Healers

by Laurence Dahners

  Kazy and the other Hyllises scrambled to lay out a lunch on top of the little wagon that trailed the big one. Most of the caravan ate something of their own for lunch, but a few always came by to see what the Hyllises had made up. This time they had tomatoes and lettuce Tarc had found in Denton’s crossing the night before they left. Eva made sandwiches with sliced roast pork, lettuce, and tomatoes. They were quite a hit. Happy customers spread the word and they quickly ran out.

  Right after they finished laying out the sandwiches a man rode up on a horse. Kazy looked up, recognizing the older man who’d sought treatment back at Denton’s crossing. Her stomach cramped with concern that the man had come to complain about the treatment he’d received.

  Instead he smiled at Eva, “Whatever you did, my left leg doesn’t bother me anymore. My right leg’s still killin’ me though. So I borrowed this horse and rode after you, hoping you’ll treat my right leg too, like you said.” He narrowed his eyes, “How much are you gonna charge me?”

  Eva glanced at him, but she continued assembling sandwiches, “How much do you think it’s worth?”

  A startled look crossed the man’s face. “Well…” He shrugged, “I’ve been afraid you’d want to charge me ten gold pieces, and…” he looked down as if in some distress, “I would pay that much to have my leg back, so I suppose it’s worth it. But… that’s about all I’ve got.” He looked a little embarrassed. “If you want more than that, I’ll just have to keep living like I am and thank you for fixing one leg for me.”

  Eva grinned at him, “One gold, plus a second gold to clean out the arteries in your heart. They’re pretty bad too, but right now you can’t walk fast enough to stress your heart.”

  The man’s eyes widened and he raised a hand to his chest, “My heart?”

  Eva nodded, “Yeah, better you have it done than your leg. If one of the arteries that feeds your heart closes off, you’ll die.

  “Okay,” the man said, looking a little frightened. “You’ve got a deal, and… thanks… for charging less than you could.”

  Kazy had watched this conversation with some disbelief. She looked around at her new family. Can it be that they really can help people?! Or really think they can? Kazy had been to a healer once when she’d been sick as a child, but didn’t think it had helped her. Certainly most people seemed to have low opinions of healers. She’d been a little bit embarrassed to find out her new family considered themselves healers.

  Eva sent Mr. Albert off to one side and said Daussie and Tarc would tend to him again. Kazy kept glancing over, seeing Tarc and Daussie, kneeling on each side and bending over the man like they had before. They were still leaning over him when the caravan began getting ready to leave. Eva sent Kazy over to take Daussie a couple of apples and a canteen of water.

  When she got there, Kazy thought Daussie looked drawn. Seeing Daussie looking sick made her stomach hurt.

  Tarc said, “Dauss, the caravan’s going to be pulling out. You rest for a bit. I’ll go get the horses so we can catch up to the caravan afterwards like before.”

  Daussie nodded tiredly and Kazy said, “I’ll stay with her. In fact, I’ll stay with you guys after the caravan leaves, then I can guide her horse again.”

  Tarc nodded and trotted towards the caravan where Kazy could see the first wagon pulling out.

  When Tarc returned with the two horses, he pulled a couple more big leaves off a nearby bush. He rolled one up and held it over the man’s neck. The man frowned up at him, “Why’re you holding it on my neck?”

  “‘Cause the arteries in your neck are full of crud too. It’d be a shame to fix up your legs and heart, then have you die of a stroke.”

  Eyes wide, the man said, “I ain’t payin’ more to have you do my neck!”

  “Yeah, yeah, we’re throwin’ it in for free.”

  Tarc and Daussie spent a while moving the rolled leaves up and down the front of the man’s neck on the right side, then on the left side. Kazy watched when Tarc threw the leaves away, wondering if she would see the bloody-fatty material rolled up in them again. She certainly hadn’t seen Tarc put anything in them before he rolled them up. However, when he tossed them aside, he ground them under his boot. Kazy thought she saw a little blood, but it was hard to tell.

  The caravan disappeared behind some trees and Kazy began to worry about how far away it was.

