Healers (33 page)

Tarc slowly shook his head, “No. I’d been checking on the king with my ghost. You know how he’s pretty easy to find because of his huge size. I checked on him again as I was helping you guys down the rope and he’d come outside, I guess to see what all the commotion was about.” He shrugged, “He was just standing there, so it was a pretty easy shot. I was hoping it would add to the confusion and maybe take some of the heat off of us.”

“Well, that probably won’t happen. They’re going to want us even more now we killed their King.”

Tarc chewed his lip, “I hope not. I don’t think they’ll believe
we
killed him. We were too far away. They’ll think it was an inside job and I’m betting it’ll start a fight over the succession. Somebody may even say the perpetrator let us out in order to create a diversion.”

Daussie leaned forward and threw her arms around him. For a moment she just held on, then her arms started to tremble. With a sob, she said, “Thanks! I wish I’d had the courage to do it myself, but since I failed, I appreciate your doing it for me.”

He pushed her out to arm’s length and winked, “Next time you’re welcome to do the dirty work.”

Daussie’s face wavered. For a moment Tarc feared she would burst into tears, but then she cracked a lopsided smile. She said, “You’ve been dumping the dirty work on me since I could first walk. I guess it’s about time you picked up some slack.” She wiped clumsily at a brimming eye, then leaned forward and put her arms around her brother again. “Thanks,” she whispered.

Midmorning, Lizeth went out with Mr. Roper to get a feel for the situation at the wall gate. To their surprise the guards seemed highly distracted. Rather than more intense, the checks on the people going in and out appeared to be even more perfunctory than usual. Henry did see one of the guards shake down a couple of the merchants on their way into the city, something forbidden by the king. He hadn’t seen them do that in the past.

Their plan had been to buy some food and take it back to the warehouse for everyone’s breakfast. Instead, Lizeth bought traveling food, then they practically ran back to get the others. They wanted to get out the gate while security was still lax.

Despite hurrying, by the time they reached the gate a substantial queue had formed to go out. On foot, Tarc and Eva got in line first. Tarc carried Lizeth’s sword and acted as a bravo for hire. Eva, her hair completely darkened with bootblack, posed as his servant, carrying his pack and a big bundle of riding tackle.

The other four joined the queue about ten minutes later. Henry posed as a horse merchant leading a string of six horses, one of them dragging a travois loaded with saddles. His wife, Lizeth, and Daussie posed as his dependents and employees, though Lizeth had to be continually reminded to slouch and look subservient.

At first they worried travel through the gate had slowed because the guards had started carefully examining everyone who was leaving. But as it became apparent, there were just a lot of people leaving. Eva learned from the rumors swirling through the crowd that the king had been killed. People were leaving for fear of getting caught up in a war of succession.

Eva turned sharp eyes on Tarc and once she had his attention, mouthed, “You?”

Tarc said nothing, but a second later she heard his voice whispering in her ear, “Yeah, Daussie really wanted him dead after… you know.”

Eva whispered, “I thought you weren’t going to do that anymore?”

Tarc looked off into the distance, “I’ve thought a lot about it. I decided that… if a judge and jury would impose the death sentence…” he glance around unhappily, “I’d just as well be the one to carry it out.”

Eva desperately wanted to give her son a comforting touch, but it wouldn’t have been appropriate in view of the roles they were playing.

Though their passage through the gate was delayed by the large number of people waiting to go through, the actual passage proved anticlimactic. They walked a couple of miles from Realth before the six gathered in a small grove to saddle their horses. Henry grinned, “We had the most amazing bit of luck! At the gate, one of the guards looked like he was going to really give us ‘horse merchants’ a hard time in hopes of a bribe. But then he had a tremendous coughing fit. He brought up some blood, got a panicked look on his face and just waved us and the next group on through without even collecting the normal tax!”

As everyone exclaimed, Eva and Tarc gave Daussie sharp looks. She produced a minute shrug in response. As they mounted, Eva leaned next to Daussie and said, “You did that?”

“I just transported a little bit of blood from his carotid into his trachea.” She looked a little surprised, “It made him cough a lot more than I expected… You should have seen the look on his face when he saw the blood.”

