Psychicians (a Hyllis family story #5) Read online

Tarc regarded him a second, then said, “Pity.”

  Amazed as he was by what Tarc had done, Yuri touched his shoulder and said, “Let’s get out of here. There’s more of them coming.”

  Tarc looked around at the three additional guards who were approaching. He said, “Good idea,” but instead of running, he stepped to the game’s proprietor and said, “You owe my friend six coppers.” When the man began to bluster, Tarc pointed at his game and said, “See that peg in the center?”

  The man had barely had time to nod, when a knife buried itself in the peg, splitting it in half. Tarc gave a little shrug and said, “Ancient fighting technique.” He held out his hand.

  The man hurriedly dropped six coppers into it. Tarc turned to the burly guard and said, “I’d urge you to wave your friends off before one of them gets killed. He stepped over and pulled the knife out of the peg.

  When Tarc turned back the burly guard was calling out to the approaching guards, “Just a misunderstanding. Back to your posts.” He looked worriedly down at the man on the ground, “Aaron, you okay?”

  Aaron started to rise, but then listed to one side and dropped back flat onto his stomach.

  Yuri felt Tarc’s hand at the small of his back, urging him in the direction of Clancy Vail. Tarc spoke calmly, “Nylin, Grace, I think we’d better get back to town.”

  Despite Yuri’s strong desire to run, they walked away at a leisurely pace. Yuri’s head was on a swivel, constantly looking back over his itching shoulders for fear that the guards were pursuing.

  Or readying archers.

  Or saddling horses.

  He looked over at Tarc who seemed perfectly calm. “Aren’t you worried?”

  Tarc shrugged indifferently, “No. But I don’t think you should try the games at a caravan again. Do you?”

  Yuri shook his head. “Were the games rigged in your caravan too?”

  “No,” Tarc said. “The Norton caravan didn’t have games. Mr. Norton thought they led to bad blood between the caravan and the town.”

  Yuri looked back again. “Aren’t you worried they’re going to come after us?”

  Tarc winked at him, “I’m keeping an eye on them, using the eyes in the back of my head. Learned about those the same time I learned about the ‘ancient fighting techniques.’”

  “Could you teach me?!” Yuri asked eagerly.

  Tarc gave him a measuring look. “Afraid not… Well, I could,” he winked again and spoke in a growl, “but then I’d have to kill you.” Though it seemed like a joke, in view of what’d just happened, it made Yuri nervous.

  They walked in silence a little further, then Tarc moved a little closer to Nylin and put an arm around her. Looking down at her, he said, “You okay?”

  She nodded up at him. “I wasn’t worried.”

  Wondering how she could be so blasé, Yuri stepped over and tentatively put his arm around Grace. She put her arm around his waist and squeezed a little, making him feel even more alive. He decided he had to ask one more question. “Tarc, where’d that knife come from?”

  Tarc pulled up his sleeve, showing it strapped to his forearm.

  After a long moment, Yuri said, “Hitting that peg perfectly dead-center, that was just luck, right?”

  Tarc grinned at him, “Better to be lucky than good.” Then he turned and leaned down to kiss Nylin.

  ***

  Kazy was on her way through the dining room to the clinic when a frightened looking young man stopped her. “Ms. Hyllis?”

  Kazy nodded, “My name’s Hyllis. But you’re probably looking for my aunt, Eva Hyllis.”

  “I’ve been told any of you Hyllises’ll do. Can you come with me? My ma, she’s awful sick.” He shook his head, “Or could any of the other Hyllises come? She needs help! She needs help bad.”

  Kazy wanted to take him up to Eva but knew Eva would expect her to take a history first. “What’s wrong with her?”

  “She’s hot! And she can hardly get out of bed. Says she feels terrible!”

  “How long’s she been this way?”

  “It started last night.”

  “Has anyone else been sick?”

  “No!” he said, twisting his hat and inching toward the door. “Can you come? Please?”

