by Shannah Jay
'We don't believe in killing.'
Quedras shook his head in disapproval. 'Not even when they intend to kill you? That's rridiculous.'
'It's not our way to kill,' Benjan repeated, but a grin curved his lips briefly as he added, 'though I don't mind thumping them around a bit.'
Quedras looked at the unconscious bodies. 'Well, we don't usually take prisoners. Those four would be more trouble than they're worth if we kept them.' He saw the expression on Herra's face and sighed. 'I know.
You don't want us to kill them, crrazy woman. Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not so good at killing in cold blood myself. It's different when you're fighting, though.' A broad grin stole over his face. 'I know what we'll do. Hey! Quarax! Get your squad over here and strip these four - weapons, clothes, everything - then throw them out of the camp. Let's see how they feel about taking a little walk mother-naked.'
There was a roar of laughter from a group by the eating tent, which was now serving as a mop-up area where wounds could be dressed. Even Herra had a smile on her face as the four prisoners were stripped and left naked at the bottom of the slope. Those of Quequere not on guard stood around watching and laying bets as to which attacker would stir first and what the four would then do with themselves. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, in spite of the attack. A few of them were busy placing trip wires among the rocks, so that they wouldn't be caught as easily a second time, chatting cheerfully as they worked.
The first of the prisoners to stir was a woman. She took a minute to realise where she was, and a further minute or two to become aware of her nudity, then she automatically tried to cover herself with her hands.
Failing to do so, she began to shake her companions, all the time throwing glances over her shoulder to check that none of the spectators was coming to attack her.
The audience was guffawing loudly and making a wide variety of lewd suggestions by this time, and when she realised that they had no intention of killing her, she shook her fist at them and shrieked a few insults back.
Eventually, all four were awake. One of them seemed unconcerned by his nakedness and even traded insults and lewd offers with Quinna, who was shouting uncomplimentary remarks about his physique and masculinity. After a while, his friends persuaded him to leave with them and the four limped off down the path, followed by a barrage of even more uncomplimentary remarks about their bare backsides.
'Hey! We'd better keep double watch for a few days. They'll be keen to get back at us for that,' said Quedras. 'Good idea, huh? They'll not enjoy their walk! They'll have sunburnt arses in no time!'
'Better than killing them, anyway,' said Herra.
Quedras shrugged. 'I still think you're crrazy, but you looked after your corner, so they were yours to dispose of. Hey, Quinna, credit Herra's squad with the gear we took off the four bare-arses.' He slapped Benjan on the shoulder and went off to check the wounded.
Katia was sitting inside the tent, shaking. 'Elder Sister, I can't get used to violence! I can't!'
'You'll have to.' Herra had lost her look of amusement. 'We shall be meeting it again, and yet again, before we're finished. You must learn to defend yourself, Katia - and your children too.'
Cheral nodded. 'I believe I am not given to violence, Katia, but one can grow accustomed to defending oneself, though I would draw the line at attacking someone.' She was looking rather smug, having routed a screaming woman and taken a knife from her in the process. She looked critically at the weapon she’d taken. 'I think this will make a good meat-slicing knife. Or maybe we could trade it for a good solid frying pan. It's much more satisfying to clang someone on the head with a pan than to use a stick.'
Katia moaned.
'Control yourself, Katia!' said Herra sharply. ' Control yourself! There is need, and you must learn to adapt!'
Katia gulped. 'I can't!' she whispered.
' Yes, you can! And must! What if Davred were being attacked, and losing? Would you let him be killed because you're over-squeamish? Well? Would you?'
'I - I suppose not.'
Herra's face softened. 'It will grow easier, child, if you make up your mind to accustom yourself to it. No one will ever ask you to attack anyone or to kill, only to defend yourself and your Kindred.'
'I - I'll try.'
Davred was watching quietly. He could feel his wife's pain but, like Herra, he knew there was need to learn self-defence. If anyone could help Katia to accept this, it would be the Elder Sister.
