Sisters

by Laurence Dahners

  “My aunt.” Hareh shook his head in wonder, “I wouldn’t have dreamed it either.”

  Chapter One

  Once they entered the brewery, Eva strode directly to Daum. Seeing her coming he asked, “Can it wait?”

  “No,” she answered bluntly. “I’m leaving tomorrow and we need to work some things out.”

  Kazy saw his eyes widen with dismay. Eva saw it too and she corrected the implications of the statement she’d made, “Not leaving you. I’m going to see my sister. She’s sick and the local healers think she’s got cancer.”

  Kazy thought he’d object, instead, he simply blinked, then asked, “Who’s going with you and who’s staying here?”

  Eva said, “Tarc and Daussie are going with me. That way we’ll have a telekinetic, a teleporter, and a telepath.” She looked at Vyrda and Kazy. “Unfortunately, we’ll only be leaving a telekinetic and a telepath behind.” She shrugged, “But there’s only one Daussie and, after not seeing my sister for twenty years, I don’t intend to show up without every talent I could possibly need.” She looked at Vyrda, “You guys are going to be taking care of a lot of sick people. Do you want Kazy to come help you at your place, or are you willing to run the clinic with her here at the Tavern?”

  Vyrda gave a quick nod, “I’ll come to the clinic here. That’s where most of the sick people are coming now. Besides, we’ll have access to your equipment if we’re here.”

  Eva turned to Kazy, “In case I forget, ask Daussie to make a bunch of the most common lenses tonight. That way you can keep fitting people for glasses while we’re gone.” She frowned, “If you have time. You’re probably going to be busy enough with truly sick patients that you’ll have to triage. It’ll mean making lots of people with conditions like refraction errors wait, possibly a long time.”

  Kazy felt herself staring, “When do you think you’re leaving?!”

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Just the four of you?”

  Eva nodded and looked at Daum. “And the small wagon Tarc’s been using for salvage. We’ll carry supplies in it. That way we’ll be able to move a lot faster than a caravan or a big wagon.”

  Agog, Vyrda said, “What about highwaymen?!”

  Eva shook her head, “Nobody’ll be able to sneak up on Tarc or Daussie.” She looked thoughtful, then tilted her head, “Or me.”

  Kazy said, “They won’t have to sneak! Tarc’ll be your only fighter!”

  To Kazy’s surprise, Daum was the one who responded. He simply said, “Woe be unto them.” He turned to Eva, “You’ll have to keep your guard up all the time. Someone’ll have to have their ghirit fully extended. You’ll be fine unless they come on you unawares.”

  Eva nodded, “We’ll post a watch at all times.”

  Daum said, “And don’t be thinking that wagon can be completely full of medical supplies. You’ve got to have room for a tent, a few cooking pans, food, and arrows.”

  Eva nodded again, looking thoughtful. Kazy suspected that so far she had only given thought to what medical stuff she wanted to take along.

  Daum said, “Have you got any thoughts on how I’m going to keep the tavern running with you, Tarc and Daussie gone?”

  Eva said, “Oh,” Kazy thought she’d just realized Daum knew nothing about her new students. She said, “I learned about my sister from her son,” she glanced meaningfully at Daum, “our nephew. He came here to learn about healing in hopes of learning something that could help his mom. He didn’t know Eva Hyllis’s name used to be Gaynor, so didn’t know he was coming to find his aunt. He brought four more potential students. He’ll go with us to treat Marissa, but, if I accept them, the others will be staying here to learn from Vyrda and Kazy while we’re gone. They’ll need to earn their keep, so they’ll work in the tavern. Tarc hasn’t been doing much in the kitchen anyway. They won’t be as knowledgeable as I am.” She shrugged, “Or Daussie. But there’ll be four of them.” She frowned, chewing her lip. “Kazy’s really good in the kitchen. She’ll be busy with patients, but she, Nylin, and Grace can run the kitchen with the new students as labor.”

  Daum studied her for a moment. “If you’re still deciding whether to accept them or not,” he said, “I’d like to interview them too.”

