Healers (22 page)

Lizeth reminded herself he was a couple of years younger than she was.

But,
damn
, he looked good. Lizeth knew she found dangerous men sexy, she’d always been attracted to them. Unfortunately, most dangerous men were rude braggarts who thought only of themselves. Polite, humble Tarc—dangerous, but
not
obnoxious—how much sexier could you get?

“Lizeth?”

Lizeth blinked, apparently Kazy had just asked her what she wanted for dinner, but she’d daydreamed through it. Though Kazy looked a little drawn as you might expect after Eva’s arrest, the girl grinned at Lizeth, obviously aware of just where her eyes had been pointing. “Um, sorry, I’d like the roast beef and tomato sandwich.”

“Coming right up,” Kazy said, then jerked her head back toward Tarc, “that other item you’re interested in… It’s not on the main menu,” Kazy winked at Lizeth, “but I hear it can be had from the owner at a rock bottom price.”

Glad a blush wouldn’t be visible on her dark skin, Lizeth said as innocently as she could, “I have
no
idea what you’re talking about.”

Kazy snorted as she took Lizeth’s money. A few minutes later she called Lizeth back to get her sandwich. As Lizeth reached out for it, Kazy raised an eyebrow and said, “Oops, I saw you checking out that other merchandise
again
.”

Lizeth settled for grinning back at her this time.

***

Eva shuffled into the judicial section of the holding area, wondering what the day would hold. Would the judge be paying attention? Could somebody with money have paid him off to convict her? She didn’t feel like anyone disliked her
that
much, except perhaps Paul’s father. She hoped that, even if Mr. Spencer hated her, he didn’t have much money.

She looked across into the area reserved for witnesses and spectators. A warm feeling came over her as she saw her family and a big group of people who’d come to her for treatment.

It seemed like forever, but eventually the judge arrived, took his seat and nodded to his bailiff. The bailiff announced, “The case of Eva Hyllis, accused of practicing the healers art, but making one Paul Spencer worse, rather than better.”

The judge looked at the holding area, “Which one of you is Eva Hyllis?”

Eva stood up, saying, “I am sir.”

“So,” the judge said, looking her up and down, “I hear you’re quite the healer?”

Dumbstruck, Eva stood there wondering what to say.

Evidently the judge didn’t expect her to say much, because he continued, “Rumors are going around about you. They claim you’ve healed
dozens
of people. I’m told you’ve even healed people here in the prison!”

This time, Eva felt fairly comfortable not offering a response since the judge hadn’t really posed a question.

However, the judge lifted his chin, “Well! What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Um, there haven’t been
dozens
of people. I
have
helped a few. I haven’t
charged
any of them, just done what I could for people in need.”

“So, you admit to working as a healer?”

“Um, I admit to
helping
some people who’ve been sick,” Eva said, hating how tentative she sounded. “I work as a cook. I don’t earn any money as a healer… at least, not around here.”

The judge gave her a dubious look, then looked at his papers and turned to the witnesses’ section, “Is Paul Spencer here?”

Paul stood up, “Yes sir.”

“You’re the one who says she made you worse?”

“No sir. I had pneumonia…”

The judge interrupted, “Where’s the Paul Spencer who filed the complaint?”

Paul said, “Sir, I’m the same Paul Spencer. My father
thought
I was getting worse and filed the complaint in my name. Actually, I got better, so I have no complaint against Ms. Hyllis and never did. I’m here to testify in her defense.”

The judge stared doubtfully at him for a moment, “You
had
pneumonia?”

“Yes sir.”

“And you’re still alive,” the judge said doubtfully. “I assume it was a mild case?”

“It didn’t seem like a mild case to me sir. I felt like I was dying, could hardly breathe and was coughing up so much stuff it felt like I was drowning.”

“But you’re still alive?!”

“I believe so sir.” The crowd in the witness area tittered in amusement.

The judge didn’t look like he thought it was funny. He scowled and continued, “Are there more witnesses for the defense?”

A number of hands shot up in the little area where the Hyllises’ patients had gathered. Mrs. Lee organized them, not using Paul since he already seemed to have testified for the defense while being called on as a plaintiff. The judge never got around to calling on Paul’s father about the complaint he’d filed. Mrs. Lee chose her son to testify and mention she’d been cured of her kidney stones as well. The mother of the little girl with the ear infection, the man with deafness from wax in his ear, and the man with the gout rounded out Eva’s four witnesses. All testified strongly in her behalf.

After Eva’s witnesses finished their testimony, the judge sat silently for a few minutes, drumming his fingers. Eva felt gratified the judge seemed to have actually paid attention, and now seemed to be giving real consideration to her case. She worried though, because the judge hadn’t done so in any of the other cases she’d watched the past few days. She wondered what could have caused the change. Finally, the judge looked towards the holding area, “Are any of the prisoners present who this woman’s supposed to have treated?”

Eva looked around and saw Portia had her hand up. The judge called on her.

Portia stood, “I was having chest pain. It came on any time I had to walk very far or work hard. I’d been told it was my heart.” She shrugged, “I was thinking I’d die if you sentenced me to hard labor. But Eva Hyllis
cured
me! I can walk all the way around this camp and I’ve lifted some heavy things! I can…”

The judge interrupted, “Enough!” He turned his eyes on Eva, “So, it seems you
may
actually make people better. Even the person you were accused of bringing to harm.” He chewed his lip for a moment, “But someone apparently thought he got worse first. The law carries a penalty of up to two months of enslavement for a ‘cure’ that makes someone worse,
even
if they get better afterwards.”

