“Kill rats.”
Rainey blinked at the girl. “Rats? I thought you were trying to treat people with the plague?”
“Yeah, but the problem’s the fleas, remember? When someone dies of the plague, his or her fleas have to find another host to get blood from. So, they jump to rats or mice, then the rats or mice carry the fleas—and therefore the plague—to the next house. Rats might’ve been what brought the plague into town in the first place.”
Rainey shook her head, “I don’t know how to kill rats. What you need are cats.”
The Hyllis girl frowned, “Cats get plague too. Especially if they eat infected rats or mice.” She looked upset and spoke softly, “If we see a cat that looks sick, we’ve got to kill it too.”
“How the hell am I supposed to kill rats? Or cats for that matter?”
There followed some of the most astonishing moments of Rainey’s life. She’d been practicing teleporting things since Daussie showed her how to do it the day she’d fixed Rainey’s cataracts. She hadn’t seen much use for the ability though. Now the girl showed her how to teleport just part of an object. It wasn’t difficult to port just part of something once she got over her surprise that it was even possible. Soon she was porting thin little discs out of a stick, cutting the stick to pieces.
Next, the girl pointed out that her ghirit, the talent she’d been using to find her way around when she was blind, could find rats even when they were hiding inside a wall, another thing she’d never considered. When Rainey found a rat in the wall of the shack they were standing beside, Daussie said, “Okay, port a thin disk out of the junction between the brain and the rest of the spinal cord.”
The girl had to explain the location of the brain and spinal cord to Rainey, but once she found them and ported a disk out of the tissue between them, the rat immediately jerked and died.
Wide-eyed, Rainey turned to the young girl. Feeling appalled, she asked, “Couldn’t I do the same thing to a person?!”
“No!” Daussie said, looking shocked.
“Why not?”
“Because it’d be wrong. You’re not the kind of person who’d do something like that. You might do it to someone who was threatening your life, but otherwise, you’d never even dream of doing it.”
“How do you know I wouldn’t?” Rainey asked, feeling a little bit indignant. The girl was right, but there was no way she knew Rainey well enough to make such a bald statement.
“Assume I do,” the girl said. “We’ll explain that kind of stuff to you later. For now, we’ve got a plague to stop.” She made a come-along sign with one hand, “Let me introduce you to Eva.”
Shortly, Rainey was meeting Daussie’s mother and being assigned to work with her. To her astonishment, Eva could bend down near rats’ hiding places and make them come out of the wall. That way Rainey could kill them out in the open so the rats wouldn’t rot where they lay. Eva told her, “We’re hoping to get volunteers down here to shovel up the carcasses and incinerate them.”
They checked a few more houses; recording the sick and then Eva bringing the rats and mice out into the open so Rainey could kill them. When the people in the house were healthy enough to wonder what killed the rats, Rainey pointed a stick at them. She’d blow on her end as if she were blowing little darts at them. She’d ported out little holes in the ends of the stick so it looked hollow.
As they walked to another house, Rainey asked, “How do you get them to come out of their holes?”
Offhandedly, Eva said, “I have a different talent from yours. One called telepathy. I can speak into their minds and make them do things.”
After a few more houses, Rainey said, “That’s why I fell asleep while Daussie was working on my eyes, right? She put me to sleep?”
“No, Daussie fixed your eyes. Kazy’s the telepath. She’s the one that put you to sleep.”
Rainey felt her own eyes widening, “The scrawny little girl?”
Eva’s mouth formed a slight smile as she nodded.
“Where is she?”
Eva waved a hand that encompassed the ghetto, “Out convincing all kinds of people they need to help us control the plague.”
“Why’s she doing it? They’d be more likely to trust you.”
Eva shook her head, “Kazy’s a much more powerful telepath than I am.”
While Rainey was digesting that, a dog trotted by. Rainey’s heart skipped a beat. She didn’t like cats, but she loved dogs. With great unease, she asked, “What about dogs? And the other animals? Horses, cattle, goats, sheep?”
Eva frowned. “Dogs, horses, cattle, pigs, and sheep can get the plague but the disease isn’t as severe in them. Cats and goats are the problem. Well, and rodents like rats and mice. Rabbits can get it too, but I don’t think many people in Clancy Vail keep rabbits, do you?”
Rainey shook her head, “I don’t know of any. But there may be a few. There’re people who keep goats and a lot of people have cats, specifically because they control rats and mice.”
Eva looked uncomfortable, “I’m hoping the baron’s men can herd all the goats out of town to some farmer’s field. Cats… I don’t know. Some people love them too much to kill them. Cats are going to get plague, both from fleas and from eating sick rats. Then their fleas are going to get it and pass the disease on to their owners. If people are going to keep their cats, they should lock them in a room so the cats can’t get exposed. And, they shouldn’t get close enough to the cats that their fleas can jump to the owners.”
Eva knocked on the next door.
An irritated but healthy-looking woman answered it. “What?!”
A hopeful look appeared on Eva’s face, “A lot of people have been getting sick. Are you and your family okay?
“Yes. But, if you’ve been seeing sick people, stay away from us!”
