The door of the workshop crashed open, and the table trembled. Just a tiny amount, but enough to send the view through the lens jerking wildly out of focus. Nalini cursed and jumped to her feet.
The wizard boy grinned at her, his donkey clopping into the room at his heels. Josiah, that was his name. She’d better remember it if she was going to have to work with him. A stranger trailed him into the room, a girl about his age. She looked around the crowded workshop, nervous but curious.
“There you are!” the boy—Josiah—exclaimed. “Sorry it took me so long. I had to ask around until somebody could tell me how to get here.” He darted over to the table. “Hey, you got it set up already. Does it work like we thought?” He crowded close to Nalini and crouched to peer through the lens. She scowled at him and backed away.
Gevan hurried to hover over him, but didn’t snatch him away from the precious device as Nalini expected. “It does. Although I think it got bumped out of alignment when you burst in.”
“Sorry,” Josiah said, not sounding very repentant. He tweaked the placement of the nail with surprisingly deft fingers and oohed in appreciation. He settled onto the stool, oblivious to the world around him.
Gevan cleared his throat and tapped him on the shoulder. “Introduce us to your guest?”
Josiah bounced up, blinking. “Oh. This is Thanna. She’s got diabetes and wants to help us figure out how to cure it. Hey, Thanna, these are the people I was telling you about, Professor Gevan and Nalini.”
The girl had much better manners than the boy, though the plain, coarse fabric of her dress spoke of her humble origins. She curtsied deeply in the Ramunnan fashion. “I’m pleased to meet you, sir, ma’am.”
Gevan cleared off a chair by shifting its contents to the floor and brought it close to the workbench, gesturing for Thanna to take a seat. “Welcome, Thanna. It’s good of you to agree to work with us.”
She nodded, gaze fixed on her hands folded in her lap. “The wizards tell me that without regular treatments with the Mother’s power I’ll die.” Her eyes came up to meet Gevan’s. “I want to live. And I can’t count on the wizards being here forever.”
“Hey,” Josiah protested. “We wouldn’t just go off and leave you.”
She dropped her gaze again. “Maybe not, but you have many enemies. They might succeed in driving you away or killing you.”
“No they w—”
Gevan cut Josiah off. “That’s why we’re here, Thanna. Master Elkan has asked that we make an attempt to fully understand your disease and find a way to deal with it without the Mother’s power. He believes that between the three—four—of us, we have the skills needed to do so.” He dragged up another chair for Nalini, a bench for himself, and motioned for Josiah to resume his perch on the stool. “I’d like to start by reviewing what we already know. Josiah, will you give us a brief description of what the wizards of Tevenar have learned with the Mother’s power?”
“Sure.” Josiah beckoned, and the donkey, who’d lingered by the door, picked his way across the room, placing his hooves carefully so he wouldn’t disturb any of the piles of paper or miscellaneous bits of equipment. Josiah laid a hand on his back. “I can’t show you what I can see—sense, I mean, because it’s not just sight—with the Mother’s power, but I can describe it, and open windows.” He pressed his hand to his belly, just below his ribs. “There’s an organ, wizards call it the pancreas, kind of behind the stomach, all smushed up between the liver and the intestines.” He looked inquiringly at Nalini.
“I know it,” she said, filing away the Tevenaran word. “I’ve seen it when doing surgery in that area.” And during dissections of dead bodies, but she wasn’t sure how the wizards would react if they found out she engaged in that practice. Better not to mention it. “Spongy yellow tissue. Part of the mechanisms of digestion, yes?”
“That’s one of the things it does. It makes fluids that go into the intestines and help break down food. But there are small parts of it that make other substances.” He frowned and his eyes went distant for a moment. He held out his hand and a bright gold dot appeared over it, quickly expanding into a sphere the size of a melon. Nalini’s breath quickened to see one of the legendary windows take form in reality. “I don’t know how well this will work. Even in really bright sunlight not a lot of light gets that deep into the body.”
Sure enough, when the gold sparkles retreated to a thin rim, the interior of the window showed only dark, amorphous shapes. Josiah maneuvered his body so that the lantern shone directly on his abdomen, but the window brightened only slightly, still not enough to reveal anything useful.