They resumed traveling in two groups, just in case someone was still looking for them. For a few moments, Tarc hoped he and Lizeth could make up the group of two, but it only made sense for them to split up so each group could have a fighter. Unfortunately, Mr. Roper, thinking along the same lines, suggested Lizeth stay with the group of four while
he
rode with Eva. There was a moment of confusion in everyone’s eyes except the Ropers, then the others realized Roper thought of himself as the next best fighter after Lizeth. Which, after all, was just how Tarc wanted it to be.

Lizeth interrupted, “Tarc should be in the trailing group of two. Our lead group will be most likely to be attacked, and Tarc can support us with archery.” This reminded Roper that Arco thought of Tarc as at least a reasonable archer.

Norton accepted Lizeth’s dispositions and they set back out on the road.

They’d only gone a short distance, when Henry rode up beside Daussie, “I just remembered, how in the world did you get those shackles off your mom’s ankles?!”

Daussie looked at him consideringly for a moment, then said, “It’s kind of a secret. If I tell you, will you promise not to repeat it?”

“Of course.”

“Acid.”

Roper blinked a couple of times, “Really?” he asked, doubtfully.

Daussie nodded solemnly, “My mom has this acid that’s incredibly powerful. Eats through steel in no time at all. The hard part was making sure none of it got on her.”

Wide-eyed, Roper said, “That’s amazing! Would she consider selling some of it? We could go into business!”

Daussie slowly shook her head, “Not a chance. It’s really dangerous, and if you think about it, there aren’t really many beneficial uses for something so destructive. Anyone who wanted it would want it for all the wrong reasons.”

“Yeah, I guess.” He rode along beside Daussie in silence for a bit, then said, “Thanks for telling me. Your secret’s safe with me, but it would have driven me crazy not knowing how you did it.”

Daussie thought to herself,
I’ve got to remember to tell Mom she has some tremendously potent acid she won’t let anyone use.

They broke for lunch in a very small roadside tavern. Tarc found himself sitting between his sister and Lizeth. His mother and the Ropers were across the table from him and all were in good spirits. To his delight, moments after sitting down, Lizeth’s hand slid into his.

He felt glad the table would keep his mother from seeing their hands, but then Daussie nudged him. When he looked at her, she glanced down at his hand entwined with Lizeth’s and widened her eyes, a huge grin on her face.

Tarc felt a blush coming on and fought to think of something else.

Then Daussie leaned forward and lifted an eyebrow, “Mom…”

Tarc sent a whisper into her ear, “Don’t forget, someday you’re going to want to have a boyfriend
I
don’t tease
you
about!”

Daussie looked back at him for a second, then turned blandly back to her mother, “Do you or Mr. Roper know where the caravan’s going next?”

The table fell to discussing destinations and how long it might take the Hyllises’ wagon to catch up to the rest of the caravan. After talking it over, they decided the caravan couldn’t be very far ahead. Likely they would catch up at the next place the caravan stopped to do business.

As they traveled, Daussie sent her ghost out frequently to be sure they wouldn’t be ambushed. Approaching the abandoned farm where their wagon had been cached she extended it to its maximum, wanting to know Kazy and her father were okay. She found two warm bodies, one at the full extent of her ghost, approximately where she thought the old farmhouse had been, though her ghost could only detect the body and a fire at that distance. Distressingly, the other body lay still in the trees near the road.

At first, her heart caught in her throat at the thought that the body near the road had been dragged there by marauders. It was fully warm though, so not a
dead
body. Approaching, Daussie developed the conviction Kazy had come out to the road to watch for them, but had fallen asleep. Knowing exactly where the person was, Daussie saw a bit of dark hair and white forehead.

Stopping her horse, Daussie whispered, “Lizeth.” She held her finger to her lips, turning to face the Ropers as well, then pointed Kazy out to Lizeth. Swinging down off her horse, she started out into the trees using her ghost to avoid stepping on any twigs.

Behind her, Lizeth lifted an eyebrow at how quiet Daussie managed to be.

A moment later, shrieks of delight signaled Kazy’s reunion with her cousin.

They all joined Daum at the wagon. Kazy realized from the relief in Daum’s expression that, despite his apparently blasé attitude, he
had
been terribly worried about his family. Understanding he’d been putting on quite a show, just to keep her from being upset, she wandered his way. For a moment, she wondered if she could do it, then gathering steely resolve, she overcame her reluctance to touch or be touched by a man. She stepped up to him and gently put her arms around him. Resting her head on his chest, she said, “Thank you.”