  To her dismay, Tarc told Daussie to take another break while he collected some more leaves. After that they bent over the man’s chest for a while. Becoming more and more worried, Kazy took to watching the woods at either end of the cleared area they were in.

  At long last, Tarc and Daussie sat back on their heels for a moment, then Tarc said, “Okay, we’re done. Even though we’ve removed some of the crud out of your arteries, you’ll probably make more. So, even if you’re feeling okay, the next time the caravan comes through your town, you should let us check you.”

  The man sat up, gently touching his neck and chest. “I can’t tell you done nothin’, so it still feels to me like you must have cheated me out of my gold pieces. But I couldn’t tell it when you fixed my left leg either, so I’m trustin’ you made a difference. I hope that’s true…”

  “It is,” Tarc said with quiet confidence. Kazy wondered how in the world holding leaves against the man even qualified as a treatment.

  The man walked to his horse, looking at the road back towards his home. “Now if I can just get back home without getting’ robbed…” He turned and glanced the other direction toward the caravan. “Hey, your caravan’s gone completely out of sight. If I were you I’d catch up to them quick like; these roads ain’t safe.”

  The man mounted and trotted away as his words shot fear through Kazy. She went to the black horse and led it to the big rock the man had been lying on during his treatment. She mounted and then fretted as Daussie wearily climbed up onto the rock as well. She wanted to tell Daussie to hurry, but held her tongue in view of Daussie’s apparent exhaustion.

  Once all three of them were mounted, Tarc set off to follow the caravan. He didn’t seem to be in any particular hurry, trotting for a while, then slowing to a walk as they neared the trees ahead. Kazy urged the black up beside him, saying, “Shouldn’t we be going faster? Trying to catch up to the caravan as quickly as we can?”

  Tarc shrugged, “We don’t want to wear out old Blackie there. If we were to encounter some thieves, we certainly don’t want to do it on exhausted mounts.”

  Kazy was just wondering whether they would be better off with the two girls on the younger, stronger bay horse when two swordsmen stepped out from behind trees and onto the road ahead of them!

  Kazy glanced back over her shoulder at the road behind them. There were a couple of men back there as well!

  When she looked back ahead, she saw a man on horseback picking his way out of the trees just beyond the two men up there. Kazy’s stomach cramped with fear. She tensed and let out a low moan.

  Daussie patted Kazy on the shoulder and to Kazy’s astonishment she whispered, “It’ll be okay. Try to relax.”

  The man on the horse walked it into the middle of the road and gave them an oily smile. As he walked the horse up between the two men blocking their way, he said, “Hi kids. I’m a thinkin’ you shouldn’t have strayed so far from your caravan. Didn’t nobody warn you the roads around here can be dangerous?”

  To Kazy’s surprise, Tarc kept walking his horse towards the men. She’d reined the old black in when she’d first seen the men. Now, glancing over her shoulder and seeing the men back there closing on her, she kneed the horse back up beside Tarc. Tarc said, “What do you want? We don’t have any money.”

  The man smiled again, “Ah, we’ll need to check you for that.” He raised an eyebrow, “Even if you don’t got no money, you do got a couple of horses.”

  Kazy felt lightheaded as one of the men beside the horseman said, “And the girls, bossman. Them girls are purdy!”

  Tarc reined in his horse as it got a
lmost nose to nose with the other man’s animal. He felt an itching between his shoulder blades where his throwing knives rested. He desperately wanted to reach back for the first of the five throws it would take to rid humanity of these men.

  Instead, remembering his promise, his ghost reached out to the haunch of the man’s horse. Glad Daussie had been doing all the work on their patient so his talent wasn’t already tired; he began to excite the molecules there.

  As the skin began to heat, the horse shied a little to the side. The man cursed at it, tugging its reins and trying to steady it. A moment later, the horse, driven to a frenzy by the burning, began bucking wildly. It spun away from the burning spot, kicking out.

  The horse knocked over one of the man’s accomplices. The other sprawled out to the side to avoid the kicking hooves. A second later, the rider flew off his mount, still cursing.