Gevan shook his head. “I’m afraid that won’t—”
Josiah caught his breath. “Wait a minute. I’ve got an idea. Remember how Kevessa said Nina made her eyes glow? Sar…” His brow creased in concentration.
A soft glow shone though his tunic, as if he’d swallowed a candle, and the window brightened. Nalini recognized the abdominal organs she was familiar with. Although instead of rounded outer contours, it was as if a knife had sliced cleanly through Josiah’s body, revealing a cross-section of their interiors. And instead of constantly welling blood obscuring everything, the red fluid remained confined to its vessels, even where they appeared to be sliced open and she could see it moving in swift surging rushes. She leaned forward in fascination.
“Here…” Josiah murmured, and the window shifted, the plane it revealed moving through the healthy functioning tissue, leaving it untouched. It settled into a viewpoint where the organ Josiah had named the pancreas filled the center of the circle, the cross-section revealing its pinkish-yellow tissue and network of ducts. “Can you see? Lots of little spots, really small, like tiny islands in the middle of the other stuff…” Josiah wiggled a shoulder, but with one hand on the donkey’s back and the other supporting the window, he didn’t have one free to indicate what he meant. “Gevan, maybe your lens would show them better?”
“Perhaps,” Gevan said thoughtfully. He rose and came to the workbench. After a few minutes of maneuvering Josiah ended up with his window hand resting on the table, the lens in its stand in front of it. Gevan studied the view through the lens for a bit, then nodded. “I see them, just as you described.” He moved aside, gesturing for Nalini to take a turn.
Nalini eyed the clumps of darker tissue within the yellow. “What do these islands do?”
Josiah closed his eyes, though they moved under the lids. “They secrete several substances, but the one that matters wizards call insulin, from the Tevenaran word for island.” Nalini saw Gevan nod. “It goes into the blood, not the intestines. It travels all over the body. We can’t tell exactly what it does, but without it nothing works right.” He screwed up his face. “I can’t see it, exactly, because it’s not really alive itself, but I can see its effects. When it’s not there things get all sticky and kind of bluish-honey-squealing—” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. It’s really hard to understand if you’re not a wizard.”
Nalini briefly pondered what it must be like to be able to feel the processes of the body in such vivid detail, then dismissed the fantasy. It was irrelevant to the main point. “This is your healthy body we’re observing, yes? How does hers differ?” She pointed to Thanna.
The window winked out, and the glow in his torso faded. Josiah looked at the girl. “Do you mind?”
She took a deep breath. “No. What do I need to do?”
“Just be as still as you can.” Her stomach began to glow, and the window popped back open over Josiah’s hand, the viewpoint shifting for a while before settling on a view very similar to what they’d just seen. “In people with diabetes, the islands don’t make enough insulin. Something in them dies, and the Mother’s power can’t bring it back to life or make the body grow more. I wonder if we can see—” He twisted around, trying to get a good look through the lens.
When he gave up, Nalini took his place. She thought perhaps the islands of tissue were a bit shrunken from what she�
��d seen before, but the effect was subtle and could easily be due to simple variation between individuals. She’d have to compare many healthy and diabetic patients to draw any firm conclusions. Briskly, she said, “I take it there’s no other source in the body for this substance?”
“No.” Josiah stared at the window. “Thanna’s got just enough living tissue that the Mother’s power can speed up its production of insulin to provide what she needs. If we don’t keep reversing the process every day, more will die. Once too much dies, it can’t make enough no matter what we do, and…” He shrugged, his eyes shadowed with old pain.
He’d have to get used to losing patients if he meant to spend his life as a healer. “So what we need to do is find another source for this substance, and a way to get it into the bloodstream.”
He brightened. “That’s right. Unless you know of some medicine that can stop the tissue from dying.”
“Unfortunately, no.” Nalini put her head to the side. “Do animals produce this substance also?”
Josiah blinked. “I’m not sure. Elkan hasn’t taught me much about animals yet. But we can check. Sar?”
