Sisters

by Laurence Dahners

  ~~~

  The sun was getting low by the time repairs on the guard were completed.

  Awakened, the injured guard was put on a cot in the sprung wagon with Marissa. She didn’t need to be a telepath to feel the waves of dismay radiating from him. He had to be worried about whether his arm would ever function again.

  Marissa assumed they’d spend the night at that location but apparently she wasn’t the only one who doubted whether all the outlaws had been eliminated. Norton deemed their current location unsuitable because the caravan was strung out in a long vulnerable line. They moved on for another hour, arriving at a field where they formed a protective circle.

  Two other guards had suffered less dire wounds. Once the wagons were circled, Eva sat by their heads while Daussie sewed them up. To Marissa’s surprise, even though he didn’t seem to be doing anything, Tarc sat with Daussie, leaning near the wound to watch while she worked. Wondering whether he was using his talent for something, she quietly asked Hareh about it.

  Hareh nodded. Whispering, he said, “He’s using his telekinesis to hold the tissue in the right position so Daussie can just pass the needle through it rather than having to pull it into position before she does. He was doing that earlier, while Eva repaired the artery.”

  Having what she thought was a brilliant realization, Marissa said, “Couldn’t he use his telekinesis to send the needle through without using any of those instruments?”

  Hareh nodded. “He could.” Hareh snorted, “But, um, doing that while working in front of an audience might be problematic, you think? Besides, he’s just not as interested in healing as the rest of the family.” Lowering his voice even further, Hareh said enviously, “Eva says his talent and his insights are astonishing. If he really wanted to apply himself, there’s no telling what he could do.”

  Teenagers! Marissa thought. Obnoxious, irresponsible, thoughtless… She halted herself, realizing that none of those terms really seem to apply to her nephew. She leaned closer to Hareh, “I thought she could change people with her talents. Why doesn’t she just make him be interested?”

  Hareh shook his head, “She believes that’s a crime.” She snorted, “She doesn’t even push him verbally like most mothers. No matter what she wants him to do, she feels very strongly he should do what he’s interested in. He’s more fascinated with ancient technology than he is healing. She says figuring out their technology could make as big a difference in our world as better medicine.”

  Marissa wondered whether Hareh was chiding her for some of the verbal pushing she’d given him when he was younger—not that it’d seemed to have any effect. Deciding she didn’t feel guilty—it’d been for his own good after all—she asked, “Who does she change with her talents then?”

  “People she calls ‘psychopaths.’ People with no conscience. The ones who don’t feel bad when they hurt other people. Or animals for that matter. Murderers, rapists, robbers, and other outlaws. The people a jury would decide should hang for their crimes.”

  Marissa blinked, “She doesn’t think they should hang?”

  Hareh shook his head, “I think she used to. But since she and Kazy can turn them back into decent human beings, she thinks that’s better than hanging, especially if they have families. She is, however, worried the changes they make won’t last.”

  Marissa thought on this for a while, then said, “She should’ve traveled the Clancy Vail road and changed all those murderous sons of bitches who’ve been killing so many travelers.”

  Hareh turned surprised eyes on his mother. “She did! That’s what we did on the way here!”

  Marissa glanced around dubiously, “It obviously didn’t work. They just attacked this caravan.”

  “It worked. It’s just that we surprised one of the two groups of outlaws out here. They couldn’t get their men together in time. They attacked us with just nine of their men thinking that’d be enough. We changed six of the men in that group and all but one of the thirty-one in the other group.”

  “What about the other four?”

  “They were archers. Archers can kill us before we get close enough to use our talents.” Hareh shrugged, “So Tarc shot them.”

  “And today?” Marissa asked, wondering whether any of the attackers today were going to be changed.

  Hareh shook his head slowly. “Tarc killed all the ones that attacked the front of the caravan. The guards killed the ones that struck in the rear.”

  “Daussie disabled some that attacked from the side by throwing a bottle of chili pepper at them,” Marissa said. “But, after she left, one of the caravaners killed them.”

