Sisters

by Laurence Dahners

  “What’s got you all wound up?” Eva asked, stepping to meet her.

  “Ms. Rainey, one of the women with I’m treating for cataracts, she has at least the basic talent,” Daussie said, trying not to babble her excitement.

  Eva gave a nod, “Okay, how do you know?”

  “She’s blind and her cataracts are very dense. But she moves around like she can see. She’s got to be using her ghirit to do it.”

  “You asked her about this?”

  Daussie shook her head, “I didn’t know if you’d want me to.”

  “Do you think, if she had more than the basic talent, that she’d want to work as a healer?”

  “I have no idea.”

  Eva smiled at her, “Yeah, knowing that kind of thing lies more within my talent, doesn’t it?”

  Daussie nodded.

  Eva thought for a moment, then she said, “Kazy’s up there with you, right?”

  Daussie nodded, “She’s doing the anesthesia.”

  “I’ve still got a lot to do. Why don’t you ask Kazy to check Ms. Rainey out? See if she’s got the kind of ethics we’d like to have in a healer. Whether Kazy thinks Ms. Rainey would like to be a healer, or at least would be willing to help. We need to consider that, if she’s old enough to have cataracts, she isn’t going to have a long career as a healer and may not want to take the time to study medicine the way we do. But if she does have more than the basic talent, perhaps she could help do things under someone else’s direction.” Eva sighed, “Kazy and Vyrda are going to have another telepath and another telekinetic to help them while we’re gone—”

  “Oh!” Daussie exclaimed excitedly, “Seri and Jadyn both had more than the basic talent?”

  Eva nodded, a big smile on her face, “Seri’s telekinetic and Jadyn’s a telepath. They’ll be a godsend to you and Vyrda with the three of us gone, but if by some chance Ms. Rainey can teleport, Vyrda and Kazy may really be able to use her help.”

  “If Kazy thinks she’d make a good healer and would like to do it, do you want me to ask her?”

  Eva thought for a moment, then said, “Sure.” She started to turn back to Tarc and Hareh but stopped to say, “As long as Kazy’s sure she’ll keep our secret.”

  Back upstairs, Daussie called Kazy out of the room and told her what was going on. “Can you check her out while you’ve got her asleep?”

  “Sure,” Kazy said, “but my impression from talking to her while you were gone is that she’s pretty crotchety. She reminds me of Ms. Gates, Tarc’s favorite cancer patient.”

  Daussie made a face, “I’m really glad Gates doesn’t have to come in very often anymore.” Daussie peeked in the door at Rainey and sighed, “Let’s find out for sure what kind of person she is.”

  Once Kazy had Rainey asleep, Daussie sent in her ghirit and quickly surveyed Rainey’s health. Oh! she thought. Rainey had atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, affecting many of her vessels. In fact, Daussie could detect an area of scar tissue in the wall of the woman’s heart. It’d no doubt resulted from a small heart attack where one of the lesser coronary arteries had closed off killing the muscle it supplied. Daussie didn’t find cancer or other serious diseases, but the atherosclerosis was certainly serious enough by itself. Standing, she addressed Kazy, “Keep her asleep, I’ll get a bottle and clean out her arteries.”

  Daussie walked quickly over to the alcove and got one of their little specimen jars. One of the ones with a broken lid since she wanted to save the good jars for things that needed to be sealed up. Returning to Rainey’s side, she quickly teleported the atherosclerotic plaques out of the woman’s coronary arteries and into the bottle. She moved on to the plaques in the woman’s carotid arteries, then some big plaques from the woman’s aorta, renal arteries, and femoral arteries.

  She was getting a mild headache, so she took a break before fixing the woman’s eyes. Rainey’d described her vision as perfect when she was young with serious problems reading as she got older. That suggested she was farsighted. Daussie ported the cataracts out of both eyes, porting new lenses in during the same teleportation events. On the right, she put in a lens that was a little more convex than her natural lens. In the left eye, she put in a lens that was quite a bit more convex for better close vision. Once she’d finished, she looked up questioningly at Kazy. “What do you think?”