The donkey blinked its long eyelashes at him and heaved a resigned sigh, for all the world as if it understood exactly what the boy was saying. Thanna quit glowing, a portion of the donkey’s stocky body lit up, and the window over Josiah’s hand shrank and regrew. This time the organs revealed were misshapen from what Nalini was used to, though she could still recognize most of them. The pancreas was larger and oriented differently, but the texture of the flesh was much the same, and the miniature islands were there when she looked through the lens.
Josiah’s eyes popped open, his smile bright. “It feels just the same! Although I guess to be sure we’d have to slow down the production of the insulin and see if it had the same effects—”
The donkey stamped a hoof and snorted, laying his ears back. Josiah laughed. “All right, all right! I guess we can find some ordinary animal to try it on, if you’re not willing.”
The donkey still didn’t look too happy, although one ear drifted forward again. Josiah scratched his withers. “Has everyone seen all they want to?”
Nalini shrugged. Gevan glanced at Thanna and nodded. Josiah removed his hand from the donkey’s back and the window over his other hand vanished. He stood up and stretched. “We’ve got to find a less awkward position if we’re going to be doing much of that.” He turned to Gevan. “So what do you think?”
Gevan lifted the lens from its holder and turned it in his hands. “I would think the first thing to try would be to obtain a pancreas from a slaughtered animal and see if we can devise a way to extract the insulin from it.” He tilted his head. “It might be as simple as having Thanna eat some of the organ in question. Perhaps her body can obtain the substance that way.” He looked at the girl.
Thanna paled, but took a deep breath and swallowed. “If I must.”
His words triggered something in Nalini’s memory. “Sweetbreads,” she blurted, using the Girodan word because she had no clue what the Ramunnan equivalent might be. In response to baffled stares from the other three, she explained. “It’s a Girodan dish, a delicacy. Quite expensive. I never cared for it, but some people pay ridiculous amounts for a well-prepared version. I’m almost sure—” She pinched her eyes shut, trying to remember. “There was a butcher, he had a tumor in his stomach. When I was telling him how I would operate, he told me all about butchering a cow, how he’d remove all the different organs and what dishes they were used for. The heart, the liver, the kidneys, the intestines for sausage casings. I’m sure there was something about that organ being used for sweetbreads.”
She opened her eyes to find them all staring at her. Gevan looked disgusted, Josiah looked fascinated, Thanna looked even more nauseated than before. Nalini scowled at them. “I suggest we find a seller of Girodan cuisine and have Thanna try some.”
Gevan still looked deeply skeptical, but he nodded. “I know of a few Girodan restaurants in the market and near the docks. Many Ramunnans have developed a taste for Girodan food, especially traders who travel there often and the wealthy who love novelty.” His expression told her that he didn’t fall into either category.
Never mind. It wouldn’t kill him, and she’d enjoy a taste of home. She rose. “Let’s go. I see no point in postponing the venture.”
They trailed her out the door, Gevan reluctant, Josiah eager, Thanna a mixture of the two. The donkey plodded in Josiah’s wake. Nalini eyed him but didn’t comment. The wizard would need his familiar to observe whatever effect the sweetbreads had on Thanna’s body. If the chef objected to an animal in his establishment, enough money would quiet him.
Maybe this puzzle would be resolved far more quickly than any of them had expected. To her surprise, Nalini found herself almost hoping it wouldn’t be that simple. The peculiar mix of personalities and abilities in the workshop had been volatile but stimulating. She had a feeling they could accomplish a great deal together, although the process might prove stormy. It would be a shame to cut their association short.
Twenty-Three
“Yes, Mama, I’m sure.” Kevessa groaned to herself.
Coming home had been a mistake. Everyone had been warmly welcoming, and no one had been pushy or obvious. But at some point during the afternoon each of her cousins had pulled her aside and quietly asked if she was really sure Nina wasn’t a demon. Hethem, the eldest, who was a student at the University, had lectured her sternly about her duty to the family and her obligation to abide by Papa’s wishes. Yarra, at eleven the youngest, had thrown her arms around Kevessa and sobbed into her shoulder, begging her to get rid of the monster before it hurt her. Kevessa had endured it all, reassuring each of them she was perfectly safe, Nina loved her and would never harm her, and their power came from the Mother. But it was obvious none of them believed her.