  “Yeah, Daussie was thinking Eva’d want to change them, but it’s not surprising that a caravaner would kill temporarily disabled outlaws. After all, by his lights, he was just saving the nearest town the trouble of hanging them.” He lifted and dropped his shoulders. “Eva was pretty upset though.”

  Marissa snorted, “I’m sure if she’d tried to change them the caravaners would’ve been split into two camps. Those who didn’t believe she could change them so they’d be safe to be released and those who’d think she might be able to and should be burned as a witch.”

  “Yeah…” Hareh said musingly, “I would’ve been really nervous if she’d tried to do it.” He looked at his mother, “But she has really strong morals. In Realth healing people’s against the law. Eva did it anyway and went to prison for it.”

  “My God! How long was her sentence?”

  “Tarc and Daussie broke her out before they sentenced her.”

  “They what?! How?!”

  “Mom. Their abilities… They mostly use them for healing,” he shrugged, “but those abilities make them incredibly dangerous. For instance, the only reason Daussie threw that bottle of cayenne extract at the outlaws was so people would think that’s how she stopped them. They could’ve just run away from splashes of extract. What actually happened was that she ported a drop of cayenne directly into their noses.”

  “Oh,” Marissa said contemplating the idea, “I guess pepper in your nose would be pretty distracting.”

  “Mom, a tiny bit would be distracting because it’d make you sneeze. A little more makes you cough so hard you don’t think you can breathe. Your nose waters. Your eyes flood and itch so you can barely see. A bigger dose yet will kill because your breathing passages swell shut.”

  “Ah,” Marissa said with sudden comprehension. “So, Daussie can kill people with a thought?!”

  “Actually, there’re easier ways for her to kill people. She uses pepper so she can disable them without killing.”

  ***

  Arriving at Clancy Vail, the wagons turned in at the caravan grounds. Tarc led the mule hitched to their little wagon full of medical supplies in a turn away from the grounds before the caravan even fully arrived.

  Eva stayed with Marissa. Daussie and Hareh excitedly rode their horses off toward the Hyllis Tavern, eager to see their friends.

  For a few moments, Marissa wondered whether she was going to be expected to ride a horse. She hadn’t been on one for years and felt apprehensive about it in her current condition. Instead, Eva said, “I’m not sure what getting on and off a horse might do to your spine.” She grinned, “Especially, falling off a horse. You feel up to walking to the tavern? I think it’d be good for you, but if you don’t think you’re strong enough to walk that far we could try to work out something else.”

  Marissa looked across the distance to the surprisingly large assemblage of buildings that made up the tavern. “I think I can make it.” They started walking at a sedate pace. Marissa turned to her sister, “From the looks of that tavern, you guys have been doing pretty well.”

  Eva gave a satisfied nod, “We are. Daum brews the best beer and moonshine I’ve ever tasted. We’ve got a great crew running the kitchen. Our healing business is more than paying for itself.” She got a distant look in her eyes, “We’ve got a lot of reasons to be grateful.”

  They walked in si
lence for a moment as Marissa looked around. She said, “Wait. Your tavern’s outside the wall?!”

  Eva nodded.

  Aghast, Marissa said, “That’s just… That’s insane!”

  Eva looked over at her, “Really? You’ve seen what we can do, right?”

  “Oh.” Marissa paused as a shift in perspective came over her, “Oh, yeah, right.” She looked toward the tavern. People were boiling out of it. Did it catch fire? she wondered in alarm. As she watched the people started streaming toward the caravan grounds. Is the Norton caravan unusually popular here?” she asked her sister.

  “Um… I don’t think so,” Eva said, sounding… choked.

  Marissa looked questioningly at her sister. She’s blushing. Is she embarrassed? She looked again at the large crowd. It was filling out with more people every moment.

  They were chanting her sister’s name.

  Epilogue

  Tarc stepped into the kitchen, “Hi Nylin.”

  She turned to watch him approach. As he put his arms around her, she said, “I hear Lizeth’s back.”

