Children of the Healer

by Barbara Ann Wright

  She looked for Pool or the Shi and saw nothing but roots. The rage of the Shi surrounded her, fought by the anger of Pool, warring emotions bouncing and careening invisibly through the cavern. Cordelia caught flashes of Pool’s independence and rebellious nature, her stubbornness in the face of all odds. Pool was reliving the separation from the drushka long ago, when Pool had accompanied Jania, Cordelia’s ancestor, back to the human homeland rather than stay with her kin.

  The Shi countered with drushkan rage. She’d wanted to kill all the humans, every single one. At the time of the schism, the other queens thought it best to kill Jania and any other humans she might have told about the drushkan plan to absorb humanity. Then they could continue with their long game. A human race that was scattered among the drushka could not breed. They would die out soon enough.

  Cordelia would have frowned if she could. Why hadn’t they killed Jania and continued the plan? What stopped them? Jania had never written of drushkan queens or these secret bargains. Did she even know why she’d been spared?

  “I lied!” Pool howled. “Lied to all of you!”

  “Impossible!” the Shi said, her words translated through Pool.

  Cordelia felt the Shi’s outrage and Pool’s shame as if someone was taking a hammer to her spirit. She groaned under the weight.

  “I would do it again,” Pool said. “For my freedom.”

  Cordelia gasped at a barrage of images: Pool, claiming that Jania had saved her life while she was still a queen-to-be. And such an act was not taken lightly. In exchange, Pool claimed that Jania asked to continue trading with the drushka. To do that, she needed a queen closer to the human home. Pool could not refuse someone who had saved her life.

  But it was a lie, manufactured images crafted by Pool so she could get what she most desired: freedom from the other queens. The humans held the keys to the future, to evolution and progress. Even before the current Shi had taken control, the drushka were pulling farther into their homeland, seeking to stay away from the humans. Pool wanted independence. And she’d learned how to lie in order to get it.

  The Shi howled at her. “Abomination!”

  “Everything changes,” Pool said. “Or it stagnates and dies.”

  “Fuck yeah,” Cordelia whispered.

  The Shi countered with the history of the drushka, each queen moving to the next largest tree once a Shi died; a new queen being born only if there was a need.

  Pool responded with each queen roving far through her own territory, of bands of drushka happily wandering under no one’s control, exploring, experimenting. Separate but still connected, not subjugated as they were under this Shi’s rule. Pool shared flashes of her own history. No queen-to-be was supposed to rule before ascending to her tree, but Pool’s hunt leader and several others had died in a prog attack before she became queen. Everyone left alive in the band had been younger than Pool, and they’d turned to her because there hadn’t been a full queen nearby. For days, Pool had led them until they’d found their queen. She’d helped carry the wounded; she’d given orders, and it had been right. But as soon as they returned to a queen and her tree, that power had been taken away, not to be returned until Pool took her own tree. She’d burned inside as decisions were made without her, decisions she disagreed with, but she could not even suggest a different course.

  And then came Jania, Roshkikan. Alone, autonomous, with nothing to make her different from other humans yet possessing free will and the power to make her own decisions. That life had been as seductive as a lover’s touch. When the old Shi had died and Pool had taken the Anushi tree, Pool had thought herself finally free, that she could lead her tribe as she wished, and she wanted to be closer to the humans. She’d had plans. Cordelia admired that.

  The Shi’s mind lashed out. “I should have known! You were born disobedient, deformed.”

  Cordelia reeled as more images poured into her mind. The Shi showed the drushka being ripped asunder by Pool’s leaving, but Pool countered with the mindless drones they’d become. They could have survived without Pool, but the Shi had chosen to enslave them instead.

  “Liar!” the Shi howled. “You lied once, and now your tongue is covered with them! You will know my mind, and it will bring the drushka peace!”

  The mass lifted Pool’s body out of the press. Several roots turned to spikes and drilled into her flesh. She cried out, and Cordelia flew toward her.

  “Pool, don’t give up!”

  Pool’s eyes opened, boring into Cordelia, pleading with her.

