Healers

by Laurence Dahners

  Haley produced a sad smile and patted her gently on the shoulder. “Try not to be too hard on yourself. We all make mistakes sometimes. At least you screwed up while trying to do good things for other people.”

  “There is that,” Eva said with a sigh. “Again, my apologies.” She pulled the blanket back up over her head. “Tarc?” she whispered.

  Tarc didn’t respond. After a bit, Eva called his name again, then reached up behind her back to scratch it, but he never got back to her. She worried because he’d never actually agreed to her plan. I hope he’s not about to do something stupid.

  ***

  Tarc wanted to be rested for the night, but eventually just couldn’t nap anymore. Daussie still slept, so he tried to rise quietly. She rolled over and squinted up at him, “What’re you doing?”

  “Going out for a walk. I’ll lock the door behind me.”

  “I shouldn’t stay in this awful place without you,” she said, rising to an elbow, “but I’m still tired. If we’re going to be up all night, I’m gonna get some more sleep.”

  “I’d like to sleep a little longer myself, just can’t seem to do it.” Boots on, he stepped through the door, closed it, and reached back through the door with his ghost to throw the latch.

  He headed down the stairs and out into the street where he began wandering aimlessly. He halfheartedly hoped for another idea like he’d had at the hardware store.

  “Tarc!” he heard from behind him.

  Tarc turned, “Lizeth!

  “I barely recognized you!” she said, walking across the street toward him. She stared, “What’d you do to your hair?”

  “Bootblack,” he snorted. “I constantly have to remind myself not to touch it so I don’t get my hands dirty”

  Lizeth stepped close and put her arms around Tarc. She smirked up at him, “So I shouldn’t try to run my fingers through your hair?”

  He gave her a lopsided grin, “It’d be okay with me.”

  Her eyes twinkled, for a moment, then she said, “Are you gonna kiss me or not?”

  Stunned, Tarc wondered whether it was okay to kiss a girl in broad daylight. Then he decided that, even if it wasn’t okay, he really wanted to. He bent his head and their lips met.

  After a minute she pulled back and frowned, “So, you think I’m the kind of woman you can just kiss on a public street?!”

  Tarc panicked for a moment, thinking he’d done something horribly wrong, but then he realized she was teasing him. He shrugged, “I guess so.”

  She let go, drew back, and mock glared at him, “Well, I’m going to try to ignore the fact you’re impugning my pristine reputation. Are you up to date on what happened to the Ropers?” somehow Tarc found himself walking down the street the same direction he’d been going, but she’d slipped her hand into his.

  “Um,” Tarc paused, realizing he shouldn’t know everything he did know about the Ropers’ situation. “I saw the guardia bringing them into the palace here.”

  “Yeah. The guardia arrested them, just because they were in the wagon behind yours! The troop came down to find you Hyllises, and when they couldn’t, they took the Ropers instead! Made no sense at all. Norton’s really pissed, so the caravan’s getting ready to pull out. Norton says the caravan isn’t going to do business where they treat people like this.”

  “You aren’t going with them?”

  She shook her head, “I told Norton I needed to figure out what was going on with Eva, then I’d catch up to them.

  “What’ll happen to the Ropers’ wagon?”

  “Norton’s going to have the older Cantor boy drive it. He’ll leave a message with Roper’s friend Lee about where they’re going.”

  “What about the Ropers themselves?!”

  Lizeth shrugged, “Arco told me to scout their situation out too. I’m supposed to ask people who work at the palace what’s going on with them, but I haven’t had any luck. Probably would have had better luck if he’d given me more coin to grease palms.”

  Tarc raised an eyebrow, “Is Arco thinking you guys could break them out?”

  Lizeth snorted, “He’d probably go for it if it looked ridiculously easy, but once I tell him there’s a fifteen foot high stone wall with guard cupolas all the way around a substantial palace grounds? No freaking way! Hell, we don’t even know where they’re being kept in there.”

  Tarc frowned, “What if they don’t get out for a really long time?!”

