Sisters

by Laurence Dahners

  Eva said, “We have some secrets. If you want to stay and be our student, you’d need to keep those secrets for us. Do you agree to that?”

  Jadyn nodded.

  “Do you want to tell Argun we’re not taking him? Or should I?”

  “You,” Jadyn said, almost choking on the word.

  “Okay, send him up when you go down.”

  Jadyn got up and walked woodenly to the door. She stopped there, hand on the jamb. She turned back to the two women and rasped out, “Thank you so much for accepting me. Can I have a minute…? To get myself together?”

  Eva nodded, getting up and coming over to give Jadyn a gentle hug. “Would you like me to help you feel calmer?” she whispered.

  Jadyn nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  Reaching up and putting her hands on Jadyn’s head, Eva said, “I’m just going to massage your temples, okay?”

  Jadyn nodded. Suddenly a great sense of peace inundated her. She was able to see this emotionally traumatic moment as if she were looking at it from a distance in time. A time after the pain had already moderated. Dealing with Argun was going to be rough, but it’d be okay in the end. Astonished to feel so much better, she whispered, “Thank you. From the bottom of my heart.” She turned and went down the stairs, still wondering what to say to Argun.

  Tarc passed her on his way up, giving her a big smile. It felt welcoming. He knows I’ve been accepted, Jadyn thought with a little skip in her heart.

  When she got down to the table with her friends, she just said, “Argun, you’re next.” She felt surprised her voice didn’t break, then realized the frog in her throat had disappeared while she’d talked to Eva there at the end.

  Argun got up and rapidly strode to the stairs. He didn’t ask whether Jadyn had been accepted or not.

  But when she turned to the rest of her friends, they did. Eagerly.

  Jadyn found herself nodding enthusiastically, then having to tell them she had no clue whether they’d been accepted.

  Somebody was thundering down the stairs. For a moment, Jadyn thought it was Tarc, then she realized that this was exactly the way Argun would react to his rejection. She turned to look as he burst out of the stairwell.

  Face red, features furious, he strode to Jadyn and grabbed her wrist. “The assholes don’t want us,” he said harshly. “Let’s get out of here!”

  He was pulling hard on her arm, but Jadyn resisted. “They want me. I’ll stay here and learn healing. You can find another job and…”

  Argun jerked her wrist, pulling her out of her chair so forcefully she thumped down onto her hip and skidded several feet across the floor. “You aren’t staying here!” he said angrily. “These people don’t deserve you. Come on, we’ll apprentice ourselves to a better healer than that bitch.” He stared at her as if astonished she wasn’t moving, then tugged upward on her wrist, “Come on! Get up!”

  Jadyn felt the stares of the crowd of people eating lunch in the tavern’s dining room. Embarrassed, she wanted to get up and go with him just to get out of their sight. But, I don’t want to go with him, she thought. And if I do, it’ll get harder and harder to break away and come back.

  She stayed on the floor so he’d have a harder time moving her. Without looking up at their faces, she glanced out of the corner of her eye at the legs of her friends. They’d all gotten up and started moving closer to her.

  Hareh said, “Argun, you can’t force—”

  Argun dropped her wrist and took a step toward Hareh, “Don’t you try to tell me what to do Hareh!”

  Suddenly, Tarc’s voice came from behind her. A glance back showed her his boots, right behind her.

  He must have come down the stairs, Jadyn thought.

  He said, “Okay, then I’ll tell you. You aren’t taking her out of here against her will. That’s a Hyllis policy.”

  That’s brave, Jadyn thought, Argun’s got to have five years and fifteen kilos on him. Argun wasn’t as tall, and though part of his extra weight was a layer of flab, he was plenty muscular.

  Argun leaned down and grabbed her wrist again, pulling hard enough her skin hurt. When she didn’t rise, he barked, “Come on. Let’s get out of here!”

  Jadyn shook her head.

  Argun started pulling hard enough that her butt skidded across the floor.

  She sensed a couple of footsteps on her left, then the pull suddenly stopped. She lifted her downcast eyes enough to see that someone had grabbed Argun’s wrist. Grabbed it hard enough his skin was blanching. Darting her eyes to the left, she saw Tarc’s boots again. He might only be in his mid-teens, but he’s the one with the courage to challenge Argun.