  Kazy wanted to reach out with her ghirit to calm him but felt like it’d be wrong. He was only a year or so older than she was, so it seemed like reaching out and trying the power of touch was inadvisable. “I’ll come,” she said, realizing she sounded a little exasperated and trying to make herself at least speak calmly. “Or, someone will. But if we have some idea what’s wrong before we go, we can send the right person, hopefully with the right medicines.”

  “Oh,” he said in a tone of realization. “Ask me then, but please hurry.”

  “Have any neighbors been sick? Has she been hurt?”

  “No. What else do you need to know?”

  “Has she been coughing?”

  “No.”

  “Throwing up or having diarrhea?

  “No.”

  “Burning when she urinates?

  “Not that I know of.”

  “Having pain anywhere?”

  “Just in her… you know.”

  “No, I don’t know,” Kazy said, sounding exasperated again and once again thinking about just diving into his thoughts to find out what was going on. “Pain in her what?”

  “You know…” he made a waving motion down at his crotch, “but, of course, she should hurt down there.”

  “In her crotch?”

  He nodded.

  “Why should she hurt down there?”

  “Because of, you know, the baby coming out. And… all that.”

  Kazy closed her eyes in frustration that he’d thought the childbirth was unimportant. Childbed fever, she thought, also thinking sadly about its high mortality. “How long ago did she have her baby?”

  “Day before yesterday.”

  That fit with what Kazy knew about childbed fever. An infection of the uterus and surrounding structures, it often came on a few days after childbirth. The incidence went way up if those attending the birth weren’t knowledgeable or careful about cleanliness and sanitation.

  Or didn’t care.

  She looked at the young man, “Okay we’re going to go talk to Eva. Come with me.” She headed for the stairs.

  When she glanced back he was practically on top of her. “Please hurry,” he said

  Stopping the young man at the door of the clinic, she said, “Wait right here.” She stepped inside.

  Eva looked up from the patient she was examining and must have recognized the distress on Kazy’s face because she immediately stepped around the gurney and came toward her. “What’s happened?”

  “A teenager came in. His mother just had a baby three days ago and is having fevers. She’s too weak to get out of bed.”

  “Puerperal fever,” Eva said grimly. “Who delivered the baby?”

  “We’ll need to find out,” Kazy said, knowing that Eva wanted to make sure whoever did it was instructed in sanitary practices. “But, I thought we probably needed to hurry if we’re hoping to save this woman’s life.”

  Eva gave a sharp nod, “You’re right.” She glanced around the clinic, motioned to Daussie, then turned back to Kazy. “Ask her son how big she is so Daussie can port you appropriate doses of sulfa.” Eva started to turn away, but then turned back, “Also find out how far away she lives so you’ll know whether it’ll be faster to just walk or whether you should take the time to tack up a horse.”

  Kazy blinked, “Me?” She’d felt sure that Eva would go and she’d just tag along.

  Eva nodded and glanced back over her shoulder. “We’ve got a couple of sick ones here too.” She turned back to Kazy, “Your patient’s sicker than they are, but we know what to do for her. Check to be sure it’s her uterus. Check for an abscess. Check the rest of her. Make sure some midwife didn’t stuff the birth canal full of rags. There’s some that do, then just leave them in
there for days at a time. Give her a whopping big dose of sulfa and have her drink a lot of water so it doesn’t make her sick. Encourage her to drink plenty of fluids and make sure she does before you leave.” Eva reached in a pocket and pulled out a gold, “On your way back, stop at Geller’s Chemistry and tell them we need more sulfa.”

  Kazy knew her eyes were wide and could feel herself breathing too fast. “Um…”

  Eva looked at her for a moment, then stepped closer, touching her head to Kazy’s. She said calmly, “This is a good one for you to cut your teeth on.”

  Suddenly Kazy felt better. She realized she could do this. Though the outcome might be horrific, the diagnosis and treatment were actually pretty simple… She blinked and narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Eva. “Did you calm me?”

  Eva nodded calmly. Then her eyes crinkled a little. “Seemed like you needed it. And, it’s probably good for us to experience what it’s like ourselves if we’re going to be doing it to others. You can give me a treatment tonight.”

  Kazy snorted, “Okay.”

  Eva got a musing look, “I wonder if we can do it for ourselves? ‘Physician heal thyself,’ and all that.”

