”
    “ Shh,” said
Kaya, “Don’t think about them right now. We’ve got to fix you up
first. Grandmother taught me about broken bones, only I’ve never
set a human bone. I’ve mended eagle bones and the leg of a fawn,
once, who’d fallen down a cliff…”
    She frowned in
concentration, then, seizing the frayed hem of Josh’s jeans, she
ripped his pant leg right up to the knee. A huge angry bruise
marked the place on Josh’s shin where the leg bent at a peculiar
angle.
    “ Josh, this
is going to hurt a bit. You’ve got to be brave, OK?”
    The boy nodded
grimly. He closed his eyes.
    Taking hold of
Josh’s ankle in both hands, Kaya began to pull steadily and
gently.
    “ Count to
ten, Josh,” said Kaya.
    Josh began to
count, then let out a gasp of pain. The leg straightened. Kaya very
slowly relaxed her grip.
    “ Don’t move,”
she commanded. “I’m going to need your belt. Can you manage to take
it off?”
    Trying to move
as little as possible, Josh undid his belt buckle and slid the belt
out of his jeans. Kaya had taken two smooth arm’s-length pieces of
driftwood that lay nearby and placed them gently on either side of
the broken leg. Josh handed her the belt. Looping it around and
around several times, Kaya managed to bind the driftwood sticks
together around Josh’s leg, forming a kind of splint.
    “ That will
have to do until we can find something better,” she said with a
shake of her head.
    Standing up,
Kaya gazed around her. What should they do?
    It was already
nearly six o’clock, in a few hours it would grow dark. They had no
way to leave the island and no way to call for help. The Duchess
and Josh were both seriously hurt. If only Grandmother would come!
But Kaya hadn’t told the eagle where she was going. How would
Grandmother know where to look for her?
    They needed
shelter. The weather was beginning to change. The blue sky of
earlier that afternoon had darkened to a dull grey. The wind was
rising. Black clouds rolled in from the west, and Kaya smelled rain
in the air. Both Josh and the Duchess would be in shock from their
injuries. She had to get them warm. Kaya would have to work
fast.
    She found a
spot at the top of the beach, above the high-tide mark, where the
sand was dry and soft, and began to build a shelter. Luckily, piles
of driftwood lay scattered thickly on the beach to either side.
Kaya hauled and stacked long sticks of wood, piece by piece, until
she had made a rudimentary teepee, about six feet in diameter, with
an opening on the side away from the water. Next she broke off
branches of cedar and fir