Crystal Healer (27 page)

I caught my breath. "Black crystal?"

"No. It has far more benign readings--more like a form of quartz. I'm reading tons of it here."

We walked on, but after a few more meters, he stopped me.

"Don't go any farther. There are large subsurface faults filled with liquid all around us. The ground may collapse under us."

He knelt down and placed the end of a sampling probe into the soil, and watched it disappear as it burrowed into the ground. Then we retreated a safe distance.

"Could it be graves?" I asked.

"No. The liquid isn't decompositional. It appeared to be mineral." He watched the scanner display as the probe began transmitting a vid of its progress. The red soil in front of it fell away, and the probe dropped into a void half-filled with a pool of what looked like water.

The probe didn't sink but instead floated on the top of the fluid. All around it the liquid began to bloom with strange, feathery shapes, as if the probe's presence had caused some sort of reaction. As we watched, the feathery shapes solidified into three-sided crystalline shafts.

Memories of being trapped in a pit made of a clear crystal rushed into my mind. "It looks like the Pel." The sentient, shape-changing crystal Cherijo had encountered while forced to work as a slave doctor had been able to communicate telepathically with her, and had even helped her and Reever liberate Catopsa.

"I thought the same thing, but it isn't the Pel," my husband said. "The liquid is some form of protocrystal, but unlike anything in the database."

The crystal growth increased at an alarming rate, until it replaced all of the liquid I could see in the void. "Why is it solidifying so fast?"

"Perhaps coming in contact with the probe's alloy housing caused a chemical reaction." Reever sighed as the vid from the probe grew blurry and then disappeared. "That must be what's causing the transceiver to malfunction. The probe has stopped transmitting, too."

We met with the rest of the team back at the edge of the meadow and compared readings.

"This entire valley is honeycombed with deposits of solid and liquid crystal," Reever said after checking the others' scanners. "In some places the soil barely covers it."

"This place makes my fur stand on end," Uorwlan said. "It's making my head ache, too. We should get out of here."

The guide appeared without Jylyj and began speaking to Reever, gesturing toward the area where he and the Skartesh had gone. I looked over but couldn't see the resident.

"Wait." Reever took hold of the oKiaf's arm and concentrated. After a few moments he released him. "Jylyj slipped away from the guide. He says he went into the forbidden area." He spoke to the oKiaf, who argued with him briefly before gesturing toward the tree line. "He'll track him. He says we have to follow in his footsteps or we could be killed."

"By what?" To me, the meadow appeared completely deserted.

"I don't know," Reever admitted, "but he's terrified, and not just for himself."

We followed the guide in a single-file line as he skirted the meadow and approached the trees. As we passed the cliff face, I saw a section of rock that had fallen away, and the glitter of crystal shining through the jagged dark red stone.

The heartwood trees at the edge of the meadow grew so thick that the trunks proved an effective barrier all on their own. The guide found a gap large enough for us to squeeze through, but held us back and gave Reever a terse set of instructions.

"We have to leave our packs here," he said. Once we had placed everything on the ground, the guide reluctantly led us into the thicket.

We had gone only a short distance before the trees ended and another, smaller clearing appeared, shadowed by an outcropping of red stone that seemed to hang over it like a protective roof. The guide stopped at the edge, scanned the area, and then went still. Backing away, he turned and issued sharp orders to Reever.

"He says we have to go back to the encampment," my husband translated. He then spoke in oKiaf to the guide, who made a violent gesture. "He won't allow us to go any farther."

I heard a faint sound coming from behind the guide's back, and moved to the side to have another look. From this angle I could see a large open pit in the ground. I also heard the sound of a man groaning. "I hear him. Jylyj is in there."

When I tried to go past the guide, he grabbed my arms and pushed me back.

"He must have fallen into the pit," I said, pulling away and turning to Reever. "Tell him we have to get him out of there."

My husband spoke to the guide, who turned and began shouting at him.

I didn't waste any more time, but dodged around the guide and ran into the clearing. Under my feet the ground seemed to shift, collapsing in places the way ice did during the thaw after winter. I moved fast, jumping over the voids that began to form in front of me until I made it to the edge of the pit.

