Teleporter

by Laurence E. Dahners

  “Close your eyes. Then start noticing where the sun, the fires, the horses, and the people are. At a distance, they’ll get fuzzy and hard to detect.” He paused, then said, “The hotter something is, the farther away you should be able to sense it. The sun is really, really hot, so even though it’s incredibly far away, we can tell where it is right through the earth. Everything has a little bit of heat in it, so you can even feel things at room temperature or below if they’re pretty near to you. Remember how you could feel that copper inside Dad’s hand that first day?”

  Daussie had closed her eyes. She settled her head back against the wagon wheel and reached out with her ghost. The sun was just below the western horizon. Eva’s cook fire, just coals now, was very easily detected, but so were small fires by several of the other wagons. There was a big hot spot and several smaller hotspots over in the Prichard’s house. The mules, horses, and oxen that made up the caravan’s animals were easy to detect as they were large, warm and nearby. As Daussie thought about it, she could detect the people of the caravan, beside their wagons, a few inside their tents, and two up in the shooting platform over the guard’s wagon. Daussie continued examining the world with her ghost. There were various sized animals in the Prichard’s barn and she could detect people inside the big house.

  Daussie said wonderingly, “I can feel the people in the Prichard’s house!” She counted, “There are fifteen of them.” She scanned around the very periphery of the farthest distance she could reach. “And three of the cattle in that field to the south… And the man in the woods to the southeast.”

  Daussie had brought her senses in closer to wonderingly explore their own wagon, which was easy, and the next several wagons which were fuzzier. She could readily feel around inside each of the compartments of their own wagon, which she suddenly realized would be a great help when they couldn’t remember which compartment they had put some important object in. In the next two wagons it was harder, but she could still easily tell where the arrows, versus the spears, versus the swords were in the guard’s wagon.

  Daussie thought she heard admiration in Tarc’s voice when he said, “That’s even further than I can sense things!” Suddenly intense, he asked, “Are you sure about there being a man in the woods?”

  Daussie blinked. She had simply assumed that Tarc must be much better than she was at anything to do with the family’s talents. She felt a small flutter of hope to realize that there might be something she could do better than he could. She wondered if this could mean that she might be better at feeling things inside of people than he was. Maybe she wasn’t destined to be a second rate healer, if her finer ability to detect things made her a better diagnostician?

  Then, reality crashed back in as she realized why he was interested in the man in the woods. She felt a sudden twist in her gut and hoped she wasn’t going to throw up again. Pushing her ghost senses outward again she felt towards the woods. At least she was fairly sure that there were trees there. Trees, not being particularly warm, were hard to detect at such a distance, but there were vague fuzzy objects out there that weren’t present in the open field closer to the caravan.

  There it was. A warm body, the size of a man or a small pig, but upright. So, a man. “Yes. It’s the right temperature for a man and the right height. It couldn’t be an animal unless there’s an animal in these woods that stands upright like a man.” Hoping against hope, she asked, “Why would a man be out there anyway?” Perhaps there’s some innocent reason to be out there?

  Distractedly but unhappily, Tarc said, “Scouting us.”

  Daussie opened her eyes and looked at her brother, “For them?” she said, meaning the raiders.

  Tarc had turned his eyes thoughtfully in the direction of the woods. He nodded, confirming Daussie’s worst fears. He climbed to his feet, “I’m gonna walk out that way a little bit so I can sense him myself.”

  “But!” It had sounded like a terrible idea when he said it, but Daussie wasn’t sure why. “What if… what if he… shoots an arrow at you?!”

  Tarc glanced back at her, “If he’s beyond where I can sense him, he’s got to be more than two hundred meters away. That’s a really long bowshot so his chance of hitting me would be vanishingly small. Besides, it’s dark. I’ll be able to detect him long before he can see me and I’ll be able to sense any arrows coming and dodge out of the way.”

  Daussie got up and watched Tarc work his way between the wagons and walk out into the field a ways. She kept her senses on the man in the woods, ready to call out to Tarc if the man started to move. The man didn’t do anything but one of the guards up on the shooting platform over the guard wagon called out, “Boy, where are you goin’?”