  “Um, yeah…” He leaned back to look down at her. “We came back with the Norton caravan. She still guards with them.” He leaned down for a kiss.

  Nylin twisted her face to the side, “What’s this mean for us?”

  Tarc frowned, “Nothing. She’s going to be leaving with the caravan in a few days.”

  She studied his eyes. “You still love her.”

  Exasperated, “She’s leaving!”

  “But you love her more than you love me.”

  “I like her. I love you!”

  Nylin studied him a moment longer. Her eyes welled and she twisted out of his arms. She turned back to the tomatoes she’d been slicing. “I don’t think so. I don’t want to be the girl you settled for.”

  What! Tarc thought. He stood for a few moments, not knowing what to say. Suddenly feeling embarrassed, he turned and headed for the suddenly blurry stairs down into the underground facility.

  ***

  When Daum found Norton, the caravan master was talking to Arco, his guard captain. He didn’t miss Norton’s wince when the man saw him coming. Once Arco took his leave, Norton turned to Daum. “First, I should thank you for sending your son to Cooperstown. He let us get back here over the Cooperstown Road with only a few injuries. But,” Norton said unhappily, “I’ll bet what you want to know is what happened when I asked for your money in Farleysville?”

  Daum gave Norton a nod. “Tarc appreciated what you paid him for his service. Well, and so did Eva. Thanks.”

  Glancing west, Norton said, “I think the road to Cooperstown’s safe now. And that’s mostly due to your son’s archery.” Norton shook his head in awe, “I’ve never seen anything like his shooting. If he ever decides to be a full-time caravan guard, he can always have a spot with us.”

  “I don’t think that’s something he’ll want to do,” Daum said slowly. “But, depending on what’s happening with our money, maybe he’d be willing to go with you as far as Farleysville this trip.”

  Norton grimaced, “The news about your money isn’t good. Harrison claims that when Farley took over as Sheriff, he recovered almost all the money Krait stole from the banks. Unfortunately, he only returned about 20% to them.”

  “So,” Daum said in dismay, “Harrison’s only offering a 20% refund on our deposits there?”

  Norton slowly shook his head. “He says he’s used your money to give better refunds to his good customers.”

  Daum’s eyes narrowed, “And we’re not good customers?”

  Norton slowly shook his head again. “By his lights you’re neither good citizens, nor current customers.” He shrugged, “I suspect the fact you’re not there to cause him trouble factors strongly into his thinking as well.”

  Daum sighed, “And what about Watson’s debt on the tavern?”

  “Watson says business at the tavern hasn’t been good.”

  “So he can’t make the full payment he agreed to for this year?”

  Looking unhappy, Norton said, “He says he can’t afford to pay anything yet.”

  Daum frowned, “How’d the tavern look like it was doing to you?”

  “Not as well as when you and Eva were running it… but not badly either.”

  “You think he’s… trying to renege?”

  Norton shrugged, “I’m not privy to the books at either the bank or the tavern, so I don’t know. But, neither looks destitute.” He tilted his head, “You understand, they may be spending money they don’t have, trying to look the part of successful enterprises?”

  Daum took a deep breath, “So, you don’t have any money for us?”

  Norton shook his head again, “Sorry.”

  ***

  Their first morning back, during the slow period after breakfast, the healers gathered in the clinic to talk about what they’d learned while they were apart. First, they all clustered around Marissa, leaning in close to send in their ghirits and examine the piece of titanium that’d replaced her L2 vertebra. Daussie said, “Last night I managed to find something in one of the ancients’ books about a similar procedure using a titanium meshwork tube. They were concerned the titanium would eventually fail so they usually filled the inside of the tube with bone graft in an attempt to get bone to grow from the bone above to the bone below.” She tilted her head, “Well, they did when the bone loss was from a benign condition and they expected the patient to live. If it was just temporary until the patient died of cancer, they didn’t bother.” She grinned up at her aunt, “Aunt Marissa might have cancer, but we expect her to survive, right?”