When I looked down, the glitter of crystal hurt my eyes. There, in the center of the pit, lay Jylyj, his body impaled on dozens of crystal shafts.

Later, I would wonder why I did as I did at that moment. I would go over it a thousand times and still not know what made me act. But when I saw Jylyj, his body bleeding from dozens of wounds, I stopped thinking and jumped into the pit.

I landed on my feet after the three-meter drop, but the sharp points of the crystal apexes didn't penetrate my footgear. Instead, they shattered under the impact of my landing as if made of thin ice. Above my head I heard shouts, but only bent over the Skartesh, working my fingers under his mane to check his pulse.

His dark eyes opened. "Leave me and go."

"I'd be happy to, but I don't think I can jump back out," I said. I lifted my head and called out, "He's fallen onto some crystal but he's still alive. I need my pack, something to cut him free, and some ropes so we can lift him out of here."

"You can never free me," Jylyj said. "Leave me here, Jarn. It is the only way for me."

Something was glowing under his shirt, and I ripped it open to see two golden streaks in his fur, both giving off a cool white light. My eyes widened as the crystal shafts that had stabbed through his body turned white with the light from the marks in his fur, and then began shrinking back into the wounds they had inflicted. As Reever appeared above us at the edge of the pit, the shafts disappeared, and Jylyj's body collapsed against the now-flat bottom.

"Jarn."When I looked up, Reever tossed my pack down to me. I caught it neatly. "How badly is he injured?"

I looked at the wounds on the Skartesh's chest, which were also shrinking. "I don't know, but he's lost a lot of blood. Duncan, we have to get him out of here now."

My husband nodded. "Qonja and Hawk are rigging some ropes to the trees. Tie him to you, and we'll pull you both out."

While I waited for the ropes, I took a syrinpress from my pack and administered a painkiller. The Skartesh opened his eyes as soon as he felt the infusion and glared at me.

"You're wasting your drugs." He ducked his head and looked down at the glowing marks on his fur. "Look at this. Look at what you've done."

"What I've done? I only jumped in here." I took his vital signs, which were weak but steady. "You seem to be doing all the healing yourself." When he said nothing, I added, "Is this why your patients recover so quickly? Are you some sort of touch healer?"

He made a disgusted sound and closed his eyes.

By the time Reever lowered the ends of two ropes, Jylyj had fallen unconscious. I turned him on his side and worked the rope under his arms and then lay down and faced him as I wrapped it around me, pulled it tight, and knotted it. I grabbed my pack, wedged it between us, and then rolled onto my back, holding him against me as I called up to my husband.

"Ready."

The ropes bit into my sides as they began hauling us up from the bottom of the pit. On the way up, Jylyj groaned a few times but never regained consciousness, and when Reever reached in to take my outstretched hand, my longshirt and leggings were soaked with Skartesh blood.

Reever cut the ropes, and Qonja and Hawk lifted Jylyj between them.

"Take him," my husband said. "Quickly."

I was about to warn them about the treacherous ground when I saw all the collapsed areas were filled with pools of a white liquid. I turned my head and saw the pit was filling with the same.

"Duncan," Uorwlan called out. She sounded scared. "Move it."

I looked down and saw the liquid crystal erupting through the soil, spreading and covering and solidifying over everything it touched. Reever lifted me off my feet, held me against his chest, and ran for the trees. He jumped over a stream of the liquid crystal, just clearing it before we were in the shelter of the trees. I looked over his shoulder and saw shafts sprouting up like plants.

The guide nearly ripped my husband's sleeve as he pulled us away from the clearing. With a final look, Duncan turned and carried me through the grove.

When we reached the meadow, the guide reluctantly allowed us to stop and catch our breath. Reever put me on my feet, and I opened my pack as I went to where Qonja and Hawk had laid Jylyj on the ground.

I scanned him three times and then pulled back his garments to see the wounds for myself. No longer bleeding or open, they were all now thick scars. As I touched one, I felt it softening and watched it disappear into his flesh. Tiny hairs began to grow, covering the new skin.