Herra patted Katia's arm. 'I know you'll try hard, child. And succeed, too. Now,' she gestured to her companions to join her, 'we must heal our three Kindred from the sand-madness. A circle, I think. Put aside your weapons and prepare yourselves for a Gathering. Jonner is deteriorating visibly.'
Ignoring the bustle in the rest of the camp, the group of Kindred settled down in a circle. All turned their awareness inwards to seek the God's peace before they began.
Quedras, having finished collecting the wounded, caught sight of Herra's squad and nudged the nearest person. 'Hey, you! Fetch Quall. Quick! That lot are up to something.'
Quietly as a cliff cat, Quedras crossed the camp to stand in the shelter of a nearby tent flap and watch the newcomers. He was joined by Quall and Querilla, who was still walking stiffly but had managed to join in the defence of the camp. 'What're that lot doing?' she demanded in a loud voice.
'Shush, you fool! How should I know? Watch them and see.'
Benjan carried Jonner into the circle and laid him in front of Herra, then sat down between her and Katia.
'Let us gather!' Herra said quietly.
Querilla opened her mouth, but Quedras covered it roughly with a large hand, and she shut it again. Quall edged forward, oblivious to their quarrels.
'Brother, look down on our friend Jonner,' Herra began, using the words to focus their concentration. 'We gather here now, united in our purpose. Give us the strength to bring him back. Now we are together. One mind, one purpose, one need. Let this little Brother be healed! Let his mind return to itself! Let the sand-madness leave him!'
She leaned forward to stroke Jonner's forehead and his body jerked in response to her touch. Faint light flickered around her. 'Mind be calm. Body be whole. Whole and well. Whole and well. '
The three observers gasped as the healing began and Jonner's limbs started to straighten. It was unknown for anyone to come out of first stage, let alone that tight foetal knot of the second stage.
' Let him be healed! ' Herra's voice made the words a musical chant, which linked the group together. They swayed slightly in rhythm to her sonorous phrases. ' Whole and well. Let him return! Whole and well. Whole and well.
Brother, look down! Jonner, return! Jonner, we call on you. '
Jonner groaned and Quall took another step forward, his face a study in disbelief and amazement. Even Querilla had lost the urge to comment and was watching open-mouthed. Quedras kept shaking his head.
Experience told him that what he was seeing was impossible. Yet someone far gone in sand-madness had made noises and started to stretch his limbs.
Quedras eyed the Kindred with even greater respect as Jonner continued to move normally. He’d begun to feel very proprietorial about the newcomers. With such skills as theirs, his community could go from strength to strength, perhaps even fulfilling his dream of uniting the whole of the Sandrims. And with these new skills, everyone could build a more satisfying life, free of the twin scourges of scorpions and sand-madness. He needed these people and their strange Gifts. The whole community needed them. And he was going to make sure that he kept Herra and her group in the Sandrims. Quequere had been good to guide him to Herra. All praise to Quequere.
Herra's voice took on a sharper note. 'Awake now, little Brother! Awake and rejoice! Whole and well!
Whole and well! Return to us. Return to us now! '
Jonner sat up, looking sick and dazed. 'What happened?' he croaked. He took in the Healing Circle around him and swallowed hard. 'Did I get
bitten by something? Where are we?'
Herra stood up, holding her hands out to him. The nimbus of light around her had died down. 'Something attacked you in the desert, my friend.' She gestured to Quall, who came eagerly forward to join her. 'Jonner needs something to drink and a light meal, then he must sleep. Would you help him for me, Quall? We have two others yet to heal.'
'How did you do it?' Quall breathed, automatically feeling Jonner's pulse and touching his forehead.
'I'll explain later. We have work to do still. And Quall - we shall all be exhausted when we finish. Healing a new disease is - it's difficult - even for me - even with group support. And we have three to heal.'
'It's a costly gift, your healing.'
'Costly, indeed. Not to be used lightly. We would have healed your comrades just now, but none was badly injured and we needed to save our energies for this.'
