Telepath Read online

  To her surprise, that blockage didn’t seem to kill any of the muscle. A quick examination with her spirit showed her the bit of muscle that’d been blocked off was fed by other vessels as well. She sent her spirit back to the heart. Without that particular crust adding to the blockage in the vessel the flow was better.

  At that moment, her master took a deep breath and said, “I feel better now!” He patted her hand, “Just having you sit here with me has been quite therapeutic.”

  Over the next few weeks, anytime they sat together quietly, Vyrda sent her spirit in and broke off more small pieces of the crusted material. From then on, she actively tried to guide them into big muscles. One small fragment did get away from her and go into his liver, starving and killing a bit of the tissue there, but it didn’t cause noticeable problems.

  Although her master attributed the improvement in his chest pain to his body’s natural healing, when she started treating other people for the same problem, word began to spread about what she could do.

  She could not only lance an abscess on the first try, but she could also make chest pain better.

  Now, people came to see her all the time for almost any complaint anyone could imagine. She prescribed willow bark tea for pain and chamomile for anxiety. She lanced abscesses and improved blood flow to the heart, and sometimes to the brain—she’d come to realize that the same kind of problem in the arteries of the neck often caused strokes.

  She told patients when nothing could be done, offering them sympathy.

  Her honesty about the limitations of what she could do angered people sometimes. They’d storm off to see another healer, but often came back to apologize after seeing several healers who did nothing—but charged them money anyway.

  ~~~

  Vyrda’d known Holly since she’d brought Susie, Holly’s daughter, in to see her shortly after Susie was born. Small at birth, Holly’d thought Susie was born before her time. At first, she’d thought all that was wrong with the baby was her prematurity. But then, after surviving the first few months—which had seemed touch and go—Susie stayed weak and puny. When Vyrda sent her spirit into Susie’s body, comparing her to other children, she observed two things. First, the blood vessels in Susie’s lungs throbbed with pulsating pressure. Much more force than Vyrda found in healthy children the same age. Second, though it had taken her a long time to notice this, Susie had an abnormal blood vessel just above her heart. One that wasn’t present in other children. That vessel was pumping extra blood into Susie’s lungs and, Vyrda thought, that extra blood was what caused the throbbing pressure.

  Figuring this out was exciting for Vyrda.

  However, as with so many of her patients, there was nothing Vyrda could do. When Holly first brought in Susie, Vyrda prescribed chamomile to calm Holly and told her she’d have to see the baby many times before she’d know whether anything could be done. She could tell something was definitely wrong, and thought it had to do with the baby’s blood vessels. Since she’d had success treating old patients with problems in their vessels, she’d hoped she’d find something she could do for the tiny girl.

  Over numerous visits during the few brief years of Susie’s life, Vyrda’d come to like the mother and love the child.

  But, there wasn’t any blockage she could tug on in the arteries to Susie’s lungs. Other than the throbbing pressure they seemed perfectly normal. The extra artery Susie had—the one Vyrda thought was the cause of the high pressure—was delivering too much blood, not too little like the problem in other patients Vyrda’d treated. Vyrda frequently thought about the little girl but couldn’t think of anything she could do for her. She even pinched and tugged a little on the extra blood vessel, wondering if there might be some way to close it off, but nothing worked. She’d finally told Holly—like she’d told so many other untreatable patients—that nothing could be done for Susie.

  By then, Susie’s illness had broken both their hearts.

  ~~~

  Now, this evening, Holly’d excitedly shown up, saying that a traveling-healer woman in the visiting caravan had made Susie better. Vyrda’d heard this story before. Patients often spontaneously got better or worse. When they got better shortly after seeing a healer, they attributed it to successful treatment. Vyrda would send in her spirit and find nothing had changed. She never told the patients they’d been cheated, just settled for platitudes like, “we’ll see,” or, “time will tell.”

  However, when she’d just sent her spirit into Susie’s chest she’d immediately recognized that the fluid which had recently started accumulating in Susie’s lungs was dissipating.

  The throbbing pressure in the lung vessels was much lower.

  And, that abnormal vessel was pinched off so no blood flowed through it!

  How could anyone have made that happen?! Could the vessel have just closed itself off spontaneously? And it coincidentally happened just when Holly took her daughter to this healer? Vyrda leaned close so her spirit would be able to sense things in Susie’s chest better. By all the gods! It’s pinched off like someone tied a string around a sausage! Vyrda couldn’t keep herself from lifting Susie’s blouse to look at the skin there. There was a tiny dot of dried blood. Certainly, no gaping wound as if someone had reached into Susie’s chest in order to tie a string around that blood vessel. Without looking up, she asked, “Did Susie cry?”

  “No, it was amazing. Usually, I can’t get her to take a nap, but she slept right through the whole thing.”

  Vyrda leaned back, wide-eyed, knowing a huge smile had broken across her face. “Holly! That healer really did make her better! The abnormality that I thought had been making Susie so sick… It’s fixed! I can’t imagine how anyone could have done it, but someone did!” Vyrda couldn’t help but turn her head to the northwest, toward the caravan grounds. “You say a caravan healer did this? Right out on the caravan grounds?”

