I had one boot laced already, and I started on the other. “Yes, but it’s not like people have signs on their foreheads. How do you know a person is a Weaver and not just a mentally unwell person in actuality?” I had a guess, but I wanted to find out if it was right. I didn’t miss how Melody avoided my question about Smith. I would push later.
“Weavers always reach for the Web even if they don’t know they’re doing it. Right now some part of you is in contact with the Web even though your attention is in the physical world. All I would have to do, were I in the presence of someone I suspected to be uninitiated, is go into the Web and look. They would appear to me, and I could help them make that final step into life as a Weaver.”
I frowned. “But they have to have reached their physical maturity to be visible, right? What if you suspect a child could be a Weaver, but they’re still too young? Maggie said parents can teach their children about the Web and mentioned the ‘ghosting’ thing. Is that only because of the family connection?”
I was done tying my shoes, and I rose reluctantly to get my coat. It would be harder to talk outside in the wind and Melody was a good source of information, plus she didn’t seem to mind me machine-gunning her with question after question.
“It’s considered bad form to force an attachment on another Weaver, one of the more evil things a person might do, but in very, very extreme cases it happens. If I suspected a child was a Weaver but they hadn’t yet reached their physical maturity, I would have to take into account all of the risk factors for the child before I acted. If I suspected their Weaver status because of another family member's, I might leave it in their hands to teach the child.”
Her fingers wove together to rest her arms in a ‘v’ formation. It looked like a comfortable pose to take while instructing. “The Weavers that were selected to find the uninitiated went through rigorous training on ethics and formed bonds with many, many children just coming into their physical maturity. Attachments are permanent unless severed by death, but there are varying degrees. The connection between friends is far different from family members and couples. Some of them can fade over time if neglected, but they never go away. A bond with a child who had not reached their physical maturity would be too strong to fade and not entered into lightly.”
Melody seemed so certain when she said attachments were permanent. Silver and I knew it wasn’t necessarily true. Without even taking into account our own experience with Maggie’s bond, there was still the question of the first Weaver in existence. How had they entered the Web if they hadn’t had anyone to attach to?
Silver spoke up, “You know I can give the answers to all of these questions, right?”
I paused with my back to Melody at the coat rack so she couldn’t see my face and thought back. “I like to hear things from other people’s perspective, especially if they’ve done the thing I’m asking about. I don’t think memories hold the answer to everything. If they did, our race would be in a lot better shape than it is.”
Melody helped me hold my coat as I put it on and then pulled my hood up over my head. She seemed to be such a mothering type; it was a shame she didn’t have any kids. As she shrugged into her coat, before I could stop myself, I blurted, “You should have some children of your own. You’re a natural mother.”
I think Melody could have been blushing, but it didn’t show through on her dark skin. She hesitated over what she wanted to say, “I know you meant that as a compliment, sweetie, but it’s bad form to remind a woman she’s an old maid.”
I took in her beautiful face and couldn’t see a line or sign of age. “You aren’t old, and you’re one of the most attractive people I’ve ever met, plus you’re intelligent.”
She cleared her throat. “The world will go as it will go and not as you or I would have it. Let’s go. Do you have the key?”
I froze because the turn of phrase was almost exactly what I had told Silver earlier, but then I turned and walked over to the coffee table to grab the key for the front door and held it up as an answer. Melody reached out a graceful long-fingered hand and gently took the key. The wind sounded just as forceful as it had earlier but no better or worse. Melody opened the door and motioned to me to go out. I hopped off the porch and waited at the bottom of the stairs as she locked up.
I couldn’t help myself and rubbernecked the fence line for any signs of the police. Houses blocked all of the action. One cruiser with its lights flashing blocked the part of the I had run toward earlier. No ambulance was in sight, which I hoped meant the girl in the grass was already long gone to the hospital.
Melody held the key out. I plucked it from her already chilled fingers and stuffed it in my front pocket. The way to the clinic was so familiar now I didn’t have to pay much attention to where I put my feet.