  Argun released her wrist and his weight shifted violently.

  He’s throwing a punch! Jadyn thought, shrinking away and finally lifting her eyes enough to see what was happening.

  Argun was violently twisting his right wrist to break it free of Tarc’s left hand while his own left fist was swinging a wild roundhouse blow at Tarc’s head.

  Tarc’s right arm interposed itself, deflected Argun’s punch then snaked forward to tap Argun on the side of the head.

  Argun’s head pitched back and to the side. He reeled across the room as if he’d been hit by a sledgehammer. He would’ve run into a couple of customers, but they shoved him aside in disgust. Argun crashed into the wall, then fell to the floor, twisting to his stomach and gripping the floor as if clinging to it for stability.

  Tarc stepped to an adjacent table, picked up an empty soup tureen and started after Argun.

  Because she felt she should, Jadyn got up and followed Tarc. When she arrived where Argun lay, Tarc had squatted down and was saying, “Sorry. That’s a secret fighting technique called a Eustachian blow. You’ll be better in a few minutes.”

  Jadyn didn’t think he sounded at all sorry.

  Tarc set the tureen down by Argun’s head and said, “If you have to throw up, do it in this.” His voice hardened, “Once you stop feeling dizzy, you’ll need to leave the tavern and figure out what you’re going to do with your life. Find a different job. Find a different master to teach you healing. Go home. But do understand you’re not going to work here and you’re not going to tell Jadyn what to do.”

  Jadyn found herself staring at the young man, wondering where he got the courage. Then realizing he didn’t sound like he was trying to be brave.

  He sounded completely confident in his ability to handle the bigger man at his feet.

  Tarc stood back up and turned to Jadyn. “You okay?” he asked softly.

  Jadyn nodded, wondering how a kid, who she didn’t think could be over sixteen, could make her feel so warm and protected.

  At nineteen she had the feeling she should be looking to someone older for protection.

  “Let’s go sit with your friends,” Tarc said. “I’ll stay with you guys until Argun’s gone and we’re pretty sure he isn’t coming back.”

  Jadyn nodded and they turned and walked toward the table. At a sound from behind her, she turned. Argun was vomiting. Rather than worrying about him, she was just relieved he was doing it into the tureen. She took a seat on the far side of the table so she could keep an eye on Argun to be sure he didn’t get up and come her way.

  As soon they sat down, she heard Hareh ask Tarc, “What’d you do to him?!” When Jadyn looked at Hareh he was intently focused on Tarc. He looked appalled. And frightened.

  Tarc shrugged as if it were nothing, “Confused his equilibrium.”

  Jadyn turned to study the younger man, “I thought you said it was some secret fighting technique?”

  He grinned, “Yeah. That’s what I tell people. Don’t want them knowing how I actually do it.”

  Hareh narrowed his eyes, “How do you ‘confuse someone’s equilibrium’?”

  Tarc tilted his head, “Can’t tell you that. Not yet at least. Ask me again after you’ve talked to Vyrda and my mom.”

  Deciding they were at an impasse, Jadyn turned her eyes across the room
. Argun hadn’t moved. She realized Rrica was gone, presumably up talking to Eva and Vyrda. Breaking the silence at the table, Seri leaned across the table to Tarc and asked, “Are you apprenticing with your mom too?”

  He nodded, “So are Daussie and Kazy. Really, so’s Vyrda. Vyrda’s been a healer for quite a while but there’s still a lot Eva has to teach her.” He shrugged, “They’re all a lot more interested in healing than I am.”

  “You don’t want to be a healer?” Seri asked, sounding appalled.

  “I do, it’s just that I’m getting more and more interested in ancient technology. So I do the healing stuff when they need me, and I work on understanding ancient tech the rest of the time.” He made a face, “They’re getting a lot smarter about medicine than I am. Mostly I just wind up doing what they tell me to.”

  Hareh spoke slowly, obviously trying to figure it out, “So… They just call you when they have too many patients for them to handle by themselves? Or what?”

