Sisters

by Laurence Dahners

  Hareh said, “He couldn’t have carried all that stuff by himself!”

  “He had a mule he’d borrowed from the tavern you guys are staying in. He loaded everything onto it.”

  Hareh closed his eyes in frustration. There was no point in getting mad at the caravan man. He wouldn’t have had any reason to suspect Argun was working at cross purposes to the rest of the group. Why didn’t I consider the possibility he’d jerk us around like this? We should’ve come to get our stuff as soon as Argun left!

  From behind Hareh, Tarc asked, “Did he say which tavern?”

  Nader shook his head, then nodded at Hareh. “Whichever one you’re staying in,” he said as if it should be obvious.

  Hareh was trying to come up with another question when Tarc sighed, “There aren’t that many taverns, let’s go find him.”

  Hareh turned around to find Tarc already mounting the bay horse. “But…”

  Tarc said, “We’ve got to get going. There’s still a lot to do before we leave tomorrow.” He started away, leading the mule they’d brought to carry all the gear.

  As Hareh got onto the brown horse, he turned, back to Nader, “Argun’s broken off from the other four of us. Now he’s stolen all our gear and our part of the refund. We’d appreciate your help in getting it back if you have the opportunity.” He rode after Tarc. After a moment, he called after the young man, “Are you going back to Hyllis tavern?”

  “Yeah, we need Kazy to help us find Argun.”

  What? Hareh thought as he followed Tarc.

  ~~~

  It wasn’t long before they were on their way back into the town of Clancy Vail. Kazy was riding one of the three new horses Daussie bought for the trip. It was a handsome gelding, so Hareh had tried to saddle it for himself when he and Tarc first left for the caravan. It’d turned and shied so much he hadn’t even been able to get a bridle on it. He’d taken the calmer brown horse while wondering who in the world was going to ride the gelding on the trip.

  He’d justified giving up on the gelding so quickly by the fact that he wasn’t an experienced rider. However, he’d been concerned that the others might not be much better than he was and he’d wondered whether the horse would prove useless.

  However, Tarc had pointed Kazy to the gelding. She’d stepped into the stall as if she had no qualms about the animal. The horse had shied for a moment, then steadied. She put its bridle on without any trouble, then asked Hareh if he’d help lift on the saddle. When he’d stepped into the stall with the blanket, he’d thought surely the horse would shy away from him like it had before. Instead, it stood stolidly while he put the blanket on its back. The horse didn’t even twitch when he dropped the saddle on.

  When Kazy swung up onto the gelding, Hareh felt like she’d somehow aged the beast five years and completely changed its disposition. As she rode out of the stall past him, he asked, “Did you calm that beast with telepathy?”

  She nodded, “Tarc asked me to settle him down some. He said when you tried to tack him up he looked like he was going to be difficult.”

  She can form a telepathic connection to a horse?! Hareh’d assumed telepathy would only work between people.

  ~~~

  Hareh looked around and realized they were just passing a building with a sign reading, “Simpson Inn.” He turned to Tarc, jerking a thumb at Simpson’s, “We should check that inn. I know Nader said Argun was going to a tavern, but he may not have differentiated between inns and taverns. Besides, I wouldn’t trust—”

  Kazy shook her head, “He isn’t in there.”

  Surprised, Hareh said, “You can tell from all the way out here?”

  She nodded, “I could probably pick up Argun at about a hundred meters.”

  “Um, Argun’s different from everyone else?”

  She nodded again, “His thoughts are… unpleasant.”

  Hareh thought about that as they rode past a couple more taverns then turned onto another street. Telepathy seemed pretty awesome, but he wasn’t sure he’d really want to know what everyone was thinking. Eva’d implied that she could ignore their thoughts and that she had to actually work pretty hard to pick up other people’s opinions and ruminations, but he didn’t think he wanted to listen in on others any more than he wanted them listening in on… Holy crap! If Kazy’s listening for Argun, she’s probably hearing everything I’m thinking!

  Kazy said, “No, I’m pretty much only listening for Argun.”

  “You just heard what I thought!”

