Healers (21 page)

Eva gave a rueful little laugh. “It
is
remarkable.
Every
patient who’s come to us here in Realth has had something we could treat.” She shrugged, “That isn’t usually the case. But anyway, we’ve actually been able to make everyone we’ve seen in Realth better.
Normally
that’d be really fulfilling.” She snorted unhappily, “So of course
this
is the place where I get sent to prison and might become a slave.”

The woman jerked her chin up interrogatively, “So, what’s wrong with me?”

Eva looked at her, “I don’t know. What’s your complaint?”

“My chest hurts sometimes.”

“Is it achy or sharp?”

“Achy. Makes it hard to breathe.”

“Does it only come on when you’re working? Or even when you’re resting?”

“No not when I’m resting,” she said acerbically, “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong, or just ask questions?”

“Let me feel your pulse,” Eva said taking the woman’s wrist so she’d have an excuse for sitting quietly while her ghost went into the woman’s chest. She quickly scanned through the rest of the woman’s body without finding anything obvious, then focused on her heart. As she’d suspected, the coronary arteries of the woman’s heart were nearly clogged. Letting go of the woman’s wrist, Eva said, “The blood vessels in your heart are clogged up. With them blocked, your heart doesn’t get enough blood, especially not enough for when you exercise because then your heart has to work harder. When your heart doesn’t get enough blood it aches.”

The woman leaned back and gave Eva a little grin. “I’ve always heard that you healers speak gobbledygook. You do too, but you need to be careful, I
almost
understood what you just said.”

Eva frowned, “Which part didn’t you understand? I can try to explain it better.”

“What are vessels? The little tubes your blood flows through?”

Eva nodded.

“Well then,” the woman grinned, “I think I actually
did
understand what you said. You really need to work on your patter so you can keep your patients confused. Can’t have them learning your business, you know?”

Eva grinned back at her. “Maybe I’ll come to you for lessons?”

“Probably you should. So, if my vessels are plugged, what can I do about it?”

Eva sobered. “I can’t unplug them, but my daughter could. Maybe she could treat you when we get out of here?”

“Hah! No, the judge is going to give me thirty days for
my
crime. Even if I survive thirty days of hard work, you caravaners will be gone by then.”

“What was your crime?” Eva asked, frowning.

“Angering old man Stimson. His gold’s gonna make sure I’m convicted for it.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry! Isn’t there anything that can be done?”

The woman winked, “You could fix my heart so I’ll live through my sentence?”

Eva’s eyebrows rose as she had a thought. “Can my daughter be your visitor tomorrow morning?”

“Sure, but she can’t give me anything. Can’t give it to you to give to me either.”

Eva blinked. After a moment she decided to break one of her cardinal rules. “She doesn’t have to touch you or give you anything. She just has to stand near you. If you stood with your chest as near to the grating as possible, and she leaned in close from the other side, she could still clear the blockages in your heart.”

“Without touching me?” the woman said suspiciously, “how?!”

Eva chewed her lip for a moment then said, “I can’t tell you that… But it
will
work. Do you want to try it?”

The woman stared at Eva for a minute, then lifted an eyebrow and said, “Sure. They’re going to try to kill me by workin’ me ‘til my heart busts. Why not take a chance?”

Eva didn’t say anything about how, even without the hard work, the woman’s heart would likely kill her soon.

***

Lizeth and Sam walked slowly back from the far end of the caravan. They’d found a little nook there to be alone. They’d been finding out of the way spots to kiss and hold one another for some time now, though Sam
always
wanted to do more.

She really liked the darkly handsome and oh so nicely-muscled Sam. Her attraction for him had been growing for months, but then had really bumped up when Sam rescued Tarc. That he’d saved Tarc at great risk to himself, taking on
seven
bandits, increased Lizeth’s respect for Sam even more.

Especially since she knew he’d barely gotten over his jealousy issue about Tarc and Lizeth.

It did bug her, the way Sam bragged about his feat. Just boasting wouldn’t bother her much—that was pretty common amongst guards and other military guys in Lizeth’s experience. But, when he described the rescue, Sam made Tarc sound like a sniveling coward. Lizeth couldn’t believe the Tarc who’d rescued all those girls had acted like a coward.

Still, deeds were more important than words. Lizeth glanced up at Sam and he smiled back at her. Turning, she lifted her lips to his and they shared another quick kiss. Her arm around his waist and his hand over her shoulder, they resumed lazily walking, Lizeth feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.
I could let him go further,
she thought,
he wants it so badly. It’s not like I really care about staying a virgin, I just don’t want to have any babies.
They had walked a little farther when she had another thought,
When Eva gets free, I’ll bet she can tell me how to keep from getting pregnant.

Lizeth leaned her head happily on Sam’s shoulder, thinking about how wonderful it would feel to be even closer to Sam.

An even stronger relationship.

As they passed the guard wagon, Sam jerked back. He stopped walking, his hand sliding down off Lizeth’s shoulder. She glanced up at him. He looked… apprehensive. She looked ahead to see what might be worrying him, but didn’t see anything. He started walking again, but stiffly and slower. They were just about to get to the Hyllises’ wagon. Tarc was getting something out of it. Beyond, the Ropers’ wagon stood empty.

Lizeth looked into the distance for something else that might have alarmed Sam.

She blinked, then she stopped.

Her eyes went from Tarc, to Sam, to Tarc. Then she looked intently up at Sam. “You
didn’t
rescue Tarc did you?”

Wide-eyed, Sam looked down at her, “What?!” But he almost whispered, as if afraid to be overheard sounding indignant.