  Tarc kept slowly walking. “Just out for a little fresh air,” he called back.

  The guard called after him in an irritated tone, “Well turn around and get your fresh air on the way back to the wagons you dumb little shit. I guess you haven’t been paying any attention to the fact that there’s some bandits out there who’d just as soon kill you as talk to you?”

  From the way Tarc stiffened, Daussie could tell he was pissed about being talked to like he was a child, but he did turn and walk back. Working his way back between the wagons, he said, “You’re right Dauss, there is a guy out there watching us.”

  “What should we do?” she asked, hoping he had some idea.

  “I don’t know. I’d like to tell the guards because they’d probably have some good ideas. But if we told them there was a man out in the woods, they’d want to know how we knew it. That’s if they even believed us!” After a moment he turned and looked around. “I’ll tell Dad. Maybe he’ll know what to do.”

  Daussie’s eyes followed Tarc as he walked away. Deciding that she couldn’t bear not knowing what was going on, she followed him.

  Daum was talking to a couple of the other caravaners while eating his dinner. Daussie suspected that eating that savory smelling stew and sausage in front of them was a subtle form of advertising for Eva’s business. The three men were talking about the raiders. One said, “I told Norton that we needed to get up early tomorrow so we can get the hell out of here before those bastards come after us.”

  The other said, “If they stop us for a ‘tax,’ I just hope it’s a reasonable one. Just starting out in the extortion business they may not realize that setting their taxes too high will keep caravans from coming through again. Ruin their future business.”

  Daum raised his eyebrows, “We pay taxes to sons of bitches like these guys?!”

  The second man nodded morosely, “It ain’t good but paying taxes sure as hell beats being dead. I’m just worried they’ll charge so much we’ll lose money on this trip. Killing the golden goose and all that.”

  Daum noticed Tarc and raised his eyebrows in question.

  Tarc jerked his head off to the side indicating he wanted to talk in private.

  A minute or so later Daum broke off his conversation with the two men which had mostly consisted of bitter complaining and morose dismay about the situation. Daussie felt appalled that they hadn’t even mentioned the circumstances of the local farmers. Even if the caravaners couldn’t do anything for the locals, she thought they should have acknowledged the straits the farmers were in.

  Daum headed back towards their own wagon and Tarc joined him. Daussie trailed a few steps behind. Tarc said as if a little awed, “Daussie can sense people even farther away than I can.”

  Daum turned and glanced back at Daussie, lifting an eyebrow.

  She nodded to confirm what Tarc had said.

  Daum said, “That’s great! If her sensitivity is really high, it should help a lot examining patients.”

  Tarc obviously hadn’t thought of that because he said, “Huh, I guess that’s so. But the thing right now is that she noticed a guy standing in the woods just southwest of us.”

  “Crap,” Daum said in a dismayed tone. “So, you’re thinking that the raiders already know we’re here?”


  Tarc nodded, “I don’t think leaving early in the morning is going to work.”

  Daum sighed, “You’re probably right. If only there was some way to let the guards know, maybe they’d know what to do about it.”

  Tarc said, “What if we said… something like that mom sometimes ‘sees things,’ like the fortune tellers that sometimes work the market. And that she thinks there is a guy out in the woods watching us…”

  Daum shook his head, “Even before we joined the caravan, Norton told me he thought that all the fortune tellers were fakes. He said he’d never let one join his caravan ‘cause he didn’t like them ripping people off.”

  “Maybe the guards don’t feel the same way?”

  “Maybe, but I wouldn’t want word getting back to Norton.”

  “But Dad, our lives might depend on this! Maybe we shouldn’t worry so much about what Norton might think.”

  “You might be right, but I really don’t think it will help. Supposing the guards did believe in fortune tellers, what could they do about it? If they started heading out that way, the guy would probably just fade away into the forest. It’s dark and, even if he didn’t leave, he’d be really hard to find.”

  “Not if I went with them!” Tarc said.

  “And why do you think they would decide to take you with them?!”