  Lizeth shrugged, “Norton’ll take care of their stuff for a long time, but eventually it’ll become the property of the caravan if the Ropers never get out.” She turned to look Tarc in the eye, “What about Eva?”

  “Well…” Tarc hesitated; he didn’t want to drag Lizeth into their problems. “We’re going to try to get her out.”

  Lizeth had been looking at the palace walls. Now she turned to Tarc, eyes startled, “How?!”

  I should have said, “I don’t know!” he thought. He turned his eyes to the palace wall to give himself a moment to think. “Um…”

  “That’s your plan?! Um?!”

  “No! We’ve got some rope. We’re going to loop it through a couple of the crenellations and use it to climb the wall.”

  Lizeth stared at him, “Really?!” She snorted, “Even if you can get your loop on there in less than twenty throws, what do you think the guards in the cupolas are going to be doing while you’re tossing the rope up there and then climbing over? You do realize they’re supposed to be watching the walls, don’t you?”

  Realizing he’d dug himself a deep hole, Tarc mumbled, “We’ll distract them.”

  “We? Who’s the other part of this ‘we’?”

  “Daussie.”

  “Your sister?!”

  Tarc nodded.

  “Your sister’s going to help you sneak into a heavily guarded palace and then break out with your mother in tow?!”

  “Uh-huh, and the Ropers,” Tarc said, beginning to feel, despite his and Daussie’s talent, that it really did sound like a dumb idea.

  “Holy Judas! Peter, Mark, Mary, and Moses! Can Daussie even climb a rope? Or is she just supposed to hang around outside the wall looking sexy and ‘distracting’ the guards?!”

  “Um, sure,” Tarc said, suddenly wondering whether Daussie could.

  “‘Cause a lot of women aren’t strong enough to climb one, you know?”

  Tarc had a sinking feeling in his stomach, “Um, Daussie’s pretty strong.”

  Lizeth rolled her eyes. “Use a big rope and tie knots in it every so often so she can catch them with her legs. And have her try it somewhere before you actually try to climb the wall! What am I supposed to be doing while Daussie’s distracting these guards?”

  Tarc looked at her with confusion.

  She rolled her eyes again, “I’m surely not letting you do this by yourselves. You need help!”

  Tarc’s emotions tumbled. Glad to have someone with more experience willing to help. Irritated she didn’t think he could do it himself. Wondering how he was going to get the rope up to hook on the crenellations if she was standing there watching. “Um, maybe you could distract the guard at the next cupola?”

  “You want me to act sexy?!”

  “You can’t?”

  “It’s not exactly one of things I’m good at!”

  Tarc frowned, “Daussie either.”

  Lizeth snorted, “With looks like hers, all she has to do is smile up at them!”

  ***

  Tarc and Daussie were eating their supper at a small restaurant just down the street from the Palace Tavern where they had their room. Fidgety, Daussie only picked at her food. Tarc worried about her nerves. Nothing he’d said so far had calmed her though.

  She looked out the window and produced a weak grin, “Here comes your girlfriend. Oh, she’s got a bunch of horses!”

  Tarc looked as well and saw Lizeth, in regular clothes instead of her guard’s leathers, leading four horses! Getting up, he hissed, “Not my girlfriend!” to Daussie.
He stepped to the door and called Lizeth’s name. She stopped and looked back at him with a grin. He lifted an eyebrow, “Are you going into the horse trading business?”

  She grinned, “Can you believe?! Norton and Arco are actually lending me some of the guards’ horses for our little escapade!”

  “Really?! I thought you didn’t think we had a chance?”

  She gave him a disbelieving look, “Well, that’s not how I sold it to them!”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “That we’d found a way to get inside and some guards who would look the other way while we snuck Eva and the Ropers out.”

  Tarc laughed, “So, I suppose you’re going to claim you didn’t even tell a lie?!”

  Lizeth frowned, “I didn’t tell a lie!” She glanced up the street towards the Palace Tavern, “I’ve heard some… less than savory things about this tavern you guys are staying at. You really think we can leave our horses there without somebody stealing them?”