Absently, I wondered if we would run into Kara and James on the way. I wasn’t sure I wanted to; distance seemed like a good idea right now. My pride still stung a little bit that James thought I was mentally imbalanced. Melody was a good companion, she didn’t waste words in the wind, and I picked up my pace to match her long strides as she shortened hers so that I could keep up.
The sky had an orange-brown tint from the dirt in the air, and the best way to keep the blowing soil out of my eyes was to lower my lids halfway closed and tuck my chin down and to the side every time a gust hit. It wasn’t a perfect system, but it was the best we could do without gas masks or hazmat gear. Melody’s hood blew off twice, mine once before we made it to the infirmary. Very few people were out and about. When they were, their heads were down like ours.
It was a relief to open the door to enter the currently unoccupied lobby with its familiar wood counter. The sound of the bell over the entry would bring Maggie soon enough, so Melody and I set about taking off our boots and placing them under one of the benches. I noticed a thin film of dust or dirt covered all of the flat surfaces. The front door groaned in its frame as the wind hit it in a strong gust.
I could hear Maggie coming before she made it out to the counter as the floorboards squeaked under her feet. My head was down as I worked at my boot laces, so I used the time to ask Silver, “Hey, you’re being awfully quiet.”
Silver took a long time to deliver a distracted response. “I’m researching a few things; that’s all. What’s up?”
I fumbled with my boot laces as if I was having difficulty getting them untied to give myself more time. “Can we heal Maggie now?”
My aunt was already at the counter. She and Melody were going back and forth about how bad her nose looked.
“In front of Melody?”
“I don’t see why not, Malcolm’s going to tell her about what I did to him anyway.”
“True.” Silver was silent for a long moment. “Okay, we’ll go for it, but you’re going to have to explain everything to Gerome later, all over again. We should have herded everybody together in the gym and said, ‘watch this’. At the rate we’re going, it’ll take forever to show people what we can do. Let’s leave me out of it like you suggested. When Gerome and Maggie are together, we can tell them about us.”
My head was about to nod, but I caught myself and thought, “Done.”
When I looked up from taking off my footwear, Melody and Maggie were on opposite sides of the counter smiling in my direction. My aunt was a tall woman, but Malcolm’s sister dwarfed her by almost a foot. The whole Amazon bit popped into my brain again. I stood and headed toward them thinking hard about how I wanted to broach the subject.
Maggie pulled the flap up and remarked, “You look like you have the weight of the world on your mind, dear. What are you so serious about?”
I could feel the air currents move as Melody followed. I didn’t feel that old twitchy paranoid feeling when a person was behind me. My gut instinct was telling me on all levels that she was trustworthy. “Are there any patients here? I’d like to talk to you and Melody in private if possible.”
Silver spoke up, “There’s also the little matt
er of all the people that know Maggie broke her nose. It’s going to seem strange that all signs of it are gone. Outside of our little group, David and Nicky will notice first. Maybe you should tell Maggie what you plan to do and ask permission?”
I almost laughed at Silver. Since when did she ever ask permission to do anything? My sister did have a good point, though. Malcolm’s healing hadn’t been obvious to anyone but him. Maybe I should ask Maggie?
When Melody took over holding the counter flap, my aunt grabbed me to her side and squeezed me briefly.
“Sure, dear, we can go to my office. Usually, I have some cases of sniffles come by in this weather, but I think I got most of the regulars squared away during that last big wind storm.”
Melody laughed. “Who isn’t on allergy medicine around here? I know I’m taking two different pills and a nasal spray just to keep from sneezing all the time. My eyes still itch.”
Maggie started to guffaw and then winced when it hurt her nose. “That’s because you’re not using your eye drops like I told you to.”
Melody shuddered, wrinkling her nose and curling her upper lip. “I can’t stand sticking anything in my eyeball, ugh.”