  Cordelia hesitated for a moment, thinking of the force of Naos. “Fuck it.” She dove into Pool, becoming one with that shining light. She felt Pool’s strength and lent her own. Pool threw both into the mind of the Shi.

  The roots parted again, lifting a drushkan queen even taller than the eighth. She hung suspended as the roots crawled over her naked body, clothing her in a wriggling mass. With a snarl like a feral animal, she cursed them.

  Cordelia gave those taunts right back at her, hoping she could sense their meaning through Pool.

  “The humans survive!” Pool cried. “As I will survive!”

  The Shi sent another mental battering ram their way. Cordelia groaned under the assault but sensed it could be much worse. The Shi still didn’t seem to know what to do with human thoughts. She snarled and flinched whenever their minds touched. She slashed at the air near Pool’s body with her claws, but Cordelia had no body to attack.

  “Human filth,” the Shi called. “Leave this place or die!”

  “No,” Pool said. “She will not. She would share her strength with you if only you would be her ally. There are good humans, sister.”

  “As there are bad drushka,” the Shi said. “You are no sister of mine.” The Shi struck again, but Cordelia struck back, her mind entwined with Pool’s.

  The roots beneath Pool slumped, and she fell. Cordelia chased her downward as she smacked into the cavern floor. The roots withdrew from her flesh, and golden blood streamed from her wounds, but she staggered to her feet.

  “Go on, Pool!” Cordelia said. An ache throbbed through her, as if her whole mind and body were afire, but she kept pushing. They could do this together, damn it, even if Cordelia didn’t have enough strength left to float back to her body. She only wished this could have been a physical fight, but no, she seemed doomed to always be sucked into this telepathic bullshit. “Fight, Pool. Climb up there and give her hell!”

  Pool climbed the roots, back to the top of the writhing pile. “I will not surrender, sister.”

  “You will die. The humans will die.” But the Shi’s voice was quieter, her gaze unfocused.

  So they were winning? “We’re not going anywhere, asshole!” Cordelia yelled.

  “No.” Pool’s eyes went wide. “She reaches for the minds of the other queens who are still under her control. I cannot fight them all at once.”

  Not winning, then. Okay. Cordelia cast around for a weapon, but she was only a voice in Pool’s head. She yelled at the Shi, trying to distract her, and felt Pool sending out a call.

  “Sisters,” Pool said. “I am sorry I failed you. Resist her if you can.”

  “We’re not beaten yet.” Cordelia’s mind raced. If Pool went down, Cordelia had no doubt she’d be right behind. And the kidnapped Galeans would die. Nettle and Reach would die. “Fuck that! We’re not going down without a fight!” She joined with Pool again, pictured herself bracing her feet, getting ready for the rush.

  The presence of the other queens fell over them like a blanket, smothering Pool’s thoughts. She bowed under the onslaught. Cordelia screamed as part of her spirit flew away in tatters, leaving her feeling hollow. It was hard to remember what she was even fighting for. It would be so much easier to submit, to sink into the drushkan telepathy as if it were a warm bath.

  “No, no.” She tried to push back as the ache built, and the silver cord that connected her to her body shivered, flickering. Well, it had broken once before, and she had surv
ived. She tried to keep hold of her thoughts, but it felt like trying to keep a tornado from gobbling a bit of paper. The force of the queens wedged themselves between Cordelia and Pool, thousands of whispers. They began to unravel Cordelia’s connection to Pool, to unravel the work Simon Lazlo had done to attach Cordelia more firmly to her body. She grabbed her silver cord and held on. She threw her memories, her fortitude into that force, shouting, “Fuck you, fuck you,” over and over. But even her cries were fading before the rushing in her mind, the sound like waves swallowing her up. The Shi cackled in triumph.

  On the edge of the tidal wave, Cordelia felt another presence watching them, curious. Cordelia had a flash of a long drushkan face. The eighth queen. “Please,” Cordelia said. “Please don’t kill them.” She flung her love for Nettle into the air and hoped that somehow, Nettle felt it. If not… “I am so going to haunt you, motherf—”

  As quickly as the minds of the other queens arrived, they faded, led by a mental hand that guided rather than demanded. Cordelia’s awareness came back slowly, her thoughts and memories settling, her silver cord still intact.