  Eva gave him a nod, then it was back to business. “They’re sitting out in the dining room. Start bringing them in here when you have time.” She turned to Kazy and Vyrda, “You do the same. Tell them it’ll probably be longer before I get to talk to them. I’ve got to make lists of the things we need to take with us.” She turned away, then turned back, “Don’t tell anyone we’re taking them until we know whether they’ve got talent and we’ve gotten together and decided, which ones we can take and what we’re going to do about the ones that don’t have talent.”

  Kazy said, “We’re not going to be able to ask them where the sun is until tonight. Who do you want to do that part?”

  “There aren’t any windows in here,” Daum said waving a hand around the brew room. “I’ll ask them when they’re in here talking to me.”

  Eva turned to Vyrda, “Can you come upstairs with me so we can talk over some of the medical issues?”

  Vyrda nodded and they walked out. Kazy watched them go, realizing Eva hadn’t given her an assignment other than to get lenses from Daussie when she got back. And to interview the students. I guess I can start interviewing, she thought.

  Kazy’s eyes widened, No, I need to go listen to Eva and Vyrda figure out how Vyrda and I are going to take care of all the patients by ourselves!

  ~~~

  When she entered the clinic, Kazy saw Vyrda looking stressed. She was saying, “…I don’t know what we’re going to do without her.”

  Since she was talking to Eva, Kazy knew Vyrda had to be referring to Daussie. When she’d first been giving thought to Tarc’s and Daussie’s abilities Kazy’d thought telekinesis would be more medically useful than teleportation. After all, Tarc could tug on structures within the body to see if they were tender and move things through the body, including sutures. It seemed as if Daussie could only port things out of the body, a talent that mostly seemed useful for removing gallstones and kidney stones.

  But then they’d realized Daussie could teleport things into the body. Porting saline into people who needed fluids was huge. Porting sutures in so Tarc didn’t have to drag them in through the skin should lower infection rates. Porting out the appendix after it’d been tied off.

  She could port lenses into eyes. It wasn’t exactly saving lives, but letting blind people see was an awesome thing indeed. Porting collagen into bleeding wounds and into that brain aneurysm… Kazy shook her head. There are so many things only Daussie can do! Moving blood out of the abdomen and back into the blood vessels. Cutting stuff. Those are all things we won’t be able to do here while she’s on the road.

  Vyrda was thinking along the same lines. “What are we going to do if another patient comes in with appendicitis?!”

  Eva gave her a weary look. “I’m sorry to be taking her. You’re right, that, if the diagnosis of cancer is correct, you’ll probably need her more than we will. But, I not only want to have everything available to treat my sister, I want her to meet her niece and nephew if…” Her voice rattled over the last five words, “if she doesn’t make it.” Eva turned to look out the window, but couldn’t hide the wrist that came up to wipe at her eyes.

  Vyrda said, “I know you’ve got to take her. Never fear. I think you should. I’m just hoping for some advice on how to handle…” Her voice broke as well, “I’m hoping you’ve given some thought to ways we could treat people without Daussie.”

  “Yeah,” Eva said, “Tarc and I have talked about it in the past. For someone who doesn’t study medicine as much as the rest of us, he has some amazing ideas.” She got a distant look in her eyes as if she were thinking back. “So, for appendicitis when Daussie’s not there, you’d have to pass in a long heavy suture the way we talked about back when we took care of Josie Allwood. Pu
t it in from the front midline and out the back laterally and up high. That way you can tug on the ends of it to tighten the knot if you need to.”

  Vyrda shook her head, “I’ve been thinking about that. It’ll work for the first throw of the knot, but what about the second one?”

  “You use a sterile clamp to pull on the needle when you’re tightening the knot. Then you pull the needle back inside the patient and use it to make the second throw, pulling it back outside the body to really tighten the double knot. After you’ve got two really tight throws, then you can cut a tail of the suture shorter and make a few more throws that you just tighten with your telekinesis.”

  “But Eva! How are we supposed to cut the suture without Daussie there to do it?”