  “Sometimes they need me to do things…” He broke off, then said, “We really shouldn’t talk about that until you guys’ve decided for sure you’re staying and promised to keep our secrets.”

  All three of them protested, saying that, of course, they’d keep secrets.

  Tarc laughed, “You’ve got to say it to my mom. Then we can talk.”

  Jadyn was about to say she’d already promised that to Eva when her eyes were attracted to movement across the room. Argun lurched unsteadily to his feet and staggered out the door. She looked at Tarc, “Is he going to be permanently injured by… whatever you did?”

  Tarc gave a little shake of his head, “No. He’ll be fine. At least as far as the results of what I just did. I don’t think there’s any doubt his personality’s going to keep getting him in trouble.” He studied Jadyn, “I also think he’ll be back here to try to take you away again. One of the first things you’ll need to do is learn how to defend yourself.”

  Sounding appalled, Hareh said, “We’re here to learn how to heal. Not how to fight!”

  Sounding wearily wise for his age, Tarc said, “It’s not that simple. A lot of the things you’ll learn to do so you can heal people will also be able to injure them. And, to my dismay, I’ve learned that some people do harm to others. Sometimes such grievous harm that they need to be… removed.”

  Jadyn’s eyes were attracted to an older couple leading two older women in the door. She thought the two women looked like they were being led because they couldn’t see. She turned to Tarc, “Are those women blind?”

  Tarc looked over and winced, “Probably.”

  “Do they think you can treat blindness?!”

  He looked at her, “Probably.” He winked, “And they’d be right. We can if the blindness is caused by cataracts.”

  “Really?” she asked doubtfully. She shook that off and asked, “What’re cataracts?”

  “The most common cause of blindness.”

  “If you can treat it, why’d you look upset that they’re here?”

  “Because Daussie’s the only one that can do it and she’s busy.” He looked over again, “But since they’re the only patients here, I can probably break her loose long enough for her to treat those two.”

  Rrica came back. Seri was called up to talk to Vyrda and Eva.

  When Rrica sat down, she didn’t look elated, but she didn’t look distraught either. Uncertainly, Hareh said, “Did she take you as a student?”

  Rrica nodded, but she was frowning. “She says I can learn all about medicine, but that for some reason I can’t be a full-fledged healer.” Her puzzled eyes jumped from Hareh to Jadyn and on to Tarc. “She says she’d like to teach me about something called ‘epidemiology.’ That I’ll probably save more lives than the rest of you combined, but that I won’t be saving people one on one. In fact, she says most people won’t even know I saved them!” She shook her head, “Do you understand that?” Her eyes flicked to Tarc but he remained impassive.

  Jadyn said, “Um, do you know what an epidemic is? It sounds like the same kind of word.”

  Rrica’s eyes widened, “When a whole lot of people get sick at the same time with the same problem. Like how whooping cough killed so many kids when we were little.” She frowned, “Do you think epidemiology’s how you treat people who’re dying in an epidemic?” She shook her head, “If I was treating them, they’d know I was the one helping them, so that doesn’t make sense.” She turned pleading eyes on Tarc.

  He held her gaze for a moment, then said, “You wouldn’t be treating people who were dying in an epidemic. You’d be keeping the epidemic from getting started in the first place.”

  She brightened, “That’s even better! Way better! I’d love doing that!” Then she frowned, “But I don’t understand, people should appreciate that a lot more than if I was just saving them one at a time… shouldn’t they?”

  Still looking into her eyes, Tarc said, “Unfortunately, when you keep people from getting sick, they don’t realize they were ever in danger.” He shrugged, “You’ll get great satisfaction from knowing you prevented an epidemic that might’ve killed thousands. But all those people that didn’t get sick? Sad to say, they won’t be coming around to say ‘thank you.’ Even worse, it’s much harder to get paid for keeping people well than it is for making them better once they’re sick.”

  Rrica blinked, “Oh…” She looked away, then said, “How would I get paid?”