“For what?” he said.

She looked up and saw him looking down at her with a puzzled expression. “For pretending you weren’t worried, just so I wouldn’t be.”

He snorted, “It didn’t work very well!”

“Hah. I would’ve been a complete basket case otherwise.”

Daum gave her a gentle hug, “Welcome to the family.”

She frowned, “You already welcomed me.”

“I mean to the ‘basket case’ family.”

Kazy laughed and went off to find Daussie.

They pulled the wagon back out on the road and traveled until dark, stopping at a tiny village. A few of the villagers wandered out to see if they were merchants with anything to sell. Daum did sell them a little bit of his moonshine. The Hyllises didn’t feel like setting up their equipment to cook a big meal.

One of the villagers lifted his chin, “You might want to visit our hot springs.”

“Hot springs?”

Roper said, “Oh yeah! The caravan stopped here once a few years ago. They have this big pool filled with steaming hot water from the springs. It’s like sitting in the tubs at the Hyllis tavern but there’s a lot more room!”

The owner of the springs had some torches set up beside the big pool and a small shack where they sold some pretty good beer. The Ropers watched the wagon while Lizeth and the Hyllises went for a soak. Daum and Eva swam in a small separate pool. Tarc and Lizeth sat on a rock ledge and slouched up against one side of the big pool holding hands underwater and sipping their beers. Kazy and Daussie splashed each other over near the other side. Tarc had the impression that Daussie had actually lured Kazy over there to give him time alone with Lizeth.

Lizeth leaned her head on his shoulder and quietly said, “I feel sooo relaxed. I’m sure part of it’s the hot water, but part of its being with you.” She sighed, “Being with Sam… it was kind of a constant battle. He was always trying to prove himself. Show everyone how tough he was. And always trying to get me to do things I didn’t want to do. You’re so mellow… my… gentle, but dangerous man.”

“Hey,” Tarc said, trying to chastise her as mellowly and gently as he could, “don’t call me ‘dangerous,’ you might forget and do it in front of people sometime.” To himself, he thought,
Dammit, I’ll bet that, ‘always trying to get me to do things I didn’t want to do’
comment means it’s a good thing I hadn’t started trying to kiss her!

Daussie and Kazy disappeared around the other side of a big boulder, Daussie glancing toward Tarc just before she moved behind it.

With a little frustration, but some relief and being forewarned, Tarc thought,
This is when I would’ve tried to kiss Lizeth if she hadn’t warned me off.

Lizeth lifted her head off his shoulder and turned to set her beer on the rocks behind her. She stretched up toward him, reached up behind his neck and pulled him down into the kiss he’d been wishing for.

After a while she pulled away, grinned up at him and said, “Am I always going to have to be the one who kisses you?”

Tarc felt like spluttering, “But you said that Sam was always trying to get you to do things you didn’t want to do!”

Through half shuttered eyes, she said, “That was Sam, this is
you
!” She pulled him down for another kiss.

On the other side of the boulder, Daussie gave Kazy a curious look. “Hey Cousin… where’s the sun?”

Kazy pointed down and to the west.

Through the earth.

Directly at the sun.

The End

I hope you liked the book!

If so, please give it a positive review on Amazon.

Try the next in the series, to be published someday soon.

This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I have always been partial to science fiction that posed a “what if” question. Not everything in the story has to be scientifically plausible, but you suspend your disbelief regarding one or two things that aren’t thought to be possible. Essentially you ask, “what if” something (such as faster than light travel) were possible, how might that change our world?

So, in this story the central question of the Hyllis stories is, “What if someone really could apply pressure (telekinesis) or teleport something with their mind? Certainly, Telekinesis and teleportation are staples of science fiction. Many of the stories posit someone who can move themselves or other large objects from one location to another. These stories ask, “What if only small objects could be moved? And they couldn’t even be moved very far?

The answer to that question is, to my way of thinking, “Wow!” In our world,
just
the ability to feel with your ghost, like Eva, Tarc and Daussie do, would allow you to become the world’s most incredible surgeon, cutting exactly to the correct location in one stroke while avoiding nerves and vessels. Deftly cutting directly down to and around a tumor, without injuring important structures nearby,
and
without leaving bits of cancer behind. The ability to move things with your mind would let you do much more than that.