  Kazy shook her head, “I don’t know. I’d better go.” By the time she found out that the woman was of average size and got back to the alcove, Daussie already had the jar of sulfa powder down. Little pieces of paper were balanced on the scales and Daussie was putting nickel fragments on the other side. Soon, Daussie was porting the powder onto the pieces of paper while Kazy folded them up into single dose packets.

  The family lived just inside the gate of Clancy Vail. Kazy judged they’d get there faster on foot than they would if they took time to saddle horses.

  Trotting, alternating with fast walking, Kazy arrived short of breath. The boy was already in the small two-room shack talking to a man and three other women when Kazy stepped inside.

  The man looked up at Kazy and cursed, “You brought a child to care for your mother?!”

  The boy winced, flashing Kazy an apologetic look, then turning back to the man, “Dad, you said to bring any of the Hyllises. This is Kazy Hyllis. She talked to her mother about mom’s problem before she left, getting instructions.”

  The man rolled his eyes and dropped resignedly into a chair, lifting a hand to rub the bridge of his nose.

  The three women were staring at Kazy. The oldest one, standing at the foot of the bed, sniffed, said, “What would a snippet like this one know about childbed fever?” and turned back to stare at the woman lying in the bed.

  A woman who looked much like the patient—Kazy suspected a sister—turned to the woman at the foot of the bed and said, “You should be grateful. She probably doesn’t know how many of the women you birth get it.”

  The third woman was a young teenager holding what looked like a newborn infant. Presumably the baby my patient just delivered, Kazy thought. The girl had fresh tears running down over the trails of dried ones on her cheeks. She looked much like the young man who’d come for Kazy at the tavern.

  His sister and my patient’s daughter, Kazy thought. As Kazy neared the bed the tension between the sister and the midwife, the bereavement of the daughter, and the exhaustion of the patient herself screamed into Kazy’s consciousness making it hard to think. She turned to the boy and spoke quietly, “Can you get everyone to step outside for a moment?”

  His eyes widened. Kazy could tell he thought telling his elders what to do would be an impossible task. Nonetheless, he turned to the room and said, “Let’s all go outside and give the healer room to do her work.”

  He was right about how moving them wouldn’t be achievable for him. Furious objections rose from everyone except the daughter. She did start toward the door, but then stopped to listen to the argument.

  With a sigh, Kazy walked around the foot of the bed and past the midwife. A brief glance at the woman’s filthy fingernails made her think she’d discovered the proximate cause of the patient’s illness. She sent in her ghirit, calming the woman and giving her the sense she should trust Kazy. The midwife quieted in mid argument, turned and made for the door. Kazy stepped up to the head of the bed where she set down her bag and took the patient’s hand. This put her right next to the patient’s sister. A moment later the sister followed the midwife to the door, shepherding the patient’s son and daughter before her.

  This left only the man, whom Kazy thought must be the woman’s husband. He was across the room so Kazy couldn’t affect him, but he also wasn’t interfering with her thoughts from over there. She sent her ghirit through her patient. The lady’s arteries felt soft, suggesting her blood pressure was low. Her pulse was fast. She was hot with fever. The remainder of her organs seemed fine, but her uterus was distended from birth and swelled further with inflammation. As Eva’d feared, the woman’s birth canal was packed with rags.

  Walking quickly to the door, Kazy cracked it open and fixed the teenage boy with her eye. “Hurry back to the tavern. Tell them I sent you to get Daussie and some saline for your mother’s pressure.”

  He ducked his head and turned to go.

  Kazy stopped him with a commanding voice. She asked, “What’re you going to tell them?”

  He turned back, looking confused, “Um, that you need help.”

  “If you tell them that you’re going to waste valuable time that could put your mother’s life in danger. You need to tell them that I need Daussie, some saline, and that it’s for your mother’s pressure. Got that?!”

  He nodded, “Daussie; saline; for my mother’s pressure, right?”

  “Yes. Say that to yourself over and over as you’re going to the tavern, okay?”

  He ducked his head again and took off at a run.