  “She’s got a very strong moral compass,” Kazy snorted, “but on some issues, it doesn’t point the same way ours does.”

  “Such as?”

  “She believes in arranged marriages and essentially doesn’t think girls our age should ever be alone with boys. In fact, she pretty much thinks we shouldn’t leave the house.”

  Daussie caught her lips between her teeth in an effort not to laugh. “Um, do you think she’d want to help do healings? Oh! With those morals, she might be opposed to witchery. Is she?”

  Kazy laughed, “Oh, yes. She’s hugely conflicted. Opposed to witchery, but—when she started finding her way around after she went blind—she came to understand she’s a witch herself.” Kazy looked thoughtful for a moment, then she said, “I think, once she realizes she can help others, she’d feel duty-bound to do it.”

  Daussie sighed, thinking that there’d be significant potential for unpleasantness in any conversation with Rainey. “Mom said if you thought she was ethical, we should ask her if she’d be willing to help. That is, if you could be fairly sure she’d keep our secret.”

  Kazy nodded, “Once you ask her whether she’ll keep our secret, I’ll be able to tell how committed she is to keeping it.”

  “Okay. Give me a thumbs up if you think it’s okay to keep talking to her, okay?”

  Kazy nodded and a moment later Rainey stirred. Her eyelids lifted a little, then flashed open fully. The crow’s feet crinkled in the corners of the woman’s eyes as her eyes focused on Daussie, then shot back and forth around the room.

  The joy that spread over the woman’s face was familiar to Daussie from the other cataract patients she’d returned to the world of the sighted. Daussie wasn’t blasé about it though. She couldn’t help grinning back at the old woman.

  Daussie took Rainey through the tests of her eyes, including looking through test lenses to see how far off the correction was. Then Kazy put the woman back to sleep so Daussie could swap the lenses out for a little different correction.

  That done, at a distance, Rainey’s right eye could see what they were calling “20/20” after the ancients’ designation for good vision. Her left eye focused perfectly at about a half-meter—a good reading distance. Rainey got out five ten-silver pieces and held them out to Daussie. Her voice creaked with emotion, “This is all I have right now, but I’ll bring back five more tomorrow.”

  Daussie nodded as she took the money. “I won’t be here, but you can give them to Kazy,” she said indicating her cousin.

  Rainey stood and took a step toward the door, but halted when Daussie spoke softly.

  “Ms. Rainey, we’d like to talk to you in confidence. Would you be able to keep a secret?”

  Rainey frowned, “About what?”

  Daussie held out her hand and when Rainey lifted her own, Daussie placed the five ten-silver pieces back on Rainey’s palm. “We want to talk to you about how your eyesight was restored. We think you might be able to help us heal some other people. Could you keep a secret?”

  The old woman’s eyes narrowed, then she shrugged, “Yeah, I owe you that much at least, but I don’t know anything about healing!”

  Daussie glanced at Kazy who gave her a thumbs up.

  Turning back to Rainey, Daussie said, “You might not know much about healing, but you do have a talent. The one that told you where things were, even when you were blind.”

  Rainey stopped, staring at Daussie.

  Her face had frozen. Her residual smile had vanished.

  An icy expression formed and Rainey drew herself up, “What?! I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Dauss
ie stared back. “I think you do.” When Rainey didn’t say anything, Daussie cleared her throat and said, “It’s a wonderful talent. One you may be able to use to help other people.”

  Rainey’s eyes widened with understanding. “You’re witches!” she hissed.

  Daussie tilted her head slightly, “We prefer to think of people like you as people who have talents. Talents like the one that let you feel the space around you so you knew where things were, even though you were blind.”

  “Um… sometimes I moved like I wasn’t blind, but that was because I could still see a little bit.”

  Daussie tilted her head again, then shook her head while saying, “Ms. Rainey,” in a disappointed and disapproving tone.” She let a few moments pass for emphasis, then said, “I saw your eyes. You were completely blind.”

  Rainey was frozen. Daussie’s ghirit showed her the old woman’s heart beating as rapidly as if she were terrified.