I glanced up at my husband. "He heals like I do."

"Maggie once told Cherijo that her people had made others like her," Reever said, his voice tight. "He must be one of them."

Uorwlan loomed over the Skartesh. "He'll be all right, won't he?"

I realized that she and the others hadn't seen Jylyj impaled on the crystals as I had, and debated for a moment on what to tell her. If the Skartesh had been created to be like me, he had probably gone to great lengths to conceal it.

"He has some internal injuries and he's lost a great deal of blood," I said at last. I'd only brought the most basic medical supplies with me; half of my equipment remained in the shelter. "We have to get back to the encampment. If I can't cross-match a donor from the oKiaf, we'll have to evacuate him to the ship."

"That's going to be difficult," Reever said. "When I went after you, I dropped my pack. It fell into one of the holes in the clearing. The crystal engulfed it before I could retrieve it."

"I have one back at camp," Uorwlan said. "You can use it to signal your people."

The guide called to Reever as he dragged several branches from the thicket.

"He says we can make a litter to carry him," my husband said. "Uorwlan, get three of those blue broad-leaf plants. Qonja, Hawk, gather some strong vines." He glanced at me. "What do you need?"

"A hospital." I checked Jylyj's pulse, which remained weak. "He seems to be holding on, but hurry."

The guide and Reever stripped the branches of their leaves while the others gathered the plants from the meadow. I watched as the men built a long, narrow frame by lashing short and long branches together with vines at the cross sections. The guide punched holes with a dagger through the tough edges of the broad-leafed blue plants and lashed them across the frame, creating a supporting surface for Jylyj's body. Uorwlan reinforced it by volunteering her cloak, which Reever draped over the frame before the men brought the makeshift litter over to me.

I showed them how to lift him, and then secured his body to the frame with pieces of the rope. Qonja and Hawk lifted one end of the frame, and Reever and the guide the other. When I would have moved to the front to lead them toward the pass, Uorwlan shook her head.

"I'll take up the lead," she said, and pointed to the Skartesh. "You stay beside him."

We moved as fast as we could, but carrying Jylyj slowed the men, and the trek back to the encampment took twice as long. Several tribesmen ran out as soon as we were spotted by the watch, and helped carry Jylyj to our kiafta.

"Put him on the platform," I said as I went to retrieve my supplies from the packs. When one of the tribesmen seized my arm, I glared at him. "Let go of me."

He spoke to me in a sharp voice and gestured toward Jylyj, but released me as soon as Reever came over to us.

"They're angry. The guide told them Jylyj entered the forbidden area, and--in his words--woke up the crystal. To them, that is an unforgivable offense." My husband then spoke at length to the tribesman, who seemed to calm a little but spoke sharply again before he strode out.

"What are they going to do?"

"Nothing. You can treat him." Reever rubbed his eyes with his fingers. "We have to leave, though, first thing in the morning."

"We have to leave as soon as Uorwlan can signal the
Sunlace
," I said as I went over to the platform. "I need to move him to the medical bay as soon as possible."

"They won't allow Uorwlan to use her transceiver," my husband said. "They're contacting the Elphian to come and remove all of us from the planet."

My first priority was to examine Jylyj properly, so I drafted Hawk to serve as my assistant as I cut off the Skartesh's garments and began the visual assessment. On the outside of his body I found patches of short, newly grown fur, the only indications of where he had been impaled on the crystal, and counted twenty-eight separate wounds--all of which were healed over as if they had never happened.

I scanned his internal organs, from the top of his head to the pads of his paws, and found only a few traces of cellular disturbance. From the locations, Jylyj had suffered life-threatening penetrating injuries to both lungs, his heart, liver, spleen, and one of his four kidneys, as well as a rupture of his stomach and complete severing of his intestines in five different places.

From the extent of the injuries, he should have died almost instantly after jumping into that pit, and yet he had only a few lingering bruises and a mild inflammation of the abdomen, as if he had just recovered from a minor case of gastric infection instead of what had to have been a terminal-level peritoneal infection.