Eva took a step back but looked almost euphoric, “I’ll be happy to stay away. Let me just tell you some things you can do so you won’t catch it.” The woman stepped behind her door, closing it most of the way, but she did listen to Eva’s spiel about fleas and rodents.
After the woman closed the door for good, Eva had Rainey go around the house killing the mice and rats where they lived in the walls. The dead animals were going to stink up the place. But that was better than letting them go out and bring back fleas from somewhere else.
***
Will looked up with surprise when he heard a noise down at the end of the hall. Jeremy came around the corner with a scrawny, bald kid who looked about twelve. The kid didn’t look like a threat. He couldn’t be hiding any weapons since he only had on a lightweight short-sleeve shirt and a pair of lightweight shorts. Besides, even carrying a sword, at his size he wouldn’t have been a threat.
Still, Jeremy shouldn’t have been bringing him down to the baron’s business chamber without authorizing it first. Fixing his eyes on Jeremy’s, he said, “What the hell do you think you’re doing, bringing a kid down here without him being on the schedule?”
Jeremy kept approaching, looking worried but obstinate, “She’s got something to tell the baron. Something important.”
Will glanced at the kid and realized she was a girl. Her bald head and skinny stature had thrown him off. He drew his sword, “I don’t care what she’s got to say, she has to make an appointment like everyone else.”
The girl stopped about a meter and a half away. Staring hard at him, she said, “It’s important.”
Will looked at her. There was something weird about her eyes. “Oh,” he said, blinking a couple of times. “Sorry.” Knocking on the door, he said, “I’ll let them know.” Pushing the door open, he leaned in and, without waiting to be acknowledged, said, “Baron, there’s someone here with an important message.”
The girl shouldered through the opening beneath Will’s arm, “Hello Baron Vail.”
Will saw the eyes of the other members of the Baron’s Council widening in surprise, but the baron appeared to recognize the girl. He waved her forward.
>
***
Not even the second day after they’d arrived, the wagons of the Norton caravan pulled out of Clancy Vail’s caravan grounds. Once again, Lizeth sarcastically thought to herself that she should feel miffed Norton had failed to consult with her about his plans. He hasn’t even told me what’s going on.
For some unfathomable reason, she was glad to be going. I used to like Clancy Vail, she thought. Why can’t I stand it this time? Maybe because Tarc’s going to settle down here? Maybe… She and Tarc hadn’t been getting along all that great on the trip from Cooperstown… Maybe I just need to get away from Tarc?
She urged her horse up toward the front of the caravan in hopes of finding out what was going on. As she approached, a familiar-looking bay horse angled in to join the front of the column. She recognized Tarc’s horse, but the fellow riding it was bald. What’s going on? Did someone buy Tarc’s horse? she wondered, urging her horse ahead so their paths would intersect.
It proved to actually be Tarc, though he looked astonishingly different without his hair. She wondered whether she’d have recognized him without the horse. If I ever have to disguise myself, she thought, I’ll just shave my head.
As always, even though she’d come up behind him, Tarc somehow knew she was there. He turned in his saddle. “Hello Lizeth,” he said softly, features morose.
“Hi yourself.” She arched an eyebrow thinking about how their relationship had soured, “Really glad to see you too. What the hell happened to your hair?”
He scrubbed a hand over his stubbled scalp. “Shaved it off.”
“No shit?” Lizeth said, laying on a sarcastic tone. “Why?”
He glanced back over his shoulder at Clancy Vail. “Can’t tell you for a couple of hours. How’re things going?”
Lizeth stared at him. “What the hell…?!” When he said nothing further, she exasperatedly kneed her horse to the side and passed him, going up to the guard wagon at the front of the column to ask Sam what was going on.
Tarc didn’t try to stop her or make any effort to explain.
Sam didn’t know shit.
Lizeth galloped her horse to the back of the caravan to talk to Arco. Normally she’d have just stood at the side of the road and waited for the caravan to meander past her, but she didn’t want to sit there and watch Tarc ride by. She knew she’d hurt him when she’d first left Clancy Vail. She’d said some ugly things but, after all, he’d called her a witch—well, not exactly called her one, only implied it. In any case, once she’d gotten over her snit, she’d expected to be welcomed back with open arms the next time she encountered him.
But when she’d run into him in Cooperstown he’d been strangely distant. She’d kept expecting him to thaw on the way back to Clancy Vail, but he hadn’t. In fact, they’d rarely spoken, and then only about business.
When she rode by on her way to the back, Tarc was walking beside Henry Roper at the second wagon, talking animatedly.
SOB has two words for me, but he and Roper are carrying on like old buddies! Lizeth didn’t dwell on the fact that Tarc and Roper had a lot in common. They’d often spent time together talking about ancient technology back when the Hyllises had been part of the caravan.
When she found Arco, it was evident he did know why they’d left Clancy Vail so suddenly. However, he wasn’t inclined to share that information with Lizeth.
Doesn’t matter, she thought blackly, I’m just glad to be out of that shit-hole town.
***
Daussie and Kazy were walking down to the ghetto in the morning when Kazy said, “By the way, I’ve found a guy who’s ‘almost perfect’ for you.”