  Holly had an enormously relieved smile on her face as she nodded. Vyrda thought she’d probably had her doubts about whether the healer had actually done anything. After all, so many healers claimed to do fantastic things, but their patients didn’t actually get better in the long run. A caravan healer was more likely to be a charlatan than most, since they’d have moved on before the family realized their loved one wasn’t truly better. Having Vyrda tell her Susie was truly better had to have boosted her spirits tremendously.

  Vyrda glanced out her little window and saw it was dark outside. She desperately wanted to go and meet this healer. She needed to learn how such a miracle had been accomplished. But I can’t go down there at night.

  Even if she was brave enough to venture through the streets in the dark, she could hardly impose by showing up late at night and possibly waking the woman. Hoping Holly couldn’t hear the desperation in her voice, she said, “You don’t think they’re leaving tomorrow, do you? I’d really like to ask her how she did it.”

  Holly shook her head, “No. They asked me to bring Susie back tomorrow morning so they could check on her.”

  “Oh! Can I go with you?”

  They decided to go early, just in case the caravan was actually leaving.

  ***

  As they rode Brownie and Bayby out to where the child fell into the underground room, Tarc wondered why. If we’re not going to salvage anything, why are we going out to find what’s out there? In the deep dark of the freaking night no less.

  When they got close, Tarc said, “I think we should turn off the lamp. No reason we should advertise our presence, is there?”

  “No, but we also can’t take a chance on one of the horses stepping in a hole and breaking its leg.”

  “We can just get down and lead them,” Tarc said, swinging down off of Bayby. “We can keep them away from holes using our ghosts.”

  Eva hesitated, but after a moment she swung down off her horse too. Once she was on solid ground, Tarc turned off the lamp and hung it on Bayby’s saddle. Knowing his mother’s ability to sense with her ghost wasn’t as good
as his, he led off.

  Tarc had a little difficulty finding the right spot because eyesight and ghost sight were so different, but finally they came around an oddly shaped mound he remembered was near it.

  Three or four people were already there. Lamps cast them in relief and Tarc could see a couple of grown men and what he thought was a young boy standing on the surface. They’re probably using kids to look for salvage, he thought. Another man was down in the pit that’d been dug beside the hole in the concrete. Only his head was visible. Tarc turned to his mother and spoke quietly, “Looks like someone beat us to it.”

  His ghost showed her face turning almost blindly up towards his, “I’ve already found what I came looking for. We’re standing over more buried rooms.”

  Startled, Tarc sent his ghost down into the earth beneath his feet. Sure enough, there were two big rooms beneath them. He and his mother were standing almost on top of the wall that separated them. These were further under the surface than the room Tarc had climbed down into but they didn’t seem to be as tall. Tarc had the distinct impression that their floors were on the same level as the first one. It was the greater height of the first one that had brought it closer to the surface.

  That first one was about forty meters away, but somehow Tarc felt sure they were connected. “This place was huge,” he breathed.

  His ghost told him Eva’s head was nodding. “Let’s go,” she whispered, turning.

  After they were far enough away, Tarc used his talent to ignite the lamp and they mounted back up on the horses. As they rode away, he said disgustedly, “Those guys were plunderers.”

  Eva gave a soft snort, “Seems like I remember you suggesting we do the same thing.”

  “Well, yeah… but I wanted to get you some medical equipment so you could do more good in the world. You know those guys are just selling whatever they find for money.”

  They rode a little further in silence, Eva said, “I think we should stay here. Maybe we can buy a salvage claim on it… or get access some other way.”

  Holy crap! Tarc thought. “You mean… not stay with the caravan anymore?”

  “I think we shouldn’t cook for the booth tomorrow. We should check out this town and see if we think we’d like it here. And, I can try to find out what the rules on salvage are.”

  I’m not sure Daum’s going to like this, Tarc thought. Then, with horror, he realized Lizeth might stay with the caravan…

  ***

  Daum thought furiously as he walked to the front of their booth to hang their “Closed” sign. When he’d awakened this morning, Eva’d dropped a bombshell by saying she wanted the family to consider staying in Clancy Vail.

  He had mixed feelings. They’d been doing well, selling food, moonshine, and healing on the road, even though he didn’t think Eva charged enough for healing people. So they had some savings from that, as well as quite a bit of coin from his sale of the string of horses and the Ragas’ weapons.

  Their wagon was valuable, but he didn’t think they’d be able to sell it.

  A bigger problem with staying in Clancy Vail was that the Watsons—who’d bought the Hyllis’s tavern from them—owed them money back in Walterston. The Hyllises were supposed to collect on that debt when the caravan completed its circuit and arrived back in their old hometown. The Hyllises had also had money in the bank back in Walterston. The bank had been robbed by Krait and his men so it hadn’t been able to pay the Hyllises what they were owed before they left town—or so they claimed. In fact, the bank might never be able to pay what they were owed, but it expected to recover at least some of its losses from the money Krait’s men had left behind when they fled the town. The bank had said it’d make at least partial restitution, though Daum feared they’d decide they didn’t have to pay back the people they thought had collaborated with Krait.