  They had arrived back at their own wagon. Tarc appeared to be chewing on the question Daum had just posed, while Daum looked around. He said, “Where’s Eva?”

  Daussie said, “She told me she was going to try to go around and get to know some of the women in the caravan once dinner was finished.”

  Daum grunted, “Good idea. Too bad there aren’t very many young people for you guys to get to know.” He looked at Tarc, “If I were you I’d try to get some sleep. The guards are going to use you for the watch between midnight and early morning. That’s when they say an attack would be most likely.”

  Tarc said, “You should tell them that Daussie can ‘hear’ even better than I can.”

  Daum glanced at her, “I’m not sure they’d want a young girl standing a watch.”

  Daussie said, “Why not?! They’ve got that girl guard, Lizeth. I’ll bet they trust her to stand a watch.”

  Daum frowned, “But, whoever’s standing a watch is at risk of the raiders sneaking up and attacking them. Tarc says that Lizeth is deadly with that sword.”

  “Nobody’s going to sneak up on me!”

  “I know that Daussie, but they don’t. Maybe after Tarc proves that he can hear better than they can, then they’ll want to have you out there listening too.”

  Tarc had been frowning off into the distance during this conversation. Now he said, “What if I snuck out of camp and went to check on that guy in the woods? I could creep up on him and…”

  Daum interrupted, “No! What if he hears you coming? Remember, he’s a trained soldier!”

  Tarc frowned, “What makes you think he’s a trained soldier?”

  “These guys have got to be Krait’s men. The ones we drove out of town. They hadn’t gotten set up yet by the time the Nortons came through on their way to Walterston, but they’re set up now.”

  Tarc shrugged, “Even if that’s true, there’s still hardly any risk. First, I’ll go out when the moon’s down and it’s really dark. I’ll be able to see with my ghost, but he won’t know I’m coming. Second, even in the dark I’ll be able to tell whether there are any twigs or branches that I might step on. He’ll be in a lot more danger than I will.”

  Daum stared at him for a moment, considering, “That might be. But supposing you sneak up on this guy. What are you going to do when you get there?”

  “Take him out.”

  “By that, I assume you mean stick one of your throwing knives in his eye socket. What if it turns out that he’s one of Prichard’s men, out there watching for our side?”

  Tarc looked a little green, but after a moment he said, “Maybe I could just follow him. If he goes back to Prichard’s house, no problem. If he heads out the other direction, I can follow him to their base camp and we’d know where it is.”

  Daum looked at his son for a moment, considering. He stepped forward and clasped Tarc to him, “I appreciate what you’re willing to do, Son,” he said hoarsely, “but it scares the hell out of me. For right now I’d rather leave this problem to Norton, who has experience with it, and the guards, who seem to be professionals. We’ll help where we can, but let’s let them take the lead.”

  Tarc considered a moment, then shrugged again, “Okay.”

  Daussie thought her brother sounded relieved. She felt tremendous respect when she considered that, despite Tarc’s apprehension, he’d not just been willing to follow the man in the woods, but had suggested it himself.

  Tarc climbed into the tent, saying he was going to try to get ahead on some sleep for his watch tonight. Daussie wandered off around the wagon circle to find Eva.

  Part way around the circle Daussie encountered, not Eva, but Mrs. Gates! “Hi Mrs. Gates, what are you doing here?!”

  Gates looked at Daussie like she thought Daussie was an imbecile. “What does it look like? I’m traveling with the caravan!”

  “Um, I can see that, but may I ask why?”

  “So I can stay near your mother and that retarded brother of yours,” she said irritably. “I’ve actually been getting better. I can’t be sure it isn’t because of those ridiculous treatments they’ve been giving me, so, since you guys are running away, I’m having to follow along!”

  Daussie marveled at the way the irascible old woman made it sound like the Hyllises’ silly little problem had created major problems for her. Uncertain as to what she should say, Daussie settled for, “Okay, I’ll let my Mom know.”

  Daussie continued on her way around the caravan, finding Eva two more wagons down talking to one of the women. The two women appeared to be very concerned about whatever they were discussing; Daussie presumed it had to do with the raiders. They broke off their conversation as Daussie approached. As they weren’t speaking Daussie said, “Mom, did you know that Mrs. Gates is in the caravan?”

