Healers (3 page)

“We only wish,” Prichard’s voice broke again at this, “we could know who our saviors were.
What
men were brave enough to show up at Yates’ farm and attack a hardened bunch of desperate ex-soldiers. I’ve checked around,” he chuckled a little, “and none of
you
men snuck off in the middle of the night to do it. My best guess is that some group of the raiders themselves became disenchanted with what their fellows had been doing and killed their fellows in their sleep.” He shrugged, “If that’s the case, it’s astonishing they left the money behind. Maybe their newfound conscience forbade them taking it?”

Prichard stopped after a few more words, then answered a series of incredulous questions from his audience. When the questions slowed, he announced the formation of a small council of the farmers. The council would be charged with disbursing the raiders’ gold to those who had been hurt the worst. The weapons would be distributed amongst farmers willing to drill with them in hopes of forming a mutually protective group for the future.

When Prichard had finished his presentation, Norton made rounds of the caravan, telling everyone they would be leaving in the morning. Shortly after this, Daum approached Eva, “What did you find out about the girl? Does she have any relatives?” he asked hopefully.

Eva nodded slowly at her husband, an odd expression on her face.

“Thank all the gods!” Daum breathed. “Are any of them here? You know, and can take her with them?”

Eva nodded again.

Daum’s eyes turned to look at Kazy, who sat with Daussie talking quietly. He glanced around then, obviously trying to figure out where the putative relatives were. As he looked, he said with some frustration, “Where are they?” He looked at Eva, wondering about the crinkling smile at the corner of her eyes. He frowned, “They should be spending time with her, trying to reassure the poor girl.”

“Well…” Eva said, dragging out the pause, “her closest relative is right there.” She pointed at Daum’s chest, but he, misunderstanding, turned to look back over his shoulder.

Not seeing an obvious candidate, Daum turned back to Eva with a frown, saying, “Who?”

“You, Daum… She’s a Hyllis.” Eva turned to look meaningfully at Kazy and Daussie, “So, in a sense one of her relatives
is
spending time with her, trying to reassure her.” She turned back to Daum, “I’d suggest you need to get over there and do a little bit of that yourself.”

Daum looked thunderstruck. “What!”

“Her grandmother, mother, and father moved here from Colesville before she was born, probably a few years before or after we moved. Her dad was probably one of your cousins.”

“Holy mother!” Daum breathed. “Have you told her yet?”

Eva shook her head.

While Kazy and Daussie had been talking, Kazy’s mind had been off of her troubles. That conversation had run down a few minutes ago however. Now Kazy’s thoughts returned to her situation. When she’d heard Prichard talking about what the council would do with the raiders’ gold and weapons she had realized she might not be as destitute as she had thought. Her family hadn’t owned their farm, they’d been renting it, but they did own their possessions there. She supposed she’d inherited those things at least, though she thought the raiders had likely taken almost everything of value. Admittedly, however, she hadn’t been watching very closely in the wake of having seen the other members of her family killed before her eyes.

If she could get to the farm, she could dig up the strongbox where her parents’ had kept the money they were saving towards actually buying the farm. Of course, the raiders might have found the strongbox, and she had no idea how much money might have been in it even if it was undisturbed. If it
was
there though, she thought the money would be enough to buy her passage with the caravan.
This
caravan probably wouldn’t go all the way to Colesville and her distant relatives, but perhaps it would meet up with a caravan that did.

Kazy looked around, wondering who might be willing to take her to her family’s farm. She didn’t think she had the courage to go alone. For that matter she didn’t know if she could bear to visit the farm by herself. As she was about to turn to Daussie and ask if she would go with Kazy in the morning, Kazy realized a man was walking toward her. The man’s eyes were focused on Kazy.

She wanted to run away, but managed restrain herself.

The man approached and squatted down in front of Kazy. He looked vaguely familiar, but Kazy couldn’t imagine why. She felt
sure
she’d never met him. Maybe he’d been with the group who’d rescued the girls, but she hadn’t seen him up close then. Kazy couldn’t help but shrink away a little. Trying to put up a brave front, she glanced at Daussie whose eyes were on the man as well. Kazy took some solace in the fact that Daussie didn’t seem at all worried. The man looked searchingly into Kazy’s eyes and said, “I hear you lost
all
your family?”

Kazy nodded jerkily, though at first her throat was too closed up to say anything. After a moment she said in a quiet, pressured kind of speech, “I… I have some family in Colesville, though I’ve never met them. I’ve been wondering if maybe… maybe the caravan would let me go with them since Colesville’s the same direction the caravan’s going. I don’t suppose the caravan’s going all the way to Colesville, but maybe it’ll meet a caravan that does?”

In a kindly voice, the man said, “What was your father’s name?”

Thinking of her father, Kazy realized the man looked familiar because his eyes looked like her dad’s. “Richie Hyllis,” she croaked out.

A terribly sad expression came over the man’s face. After a moment he rasped out, “You don’t have to go to Colesville to find your family girl, we’re right here.”

Kazy’s eyes flashed wide, “You’re… you’re…?”

“I’m your dad’s cousin… Richie and I used to play together when we were little. I am… so sorry to hear he’s gone. So sorry to learn he lived here and I didn’t even know it. I’d give you a hug, but Eva tells me you probably aren’t up to being touched by men yet.”

Kazy got to her feet and, when the man rose too, though it was difficult, she tentatively put her arms around him. He reached his arms clumsily around her and gently patted her back. “What’s your name?” she asked, her head buried in his shoulder.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m Daum Hyllis. For some absurd reason I thought you already knew.”

Kazy drew her head back, then glanced around curiously. “Do I have other family here besides you?”

Daussie had risen to her feet. Now she put her arms around Kazy and Daum. “Me,” she said. “Daum’s my dad, so I’d be your second cousin.”