  “Let me talk to them with you.”

  Daussie stayed outside with the horses while Lizeth and Tarc went in to talk to the tavern keeper. Lizeth would have sworn Tarc changed somehow as he walked through the door.

  Instead of the affable, innocent-seeming Tarc that Lizeth knew, he strode across the room to the bar like a force of nature. To her astonishment, she saw all the eyes in the room tracking him! The barkeep, who’d been pouring a beer for another customer, suddenly put it down and stepped promptly over to Tarc. The customer waiting for the beer began to protest, but when his eyes had turned far enough to recognize Tarc, he shut up. He turned back forward and dropped his eyes to the bar as if he didn’t want to be involved.

  Tarc gave the bartender a hard look and said, “We have four more horses we’d like to put in your stable tonight. Can you guarantee they’ll be there in the morning?”

  “Yes sir!” the barkeep said, fearfully. Lizeth stared at the barman. She would’ve sworn the man was practically trembling. She glanced around the room full of rough looking characters. They all remained focused on Tarc.

  What the hell?!

  Chapter Fourteen

  As the moon set, Tarc stood outside the east wall of the palace, wondering what he’d forgotten. Their horses were saddled and packed with their gear back at the tavern. Though he hoped not to use them, all eight of his knives were in their sheaths. His bow and a small quiver of arrows were strapped tightly to his back with the small pack containing gags and cord.

  He had the large coil of knotted rope over his shoulder. Lizeth had been right; Daussie couldn’t climb the rope without the knots. Rather than a noose as Tarc had envisioned, it had a strong but lightweight, padded-wooden cross bar at the end of it. The bar was intended to catch in a crenellation. The loop would have directed his climb up to one of the bumps between the shooting notches, whereas the bar would let him climb up into a notch.

  He decided it was as dark as it was going to get. Starlight, and some dim light from a few establishments that remained open at this late hour kept it from being completely black. He sent out his ghost. A patrol was approaching on the shooting platform behind the wall. He waited for them to go past.

  Lizeth looked around as Tarc quietly said her name. She saw Daussie walking toward one of the east wall guard cupolas down to their left. The plan was for Daussie to go past that cupola; then start dancing in the street to distract the guard there into looking her direction. Though Daussie’s hair was still short and darkened with bootblack, she’d removed the padding from her midsection and once again looked like a pretty girl.

  Now Tarc started walking across the street toward the guard cupola just to their right. A moment later, Lizeth started after him. She stayed out on the street, down a little farther to the right and, feeling like a fool, danced around a little in case the guard looked her way.

  Tarc stopped just short of the wall, tossed the coil of rope onto the ground and started swinging the end with the stick on it. A moment later, the stick shot up, went perfectly through one of the shooting notches at the top of the wall, and settled into place with a faint “clunk.” Tarc leaned back and gave it a hard tug.

  Lizeth looked on agog. She’d expected it to take 5 to 10 throws before the stick caught properly. She looked up at the little guard cupola and still couldn’t see the guard in it. She couldn’t know he lay slumped in the bottom of his little cupola because Tarc had applied back pressure in the man’s carotid even while swinging the rope. Tarc had had to stop while throwing the rope so his ghost could guide the stick into position, but now he’d started slowing the flow again.

  Lizeth sprinted across the street, leapt up onto the rope, and swarmed up the wall. Right before she went over the top, she felt Tarc coming up behind her. Once through the notch, Lizeth quickly turned right on the shooting platform and stepped to the cupola. To her astonishment, the guard was asleep! He woke at the point of her knife and, under her direction, put on his own gag. Then she tightened it further. She bound his hands to his ankles behind his back.

  When Lizeth came back out of the cupola she saw Tarc exiting the one down to the left. Not knowing Tarc’s guard had been unconscious the entire time he was being tied up, Lizeth found it a little irritating Tarc had bound and gagged his guard more quickly than she’d done hers.