  The cavern went still. The Shi stared at nothing, mouth open in shock.

  “Pool, what’s happening?” Cordelia asked.

  “The minds of the other queens,” Pool said as she wheezed. The mass of roots ceased moving beneath her. “They withdraw, led by the eighth.” She looked to the Shi. “The eighth’s mind is still here, watching.” Cordelia felt Pool focus, sending her mind into the Shi’s again, but not to attack, merely to watch. With an expert touch, the eighth reached for the Shi’s mental connection to the other queens.

  And severed it.

  The Shi choked, and the roots lowered her to stand atop them. “What is this?”

  Cordelia whooped. “Yeah! It’s a fair fight now.”

  Pool waved as if trying to quiet her. “Our people want change, sister. Accept it.”

  “No. I…keep them safe.” But the Shi looked so flabbergasted, Cordelia nearly laughed.

  “Let them decide how safe they need to be,” Pool said. “Let them roam. Let each queen decide whom she will take for an ally. We can learn together.”

  “I…” The Shi went to her knees, her green hair cascading around her into a puddle. “I cannot.”

  Pool crossed to her over the roots. The Shi looked pathetic, but Cordelia could still feel her will, strong as iron. She wouldn’t change even if her life demanded it.

  Pool pressed their foreheads together. “I am sorry it has come to this. Do you wish to see the light once more?”

  The Shi stared at her, and for a moment, Cordelia thought she might plead for her life. Then her gaze hardened, and she swung a hand, leading with her claw. Pool ducked. Cordelia grabbed for her sidearm, her blade, anything, but in her spirit form, she held nothing.

  Pool reached under the waist of her trousers and brought forth a knife, Shiv’s little homemade blade. With a leap, she thrust upward, burying the knife in the Shi’s neck and tearing it across.

  The Shi rocked backward, gurgling, her hand to her throat. Cordelia hovered closer, looking for any final tricks the Shi had planned. But Pool caught the taller drushka as best she could and laid her down, stroking her hair as she died, smiling sadly into her face. “Farewell, sister.”

  “Pool, I…” Cordelia didn’t know what to say, wanted to celebrate, but it didn’t seem the right moment. She felt a mental tug, as if someone was calling her name, perhaps moving her body.

  “Go, Sa,” Pool said, not looking up.

  Cordelia rushed upward, back to her body, uncertain of exactly what she was going to find, but certain they’d finally found an ending, one way or another.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Patricia felt the arrival of the breachies before she saw them approaching the mining town. She strode to the wall, then made herself slow. She didn’t want anyone to see her hurrying. She’d been meditating, and the fact that she had to do mental exercises of any kind put her out of sorts. Instead of helping with the wall and defenses, she had to focus on the mental blocks that held Dillon’s consciousness captive in her mind.

  She still caught a whiff of him from time to time, but now she’d have backup. Raquel had finally answered Patricia’s summons, leading her clan of worshipers out of the foothills. And by the feel of her group, she’d brought two other breachies with her, Sophia and Kenneth. Patricia passed the wall and walked out to meet them. Maybe that seemed overeager, but she didn’t care. Soon she’d be rid of Dillon’s ghost for good, and Raquel would never even have to know about him.

  Raquel marched at the front of her people. Her thick black hair had been twisted into a braid that hung over one shoulder, and she wore what probably passed for hill dweller finery: a long leather dress dyed maroon and covered with beads and fine stitching. Sophia and Kenneth walked just behind her, also dressed more elaborately than the mere mortals but slightly less than Raquel. On the Atlas, they’d all been sycophants of the Contessa, the now deceased Marie Martin. Now it appeared that Sophia and Kenneth had become lackeys to Raquel.

  Raquel frowned when she saw Patricia, confusion wafting from her. She glanced at the mining camp, probably looking for Patricia’s old body, Naos’s body now. Raquel’s micro-psychokinetic powers played over Patricia, and she let them, adding a powerful nudge of her own combined with a telepathic message: “It’s me.”

  Raquel’s jaw dropped, but she recovered quickly. “Of…of course. Nice to see you again, N—”

  “Patricia Dué,” Patricia said before she had to hear that name again.