  Kazy’s thoughts had been the bleakest black as it seemed she was about to be captured again. It felt like her heart had stopped beating, then the highwayman’s horse suddenly went wild, kicking, flailing, bucking, and neighing. Tarc kicked his horse ahead, between the men, saying, “Come on Kazy!”

  Kazy kicked her own horse and it surged ahead. The men on the ground didn’t even reach out for her as she and Daussie rode past. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw the man who’d been thrown off the horse looked like he’d been injured. At least he must’ve had the wind knocked out of him; he lay there unmoving. The other two had risen to a knee while the two men who’d blocked the road behind them ran a few steps after them, but realized they couldn’t catch up when the Hyllises were on horseback.

  The highwayman’s horse was cantering smartly down the road ahead of Tarc.

  Kazy turned a little and asked Daussie, “What do you suppose happened to that horse?” She didn’t want to question their luck, but couldn’t understand what had suddenly driven the horse wild.

  Daussie said, “I think a wasp stung it.”

  Kazy certainly hadn’t seen a wasp, but supposed she might not have been paying close attention to such things, considering their predicament. She glanced back over a shoulder to see what the thieves were doing. One of them was jogging down the road behind them; Kazy supposed the man wanted to catch the runaway horse.

  Before they caught up to the caravan, the highwayman’s horse slowed and turned off to the side. Eventually it stopped to begin placidly cropping some grass. Tarc rode up beside it and gently took its reins. He began leading it as he rode back onto the road and after the caravan once again.

  Kazy looked back over her shoulder. She saw the thief who’d been running after them slow and stop, looking dejected. They passed through a few scattered trees, but still didn’t see the caravan ahead. Tarc slowed and looked over at Kazy and Daussie when they came up beside him. “Dauss, you feeling better yet?”

  Daussie said, “Yeah, just tired now.”

  “You up to moving over to this horse so old Blackie won’t be so overloaded?”

  “Sure.” They paused for a few minutes while Daussie got down from behind Kazy and mounted the thieves’ light brown horse. They walked the horses to the next set of trees in order to rest them, then began trotting again to go through the next wooded area.

  As they came out of the woods on the other side, they saw a couple of the caravan’s guards riding back towards them. Moments later, Jason and Wayne rode up to them. Jason looked pissed, saying, “Where the hell have you guys been? Arco got all wound up when he realized you weren’t with us. You think this is some kind of picnic? It’s dangerous out here!”

  Despite the big guard’s condescendingly angry tone, to Kazy’s astonishment, Tarc answered calmly. “Sorry, one of our patients caught up to us and we were giving him a treatment back there. It took a while, so we got pretty far behind.”

  “Pretty far behind! You damn right! There’re people out here who’d kill you just for those horses! I’d think you’d have learned after we got attacked by those raiders just out of Walterston.”

  Tarc said nothing, not even tightening his shoulders or blushing, though Kazy felt angry to be so chastised. Instead, Tarc simply kept his horse moving forward, requiring Jason and Wayne to turn their horses and trot back up alongside.

  Kazy saw Jason eyeing Daussie’s mount. “Where’d that horse come from?” he asked.

  Daussie grinned at him, “Some men tried to rob us, just like you said they might. But while they had us waylaid, the leader’s horse bucked him off and we managed to ride past their roadblock.” She shrugged, “Tarc captured the horse so they wouldn’t be able to catch up to us.” She gave Jason an inquisitive look. “What do you think we should do with it?”

  Jason stared at the horse, a little goggle eyed. He snorted, “You guys lead charmed lives! I suppose we should ask Arco and Norton what to do with the horse, but I doubt they’ll want to give it back to a pack of thieves.”

  Chapter Four

  The Hyllises sold their new light brown horse to the wagon that was short a mule after the raiders’ attack. After stopping for a few hours each at a couple of small villages, the caravan pulled into another walled town late the next day.

  Tarc started into town with the bay horse to buy food. Daum started a run on his still and Eva ran Daussie and Kazy ragged trying to make a quick meal to sell to the caravan.