Quall nodded acceptance, still awed. 'I'll organise help for you and look after your friend.' He led Jonner away and arranged for food, then hurried back to watch the other healings. It was incomprehensible, impossible - but it was happening. He felt excitement rise in him. Quequere be blessed for sending them this group of fugitives! Now, he, Quall, would beg Quequere to keep these strangers here, where they were so desperately needed!
Carryn was easily healed and went meekly off to recover with Querilla. Narla burst into hysterical tears when she came back to her senses. She had to be soothed out of her panic and a light Compulsion applied before she could be persuaded to go and take some nourishment.
Afterwards, the exhausted Kindred were brought broth and bread by members of Quedras's community, who eyed them as if they had suddenly grown tails. The broth was followed by a honey-flavoured herbal drink which, Quall assured them, was renowned for building up strength after great exertion. Herra sipped it and nodded. 'An excellent combination of herbs.'
Quall stared at her. 'Can you really tell what's in it from one taste?'
'Yes, I can. But only because I'm a trained Healer. Few others could.'
He shook his head. At that moment he would have believed her if she'd told him it was night, not day.
The Kindred ate and drank, then lay about languidly for the rest of the day as they recovered from the healing. All were disinclined to speak or move about, for the healing had required a huge effort from them.
Even Cheral's sharp tongue was stilled, though she roused herself from time to time to check the three patients, who were now sleeping normally inside the tent.
Only Herra had the energy to join Quall, Quedras and Querilla, who were visibly bursting with curiosity at what they had seen.
'May we walk as we discuss what happened?' she asked. 'My body will be better for some gentle exercise.'
Quedras stood, arms akimbo, staring at her. 'Things grrow morre crrazy! How is it that an old woman - a verry old woman, if we are to believe you - comes out best from this - this happening?'
'I'm a Healer by occupation. I'm more used to it. The others work only as a support group, although Katia is developing some of the sensitivities of a Healer. Besides, I'm in a state of Enhancement and they're not.'
'More long words! You've a mouth full of long words, old woman! Me, I'm just a fighting man, and I don't understand long words. Tell us your meaning plainly, for once!'
When she’d explained about her abilities being enhanced for the last few years of her life, he gaped at her.
'How can you know that? No one knows their last hour till it arrives!'
She smiled, a mysterious knowing smile that was unanswerable.
Quall said nothing, just listened, trying desperately to understand and learn from this extraordinary Healer.
Querilla kept silent for a time, an unusual thing for her, then the words burst out of her in a torrent. 'If you hadn't cured me of a sand-scorpion bite, I'd laugh in your face, crrazy woman! I watched you cure sand-madness with my own eyes and even so, I find it hard to believe what I've seen. Damn me if I can understand you people at all! Damn me if I want to understand you! Life's too short for all these complications.'
'That's your trouble!' Quedras tossed at her. 'You never think ahead! If you didn't have me to organise you, you'd have been dead years ago.'
'Oh, yes! And who saved whose life at Breakleg Gully, might I ask? You weren't in a state to organise anyone then, if I remember correctly!'
'And you've never let me forget it, have you?'
They forgot Herra as one of their quarrels erupted, and Quall gestured to her to leave them to it.
'Do they always quarrel like that?' Herra asked, watching their exchanges of insults and wild gesticulations in amusement.
'Always. It means little, a way of releasing tension. They work hard, the pair of them - our community's never been so well-organised as it has since Quedras took over, or so well fed - but the effort seems to make them quarrelsome. It's a great achievement in a barren place like the Sandrims. And Querilla gets moody for other reasons. She wants a child, I think, and has failed for several years to conceive. We've learned to leave the two of them alone when they're like this. They'll probably make love, then come back and do more work than any four other people. Herra . . . ' Quall hesitated, seeming at a loss for words.
She smiled and finished his question for him. 'How do we do it?'
