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  Hareh tilted his head and looked at his mother for a moment as if he didn’t know how to explain. “Um, women do form eggs like chickens do. But human eggs are tiny and don’t have shells around them… Anyway, Daussie just ported one of her ripe eggs directly from the ovary to the uterus so the woman could get pregnant. As you saw, since she’d been trying for years, she’s pretty happy about it.”

  “Oh,” Marissa said, suddenly embarrassed to realize her son knew more about reproduction than she did.

  Before the last of the students examined Marissa, a huge commotion broke out downstairs. People were shouting and Marissa worried someone’d been hurt, or, worse, that some group was attacking the tavern again.

  But when Kazy threw open the window and looked out, the voices sounded happy. Kazy turned excitedly, “Tarc’s home!”

  ~~~

  Vyrda and Rrica said they’d take care of the last few patients so everyone else could go down to greet Tarc. Having realized what was happening before the rest, Kazy bolted down the stairs and was the first to burst out into the area between the stables and the tavern. Tarc was standing beside a small wagon with five women and a big muscular man. My cousin seems to accumulate women wherever he goes, she thought.

  She gave an admiring glance at his tall, muscular physique. Little wonder.

  Knowing there were a bunch of other people on the way out to say hello, Kazy trotted across the yard and hugged Tarc.

  He enfolded her in return, giving her a jolly public greeting. Then he whispered, “I brought Nyssa, Iris, and Serena with me. They were with you when you guys were captives of the raiders outside Walterston.”

  Without turning her eyes that direction, Kazy expanded her ghirit, immediately registering the unhappiness—and in one case the outright misery—flowing from three of the women. The blackness radiating from one of the two younger ones felt overpowering. Trying to keep her chin firm, she looked up at Tarc, formed a little grin and said, “You were supposed to bring me a present. Instead, you brought me work?”

  He gave her a little squeeze, looking at her with somber eyes that seemed to see right through her stiff upper lip. “Isn’t that the kind of present you like?”

  She nodded, “But the skinny one’s going to be rough.”

  Tarc sighed, “Yeah. That’s Serena. Um, you should know, Ariel committed suicide.”

  Kazy closed her eyes and said bleakly, “Crap! I liked Ariel.”

  Then other people were crowding around Tarc.

  Kazy backed away.

  She turned and walked over to the women. “Hi Nyssa, Iris,” she said, giving each of them a quick hug. She’d normally think of Iris as being fairly psychologically distraught, but not when she was standing next to Serena. So Kazy cut short her meeting with Nyssa and Iris to quickly turn to the dark wraith at their side. “Hi, Serena.” She hugged what felt like skin and bones. Kazy whispered in Serena’s ear, “Tarc tells me you’ve had a really rough time?” She knew the answer, of course, but needed to be talking so no one would know what was going on between their minds.

  Serena gave a little nod and let her hands creep a little way around Kazy. Timidly, she said, “You’re Kazy?”

  Kazy nodded.

  “The same one they had tied up in the horse stall?”

  Kazy winced at the memory, “The same one.”

  “You must be really tough. You look like you’re dealing with… everything, a lot better than I am.”

  Kazy’d already lifted the demise of Serena’s family from her mind, so she was able to say, “Yeah, but I’ve found family I didn’t know about. They’ve loved me and made me feel better. You’ve been all alone, haven’t you?”

  “Y-yes,” Serena said, voice breaking.

  Kazy looked up and saw Eva and Jadyn coming out the door. Their eyes were already turning toward the pain radiating off Nyssa and Iris. To Serena, Kazy said, “Let’s sit on the wagon.” As they maneuvered to sit there, Kazy mentally urged Eva and Jadyn to come and talk to her.

  By the time they arrived, Kazy had Serena dozing off. She quickly explained the situation to Eva, suggesting Eva help Iris and Jadyn help Nyssa. As they moved off, Kazy heard Eva start to tell Jadyn that the two women had been assaulted. Kazy turned her attention back to Serena, soothing her pain, boosting her self-esteem, assuaging her guilt… This is going to need more than one session, she thought, appalled at the state of the girl’s thoughts.

  A minute or two later, Kazy blinked as she released herself from Serena’s thoughts. When she looked over, she saw Eva was sitting with Nyssa and Jadyn with Iris rather than the pairings Kazy’d suggested. Kazy thought about it and decided that Nyssa’d probably feel more comfortable being ministered by someone older rather than younger like Jadyn. Kazy’d been thinking that Eva’s experience would be better for dealing with Iris’s more severe pathology, but Jadyn was actually the stronger telepath.

  Kazy could see Eva hadn’t even put Nyssa to sleep. Nyssa probably thought they’d just been having a pleasant chat, but Kazy could see the weariness fading from her face. The tenor of her thoughts was already more pleasant.

  Jadyn looked like she was just giving Iris a long hug. Kazy thought she was probably the only one who realized Iris had been completely under, but the girl was already starting to wake.

  Eva stood, saying, “A celebration’s in order. Pizza and beer sound good to everyone?”

  An enthusiastic cheer greeted the suggestion. People started moving toward the tavern’s dining room.

  Kazy looked at Serena, “Feel like some pizza?”

  The girl nodded but said, “What’d you do? I feel way better!”

  Kazy shrugged, “Hypnotism. It’s a new trick Eva’s been teaching me. Glad you’re feeling better, but I think we should probably do it a couple more times. Okay?

  Serena nodded almost eagerly.

  As they got up to go inside, Kazy looked around. Her eyes caught on a tall, pretty girl with yellow-green eyes and dark auburn hair. She could hardly help sensing that the girl would be a good match for Tarc.

  She thought, I wonder if he knows.