Daussie’s first reaction was irritation that Kazy was interfering with her life. Then she remembered their earlier conversation and how Kazy claimed to know that Norman was wrong for her. Pretending exasperation to cover her butterflies, she said, “And who is this perfect man?”
Kazy said thoughtfully, “He’s not really a man, any more than you’re a woman.” Musingly, “He’s about your age.”
“Okay, who’s this perfect kid my age?”
“Hmm, you seem irritated. I probably shouldn’t mention his name when your attitude’s sour. Wouldn’t want your mood to—”
“Come on Kazy!” Daussie interrupted. “You’re making my mood worse with all this dancing around.”
Kazy gave her a wide-eyed-innocent look, “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Daussie ground out.
“Well, if you must know…”
Daussie rolled her eyes, “I must.”
“Morgan Geller.”
Daussie’s eyes widened, “One of the chemistry Gellers?”
“The same. I ran into him when I was down talking them into making more antibiotics.”
“And…” Daussie realized she didn’t know what she wanted to ask, “…what makes him perfect?”
“Almost perfect.”
Daussie rolled her eyes, “Almost, yeah, what makes him almost perfect?”
Kazy shrugged, “I don’t know. I just feel like… like somehow he’d be a good fit for you.”
“What…” Daussie frowned, “what do you actually know about him?”
Kazy grinned, “Hardly anything. But I predict, when you meet him, you’re really going to like him.”
Daussie rolled her eyes again, “Somehow, I doubt it.”
Chapter Two
Henry Roper frowned at Tarc. “So, this person says these ‘electrons’ can flow right through solid copper wires, the way water goes through pipes?”
Tarc nodded. “Seems crazy, I know, but that’s apparently the way one of the ancients’ books described it.”
“And, when these electrons arrived at one of the ancients’ devices, they made it work the way water turns a water wheel?”
“Not exactly. It’s just a way to think of it.”
Roper thought for a moment. “I can kinda see that happening if the device was something like… say one of their cars or something where the wheels turned and therefore moved the car. If the motor was like a water wheel and the electrons turned it, I can see how that’d push the car along.” He chewed his lip a moment, “But what about some of their other things that supposedly worked on electricity? Lights. Thinking machines. Heating and cooling machines?”
“I don’t know,” Tarc said slowly. “I don’t think the ‘electrons are like water’ analogy held up for everything. They’re obviously not water. Thinking of them flowing through copper is just a helpful way to understand some of the things they can do.” He hesitated, “I might have a way to make them flow…”
Roper blinked, “You might?”
Tarc shrugged, “Maybe?”
Giving him a dubious look, Roper said, “Show me.”
“I can’t do it while we’re moving. Maybe tonight, when the caravan’s stopped.”
“And how’re we supposed to tell you’re actually moving these electrons?”
“Maybe…” Tarc said slowly, “we could try it with some of your ancient devices. See if I can make them work?”
“And which of my devices are you thinking are the ones that might respond to your electrons?”
“Ones with wires sticking out of them. The wires would’ve been where the electrons flowed in and out. Apparently, the electrons almost always made a ‘circuit’ where they went into a device through one wire, then came out of it through another wire after they’d done whatever they were supposed to do.” Tarc tilted his head as he studied Roper for evidence of comprehension. “So any devices we try it on should have two wires sticking out of them. Or metallic places to make contact with two wires inside.”
Roper frowned, “What do you mean by that?”
“We could just touch my wires to metallic contact points on the device. Electricity doesn’t have to go through an intact wire. It can jump from one wire to another if they’re in contact. Or from a wire to any metal object it’s in contact with. In fact, you know how a lot of the ancients’ wires have a plasti
c or rubber covering on them?”
Roper nodded.
“The covering was called ‘insulation.’ It kept the electricity from leaking out of the wires if they accidentally touched something else made of metal.”
“What? That’s crazy. Most of the wires weren’t completely covered. If wires can leak, the electrons’d just leak out anyplace the plastic wasn’t covering the wires.”
Tarc shook his head. “They can’t fly through the air. Air blocks their flow just like the insulation does.”
Roper stared at him for a moment, then said, “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Who’s ever heard of air blocking anything?”
***
Lizeth felt frustrated. No one seemed to know why the caravan left Clancy Vail after a day and a half instead of their usual three to six-day stay.
Well, that’s not true, she thought. It’s just that the people who do know won’t tell me.
She’d just been relieved from a turn leading the guard wagon’s mules for a couple of hours. She stepped to the side of the road and waited while the mules and guard wagon went by. Since she could see Tarc’s bay horse tethered to Ropers’ wagon at the second position of the caravan, she already knew she’d find Tarc talking to him.
When Tarc and Roper came into view, it was evident they’d exhausted their earlier chatter. They were walking companionably and looking thoughtful, but they weren’t talking. She said, “Tarc, a few moments of your time?” She tried to pitch her words so they’d imply he owed her some time, not sound as if she were begging. She was tired of waiting for him to start conversations with her. She’d waited for that all the way from Cooperstown to Clancy Vail—without success.
He said, “Sure,” stepping off the side of the road to where she stood. He didn’t sound begrudging.
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