  Kazy went back into the room and asked the husband where she could find a cup and some water.

  She feared he’d refuse to help, but the starch seemed to have gone out of him. He pointed wordlessly to a cabinet where she found some mugs. Once she’d gotten a large one, he pointed to a corner where she found a bucket with water. Filling the mug, she went to the woman. She lifted her patient’s shoulders and propped them with a pillow.

  As further evidence of the patient’s low blood pressure, the woman looked up at her and said, “Lay me back down. Sitting up makes me dizzy.”

  Kazy quickly dumped a packet of the sulfa into the mug. Lifting the mug to the patient’s lips, she said, “Drink this! It’s full of medicine. It’s going to taste nasty, but it’ll save your life!”

  The woman took a sip, grimaced and made to push the mug away. Kazy shook her head and sent in her ghirit, convincing the woman she was drinking tea with a lot of honey. She held the mug back to the woman’s lips. Even knowing what her telepathy could do to someone’s thoughts, Kazy still felt surprised when the woman eagerly slurped up the contents of the mug.

  When the first mug was empty, Kazy refilled it and put in another packet of the sulfa. A double dose to get her blood levels up at the start of her treatment regimen. Realizing the woman was going to have to drink water with sulfa in it several times a day for several days, Kazy used her talent to convince the woman that the specific taste of sulfa itself was sweet like honey. She pushed to make this a long term change in the woman’s perceptions.

  When the woman had finished that mug as well, Kazy had her drink another mug of water since drinking lots of water was supposed to decrease G.I. irritation.

  Deciding three mugs of water was enough for right now, Kazy lifted the sheets so they blocked the husband from seeing and removed the packing rags. She fervently hoped the patient wouldn’t start bleeding. She knew the toxins of sepsis could not only drive down the patient’s blood pressure, but also render them unable to clot blood. In which case we’ll probably lose her, Kazy thought grimly. She knelt and got some bandage material out of their medical bag so she’d be ready to repack the birth canal if a lot of bleeding started.

  Once she was ready, Kazy sent in her ghirit. She found some bleeding, but onl
y a little.

  Relieved, Kazy slumped at the patient’s side as if exhausted. I’ve done what I can, she told herself. After a moment she straightened with resolve and started reviewing, trying to think of anything else she might be able to do.

  Unable to think of anything else, she leaned down next to her patient. “Hello. I’m Kazy Hyllis. You’ve got childbed fever and your son asked me to come try to heal you.” The woman’s eyes widened at the term “childbed fever,” evidencing fear at the diagnosis. Kazy said, “We’ve got a new treatment for childbed fever. It should help a lot. It’s in that water I’ve been having you drink.”

  The woman said, “The sweet water?”

  Kazy nodded.

  “I liked it. Can I have some more?”

  Kazy snorted as she thought, making people like their medicine seems like a good strategy but I hope it doesn’t backfire and lead to someone overdosing. To the woman, she replied, “Yes, in a few hours. It’s not safe for you to take more of such a powerful medicine right now.” She leaned back and said, “I’m sorry, but I haven’t learned your name yet?”

  “Harriet,” the woman said quietly.

  Kazy studied Harriet, simultaneously sending her ghirit through her again. She found nothing had changed except perhaps a little more pressure in Harriet’s blood vessels. She took out the pillows so Harriet could lie flat and put them under the woman’s knees to increase blood return. If I’m not imagining things and her pressure’s actually better, it’s probably from all the water I had her drink, not the effect of the antibiotic, she thought. It’s too early for the bacteria to be dying yet. Sulfa antibiotics didn’t actually kill bacteria, just kept them from reproducing. That gave the body’s immune system time to catch up, but it still had to kill the bacteria itself.

  Harriet’s eyes had fluttered closed. Kazy said, “How’re you feeling?”

  Harriet frowned, keeping her eyes shut. “A little bit sick at my stomach. Maybe I drank too much of that sweet water.”

  Kazy felt like she was caught in a quandary. Too much water could make someone sick at their stomach. On the other hand, the sulfa drugs were famous for causing nausea as well, and drinking more water was thought to ameliorate those symptoms.