  Eva shrugged, “You’ll have to make an incision like the ancients did. But barely big enough to pass the tips of a pair of scissors, using your ghirit to guide them. Snip your suture. You need three ligatures. Two for insurance on the colon side of where you’re amputating the appendix and one on the appendix side. Then you use your ghirit to guide the scissor between the ligatures and amputate the appendix. Use your ghirit to pull the appendix out the incision and you’re done.”

  Kazy said, “You don’t need to use scissors. Just have Daussie make you a few sharp little blades out of stainless steel. Barely bigger than the suture needles. Or, for some smaller operations you could just use a suture needle with a sharp edge since it’ll already be in there. Vyrda can use the little blade held in her ghirit to cut suture and then to amputate the appendix when she’s done.”

  Vyrda gave a worried frown, “What if my ghirit’s not strong enough to push a blade in there?”

  Kazy shrugged, “Then you use scissors.” She looked at Eva, “That method’s going to result in more contamination than the way you did it with Daussie. Do you think Vyrda could just invert the appendix and oversew the dimple it leaves behind like she did last time?”

  Eva chewed her lip, “There won’t be a ligature around the appendix. That worries me. If part of the wall of the appendix’s infected and it spreads…”

  Vyrda nodded, “We’d better do it the first way. The way the ancients did. But now we need to be able to irrigate out any contamination.”

  “After Tarc and I talked about it,” Eva said, “he got the glassblowers to make this glass tube for him.” She got down and started unwrapping one of their sterilized packages. It held a gently curved thirty-centimeter (twelve-inch) glass tube about a centimeter in diameter. It also held a glass funnel. Eva showed them how the funnel fit into the end of the tube. “So, you slide the end of the tube into your incision and down next to the appendix, guiding it by what you see with your ghirit. Then use the funnel to pour saline in through the tube and around the appendix. Use your talent to slosh the saline around, washing everything. Next, you push the saline up out the tube. If you work it right, you should even be able to get the tube to act as a siphon once you’ve got saline started flowing through it.”

  Since neither Vyrda nor Kazy knew what a siphon was, Eva took them down to the kitchen, poured some water through the funnel and curved tube into a pan, then siphoned it back out. Kazy found herself staring at it as the water sucked itself out. “That’d work so much better if the tube was bendy.”

  Eva said, “‘Flexible’ is the term you’re looking for. I keep meaning to ask the Gellers if they can make us some rubber tubing. It’d be really useful for IVs as well.” She eyed Kazy, I’m just realizing you don’t have an assignment right now. Maybe you could go over to Geller’s chemistry and sweet-talk them into it. You guys are likely to really appreciate it while Daussie’s gone.”

  Kazy started to get up and go, but Eva said, “Wait a minute. Before you go, let’s talk about some other conditions you might have to treat. Things you’d really wish you had Daussie for.”

  ***

  Seri wasn’t sure what to make of what was going on. She had the sensation that there was a beehive of activity in the tavern, but that she wasn’t seeing any of it. After Eva, Vyrda, and Kazy had gone into the room at the end of the bar, they’d stayed there for a while.

  When they came out, Eva asked the man at the other end of the bar to bring more food and beer to the five potential students. Seri suspected Eva thought they’d be too shy to ask. Then Vyrda and Eva went up the stairs they’d come down initially.

  Kazy came out and crossed the room to go up the stairs as well. The five newcomers sat there, arguing about what it all meant.

  Hareh was of the opinion that Eva meant to leave for Cooperstown right away, without waiting for a caravan. This was absolute nonsense, of course, but no one was sure what it’d meant when Tarc had asked, “By caravan? Or on our own?” and Eva’d replied, “We don’t have time to wait.”

  However, Seri found herself uneasily wondering why Eva and her family were in such a rush. They wouldn’t really need to start getting ready until a westward-bound caravan arrived in town. Though, she thought, if they’re running this tavern as well as doing the healing in town, it may take them quite a while to get things ready so they can leave… No, wait, Eva was only talking about four of them going. Actually, three of them and Hareh. So they won’t have to shut things down here… Will they? She turned to Hareh, “That youngest girl, Kazy, did she say she was a healer?”

  Hareh shook his head. “She said she was an apprentice. Like we hope to be.”