  When Tarc returned, the horse was burdened with a couple of large rounds of cheese in addition to sausage, flour, a sack of vegetables, and sugar. Eva lifted an eyebrow, “I’ll bet you think we should try making some pizza?”

  Tarc grinned at her, “Yes I do!”

  That night their first experimental pizzas consisted of thinly sliced bread, tomato sauce, sliced sausage and cheese, all melted together by a brief period in the oven. They were good, but Eva soon had them rolling out small rounds of dough to bake for another trial run the next day.

  The next day’s lunch at the stall featured pizzas as well as their always successful roast pork and beans. The pizzas were a huge hit, both with the townsmen and the caravaners.

  To her delight, Kazy heard two of the caravaners arguing about whether Eva’s pizzas were better than the ones from the tavern in Denton’s Crossing or not. Kazy figured, if it was questionable on the second set of pizzas Eva had ever made, there’d be no doubt once she’d had a little more practice.

  Eva continued worrying about their healer business. Once again no one even asked about it. Kazy had seen more people smirking when they looked at the sign. Eva worried that, because people looked very skeptically on the part of their sign that talked about healing, it put them off enough they were less likely to check out the food or the moonshine.

  Kazy heard Daum quietly talking to Eva. He said, “Don’t worry so much about it. We’re making enough money on the food to support ourselves. Any healing, or sweets or moonshine sales are gravy. The two golds that guy from Denton’s Crossing paid you were like a really fine dessert!” He lifted an eyebrow, and I’ll bet the next time we go through Denton’s, you’ll have more customers.”

  Eva shook her head, “I don’t know. There must be some better way to let people know what we can do. I see people come through the line for lunch who have diseases we can treat and I just want to…”

  Daum grinned at her, “Slip some medicine into their food?”

  She shrugged, “You know I won’t treat them without their permission. Besides, most of them are people with problems only Tarc or Daussie can treat.”

  Kazy felt mystified. Problems only Tarc or Daussie can treat? How could they possibly treat conditions their mother, the experienced healer and their teacher, can’t treat?

  ***

  Back on the road again, Tarc was riding the Hyllises’ bay horse. He’d ridden it to the back of the caravan and then back up to the front. Though he wouldn’t admit it, he hoped to encounter Lizeth when she rode back to report in. She liked riding point for the caravan and so she frequently had that assignment. She preferred riding the far-point, but today s
he was riding near-point, dropping back every so often to report what the far-point guard had seen.

  Tarc rode for a while beside Sam who was leading the guard wagon’s mules, but, bored, had ridden a few hundred yards out front. To the right side he saw a large, shallow valley with a big lump in the middle of it. Curious, he studied it, wondering what it could be. As his eyes traced back and forth he realized there was some kind of regular pattern in the valley.

  As if the landscape was laid out rectangularly.

  He realized that even the big lump in the middle of the valley had some kind of regular rectangular pattern to it. It’s a city! A city of the ancients! The rectangular pattern must be the residual shape of their buildings and streets!

  Tarc wheeled the bay and rode back to Henry Roper’s wagon. “Mr. Roper!”

  Roper smiled up at him, “You noticed the old city, eh?”

  “Yes! It’s… it’s enormous!”

  Roper nodded, “Yes, the things they could do back then were astonishing.”

  The caravan moved far enough that Tarc was able to turn and look out at the remnants of the city. “What’s that enormous lump in the middle? Did they build the city around some kind of mountain? It looks like they’ve built some of their homes right up on the top of the hill!”

  Roper laughed, “You’re not going to believe this, but the ground out there was flat when they built the city. That lump’s the remains of a group of huge buildings where much of their business was done.”

  “That can’t be! The lump’s way too tall! As tall as if you stacked 20 to 30 houses, one on top of another!”

  Roper grinned, “When they built them, they were a lot taller than that. A hundred houses high or more. It’s just that they’ve collapsed and lost much of their original height.”

  Tarc turned to stare out into the valley, then back at Roper with wide eyes. “You’re not saying this just to see how gullible I am?”

  Roper shook his head, “No, the things they could do back then are almost impossible to believe.”