  Nonetheless, Daum didn’t think they’d recover any of that money if they didn’t complete the caravan’s circuit and show up asking to be paid. Eva thinks Norton’ll collect the money for us, Daum thought, but how much of an advocate for our position will he be?

  Daum hung the sign and turned to go back to the wagon. Behind him, a woman’s voice said, “Oh no! Eva told me to bring my daughter back to her this morning. How can I find her?”

  He turned. Two women and two small girls stood there looking eager but anxious. The little one’s probably the girl with the congenital heart problem Tarc fixed, Daum realized. He waved for them to follow him, “Eva’s around here.”

  When they arrived at the wagon, Daum found his family sitting around with their own plates of the eggs fried into rice that they’d served the caravaners. His wife and kids all looked excited. He thought, This little holiday to explore Clancy Vail’s going to be good for us, whether or not we accept Eva’s harebrained idea that we should stay.

  Daum was just about to introduce the women when Kazy looked up. “Holly! Susie! How’re you doing?”

  Soon, every member of Daum’s family had clustered around the women, the women cooing over the littlest girl. They asked her how she felt, a question the little girl shyly didn’t answer. Nonetheless, they waxed ecstatic about her appearance, which Daum knew meant they’d sent their ghosts into her and were pleased about what they’d found.

  Daum had never really tried to learn much about medicine once he’d found he didn’t have the gift to look inside someone like his wife. It’d seemed somewhat pointless when she was so much better than he was. He’d focused on brewing and managing their tavern. Even without really understanding medicine, he recognized that doing something to make a heart better was a real triumph. He couldn’t help but feel a lot of pride in what they’d done.

  Holly introduced her friend Vyrda, saying, “She’s been Susie’s healer since shortly after Susie was born. She says you really did make Susie better. She’s hoping you won’t mind teaching her how you did it.”

  Tarc, Daussie, and Kazy all looked at Eva whose face had closed in. Daum knew how desperately Eva loved to teach medicine, but that it would be impossible for someone without Tarc’s gift for telekinesis to repair a heart like Susie’s.

  In fact, Eva couldn’t even teach ordinary people how to make diagnoses since they didn’t have her skill to perceive organs.

  “Um…” Eva said, struggling to come up with an answer that would let Vyrda down easy.

  Before she could say more though, Vyrda said, “Finish checking on Susie first. Then Holly can get back to her work. I’ll stay behind to talk shop.”

  Eva seemed pleased to have a little time to ponder a response. She talked to Holly for a bit, fending off Holly’s repeated questions about what medicine Susie should be taking, saying it wasn’t necessary. When Holly asked what she owed for Susie’s treatment, as usual, Eva asked, “What do you think it’s worth?”

  Tears welled in Holly’s eyes as she turned to Vyrda and said, “You think Susie’s really fixed for life?”

  Vyrda looked choked up as well. She responded, “I think so.” She shrugged, “I can’t be sure, but I don’t think anyone can.”

  Holly turned back to Eva and said simply, “Her health’s worth everything I have.” She snorted and produced a weak smile through her tears, “I hope you’ll have mercy though.”

  Daum felt a frog in his own throat as he realized this woman really was offering everything she had, just begging they not take it all.

  Eva said, “Two silvers?

  Holly looked down at her feet. “At least a gold,” she said in a trembling voice.

  Since a gold was worth a hundred silvers, this was an astonishing overbid. He felt excited, but wasn’t surprised when Eva quietly said, “Twenty-five silvers.”

  Eva negotiates in the damnedest fashion! Daum thought. But he would have been happy with five to ten silvers. Twenty-five was great… And even Daum thought accepting a gold would’ve been overly greedy.

  In a few minutes, after a great deal of thanking and hugging, Holly and her two girls left to go back to town. E
veryone but Eva and Vyrda got up from the table and left to do their chores in preparation for their day off. Daum stopped a few steps away and turned back to them. Eva and Vyrda were studying one another. Eva’s trying to figure out what she can tell this woman that won’t give away our secrets, he thought. Preferably, something that’ll put her off the trail of the possibility that there are any secrets.

  But Vyrda leaned forward and said quietly, “I can tell by the way you each moved close that you were sending your spirits into Susie. You must have some form of witchery.” When Eva drew a breath to deny it, Vyrda put up her palms for a pause, then continued, “I only know this, because I have a similar form of witchery. That’s how I knew Susie’s problem with her heart had really been repaired. Somehow…” She choked up for a second and when her voice resumed, it was in a croak. “Somehow, you closed off that abnormal connection between her blood vessels… the one just above her heart. I think that softened the throbbing pressure in the vessels to her lungs. Further, I believe that reduction in the throbbing pressure’s the reason she has less fluid in her lungs.”