  Eva stared at Daussie for a moment, then barked a laugh. “Getting away from her was one of the few positives about leaving Walterston and it looks like that one didn’t work out! What’s she doing here?”

  Daussie said, “She said she’s following us! She wants more treatments for her cancer and wouldn’t be able to get them if she stayed back home.”

  Eva rolled her eyes, but then said, “Well, I guess if I were her I’d come along too. I’m sure she’ll need a lot more treatments.”

  The other lady looked back and forth from Daussie to Eva, then said, “You’re a healer?”

  Eva nodded, “And my children are learning the profession.” She waved a hand at Daussie, “This is my daughter Daussie.” Turning to Daussie, she said, “This is Mrs. Rose, Daussie.” As Daussie gave the woman a nod of the head, Eva turned back to Mrs. Rose and said, “We’re not very good traders so we’re hoping to make a living cooking for the caravan and selling medical advice in the markets.”

  “And you can treat cancer?!” Mrs. Rose frowned, “I mean and actually make people better? I know every charlatan says he can treat it, but I don’t think any of them really can.”

  “Well,” Eva shrugged, “I didn’t think it could be treated either. But we’ve been trying a new treatment on Mrs. Gates and it has helped her a lot. I think it will help most people but I’m afraid I don’t really think it’s going to cure anyone.”

  Mrs. Rose drew her head back in obvious disbelief, then smiled. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a ‘healer’ admit they might not be able to cure anything! I’m not sure what you can do, but I’ve got to give you credit for being honest.”

  A while later, Eva and Daussie were back at their own wagon ordering things in the light of the lamp to have them ready for the preparation of breakfast in the morning. Mrs. Rose appeared out of the dim lighting, guiding another, relati
vely stout woman who gripped her own abdomen and hunched forward over it. The woman’s pinched face spoke volumes about how she felt. Mrs. Rose said, “Eva, this is Amelia Prichard. Her husband owns the farm here. She heard that there was a healer in our caravan and came to see if there was anything you can do for her.”

  Even as they were getting the woman laid down on top of the Hyllises’ low trailer, Daussie had already excitedly sent her ghost into the woman’s abdomen to try to learn what she could. Even in the dim lamplight Daussie’s eyes saw that the woman was a mildly jaundiced yellow so Daussie suspected something was wrong with her liver.

  Eva skillfully extracted a history from Mrs. Prichard. Forty-five years old, she’d intermittently had these attacks of abdominal pain for a few years, some worse than others, but all eventually getting better, usually in just a few hours. This one, however, had been going on for almost a day.

  “Usually, I come out and greet you caravaners when you arrive,” Mrs. Prichard said. “I like to welcome you and try to see to your needs… but I’ve been feeling so awful.” She grunted as if a spasm had gone through her, “I didn’t realize my daughters hadn’t come out to check on you until recently. Then, when they did, someone said there was a healer. So, selfishly, then I decided I would come out no matter how I felt…”

  Eva patted the woman on the shoulder and tugged at a lower eyelid to examine the white of her eye, “Don’t you worry about it. We’ve been getting along just fine. You’re jaundiced, so probably something’s bothering your liver or gallbladder. Just hold still while Daussie and I examine you.” She laid a hand on the woman’s abdomen and beckoned Daussie over, taking Daussie by the wrist and laying her hand on the woman as well.

  Daussie had already scanned through the entire woman from head to toes and found only the stones in her gallbladder. She wanted to just tell Eva what she had found wrong, but realized that putting “hands on” was an important part of reassuring the patient and not leaving them to wonder how a diagnosis had been made. She refocused her attention on the woman’s gallbladder noticing that the bile duct leading out of it as well as the part coming out of the liver were both distended. As she followed the common bile duct down towards the intestine she found a stone lodged there just before it went into the intestine. The stone was what was making the woman sick. The duct from the pancreas was also backed up and Daussie knew that pancreatitis could be a very serious illness.