Tarc had found whatever he was looking for in the wagon. He went back around to the other side where the Hyllises’ tents were pitched. “
You
were captured by the bandits.
Tarc
rescued you.”

“What?!” Sam tried to look offended, but didn’t really pull it off.

Lizeth took her arm from around Sam’s back and looked at him. “
I
know what Tarc can do. I’d thought it was pretty surprising that any bandits managed to capture someone as…
deadly
as he is.” Then, referencing Sam’s reputation for poor situational awareness, Lizeth said, “Turns out, I’m
not
surprised some bandits caught ‘Mr. Oblivious.’”

“You
know
about his knives?!”

She nodded, then frowned, “How did you talk Tarc into letting
you
take credit?”

“He
wanted
me to!
Doesn’t
want people knowing
he’s
the one!”

“The one?”

“The one who killed and demoralized all those soldiers in Walterston! The one who killed the raiders!” A shiver ran over him. “What he can do with a knife… it’s
ungodly
! Three throws, three kills!
Every
knife, right in the gods-be-damned eye!”

“Yes… yes it is,” Lizeth said quietly. She eased a little away from Sam and stood looking at him a moment. “Catch you later,” she said, like she usually did when she and Sam parted. She stepped between the guard wagon and the Hyllises’ wagon and headed over to where the musicians were warming up.

Bemusedly, she realized she’d just lost
all
interest in Sam. She probably wouldn’t be “catching him later” after all.

***

The next morning, Eva and her new friend, Portia, stood next to each other at the ironwork fence, waiting to speak to their visitors. Just before the guards let the visitors approach, Eva turned to Portia and handed her a small rag, “Here, stuff this in your shirt, right over your heart.” Raising an eyebrow, Portia did so, then faced front as the visitors streamed up.

A man started speaking to Portia as Daum walked up.

Eva saw only Daussie had accompanied Daum on this morning. Fortunate, since if Tarc or Kazy had come they wouldn’t have been able to help Portia’s bad heart. As soon as Daum stepped close, Eva said quickly, “Let me speak to Daussie first. I’ll talk to you in a minute.”

Daum lifted an eyebrow, but wordlessly stepped back and motioned Daussie forward. As soon as Daussie approached, Eva spoke quietly to her. “The woman on my left,” she glanced at Portia with her eyes, “has a nearly complete blockage of her left anterior descending coronary artery. She’s almost certainly going to be sentenced to thirty days of hard labor, and the heavy exertion’ll kill her with
that
heart condition. She’s going to ask her husband to step away in a few minutes, so you can step up near her. She’ll talk to
you,
so you don’t have to say anything, just focus on cleaning out her artery.”

Daussie stared at her mother, then gave her a little grin. “Even while you’re in prison for healing, you’re still scheming to make people better?”

Eva gave her a sheepish grin in return. “Yeah, the talents you and your brother possess… we can help
so
many more people!” She grinned, “I’m almost euphoric that we can treat all these conditions we couldn’t do anything about in the past.”

“Where am I supposed to put the goop I get out of her arteries? It’ll be hard to transport it very far away from her.”

“I had her stuff a rag in the front of her shirt. Just put it in there.”

“Okay,” Daussie said stepping back and waiving Daum forward.

Eva glanced at Portia and gave her a nod. Portia waved her husband away and he stepped back, letting Daussie approach. Portia then stood up straighter and moved close to the fence. Daussie leaned closer while Portia spoke to her as if she were giving a blessing or something.

Eva explained to Daum what was going on and he shook his head bemusedly. “Paul still seems to be getting better. Do you know when your trial will be?”

“They have me
listed
as the first case, day after tomorrow.”

“Good, that’ll let us get all our witnesses.”

“All of them?”

“Yes, Paul, Mrs. Lee and her son Joe, the little girl with the ear infection, the old man whose hearing was blocked with wax, the man with the gout…”

Eva interrupted, “They’ll only allow four witnesses.”

“That’s what Mrs. Lee said. But she says people get around that by having one person speak for several. She’ll speak for herself and then point out her son and the man with the wax who’ll both nod along with her. The mother of the little girl will speak for her daughter and the man with the gout will speak for himself.”

“But,” Eva frowned, “
surely
the man with the gout didn’t get much better?”

“Probably not, but he
says
he’s better. I think he’s mostly impressed by the way you were taking care of Paul when he came by for his toe, so it’s kind of like Paul’s getting you two witnesses.”

Daussie stepped away from where she’d been standing near Portia. Eva glanced at her and Daussie gave her a wink in return.

All too soon, their time was up. Eva had been gratified to hear that, other than breakfast, business remained good. Financially, the Hyllises were doing well.

Later that morning, Portia stopped Eva, an ecstatic expression on her face. She threw her arms around her and whispered fiercely in her ear, “I’ve walked all the way around the yard several times.
No
crushing pain in my chest! Thank you! Thank you, thank you,
thank
you!” She pushed Eva back out to arm’s length, “I’m starting to think I
might
live through my sentence!”

Eva grinned at her, “I certainly hope so. I wish I could do something about the sentence itself.”

The woman frowned and tilted her head quizzically, “What
was
the disgusting gunk in that rag you had me stuff in my shirt? It
looked
like someone blew their bloody nose into it!”

***

Lizeth stood in the dinner line in front of the Hyllises’, looking forward to a roast beef and tomato sandwich. Her eyes kept straying to the handsome, dark blonde young man with the choppy hair. Slicing bread near their oven, Tarc had removed his usual heavy over shirt and worked in a light, short-sleeved undershirt. His muscular arms looked
good
.