  Daussie spoke softly and reassuringly, “It’s nothing to be ashamed of or deny. What you’ve got’s a wonderful talent. Something you can probably use to help others. While some people may use your kind of talent to do evil, you could counterbalance them by doing good with yours. We’re hoping you’d be willing to help us treat others who’re in need.”

  The open-mouthed expression on Rainey’s face reminded Daussie of a fish out of the water. Daussie took a half step forward, putting her arms gently around the old woman. She spoke quietly next to Rainey’s ear. “We’ll keep your secrets, if you’ll keep ours.”

  Rainey gave a kind of spastic nod.

  Daussie let go and glanced at Kazy who also nodded. Daussie turned back to Ms. Rainey. “If you have the kind of talent that would be useful, would you be willing to help us treat patients?”

  For a few moments, the woman stood, lip trembling, saying nothing. Then her lip firmed, her eyes focused, and she gave Daussie a decisive looking nod.

  Daussie indicated the little table where they had people sit when they were testing their vision, “If you could sit down again for a moment.” Daussie turned to Kazy, “I don’t think I need you for this. Perhaps you could reassure Mr. Geller that everything’s okay?”

  Kazy nodded and turned for the door.

  Daussie felt pretty sure her cousin understood the subtext that Geller might need a little calming. They’d been in there for quite a while, after all.

  Daussie picked up some of the little spheres they gave to children as treats and turned back to Ms. Rainey. Placing the smallest one on the table between herself and the old woman, Daussie said, “Can you close your eyes and feel for this tiny ball with your ghirit? Sorry, ‘ghirit’ is what we call the talent for feeling things around you in space.”

  Rainey closed her eyes, frowned for a moment, then nodded.

  “You can feel it, right?” Daussie asked.

  Rainey nodded again.

  “Now, holding it with your ghirit, try to push it to your left.” Daussie watched the tiny sphere, but nothing happened. “You’re pushing?”

  “I guess. I really don’t know how.”

  “Go ahead and open your eyes. Then, watching it with your eyes as well as holding it in your ghirit, imagine you’re pushing it with ghostly fingers. Pushing hard! As if you were trying to push a large piece of furniture. Hard, hard, hard!”

  The little ball vanished from where it sat on the table and reappeared about ten centimeters (four inches) to Daussie’s right and Ms. Rainey’s left. She’s a teleporter! Daussie thought, sagging in relief.

  “What’s the matter?” Rainey said.

  Daussie opened her eyes to find Rainey studying her suspiciously.

  “Nothing!” Daussie said. “It’s wonderful. You have a talent for teleportation. An ability to move things from one place to another. It’s rare. As far as we know you and I are the only ones that have it.” She shook her head, “You’ll be able to help so many people with it.”

  An expression of distrustful suspicion blossomed on Rainey’s face. “Poppycock!” She looked down at the little ball, “I didn’t do anything. I don’t have any talent.” She shook her head, beginning to rise. “I don’t know why I let you talk me into going along with this garbage.”

  Daussie grabbed her wrist, “Wait! Try it again, this time with your eyes open so you can see what happens.”

  “No!” Rainey said, still bent over from Daussie’s pull on her arm. “I don’t have any weird abilities. I’m just an ordinary woman. Let me go!”

  Daussie let go of Rainey’s wrist but stood with the woman. “You could remove people’s gallstones!” When Rainey didn’t look impressed, Daussie said, “Ms. Rainey, send your ghirit into your stomach here,” she said pointing to Rainey’s lower abdomen. “You’ll find a large artery there that has a lot of lumps on its inner walls.”

  Rainey turned her face aside and started toward the door.

  Daussie kept talking, “Some of those lumps had gotten so big they were partly blocking the artery. Before I fixed your eyes, I took out a lot of lumps so you’d have better blood flow to your legs. Your legs should ache less when you walk long distances. I also took some lumps out of the vessels that go to your heart. You’d already had a small heart attack. It might have felt like pressure in your chest sometime in the past few years. By cleaning out the lumps, your heart should feel better too.”