  “Absolutely,” Eva said thoughtfully. “Where’d they get the ‘bone graft’ from?”

  Daussie frowned, “Sometimes they took it from people who’d died. They called that ‘cadaver graft’ which sounds pretty morbid. Some they took it from other bones in the same patient. The patient’s own bone worked better, but it was pretty painful to harvest it so a lot of people chose the cadaver bone instead.”

  Marissa saw them looking appraisingly at her. She felt horrified, “Which of my bones are you thinking about taking? I need all of them, don’t I?”

  “Oh,” Daussie said, looking startled. “Not an entire bone, just part of it. The spongy looking stuff that’s inside. We could take it from the insides of some of your leg bones or pelvic bones or even some of the other vertebrae.”

  “And this’d be really painful?”

  Daussie pursed her lips, “I don’t think so. I think it hurt when the ancients did it because they had to make an incision, cutting down through the muscles to the bone, then chisel the bone open so they could scrape the spongy part out. We could just port the bone out without all that cutting. If you want I could try taking a little piece of bone that way to see if it hurts?”

  Marissa looked at her sister.

  Eva gave her a nod.

  Marissa turned back to Daussie and said, “Okay.” She wondered when she’d be healthy enough to have it done. Glancing at Eva and then at Daussie, she said, “When are you thinking you’d try this?”

  Daussie chirped cheerfully, “Already done. Did it hurt?”

  “What?! Where’d you take it from?!”

  Daussie grinned, “I guess it didn’t hurt. There are hardly any nerve endings inside the bone, so I was pretty sure it’d only cause a little ache.”

  Marissa suddenly realized she did have a slight ache coming from her left hip region. Abruptly she doubled over, holding her hand against that area, “Arrgh!”

  Daussie jumped to her side, putting an arm around her. “Oh! I’m so sorry. Mom! Do something for…”

  Marissa peeked up at her sister and saw Eva grinning. Eva said, “Good one Big Sister.”

  Daussie let go and stepped back, giving Marissa an accusing look, “You tricked me! Wait, how’d you know it was your left hip?”

  “Because it does hurt,” Marissa said, then grinned, “though not very bad.”

  “That
was mean.”

  Eva said, “Daussie. It might’ve been mean, but it was well-deserved.” She shook her head, “Our ability to do things to people’s bodies… It isn’t the place for jokes or tricks, right?”

  Looking terribly chagrined, Daussie’s eyes dropped to the floor, “Yes ma’am.”

  There was a moment of silence while everyone pondered that lesson, then Seri and Vyrda launched into a description of their patient with retinal detachment, carefully showing everyone the diagrams they’d found in the books and explaining how they’d managed to treat the patient. Seri said, “Ms. Thompson thinks her vision’s much better, though when I test her I still find blind spots in her visual field.”

  Eva said, “So, it’s another kind of blindness we can treat, which is nice. But, as opposed to the cataracts we can treat even after the patient’s completely blind, this one sounds like an emergency. If we think a patient’s got a detachment we need to treat it immediately, right?”

  Vyrda nodded, “That’s what the books say.” She frowned, “And speaking of emergencies…” She glanced at Kazy, Seri, and Rrica.

  Looking solemn, Kazy said, “We had a man die in the clinic while you were gone.” She looked at Eva and her eyes suddenly brimmed with tears. She shook her head as she said, “Nothing we did worked. We really needed you.”

  A wave of chagrin and shame washed over Marissa on realizing her sister’s mission to save Marissa’s life had cost a man his.

  Eva turned to look at Marissa. When she had Marissa’s attention she gave a tiny shake of her head.

  Marissa realized the emotions that had flooded over her had been heard by her sister despite her sister’s intention not to listen to other people’s thoughts. She tried to calm herself but couldn’t completely still her guilt over the man’s death.

  Eva turned to Kazy, saying, “Don’t beat yourself up. I probably couldn’t have thought of anything you guys didn’t try. Tell us what happened so we can all think about it.”