Healers (9 page)

Tarc’s eyes widened as he remembered the thief in whom he’d briefly stopped blood flow to the spinal cord. The man had lost feeling and control in his limbs. Tarc couldn’t
imagine
doing something to the child’s spinal cord however. What if it never recovered?! But, maybe he could do something to the nerves?

Tarc had stopped walking and Eva and Daussie stopped and turned to look back at him curiously. “Tarc?” Eva said.

He held a halting hand up as he mumbled, “Wait, I’m thinking.”

Eva waited a few seconds, then said, “Come
on
Tarc, we need to make splints for the child’s arm.”

Tarc blinked at her a few times, then said, “What if… what if I could stop the nerves from working for a little while?! Like those old injections, but with my talent.”

Eva gave him an intense look, “How… how are you thinking you could do that?!”

“Well, um, remember how I slowed the blood flow to Mr. Farley’s brain to knock him out when he was threatening Dad?”

Eva drew her head back in alarm, “That wouldn’t be safe! You can’t do that to a child!”

“No! But…” Tarc went on to explain how he’d stopped the blood flow to the spinal cord in the thief that had attacked him by the outhouse.

Eva, at first appalled that Tarc had defended himself from such an attack and she’d never even heard of it, then widened her eyes over what he was implying. “You can’t do
that
to the child! In many ways it would be worse if his paralysis never wore off than if he never woke up from being knocked out!”

“I know, I know!” Tarc said exasperatedly. That’s why I
need
some time to think!” He squinted a little, “Maybe I could just stop the blood flow to some of the nerves?”

Eva frowned as she thought about it, “Remember, the nerves only have transmission fibers in them. The actual nerve cells themselves live in the spinal cord. Cutting off the blood flow to them will eventually make them stop working but it won’t be fast like cutting off the flow to the brain of the spinal cord.”

“Maybe I could stop the flow of fluids inside the axons?”

Eva shook her head, “The nerve signals travel electrically along the outside of the axon. Not with the flow of the fluid, that’s really slow.”

Tarc grinned at her, “It would sure be nice if you came up with a suggestion of your own instead of just shooting all my ideas down.”

Eva gave a little laugh, “Yeah, sorry. Let me think.” She got a faraway look in her eyes as they rose to the horizon. “You said you can excite the molecules in something to make it hot, right?”

Tarc nodded, “That’s how I burned that thief’s horse so it bucked him off.”

“Do you think you could do the opposite? Hold the molecules still so something gets cold? Nerves don’t work very well when they’re cold; that’s why your fingers get numb in the winter.”

Tarc’s eyes widened a bit, “I don’t know; let me try.” He held up a finger and looked at it. A moment later he said, “I guess I can; my finger sure feels cold.”

Eva gently chewed at her lip, “Too bad there isn’t a way to try it out and see if it works.”

Daussie said, “He could try it on an unimportant sensory nerve. Say one of the ones to the skin of my forearm.”

Tarc said, “I’m trying it on some of my supraclavicular nerves. That way I can feel what’s happening and stop if it seems bad.” He reached up and rubbed at the skin just below his collarbone. “Huh, it feels numb already.”

Eva said, “Well stop! Make sure it will recover.”

Tarc said, “Okay, okay, I stopped.” He rubbed the area again, “Still numb though. Let’s make the splints while we’re waiting to see if it gets better.”

Eva had measured the length of the boys forearm against her own. They sorted through some of the wood Tarc had collected for the fire and found a straight segment about the right length. Eva had Tarc split it and peel the bark off, then they shaped and scraped it until it had a hollow on the flat side they hoped would fit the child’s forearm.

While they worked, Tarc repeatedly checked the numb spot below his collarbone. It only took a couple of minutes for the numbness to go away the first time. He did it again, this time making it a little colder. He felt better when he realized his talent gave him a feel for just how cold he’d made the nerve.

He wasn’t quite sure whether it was actually the cold, or the fact he was slowing the movement of the molecules in the nerves, but he could pinch the skin below his collarbone with only a slight sensation of pain. The place he’d pinched itched and burned when the nerves started working again; confirming that he’d pinched it pretty hard. The skin only stayed numb for a few minutes, but it just took a few seconds to cool the nerves back down each time they started working again.

Daum and Kazy had started work on making the caravan’s dinner. Daussie stayed to help them while Eva and Tarc took the splints back to the boy. They checked the fit of the splints against the boy’s uninjured arm. Eva gave him some more poppy paste, and they moved aside to continue working on the splints.

As they scraped at the wood, Eva looked up at her son. “I forgot to ask you if your nerve woke back up?”

Tarc nodded, then told her what he’d found with his little experiments.

Eva looked a little worried. “Freeze my nerve, so I can see what it’s like.”

Tarc sent his ghost in over her collarbone, found the little nerves, and cooled them.

Eva’s eyes widened, “Oh! I can
feel
it cooling!” She reached up and rubbed the skin below her collarbone. “And, it really
is
numb!”

When they’d shaped the splints to Eva’s satisfaction, they checked on the boy again and found him dozing under the influence of the poppy. Eva whispered to Tarc to start blocking his nerves while she got a wrap for the splints.

When Eva returned, she had Daussie with her. She sat beside the boy and, pointing to his deformed arm, talked about how the bones had displaced. Of course, Tarc and Daussie could sense the displacement with their ghosts, but the main thrust of Eva’s description focused on how the current position of the bones could make it hard to get them back into place.

Finally, she took the child’s forearm in her hands and looked at Tarc. He nodded as meaningfully as he could to indicate that he thought the nerves were blocked. Eva said, “First, I’ll have to bend the bones even a little farther. Hopefully, this will unlock them, so that I can pull them back out to length and straighten them.” She had already described this process to Tarc and Daussie a little earlier, but Tarc knew that she was really speaking to the child’s mother. Bending the bone even further, before straightening the arm, would look like the wrong thing to the child’s parents.