  “So,” Seri said slowly, “if Eva leaves, what are we supposed to do? There won’t be anybody here to teach us.”

  Hareh didn’t have an immediate response. He’d obviously been considering his own problems and not theirs. “I guess… I guess you’ll need to wait for her to come back.”

  “And how are we supposed to support ourselves until then?!” Rrica asked.

  “I don’t know,” Hareh said slowly. “I guess you’ll have to get jobs.”

  Argun swore, “That can be a real bitch in a town where you don’t know anyone.”

  Hareh said, “Let’s just wait to see what Eva has to say before we get upset—”

  “Get upset?!” Argun interrupted, “I won’t have to get upset. I’m already upset. Royally pissed off!”

  “And just who are you pissed off at, Argun?” Jadyn said dangerously. “This isn’t anybody’s fault, you know?”

  Argun opened his mouth for a retort. Seri wondered whether it would finally be an ugly enough retort that Jadyn and Hareh would tell him to get lost. Then he seemed to calm a little as he so often did when he realized he’d gotten Jadyn upset. Before he could say anything, the door at the end of the bar opened and an older man stepped out.

  He started toward them. Seri studied him, deciding he looked something like Eva’s children. About forty. He’s probably her husband, she decided. Oh, that means his name’s Hyllis. She wondered whether he could be related to her. They both had dark brown hair, but so did a huge part of the population.

  Arriving at the table, he smiled, “Hello, I’m Daum Hyllis, Eva’s husband. I understand one of you’s her nephew?”

  Hareh stood, “Yes sir.” He extended his hand to shake, “Hareh Ruen. My mother’s maiden name was Gaynor.”

  Mr. Hyllis ignored the extended hand, gathering Hareh into a big hug and saying, “You’re my nephew-in-law. We can’t be shaking hands.” He let Hareh go, stepped back and put his hands on his hips to survey them. “I know Eva ordered you some pizza. Is there anything I can do for you young folks?”

  Seri shook her head. She both wondered what pizza was and wanted to ask him whether he had relatives in Colesville. However, she didn’t think it was the right time to start hitting him with questions. She saw the others smiling at him.

  Hareh said, “We’re fine.

  But Argun butted in. “We’d like to know what’s going on.” His tone wasn’t as rude as it usually was, but it wasn’t polite either.

  Mr. Hyllis turned to look at him.

  Measuringly.

  Seri was glad he wasn’t looking at her th
at way. After a moment, he said, “I’m afraid I don’t know what you need to know. Also, I don’t know all of Eva’s plans.” He took a breath, “But my understanding is that she’s planning to leave for Cooperstown in the morning. She’ll be taking Tarc, Daussie, and Hareh with her.”

  His statement was met with dead silence as everybody tried to process it. Hareh spoke first, sounding nervous. “Um, is there a caravan going to Cooperstown that we don’t know about?”

  Mr. Hyllis shook his head, “I don’t think so. But Eva wouldn’t want to travel with a caravan anyway. They go too slow, considering your mother’s health is in jeopardy.”

  “But…! But we can’t travel the roads by ourselves… can we?”

  Mr. Hyllis took a seat and gave him a little grin, “Sure you can. There’s no law against it.”

  “But… What about bandits and highwaymen?”

  Mr. Hyllis studied him for a moment, then said, “She has a plan for that. Part of it’s secret. I’m sure she’ll tell you something about it once you’re out on the road.” He smiled and looked around at all of them, “As to what else is going on. Eva’s desperately trying to get ready to go. She’s talking to Vyrda and Kazy about how they can try to take care of their patients here while Eva’s gone. She’s deciding what equipment she’s going to take so she’ll be able to take care of her sister. We need to interview each of you and decide whether she’ll be able to take you as students—”

  Argun interrupted, “Why wouldn’t she?”

  Mr. Hyllis again fixed Argun with a measuring gaze. After a moment, he said, “Well, for one thing, she wouldn’t enjoy teaching disagreeable people.” His gaze traveled over the others, “And, unless you’re wealthy enough to pay for your room and board, plus a fee for being taught, we have to decide whether you’re employable.” When all five of them started to say something in response, he held up a hand. “Wait a minute. Let me finish. What I’d anticipate is that you’d work part-time here in the tavern to earn your keep, work part-time in the clinic seeing patients where you’d both learn your trade and earn part of your keep as well. You’d also be studying part of your time. It’ll be a lot of hard work and we wouldn’t want to take on any shirkers.”