  They all glanced at one another. Patricia gave them a quick scan. Kenneth was a telepath of hardly any power, and Sophia was a macro of the same level, but it was Raquel she was interested in. She was a micro and macro. Her powers wouldn’t come anywhere near to challenging Patricia’s, Naos’s, or Simon Lazlo’s, but she’d do for mining work.

  “As you can see, I got a new body,” Patricia said.

  “What happened to your old one?” Kenneth looked her up and down but with the curiosity of a scientist rather than the leer Dillon would have given.

  Deep in Patricia’s mind, she heard a snort of laughter.

  Patricia warned him to shut up and strengthened the mental blocks. “That’s a long story,” she said aloud.

  “Can we all get new bodies?” Sophia hugged her slender frame, and Patricia recalled that she’d always been uncomfortable in her own skin. What made her think she’d be happy in a new one?

  Patricia shrugged. “If you can find the power, you can do whatever you want.” Kenneth was still eyeing her, and she put up a hand to keep him from coming any closer. He backed off with a slightly embarrassed look. With ink-black hair and bright blue eyes, he had a handsome face, but she remembered him as standoffish and aloof. Naos used to enjoy spying on his flirtations with Simon Lazlo. Patricia once thought they’d make quite a couple, but Kenneth got bored with people too easily, and Naos argued that Simon would always have eyes for Dillon.

  Patricia waited to see what Dillon would say to that, but he remained silent. Maybe her blocks were finally strong enough. “Come meet Jonah.” They’d need to get used to seeing Dillon’s old body with its new mind.

  As Patricia turned, Raquel caught up, leaving her people to set up tents outside the wall. Raquel stood tall, looming over Patricia’s new body. Patricia used to do the same thing to shorter people, and now it made her smile.

  “So, what are you doing here?” Raquel asked.

  “Setting up shop.” She could see another question forming, but Raquel saw Jonah walking out to meet them and stopped, gawking. Even with the silver hair and the scar Patricia had given him, he was still very recognizable. Fear oozed from all three breachies like swamp gas.

  “You’ve allied with the Storm Lord?” Raquel asked through a petrified smile.

  Patricia chuckled. They were even more afraid of him than they might have been of Naos. At least she’d kept to herself most of the time. Dil
lon’s sneering contempt had been hurled right in their faces, and he was too powerful to oppose directly.

  Even through her shields, Patricia felt him preen.

  Jonah stared at them without recognition, eyes flat.

  “It’s just his body,” Patricia said. “The Storm Lord is dead.”

  “You wish,” he said in her mind.

  She layered blocks atop blocks in one angry burst, making him fade to a dull muttering. Raquel glanced at her, and she clenched a fist, trying to exude calm. Luckily, the other two were busy scanning Jonah, and their excitement caused Raquel to look at them again.

  “This is Jonah, my servant,” Patricia said.

  Their awestruck gazes shifted to her. Jonah stood still under their scrutiny, even the sexually appraising glances they cast his way. If Patricia remembered correctly, Dillon had slept with Raquel and Sophia both. Maybe Kenneth was hoping for a chance as well.

  A jolt of jealousy arced through Patricia, surprising her. Dillon’s work? No, she didn’t think so. Jonah was hers; that was all. They could keep their hands to themselves. Patricia put a bit of power behind her smile, inserting telepathic tags in the breachies’ heads, miniscule but important. Now they’d leave Jonah alone. While she was in their heads, she added a subtle need to make her proud. They all turned smiles her way.

  Patricia shifted, flushing, knowing she shouldn’t throw power around that way, but this was where she’d stop. She wouldn’t be pushy like Naos. One little telepathic nudge to start out with, and she was done.

  Definitely. Maybe. Very probably.

  Patricia found another private house for the three breachies to share. It had been for storage, but Patricia had some of the workers fit it with beds, making it more comfortable. The whole camp looked better since she’d arrived, more homey and permanent. Patricia put Raquel to work in the mine, and Sophia went to work on the defenses. With his telepathic abilities, Kenneth was perfect for keeping watch along with the hill dweller scouts. Everything was coming together.