  They quickly descended the ladder from the shooting platform; then Tarc held out a hand for everyone to wait. Tarc had told Lizeth that he and Daussie could hear better than almost anyone, and could also see pretty well in the dark. Lizeth hadn’t believed it at first, but he’d proved it that evening by predicting when men were about to come around corners by hearing their footsteps. Then Tarc had told Lizeth a man was carrying a sword before the guy had gotten close enough for her to see it. Before his little demonstration she would have insisted on leading their foray. Now she accepted that they should go when he said.

  Tarc said, “Okay, let’s go. This way.” He trotted quietly off into the darkness between two buildings. Daussie and Lizeth followed, Lizeth wondering at Daussie’s apparent fearlessness.

  They came to the next building. By its close set doors, its rooms appeared to be pretty small. The doors looked to be solid, heavy hardwood and had rectangular steel plates behind heavy handles, rather than the simpler latches that had been on the doors they passed earlier. Though it was difficult to tell for sure in the dark, Lizeth thought they might have key holes. Tarc whispered, “These look like rooms where they might keep people or things locked up.”

  Lizeth had thought the same, and her heart sunk. They wouldn’t be able to break those doors open without making a lot of noise. A niggling little voice in the back of her mind wondered at how they’d managed to arrive at these particular rooms almost immediately upon beginning their search. She reminded herself they didn’t know yet that Eva and the Ropers were imprisoned in this area. She took a breath to call out their names, hoping no guards were nearby.

  Tarc pulled a hand on her arm, “Wait,” he whispered, “there’s a guard just down around the next corner on the right.”

  “And how do you know that?!” Lizeth whispered doubtfully.

  “I saw him step around the corner just when I got here.”

  “Really,” Lizeth said drolly, peering that direction. “I can’t even see the corner!”

  “You should eat more carrots,” Daussie whispered, sounding completely serious. “They have vitamin A. It’s good for night vision.”

  Lizeth barely suppressed a chuckle at the incongruity of getting health advice while sneaking around a hostile king’s palace.

  Tarc said, “I think we should tie up that guard. Can you capture him Lizeth? You’re better at this close quarter stuff than I am. Daussie can tie him once you have him in control.”

  “What if he turned the corner and just kept going?”

  Tarc shrugged, though he knew very well the guard was just around the corner. “Well, check on it. If he’s gone on, don’t worry about him.”

  Actually
, having gotten dizzy from poor blood flow to his brain, the guard had settled himself to a sitting position and was shaking his head trying to clear it.

  Lizeth quietly moved off down along the building. As she approached, she saw the corner. She crouched and peered around it. At first she didn’t think anyone was there; then she saw the guard sitting slouched against the wall. She didn’t think much of their security here at the palace, this being the second guard she’d found sleeping or sitting down. They really should have roving supervisors out to give these guys hell when they slack off, she thought to herself.

  She stepped around the corner and took two quiet steps to prick the man’s neck with the point of her sword. “Shhh!” she whispered to the suddenly wide-eyed guard. She held a finger to her lips. “You’re going to stay very quiet and still while my friend ties you up.”

  When Lizeth and Daussie came back around the corner, they found Tarc kneeling before one of the doors. He was fiddling out the lock and said, “We got really lucky. They’re here in this room, if we can just get it unlocked!”

  Unbelieving, Lizeth said, “And how are we going to do that?!”

  Behind her, Daussie said matter-of-factly, “We know how to pick locks.”

  Lizeth frowned, “What does that mean?”

  Daussie responded quietly, “You use something other than a key to lift the pawls that keep the lock from turning.” She didn’t elaborate on the fact Tarc would be using his telekinetic talent to lift them.

  Tarc looked up at his sister. Even in the dim light, Lizeth thought he looked frustrated. He said, “Daussie! One of the pawls is jammed!”

  Daussie said, “Let me try.” She leaned her head down next to her brother’s and put a hand on the knob. The other hand grasped what looked like a small nail Tarc had jammed in the keyhole. She grinned back up at Lizeth for a second, “Sometimes Tarc’s just trying too hard.”