  ~~~

  Daum had been taking his turn to embrace Tarc. “Great to have you back! No trouble with the plague on your trip?”

  Tarc shook his head. “Were they able to get it in control here, or… is it still a problem?”

  “Your mom keeps saying we need to keep worrying about it, but we haven’t had any new cases since the week after you left.” Daum noticed Rrica standing nearby. “Rrica here was awesome as the epidemic person. She told everyone what to do and modified ancient solutions to fit our times.” Daum shrugged, “Eva said a lot of the things the ancients used to do just won’t work nowadays.”

  Rrica blushed when Tarc congratulated her. “Eva made the big difference, not me.”

  Daum lowered his voice, “How’d your… negotiations go with the people in Walterston… sorry, Farleysville.”

  “Farley’s out and the town’s going to elect its own government now. They’ve renamed the town ‘Freehold.’ It turned out Farley had a lot of the money that belonged in the banks and the banks were holding a lot more money than they’d been admitting to. When all that got straightened out, it was pretty easy to get our deposits back out of Harrington’s.”

  “What about Watson?”

  Tarc shrugged, “It turned out he had plenty of money. Both because the tavern’s been doing well, and because he’d made a trip to his out of town bank and came back with their other savings.”

  “So he paid you some or all of what they owed?”

  Tarc tilted his head, “Well… not willingly. He had plenty of money in the cellar. So I just snuck down there one night and took what he owed us. I left him our contract with, ‘Paid in full,’ written on it.”

  Daum snorted, “He probably shit when he saw that!”

  Tarc smiled, “I have enjoyed trying to imagine the expression on his face.” Tarc looked over at some of the other people who’d come with him
. “Dad, you remember the Blacksmiths, over there?”

  Daum looked over and recognized John and Sally. “I should go over and pay them for those knives they gave us when we left Walterston.”

  “Yeah, and make them feel welcome. Mr. Blacksmith had a heart attack while I was in Freehold, so they’ve come up here to have Daussie clean out his arteries. But,” Tarc gave his father a glance, “I keep thinking about how he’s a way better blacksmith than the ones here in Clancy Vail.”

  “You think he might stay?”

  “He should. He’ll need to have some maintenance done on his arteries in a few years.”

  There were other people waiting to talk to Tarc, so Daum said, “I’ll do it now.”

  When he got over to them, he shook John Blacksmith’s big hand and briefly embraced Sally. He turned them toward the tavern’s dining room so they could all order pizza. Once he had them seated he realized the tall young girl who’d tagged along with them had to be a daughter. Tall enough for Tarc, he thought.

  He had them wait a minute while he poured beers all around. He sat to say thanks, then found himself choked up, telling them how much the throwing knives had meant to his family. “I can afford to pay you now, so—”

  Sally interrupted, “Keep your money. After Tarc saved John’s life and rescued our whole damned town… again, we still owe you!”

  “Tarc did what?!”

  Sally snorted, “He didn’t tell you, did he?” She laughed and shook her head at the expression on Daum’s face, “Of course he didn’t. He’s far too humble.”

  “Tell me what?”

  “Let me have another sip of this amazing beer of yours. Then I’ll tell you what your astonishing son’s been up to.” She sipped and wiped her lip. She stared into the distance a moment, then shook her head.

  When she looked at Daum again her eyes had welled with tears. Hoarsely she said, “You’re gonna find some of this stuff hard to believe… And, of course, you’ve got to remember I don’t even know all the things he’s done…”

  The End

  Hope you liked the book!

  To find other books by the author try Laury.Dahners.com.

  Or his Amazon Author page

  Author’s Afterword

  This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I’ve always been partial to science fiction that poses 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?

  I think the rest of the science in a science fiction story should be as real as possible.

  So, in this story, the central question continues to be what even weak telekinetic, teleportation, telepathic, and precognition powers would let you do. This story delves a little farther into the medical applications of such abilities (which are simply unending). It also looks farther into the potential of such abilities to act as weapons—and the moral and ethical ramifications of using them as such (which are frightening).

  Plague and other epidemics were a huge problem in medieval times and remain a problem today in third world countries. Sanitation has saved far more lives than medical treatment, but—as in the book—people don’t express much gratitude for not getting sick in the first place (have you thanked the person who gave you your flu vaccination lately?) Certainly their gratitude is nothing like the appreciation they express when they’re rescued from death’s doorstep.

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Gail Gilman, Nora Dahners, Jerry Aguirre, Philip Lawrence, Michael Scott, and Henrie Timmers, each of whom significantly improved this story.