“Oh!” Kazy squeaked, pulling an arm free from Daum and throwing it around Daussie. “Oh!” she said, unable to string together anything more coherent, but squeezing Daussie with all of her might. She blinked her blurry eyes so that the tears would squeeze out and run down her cheeks, “So,
Eva’s
my family too?”

They nodded at her.

“Anyone else?”

“My brother,” Daussie said, “Tarc. I’m not sure where he’s gone off to.”

“Oh yeah! The guy with the blue eyes!”

Daussie grinned at her, seeing in Kazy’s eyes just how handsome Kazy thought Tarc was and hoping it meant she wouldn’t fear men forever. “That’d be the guy.” She winked, “Don’t forget
he’s
your cousin too.”

Eva had approached. Now she put her arms around the other three so Kazy was squeezed into the middle. Sadly, Kazy said, “It’s probably just as well. No man’s going to want me after what’s happened.” She shrugged, “I probably couldn’t stand to be with a man anyway.”

Eva said, “Don’t
think
that way! I know you don’t want to be around men right now, but I’m pretty sure you’ll get over that someday. And,
any
man that doesn’t want you because of what those raiders did to you…” Eva’s voice turned bitter, “a man like
that
isn’t worth having anyway.”

Tarc arrived back at the caravan with a couple of straps of wood. As he laid them close to hand for the dinner fire, he saw Daum, Eva, and Daussie all clustered in what looked like a group hug. A group hug with someone in the center. He could only see the short girl’s dark hair, but that made him think it was probably that cute girl they’d rescued. The one who’d been following Daussie around like a child dogging its mother. Daussie had warned Tarc the girl was afraid of men after her experience, so he was glad to see she wasn’t shying away from Daum.

Nonetheless, Tarc wondered what was going on. He supposed he’d find out when he needed to. It didn’t look like the kind of event he should try to horn in on.

Tarc had turned to head out for a couple more straps of wood for the breakfast cook, but Eva called his name. He turned. Eva waved him over, saying, “Come, meet your cousin Kazy.”

***

That evening, after the Hyllises had served dinner to much of the caravan and the few remaining farmers, someone built a large bonfire in the middle of the caravan circle. Some of the caravaners pulled out instruments and a kind of celebration ensued.
Everyone
seemed to be glad to be out from under the yoke of the raiders and the caravaners were certainly ready to get back on the road.

Having heard Eva and Daussie singing to the girls that afternoon, one of the musicians called out to them, asking whether they would sing. Although they often sang together in the kitchen and crooned little lullabies to their sick patients they had never sung before a group before. Nonetheless, they got up and joined the musicians. After a brief discussion it appeared that both they and the musicians knew an ancient song called
Amazing Grace
. The song seemed particularly appropriate after the recent events.

Eva sang with the band, something Daussie had never done. Daussie harmonized with her mother and, to her ear, it sounded better than anything she and her mother had done before. It seemed like the crowd agreed because when the final notes trailed away, several moments of complete silence were followed by wildly enthusiastic applause.

Later, Daussie found herself sitting between Tarc and Kazy as they listened to the music and watched some people dancing enthusiastically.

Mr. Norton approached and sat on the other side of Tarc. “Young Hyllis,” he began, “I understand you were out there keeping an eye on the Yates’s farm last night?”

“Yes sir,” Tarc said.

“But you didn’t see whoever it was that attacked those bastards?”

“Well,” Tarc said slowly, “it was really dark last night, you know?” Daussie admired the way her brother had given the impression of answering the question without actually doing so.

“Yeah,” Norton said with a disappointed sigh, “and you wouldn’t have wanted to be
too
close to those sons-a-bitches anyway.” He chewed his lip for a moment, “I sure would like to know
who
did it though. I’d hire those guys as caravan guards in a heartbeat.”

“The guards you’ve got are awfully good,” Tarc observed.

“Yeah, they are, but wouldn’t you like to be protected by the kind of people who were able to quietly kill all those bastards in the dark?”

Tarc shrugged and said in an oddly raspy voice, “I don’t know. The kind of people who could do
that
… they sound pretty scary themselves.”

***

In the morning, the Hyllises rushed to serve breakfast to the caravan. Kazy pitched in with a will, making everything go better. Eva felt very impressed. The girl had only been involved in making one meal so far, and that one very different, yet she needed little direction. She sought out or found tasks she could do without prompting. Eva saw her flinch away from men couple of times, but Eva was watching for it. She didn’t think the men themselves or anyone else realized the girl had quailed. She hoped it meant the girl was recovering from her trauma and not that she was suppressing her emotions.

As breakfast was winding down, Daum and Tarc started hitching their team and packing the wagon so that it would be ready to roll. They also saddled the Hyllises’ horses. Eva saw Tarc talk briefly to the girl guard, Lizeth.

They almost had their wagon ready to roll when the caravan started to pull out. They threw a few things in at the last moment without taking care to properly pack them and managed to pull out with only a slight gap in front of them.

Daum mounted one of their horses and rode over to speak to Norton for a moment. Norton didn’t look happy, but he did nod.

Daum returned as Eva, Daussie, and Kazy led their team out onto the main road. “Kazy,” he said, “I’ve gotten permission for you, Tarc, and I to ride ahead and visit your family’s farm.”

Eva looked around and saw Tarc carrying a shovel and mounted on their other horse. She looked back at Daum, “I don’t think Kazy’s going to feel comfortable riding behind you or Tarc.”

Lizeth had just ridden up, “I didn’t think she’d be comfortable riding behind them either. She can mount up behind me.”

Eva watched them ride away with some sense of trepidation. After the past few days, it felt frightening to have her family widely separated again. She took a deep breath and reminded herself the raiders weren’t just out of sight, they were
dead
.