  “Only because you were upset and your thoughts were shouting at and about me.” She looked over at him, “If I listened to everything everyone around me was thinking I’d be totally swamped. I wouldn’t be able to think about anything else. It’s just like the way you tune out all the people talking in a crowd. Unless,” she grinned at him, “they’re shouting your name. And that’s completely ignoring the fact that a lot of the stuff they’re thinking happens to be unpleasant little tidbits I’d rather not know about.” She snorted, “I’ve had to learn to ignore everyone for my own sanity.”

  Have I been thinking unpleasant things?! he wondered.

  “No.” She winked at him, “Your thoughts are pretty pleasant compared to a lot of other people’s.”

  ~~~

  As they were about to ride past the Walton Inn, the fifth lodging place on their route, Kazy turned her horse toward it, saying, “He’s in this one. Second floor, middle room on this side.”

  Hareh looked at Tarc to see if he looked surprised, but he was taking it as if it were a matter of routine. Hareh asked, “So, do we confront him?”

  “No,” Tarc said, tying his horse to a rail. He stepped over near Kazy and crooked a finger, calling Hareh to him. “If we stay close to Kazy, she’ll be able to keep anyone from noticing us. We’ll just go take your stuff.”

  To Hareh’s astonishment, when Kazy pushed open the door and they followed her into the tavern, no one in the room even looked around at them. Kazy looked both ways, saw the stairs and headed for them.

  Hareh was the last one into the stairwell. When he glanced back it still looked like no one had noticed their passage through the room. When he got to the top of the stairs, he found himself momentarily confused about which was the street side of the building.

  Kazy was already striding down the hall.

  She’d stopped in front of the middle room and leaned her head against the door when a door two down from that one opened. A man stepped out. Hareh felt alarmed the man was going to wonder what they were doing at Argun’s door, but Kazy stayed where she was and Tarc pressed himself up against the wall next to her. He motioned Hareh to take the spot beside him. To Hareh’s astonishment, the man walked toward them, twisted a little to pass them in the narrow hallway, then continued on to the stairs without showing any evidence he’d even noticed them.

  Once the man went by, Tarc stepped to the door and leaned down near the latch. Hareh heard a click, then Tarc turned the handle and slowly pushed the door open.

  Looking up at the wide-eyed Hareh Kazy said, “Don’t worry, Argun’s been taking a nap.” She slipped past Tarc and walked over to stand by Argun’s head. “Okay, now he won’t wake up.”

  “Ever?!” Hareh asked, horrified.

  Kazy gave a little laugh, “No, just until we’re ready to leave.” She nodded at the pile of packs in the corner at the foot of the bed. “You need to sort out which gear belongs to him and what belongs to the rest of you.”

  She’d been talking in an ordinary voice and Argun hadn’t even stirred. Hareh shook himself and turned to the packs. He recognized his own without difficulty but had to open several of the others he wasn’t sure about, looking for items he knew belonged to one of the girls. Finally, they had all the ones they were taking stacked by the door. Looking at them, he said, “We’re going to have to make two trips.”

  Tarc looked at the stack for a moment, then said, “I think we can do it in one. Let’s put all these out into the hall.”

&
nbsp; Doubtfully, Hareh helped Tarc move the packs into the hall, stacking them to one side.

  During one of his trips back into the room, Kazy held something out to him. Hareh stepped closer and saw it was a purse. “Tarc said Argun collected a return of an advance for all of you,” she said. “I don’t know how much it was, but you should take what belongs to the four of you.”

  Argun remembered how much his share had been, so he sorted through the coins and the purse and selected enough to cover eighty percent of his and the girls share.

  When he stepped out of the room, Kazy slipped out behind him, gently closing the door behind her. Tarc picked up a backpack and put it on backward so it rested against his chest. Then he picked up the largest backpack—which incidentally belonged to Hareh and he thought was hard to move around by itself—and slung it onto his back. Hareh was startled to realize Kazy had already put on the smallest backpack. He put on the next smallest. When he looked up Tarc had two of the satchels, one in each hand and was waiting for them. Kazy picked up two small satchels, leaving the biggest remaining one for Hareh. As soon as Hareh picked it up, Tarc started shuffling down the hall, his biggest problem didn’t appear to be the weight, it was just that with a satchel in each hand, he pretty much filled the narrow hallway wall to wall. Reaching the stairs, he started down them sideways. Kazy followed in the middle and Hareh brought up the rear. Down in the main room of the inn, they shuffled out the door with their burdens.