  “I don’t know,” he responded. “The ancients’ governments paid people to study epidemiology and had offices that worked to prevent epidemics.” He shrugged, “The kind of governments that did that were usually ‘by the people, for the people’ democracies. It’s kind of hard to imagine the baron, sheriff, or king of one of today’s city-states collecting taxes to pay for such an office. They should, but I’ll bet they won’t. Most of them prefer spending tax money on themselves.”

  Hareh frowned, “You’re really interested in the ancients aren’t you?”

  Tarc nodded.

  Jadyn said, “I still don’t understand why Rrica can’t be a healer and the rest of us can? She’s smarter than any of the rest of us—by a long shot.”

  Tarc gave Jadyn a little grin, and said, “I agree.”

  Jadyn tilted her head and frowned, “That she should be able to be a healer?”

  He chuckled. “That she’s twice as smart as the rest of you.”

  Jadyn smacked him on the arm, “And here I was thinking you were nice.”

  He shook his head, eyes wide as if dismayed, “No, no, don’t think that!”

  Jadyn realized he’d almost shifted her off-topic, “So, why can’t she be a healer?”

  “Eva’ll explain it,” he said, getting up. “Since it doesn’t look like Argun’s going to come bounding back in here anytime soon, I’d better see if I can free Daussie up to treat those blind folks.” He got up and walked over to pick up the tureen full of puke and take it outside.

  Jadyn felt embarrassed. She wasn’t sure whether it was because Argun hadn’t cleaned up his own mess, or because she hadn’t cleaned up her ex-boyfriends’ mess for him. Or just because Tarc not only had to stop Argun from hurting her but he had to clean up the mess too.

  ~~~

  The lunch rush slowed. Farlin, the bartender, brought them sandwiches containing roasted chicken, cucumbers, lettuce, and onions. At Jadyn’s first bite, her eyes widened. She’d thought the pizza was astonishingly good, but she’d attributed that to the fact she’d never eaten anything like it. She’d had sandwiches before though. None of them even compared to what she was eating now. Of course, most of the sandwiches she’d had so far had consisted of two slices of bread with a single ingredient such as a slice of meat, a piece of cheese or some vegetable between them. The panoply of ingredients in this sandwich produced a taste explosion in her mouth. She wondered why she’d never considered putting several different things in a sandwich.

  Also, there was some goopy white stuff on the sandwich Jadyn really lik
ed. When she asked Farlin about it, he said it was an ancient sauce called mayonnaise, made of olive oil, egg yolks, salt, and vinegar.

  ~~~

  Once they’d all been accepted, the four of them were called up the stairs again. This time to talk to Eva about their education.

  As each of them entered the room, Eva stopped them one at a time, put her hands on their shoulders, leaned her forehead against theirs and asked them once again to commit themselves to their promise to keep the secrets of how healing was carried out, whether or not they stayed on to complete their educations. She also asked them to promise to care for anyone in need, whether they could pay or not.

  Jadyn found that making that second promise gave her an immensely warm feeling.

  Then Eva had them all sit down. “I know you must have a million questions. Let me start by telling you a few of the secrets you’ll need to know. First of all, and probably of greatest concern to you, is that a lot of the healing we do here depends on what some people call ‘witchery.’”

  Jadyn laughed, “Witchery? That’s just a bunch of old wives’ tales, right?” She looked around at the others. Rrica looked like she agreed, but Seri and Hareh looked uncomfortable. She thought Hareh looked very uncomfortable. Jadyn looked back at Eva, “It doesn’t really work… Does it? Witchery’s just a bunch of charlatans’ tricks… Right?” She glanced at Rrica who nodded. She turned back to Eva.

  Eva slowly shook her head. “No. We think of it as having a talent. Three of you have such a talent as evidenced by the fact that you know where the sun is even when you can’t see it.” Her eyes went to Rrica, “Apparently you do not. When I said earlier that you couldn’t be a healer, it wasn’t completely true. You can make diagnoses and administer medicines, but a lot of what we do for people depends on such talents.”

  Jadyn looked at Rrica. She was frowning as if in disbelief. Seri and Hareh’s faces were closed. Jadyn looked back at Eva, “I’ll admit that I do seem to know where the sun is.” She shook her head, “I never realized it until Daum asked me to do it. However, I certainly don’t have any witchy talents.”