Eva looked Tarc and Daussie in the eyes to be sure they had their ghosts in the child’s forearm. She bent the arm back, then pulled on the bend. Tarc’s eyes widened as he realized she was pulling
very
hard. His ghost felt the bones shift back out to lie end to end like they belonged. As soon as that had happened, Eva quickly bent the arm back out straight.

Little Jimmy moaned and his eyes fluttered open for a moment as Eva performed the reduction, but he didn’t even completely wake up. It didn’t seem to be nearly as miserable an experience as Tarc had expected. He sent his ghost up to check the nerves. They were warming, so he cooled them again.

Eva said, “Let’s have the splint for the front of his forearm.”

Tarc picked it up and held it out to her.

She frowned at him and said, “
Both
of
my
hands are holding his arm straight.
You
need to put the splint in place where it belongs.”

Feeling chastised, Tarc laid the splint out along the front of the boy’s forearm as Eva slowly slid her fingers out of the way. She slipped her fingers carefully around the splint to hold it in place.

“Now the dorsal splint,” Eva said.

Tarc worked the dorsal splint into place as Eva gradually shifted her fingers out of the way, then around to grip both splints. His ghost told him the bones were still quite straight, though not perfect.

Eva said “Daussie, start wrapping the splints into place, starting down here near the hand.”

Daussie picked up the wrap, but said, “The bones still seem a little bent. Shouldn’t we try to straighten them that last little bit?”

“No, this is the position the splints will hold them in. If we wanted to change it, we’d have to carve completely new splints for the new position. While we were carving them we’d probably lose the position we’ve got now. Besides, an important thing for you to know is that children will straighten out small bends in their bones as they grow.”

Eva cautioning her about wrapping them too tightly, Daussie started wrapping the splints into place. As they finished up, Tarc numbed the boy’s nerves again. He glanced at the child’s mother. She looked like she’d just witnessed a miracle. Considering the pain she must’ve expected her son to go through, the fact that he’d slept through the whole thing probably
was
a miracle.

Eva began explaining to the mother how to care for her child’s broken arm, instructing her to elevate it to avoid swelling. She explained how to ration the poppy paste and told her to bring the boy back in the morning before they left so Eva could be sure everything was okay.

Jimmy’s mother was effusively thankful. The boy’s father, who’d stood stoically uncomfortable through the entire procedure, bobbed his head in thanks as well. A tear running down his cheek, he promised to bring payment in the morning when they came back for final instructions. The little family started for their home.

The Hyllis family all pitched in to finish dinner for the caravan.

***

In the morning, as the caravan made ready to pull back out onto the road, the boy and his family reappeared. Eva checked to be sure little Jimmy’s fingers still worked and gave the mother instructions as to how to snug the splints if the wrap loosened. She told Jimmy’s parents the bone should be healed enough that they could remove the splints in six weeks.

To Tarc’s amazement, the boy’s father insisted on handing over more coin than Eva had requested for his son’s care.

Soon the caravan was back on the road and the excitement of treating the boy faded into the boredom of plodding across the countryside. Kazy tried to keep herself interested in the passing scenery. She struck up conversations with other caravaners when she could. Anything to keep her mind off the loss of her family; though she sometimes felt guilty for avoiding thoughts about them.

She told Eva about her feelings and Eva tried to reassure her that her family wouldn’t want her moping around in misery. She and Kazy often sang together as they walked; Daussie joining in when she was nearby. They found singing a comfort and especially enjoyed learning each other’s songs.

Late that afternoon, the caravan stopped in a small village. They would stay the night, doing a little business. While the Hyllises were working on a dinner to sell the caravan, Mrs. Gates came by seeking another treatment for her cancer. Eva and Tarc sent their ghosts in and found a few small recurrences of the tumor in her lungs.

As Tarc leaned over Mrs. Gates, holding a jar with a bit of moonshine soaked cloth against her ribs, the old woman grinned up at him. “So, you think you have any chance with that girl guard?”

Tarc stared at Mrs. Gates. “Um… what do you mean?”

“Oh, you can’t fool me. I’ve seen you mooning after her. But she’s older than you; don’t you think you’re wasting your time?”

Tarc continued staring, no good answer rising to the surface of his mind.

“Hah!” Gates exclaimed. “You’re star struck ain’tcha! I’ll bet you haven’t even told her you think she’s pretty, have you?”

Tarc slowly shook his head, wondering how she thought he would have gotten up the courage to say something like that.

Gates smiled at him and lowered her voice. “Us girls like to be told we’re pretty.” She winked, “If you want to have any chance, considering the age difference and all, you’d better step up.”

Just thinking about it put a frog in Tarc’s throat. He swallowed; then turned his attention back to the tumors in Gates’ chest. He started heating the next small clusters of cancerous cells, while trying to avoid thinking about his next conversation with Lizeth.

When Tarc finished, he pulled the little jar away from Mrs. Gates chest and said, “You should be good for a while again now.”

Gates sat up, but before he stepped away she put a hand on Tarc’s forearm and grinned crookedly. “I know I haven’t always been as thankful as I should have been, but you’re a good kid and I really appreciate what you’ve done for my cancer.” She patted him on the arm, “Now, you remember what I said, girls
like
it when you say nice things about them.” She cackled, stood up, and moved off towards her wagon.

It was a Saturday evening, so as they frequently did on Saturdays, the musicians in the caravan gathered in the center of the circled wagons to play. Eva, Daussie, and Kazy sang with them on some of the songs that had words. Most of the caravaners gathered around to listen. Many of the caravans sat and worked on crafts they hoped to sell in their travels. A few of the villagers came by to listen as well.