As we all padded down the hallway, they continued teasing each other. If Malcolm and Gerome were good friends, then I would guess Melody and Maggie to be best friends. They had a rhythm to their interaction with one another that spoke of long familiarity and great fondness.
“How long have you and Melody known each other, Maggie?”
Melody spoke up instead. “Since we were knee high to a grasshopper.”
Maggie laughed. “Years, honey, many years and I’m glad for every one of them.”
Melody made a playful ‘aw’ sound. When the bed-filled room opened up before us, we walked three abreast instead of single file. Melody looked toward the bed Kara had occupied.
“Maggie, I can’t believe she woke up. I thought she wasn’t going to make it, and my heart was already breaking for James. Do you have any idea what happened yet? If Kara could tell you how she snapped out of it, we could pass on that information to other compounds.”
I felt instantly guilty. Were there other Weavers out there right now dying when Silver and I could set them right?
“Don’t think like that, Cassandra. We’re hardly in shape to go around fixing everyone. We didn’t even know we could do it until Kara. As you keep telling me…baby steps.”
“Maggie needs to know it was us, Silver...really you.”
“Yes but not today.”
I mentally agreed to disagree, and Maggie shot a concerned look my way.
“What is it you want to talk to us about, sweetie?”
The door to Maggie’s office was just a few steps away, and since no one was in the clinic besides us, I said, “I want permission to heal your nose.”
Both women stopped and said, “What?” with twin confused tones and expressions.
I entered Maggie’s office with the assumption that they would follow then stopped to take a deep breath and appreciate the homey feel of Maggie’s personal workspace as I took off my coat. My agitation went down a few notches as I sat myself to one side of the worn sofa.
When Maggie came through the door, I motioned for her to sit beside me. Melody unzipped her coat, shrugged out of it and threw it with unerring accuracy to land on top of mine. She leaned on the front of Maggie’s desk with her arms crossed over her breasts.
As she sat my aunt asked in a serious tone, “What do you mean you want permission to ‘heal’ my nose?”
“Just what I said, if I mend your nose then other people will notice so I don’t want to do it without your permission.”
Maggie’s lips trembled like she was struggling not to smile as she cocked her head to the side quixotically. “Just how do you propose to fix this?” She motioned to her face in a circular motion. “Last I knew you didn’t have any magical powers, sweetie.”
I got a little irritated, but I suppose I couldn’t blame my aunt for her skepticism; healing was her calling not mine. She did it through practical knowledge and medicines, not Web hocus pocus I couldn’t even actually explain.
I brushed away my frustration at her doubt. “Give me permission and you’ll see.”
Melody continued to watch me with interest from her perch on Maggie’s desk.
I could tell by my aunt’s expression that she was humoring me.
“Fine, you have my permission.”
I asked Silver, “Are you ready?” I held out my hand to Maggie, and she slid her rough palm into mine.
Silver’s thoughts had an ‘I’ll show you’ caste to them. She might try to show off.
“Don’t worry, I won’t mess up her nose or make it bigger. I promised you I would fix the harm I caused and I will.”
I closed my eyes, and Silver yanked me into the Web at her usual bullet train pace. When I felt oriented, I found myself focused on Maggie’s glowing orange cord of light. Silver stayed silent since we weren’t sure if Maggie would be able to hear her thoughts due to the bond that still stretched between us. I could feel her intent as she grazed the surface of Maggie’s Web self and left a tiny flash of light that absorbed and disappeared.
Maggie sent a surprised, alarmed emotion down our bond and I spoke up quickly, “I don’t think it will hurt but it could, I’ve never healed a broken nose before. Malcolm didn’t say it hurt when I treated his chest, but that was a simple contusion.”
The emotion surging up the bond from my aunt was anything but calm. “You did this with Malcolm without telling me?”
I controlled my irritation, but I’m sure she felt a little bit of it. It didn’t help as Silver goaded my anger with her impatience at Maggie's questions. “Maggie, I love you, but would you please stop being so parental and just concentrate on how you feel for a minute?”