  The inn’s customers remained oblivious.

  Lashing all the bags to the mule wasn’t trivial, but they got it done.

  As they rode back to the Hyllis Tavern, Hareh turned to Kazy, “Did you change him?”

  She shook her head.

  “Pity,” he said with a shake of his head, “he really needs it.”

  “I agree,” she said, “but that’d violate the ethics we’ve come up with for our telepathy.”

  “What’s he going to think when he wakes up and all our stuff’s gone? Did you make him forget he ever had it or something?”

  “No. I imagine he’s going to freak out a little.”

  Hareh frowned, “Could you have made him forget it?”

  She nodded. “The ethics of this whole thing are really hard to get your head around. For instance, one of my rules is never to change people for my own convenience.” She shrugged, “Therefore, no changing his memories to make him forget he had that stuff. But, is it okay to have kept him asleep while we took it?” She waggled her head, “I can argue that—since we’d decided to take that stuff back anyway—it was the lesser of two evils, the other choice being to have Tarc physically disable him while we took it. On the other hand, it’d be easy to argue that it was a lot more convenient for us to take it while he slept.” She shook her head ruefully, “Thinking about this stuff gives me headaches.”

  Hareh studied her a moment longer, then said, “Just the fact that you give it so much thought… gives me a lot of respect.”

  She gave him a glance, then a nod. “Thanks. Don’t hesitate to tell me if you think I’m…” she sighed, “overstepping.”

  ***

  Rrica was getting her first tour of duty in the kitchen.

  Eva took Jadyn and Seri down the stairs and out into the yard behind the tavern. Seeing the outhouses on the other side of the yard, they both made quick trips, then returned to where Eva was sitting on the broad steps behind what appeared to be the kitchen. She was petting one of a number of dogs that hung out back there. “Do you feed these mutts?” Jadyn asked.

  Eva nodded. “Leftovers and scraps. They’d go to waste if we didn’t and even if we put them in the dump, the dogs’d dig them up. This way we have a built-in alarm at night if someone were to start nosing around.”

  “What would you do if someone did come around? Call for the town’s sheriff?”

  “Don’t have a sheriff here. They do have something called a guardia that does pretty much the same thing.”

  “But, how would you protect your—”

  “You’ll learn about it, but I don’t have time right now. Let’s talk about whether you guys have anything beyond the basic talent.”

  She had them sit on either side of her. “Okay, since Rrica thinks Jadyn might be a telepath, I think that’s the first thing we should test in the two of you.” She glanced back and forth at the two young women, then said, “I’m thinking of a number. It’s okay to focus your ghirit on me and try hard to figure out what I’m thinking. Jadyn, what do you think the number is?”

  “Fourteen,” Jadyn answered without hesitation.

  “That’s right,” Eva said with a grin. “Let’s make sure it wasn’t just luck.”

  Jadyn correctly reeled off five more numbers, including the number 23,687.

  Seri felt amazed by what Jadyn had just done but also disappointed. She hadn’t had a clue what any of the numbers were.

  Eva patted the dog sitting at her knee, “Okay,” she said to Jadyn, “you can read minds. Next, try putting this dog to sleep. When I’m doing it, I just calmly think ‘sleep’ at the subject.

  The dog suddenly sagged against Eva, slumping down along the front of her legs until it was sprawled on its side. Seri thought the animal was dead for a moment, then realized she could see it breathing.

  Eva said, “All right! We have another anesthesiologist and psychotherapist.”

  Frowning, Jadyn said, “I don’t know what those words mean.”

  “Anesthesia was a medical specialty of the ancients. They put patients to sleep with various medicines, keeping them that way while surgery was done on them.”

  “Surgery? Like amputating limbs?!” Jadyn drew back, “They could make people sleep through that?”