Now, as they relaxed in the cozy drawing room after the evening meal, Mama was taking her turn. She was the worst, because Kevessa could tell she was speaking out of deep love and concern. “It’s not that I think you’re lying. I know you’ve given us an honest account of what you experienced. I just want you to consider the possibility that you’ve been deceived. Visions, Kevessa, that’s all you have. Voices in your head. How do you know it was the Mother who spoke to you, and not the Lord of Demons in disguise?”
Kevessa stared into the crackling fire and fought to marshall her thoughts. “She looked like the Mother, she sounded like her, she felt like her. You’ve been taking me to the Temple my whole life. Don’t you think they’ve taught me to know the Mother when I see her?”
“You’re young, Kevessa. Naive. I’m not. I know far more than you do about lies. People lie all the time. There have been times people I trusted, people I loved, told me something they swore by the Mother was the truth. Of course I believed them. Then later I was shown evidence that they had lied to me. It hurt, Kevessa, knowing I’d been betrayed. I felt like the greatest fool in Ramunna. But I faced it, because it would have been worse to cling to falsehoods after I knew I’d been duped.”
“Mama, that has nothing to do—”
Alitta kept talking as if Kevessa hadn’t spoken. “If people deceive each other so easily, surely creatures of evil do so with even greater skill. How hard can it be to pretend to be a sweet, helpful, playful little animal? To feign a desire to do only good? Until it maneuvers you into position and uses you to accomplish its goal, you’ll never know. And then it will be too late.”
Kevessa slammed her cup to the table, tea sloshing over the rim. “Look at what Nina and I have done, Mama. We’ve healed people. That’s all. People who were dying are alive now because of her. People who were suffering are free of pain. Is that what an evil demon would do?”
“If that’s what best served its purpose, it would. The creatures cloak themselves in a aura of holiness, they distribute gifts freely, all to win people to their side. You have to admit it’s working. If it weren’t for Yoran Liroll
a and the Purifiers warning us against them, all of Ramunna would be groveling at their feet. Not just most of it.”
Kevessa clenched her fists. “What have the Purifiers got? An old scrap of paper? You believe that over the good you’ve seen with your own eyes?”
“That ‘old scrap of paper’ was written by the holy Yashonna himself.” Admonishment was heavy in Alitta’s voice. “You boast how well you’ve absorbed the teachings of the Temple; I would think you’d give his words more credence.”
Kevessa bit back her first response. Mama wouldn’t be persuaded by hearing her opinion of the document’s authenticity. She strongly suspected it had been written shortly after news of the wizards’ existence became public, probably by Yoran Lirolla himself. “Vigorre’s a Keeper, he knows far more of the Temple’s teachings than I ever will, and he recognized that our power comes from the Mother as soon as he saw it.”
Turning to him, she was startled to catch a bleak expression on his face. It transformed so swiftly into the earnest support she’d expected she wondered if she’d imagined it. “I’ve longed for the return of the Mother’s power my whole life. What the familiars enable the wizards to do is identical to what the scriptures describe of the ancient wizards’ abilities, and we know they were given by the Mother.”
Alitta’s voice was gentle. “How better to ensnare those who truly want to do good than by counterfeiting the Mother’s holy gifts? But she took them away for a reason. They were twisted to evil before. There’s no reason they can’t be again.”
Vigorre stared into his teacup. “Elkan claims that the Prophet Guron was the first to bond with a familiar. That he didn’t perish in the destruction of ancient Elath as Yashonna’s writings say, but traveled to Tevenar and founded the Wizards’ Guild there.”
Alitta sucked in her breath. “You listen to such heresy? And still call yourself a Keeper?”
Vigorre stiffened but didn’t look at her. “I didn’t say I believe him.”
Beyond the Boundary Stones (The Chronicles of Tevenar Book 3) Page 29