Exasperated disbelief came my way in a gush then a quiet, thoughtful silence followed as she thought it through.
“I feel…pretty good. How do you have this ability, Cassandra? What did you do? I felt a burning tingling sensation as if I had an itch that was being scratched to perfection and then…nothing.” Maggie’s presence hadn’t brightened per se, but the colors were vibrant.
“We might want to find out what Melody is seeing on your face before we continue this conversation. Is she the type to go hysterical?” I asked.
My aunt sent a feeling of impatience. “Not before now. You are in big trouble for not talking to Gerome and me about any of this, young lady.”
I sighed in my mind. “Would it help if I told you I didn’t find out until this morning that I could do any of this?” I could tell Maggie was putting the pieces together about my timing and the wild events with Kara. Before she could ask even more questions, I shot at her, “See you on the couch!”
When my eyes opened, it was to see my aunt’s face. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but perfection wasn’t what I was seeing. I thought at Silver. “Did it not do anything?”
“Calm down it's not instantaneous. Just watch.”
Already the swollen upper lip was back to normal, and the swelling on the bridge of Maggie’s nose was ever so slowly going down. It was like watching a time-lapse photography of a wound healing over weeks, only in seconds and minutes.
Maggie and I were still holding hands when her eyes opened. They widened even further as the bruised parts of her skin around her eyes changed to a greenish yellow color. Her grip loosened as she tried to pull away and touch her face. I held firm. “Don’t touch. Just leave it alone. What does it feel like?”
I had almost forgotten Melody was in the room with us until she drew in a hissing breath between her teeth.
“Holy Hell, Maggie, your face!”
My aunt was almost ready to panic, but I made eye contact while I held onto her hands even tighter. “You’re fine, Maggie, I wouldn’t hurt you. Tell me how you feel?”
I could hear Melody digging around in Maggie’s desk. I didn’t dare break eye co
ntact with my aunt or she would have her own little freakout. I would guess all doctors were a bit OCD, and it was driving Maggie bonkers not to see what was happening on her face. Melody came back around the desk and held up a hand mirror so Maggie could see the last bit of yellow fade from around her nose.
My aunt wiggled her fingers in my grip, and I deemed it safe, so I let go. Her hand drifted upward.
“It burned like the blast of heat you get from opening an oven door. I don’t feel anything but a slight tingling now, and my nose isn’t tender at all.” She pushed on the bridge of her nose as she looked in the mirror.
“See, nothing to worry about!” Silver said.
I took internal stock of how I felt and asked Silver, “How much energy did it take this time?”
I could feel her considering the question.
“Huh, it may be because of the bond between you and Maggie, but it didn’t take nearly as much as I thought it would. Either I'm getting better at this trick, or the bond enabled us to use some of Maggie’s energy. We’re not as drained.”
The tension I’d been holding inside at my dread of another low blood sugar episode released. “At least, we aren’t going to pass out.”
Maggie finished poking at her nose and Melody put down the hand mirror on the desk. “How did you do that, Cassandra?”
Being the center of attention may sound like bliss to some people, but to me being the focus of two intelligent, strong-willed women was like sitting under the lens of a high-intensity microscope naked.
I rolled my shoulders, looked down at my lap then up at Melody and back down. “It’s somewhat like a virus you pass in the Web, but instead of doing harm it fixes the problem, whatever it might be. The process isn’t without cost; the bigger the problem, the more energy it takes.”
I could see an ‘aha’ light dawn as Maggie thought about my low blood sugar this morning. I held up my hand and glanced sideways at Melody before she could ask the questions I knew she wanted to.
My aunt pursed her lips and bit the inside of her cheek as if it killed her not to ask about Kara. “I don’t think we should tell just anybody about this yet. I’m not even sure when and if the Council should know. Melody, what do you say?”
Chimera (The Weaver Series Book 1) Page 21