  Eva said, “Yeah. Kazy and I have been able to keep people asleep for assorted painful procedures like lancing abscesses, setting broken bones, and sewing up wounds. Did you do any of those things with the healer you were apprenticed to?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Jadyn said staring as the dog began to rouse itself. With feeling, she said, “Being able to sleep through any of those things would be a real blessing.”

  Eva continued, “Psychotherapy’s trying to help people with mental problems. That’s way beyond what I can teach you about right now. Obviously, I can’t even teach you how to be a telepath before I leave tomorrow morning. Fortunately, Kazy’ll still be here. She’s a far better and stronger telepath than I am. She should be able to help you learn how to use your talent.” Eva turned to Seri, “Did you get any of those numbers?”

  Seri shook her head, trying not to let her disappointment show.

  “Buck up girl,” Eva said, making it evident Seri’s disappointment had shown anyway.

  Or, Seri thought, that she can read minds.

  Eva continued, “Even if all you have’s the basic talent, it’s still a wonderful gift.”

  Worried her voice would crack, Seri managed to ask, “What’s it good for?”

  “Well, at the very least, no one’ll be able to sneak up on you if you’ve got your ghirit out, right?” When Seri nodded, she continued, “And you know from looking inside yourself that you should be able to tell what’s wrong with people, in other words, be able to make diagnoses. That’s all I was able to do for years and years until Kazy taught me I was a telepath.” She put her arm around Seri’s shoulders and squeezed a little. But, let’s see if you’re telekinetic.”

  Eva bent over and picked up a few pebbles, dusting them off and setting them on the stair between Seri and herself. She pointed to the smallest one, “See if you can push that one off the step.”

  Seri thought “push” at the pebble. When nothing happened she felt like her heart stopped. Heart in her throat, she shook her head and said, “It didn’t work.” To her embarrassment, her voice cracked. She thought, It certainly didn’t take me long to go from thinking witches were terrible to being disappointed that I’m not much of one!

  Eva chuckled, “I don’t think you tried hard enough. Did you find the pebb
le with your ghirit before you tried to push it?”

  “No,” Seri said, thinking, Of course you’d have to do that! She focused her ghirit on the pebble, actually got the sensation that her ghirit had a grip on the tiny stone, then pushed. The pebble flipped off the stair and rolled across the step below it. The breath she’d been holding exploded out of her.

  Eva and Jadyn both hugged her excitedly. Eva said, “That’s awesome! There’re so many things you can do for people with telekinesis.”

  Seri wiped at her brimming eyes, now having a hard time focusing on the pebbles. “Tarc’s going to be gone, but Daum can show me how to use it?” She grasped the next largest pebble with her ghirit and it practically flew off the step, all the way over the next stair to roll out into the dirt.

  “Oh! Great!” Eva said, obviously having seen the pebble fly. “Can you lift the next one into the air? That takes more control.”

  Seri found it with her ghirit and pulled it into the air. “Yes!” she said, the word bursting out of her as she pumped her fist. She dropped that stone and lifted the biggest one.

  Eva gave her a congratulatory clap on the back. She returned to Seri’s previous subject, “If I were you I’d definitely go to Daum and get him to teach you what he knows. He’s got years of experience with his telekinesis. However, remember his ghirit doesn’t see inside people, which means he’s pretty limited with medical applications. I think you’ve forgotten that Vyrda’s telekinetic too. She’s been using her ghirit to treat people for a long time. The only reason she’s learning from me is because she hasn’t had access to any of the ancients’ medical books. She just hasn’t had enough knowledge to use her ghirit to its fullest. But she’ll be able to teach you a lot of the things you can do with your talent.”

  Eva leaned back, turning her head back and forth so she could address both Seri and Jadyn on either side of her. “Most importantly, Tarc tells me that, since Argun’s angry, you both need to know how to use your abilities to protect yourselves.”

  “How would we do that?”

  “Well, first of all, you need to strengthen your ghirit. It seems like it responds to use just like muscles do to exercise. Close your eyes. How far away can you girls sense people?”