This was more explanation of the law than Eva’d heard the judge give for any of the previous cases she’d witnessed. She didn’t know whether that was good or bad, but feared the worst. She wondered whether he’d just pronounced her a two-month sentence, or might simply be going over the options.

The judge stared at Eva for a minute, then looked around and asked, “Anyone else here sick with something they’d like this woman to cure?”

Hands went up here and there, both in the witness area and in the holding area where the accused were waiting. The judge pointed to a man at the front of the witness area, “Step on out here. What’s wrong with you?”

The man said, “I’ve got a lot of pain in my hip.” He heaved himself to his feet and, using a cane, limped out in to the area in front of the bench. Eva, who’d been wondering what the judge had in mind, felt her heart sink. She recognized by the way the man lurched that he had arthritis in his hip.

The judge turned to Eva, “Well, Ms.,” he glanced down at his notes, “Hyllis, what can you do for this man?”

Her heart racing, Eva said, “I don’t
know
if anything can be done without examining him, but I’m worried you’re just testing me to see if I’ll
try
to heal him. If you’re intending to enslave me if I try to treat him, I certainly don’t want to try.”

The judge shrugged, “I want to see if you really can make people better. If you
can
, Realth needs people like you. If you
can’t
, we don’t care what you do as long as you don’t make people worse.”

Hesitantly, Eva said, “So, do you want me to examine this man? He probably has arthritis and I can’t do much for that.”

The judge nodded and one of the guards came up and let Eva out into the witnessing area where the man stood leaning heavily on his cane. Eva walked up to him and sent her ghost into his hip. As she’d suspected, it had severe arthritis with bone rubbing on bone.

Eva looked up at the man, “You do have arthritis in that hip. Other than drinking willowbark tea, I’m afraid I don’t know of anything you can do for that.” She turned and looked at the judge, “Sorry.”

Looking surprised, the judge said, “Really? No magic salves?”

Eva shrugged, “I don’t tell people I can help them if I can’t.”

The judge laughed and looked around the room, “Anyone else want to see if this woman can make them better?”

More hands shot up. The judge pointed to an old man near the front. The man got up and shuffled out, “My hearing’s been going. I couldn’t hear it myself, but my son told me that woman helped a man get his hearing back. Maybe she can do the same for me?”

The judged looked at Eva, “Do you have to ‘examine’ him too?”

“Yes sir,” Eva said moving to the man, thinking he probably just had typical hearing loss associated with age. The chances were slim he’d have something treatable, but she wondered what to do if he did. Should she treat it? What if she needed Daussie or Tarc? Should she get them involved and risk getting them in trouble too? She thought not, but that would severely limit the number of things she’d be able to treat successfully.

Eva made a show of looking in the man’s ears while sending her ghost in to check deep inside where she couldn’t see. Just like their other patient, his ear canals were plugged with dense hard wax! An amazing coincidence to have two patients so close together with treatable causes of deafness.
So,
she thought,
I can treat it by myself. Should I? Or would that just be final proof that I
am
a healer?
She closed her eyes and decided to follow her ethics as a healer.

Speaking fairly loudly so the patient, and incidentally the judge could hear her, Eva said, “Your ear’s plugged with wax. If I take it out, you’ll probably hear better, but I doubt your hearing will be ‘normal’ since a lot of people your age are a little deaf anyway.”

“Anything you can do would be great,” he said, looking hopeful.

“It might hurt, digging the wax out, are you OK with that?”

“Yes, yes, that’d be worth it!”

Eva turned to the judge, “Do you want me to try to help this man?”

The judge waved a negligent hand as if to say, “Go ahead.”

“And if I do, are you going to declare me a criminal?”

“Not if you don’t hurt him.”

Eva rolled her eyes, “I just told him it’d probably hurt!”

“I mean, do him damage.”

Eva turned back to the man, “Shall we try it?”

The man nodded enthusiastically.

“OK, sit down and lean your head against the rail there,” Eva said, pulling a pin out of her hair. “Your head has to hold still so I don’t hurt you.”

The man sat on a stool and leaned his head against the rail. Eva sat on another stool and scooted it next to him. She looked at her hair pin, choosing the flattened end. She bent the flat section against the rail. Pretending to look in the man’s ear, but actually guiding her little bent spatula with her ghost, Eva moved it into his ear canal.

As she had feared, the wax was rock hard. She worked at it with the spatula, tugging it loose from the skin of the canal and hoping to break it into smaller pieces. The hand she had braced against the man’s face could feel him wincing. “Sorry,” she said quietly, forgetting how bad his hearing was.

“Huh?” he asked.

“Sorry this’s hurting you,” Eva said, speaking louder.

“It’s okay,” he said in a strained voice, wincing again.

Eva kept worrying at the wax plug around the edges and trying to pull flakes off its surface. Small flakes came off but nothing worthwhile. Eva tried slipping the spatula all the way down along it to the bottom. However, the man started trembling and she worried he’d move his head violently and she’d injure him. She’d begun trying to pull the spatula out when the plug suddenly fractured into two pieces. The small piece immediately came out. A moment later, she managed to pull out the big piece.

“There you go,” she said.

“Hey!” the man said tremulously, “I
can
hear better!”

“Hold still a little longer,” Eva said, “There’re some little pieces that still need to come out.” She worked at them a little longer, then said, “Turn around.”

The man turned his other ear to her quickly, as if afraid the judge might decide she’d done enough and tell her to stop. Fortunately, the second ear went more quickly. When Eva finished, he excitedly proclaimed his hearing to be much improved.