  Rainey opened the door and stepped out into the hall. Still not looking at Daussie, she said, “Thank you for giving my sight back.” She grabbed Daussie’s hand and pressed the five coins back into it. “I hope you make it to Cooperstown.”

  “Just think about it Ms. Rainey,” Daussie said pleadingly as Rainey started down the stairs. “Preventing heart attacks and letting people walk without the aching in their legs, those are just some of the things you could do for patients.”

  Rainey didn’t slow the measured steps she was taking down the stairs.

  Daussie wondered whether the woman would have a change of heart.

  ***

  They left just after dawn the next morning. Everyone who worked at the tavern had shown up early to prepare them a hearty breakfast sending them off. From the frantic hugs and concerned looks, Hareh could see how much his aunt was loved by one and all.

  He felt immensely grateful that this woman, who so many counted on, was willing to teach him what she knew.

  He just hoped they lived through this trip. That she’s not taking me to my death.

  Well, and I hope she can cure my mother’s cancer. Though, I think she’s just going to be saying goodbye.

  If hope was all there was to it, he thought as they were waving goodbye to all the worried-looking people, we’d have no trouble.

  He looked ahead. The road to the west looked innocuous.

  Knowing it wasn’t, Hareh turned to Tarc. He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it. Tarc had a quiver hanging from his belt and two more hanging from the front of his saddle. A bow was across his back, and another was tied to the back of his saddle. He looked alert, but his eyes weren’t scanning the surroundings like Hareh thought they should be. Hareh said, “Tarc, should I—”

  Tarc interrupted him by holding up a halting finger. “I’m on watch. It’d be better if you put your questions to Daussie or Eva. If it’s something you have to ask me in particular, wait until one of them’s on watch.”

  Hareh stared at him for a moment, insulted to have been interrupted by his younger cousin. Besides, there was no reason the kid couldn’t both watch and carry on a conversation. After a moment, he tugged on his reins, stopping the gelding. The handsome, and now perfectly compliant gelding he still felt surprised to be riding. Whatever Kazy did to this horse, it really made a difference, he thought.

  When Eva came up beside him, he nudged the horse onward again. “Eva, Tarc said I should talk to you. You said he was going to protect us from the outlaws and desperados that are supposed to haunt this road. I assume you must feel pretty sure he’ll be able to do it or we wouldn’t be on the road,
however, I’ve been thinking I should try to figure out how I could help. Should I be trying to practice with a bow?”

  “You’re willing to fight now?”

  He nodded, “To save our lives, yes.” He frowned, “Though I’ve been wondering whether we can just pay them a tax to let us go by?”

  She nodded, “A tax is what highwaymen typically say they’re demanding when they waylay people. However, the tax they ask is ridiculously high and, if you don’t pay it, they typically kill the men and have their way with the women.” She gave him a wry grin, “I’d imagine you can understand that’s a tax that neither I nor Daussie is looking forward to paying? You probably don’t want to pay your share of it either.”

  “What if you do pay what they ask?”

  “Then they circle ahead of you, waylay you again, and demand even more.”

  “What?! Don’t they understand that if you can’t get through, you’ll never go that way again? They’re ruining their future business!”

  Eva shrugged, “There’d be no future business on a road crowded with outlaws. If they don’t take all you’ve got, they’d just be leaving it for the next set of hold-up men along the road.”

  “But…!” Hareh deflated. “I don’t understand how you think there’s any chance we can get past these people? They have to have groups big enough to threaten parties significantly larger than ours. Tarc can’t possibly fight them all by himself!”

  “So, we’re back to trying to figure out whether you can help Tarc. Do you know how to shoot a bow?”

  Hareh shook his head.

  “Archery’s a difficult skill. Not one you can learn in a week or so, much less a few hours.” She looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled, “So, we should try to figure out whether you have another talent beyond the basic one.”

  “You don’t think I can help with the fighting, so you’re going to figure out what kind of healing I might be able to do?”

  “Yep. Though you should recognize that, just like a medicine, if your talent’s potent enough to heal someone, it’s probably also capable of killing them.”