'Yes. I'm a body-doctor, the most skilled on the Sandrims. I learned my trade first from an old woman who knew every herb on the Rims, then I travelled around, seeking to learn from others. A body doctor is safe everywhere, even here. I've studied hard, learnt many skills, discovered new ones, even, but I couldn't do any of the things that you did. I - I'd like to learn from you.'
'I can teach you some of our lesser skills.'
'But not the greater ones?'
'There isn't time, Quall. It takes many years to learn those. The Sisterhood has been working on them for centuries, studying the Gifts, keeping records, working out Disciplines to develop our skills. It takes many years to train a Healer. How can I teach you all that in a few months?'
'I wish I'd met you when I was younger, and learning my trade!'
'It would have been no use. We had not, then, become the Kindred of the God. We were still a Sisterhood and we wouldn't have accepted a man among us. Davred and Benjan are the first men to join us for many centuries. But you do have the potential, Quall, if that's any comfort. You are a true Healer, a born Healer, and you'll continue to extend your skills, even without my help.'
He sighed. 'I was born here, you know, not sent across the desert from Dsheresh. When I hear about the Twelve Claims, well, I could use Quedras's favourite word - crrazy! But I still ache to go there.'
Herra smiled. 'When I think of what my Kindred and I have set out to do, I could agree with you, my friend. Crrazy! But we shall not be turned aside from our Quest.'
Her eyes had become so luminous as she spoke that Quall caught his breath. This woman was almost a god herself. The glow in her eyes seemed to spread around her and intensify, so that for a moment or two she was radiating light. How had the others not noticed it? Then the glow faded, leaving just a woman behind, a woman in her middle years with a gentle smile on her face and a question to ask about everything she saw.
CHAPTER 15 QUEQUERE'S PRICE
A few months later, Katia dawdled along the path to the freshwater spring, her thoughts far away. The further her pregnancy advanced, the more her mind wandered among her childhood memories of the lush forests of the High Alder. Davred frequently teased her about 'presence of body and absence of mind', but he understood how alien this desert place was to her and how she longed for cool green walks and the scent of resin trees in the air.
Any day now, she thought, hands spanning her belly protectively. What would they be like, these two strange babes, growing where only one had been conceived? Could she have conceived twins in the first place? No, she knew she hadn’t. Was it the effect of the portal, then, or had the deleff deliberately interfered with her body? She sighed
. How many times had she asked herself that question? She wouldn’t know the answer until the babes were born, maybe not even then.
At the spring she met Carryn, also large with child, though not nearly as large as Katia, for she was carrying only one babe and was still a month or two from the birth.
'How are you?' Katia asked, in her soft cool voice. 'Do you feel any better today? I missed you at breakfast.'
Carryn shrugged. 'I wasn't hungry. And no, I don't feel any better.' Tears filled her eyes, but she clamped her lips shut and turned away.
Katia laid a hand on her arm. 'Carryn, won't you share your pain with me? We can all see how unhappy you are.'
Carryn took a ragged breath, hesitated, then burst out suddenly, 'Katia, it's the baby. I've tried so hard not to hate it - I know I shouldn't - but I can't help my feelings! Why did Herra make me keep it? She could have helped me, if she'd wanted to, and taken away this burden! It's too much for me.'
Katia put an arm around the younger woman. 'Sshh, love! We all understand why you're upset. But when the baby's born, you'll feel better. I'm sure you will! You won't be able to help loving it.'
'Won't I?' Carryn's expression was bleak, her shoulders rigid with tension. 'Perhaps. You all say so, anyway.'
'Oh!' Katia clutched Carryn's arm and gasped.
'Katia! What's the matter? Are you all right?'
'It's the babies. I think they've started. Ahhh!' Katia sighed with relief as her stomach muscles slackened and her body returned to normal. 'I think we'd better return.'
Her face was joyful and Carryn looked at her in wonderment. 'You're longing for them to be born, aren't you?'
'Of course I am. I miss Siri-Soo dreadfully. I had her for such a short time before I had to leave her. To leave a child behind is - not easy.'