Hood

by Laurence Dahners

  She amplified, “Nyssa told us about your bow.”

  Gloria thought, I should’ve known.

  “Oh,” he said. Before he sat, he pulled up another chair so Serena could sit next to him. When she did so, he put an arm around her thin shoulders and pulled her against him. She said she didn’t want any pizza, but he pushed it on her until she ate some anyway.

  Once she had some food in her, he gently asked, “I hear you’ve been having a hard time with your thoughts?”

  She produced a tiny nod and spoke in a small voice, “It got a lot worse when I finally understood they’d killed everyone in my family.”

  “I can’t help you with those kinds of thoughts, but my mother can. And my cousin Kazy. Do you remember her? She was a captive of the raiders too.”

  Serena turned searching eyes up to his, “The poor girl they had tied up in the horse stall?”

  Tarc nodded.

  Her eyes widened. “Didn’t they kill everyone in her family too?”

  Tarc nodded again, “Except, it turns out she’s a first cousin. Our family never knew about her.”

  “Oh.” Serena looked up into his eyes again, “And she’s doing okay now?”

  “Yeah. But she’s with a lot of people that love her. And, she’s gotten really good at helping people who’re sad or have other…” his voice cracked, “emotional difficulties.”

  “I guess she knows what it’s really like,” Serena said bleakly. “There’s a lot of people who mean well, but…” She shook her head, “They just don’t know…” She looked up at Tarc with a little smile, “If she’s done okay, maybe I could too, you think?”

  “Would you come with us to Clancy Vail so my mom or Kazy could try to help you?”

  Serena shook her head, “You wouldn’t want me. You have no idea what I’ve been doing. I’m… I’m so ashamed.”

  Tarc’s voice cracked again when he said, “I’m ashamed of a lot of the things I’ve done too. Very ashamed.” But then his voice got firmer, “I’ve learned you do what you have to do. And, what you need to do to help others.” He glanced up at Nyssa, Iris, and the Blacksmiths, all staring at him; then he turned back to Serena, “And I’d like to help you.”

  She shrugged. “Okay. I don’t think it’ll work, but I haven’t got anything better to do.”

  As they walked back to the caravan, Gloria wondered how many more distressed persons Tarc was going to accumulate on the trip.

  ***

  Gloria was walking with her father when they first saw the city of Realth. She’d been looking forward to seeing the largest city in the area. She’d hoped she’d be with Tarc when they first saw the city, but the caravan master had him riding at the front of the caravan.

  Tarc demonstrated his skill with bow and arrow when they joined the caravan. Not his full ability, just enough to show he was better than anyone the caravan master’d ever seen. The master’d been delighted to hire Tarc as a guard. As they traveled, the caravan’s chief had also been ecstatic to learn how well Tarc could “see” people hidden in the woods. Tarc always noticed them well before any of the caravan’s scouts did.

  Of course, Gloria knew this was because of Tarc’s ghirit, but everyone else thought he had eagle eyes.

  Privately, Tarc confessed to her that his eyes weren’t that great. He’d shown her the surprisingly fine spectacles he wore on those occasions when he really needed to see at a distance.

  He liked wearing them at night to see the stars.

  Realth was impressive, but Gloria decided it’d been built up in her mind until no city could’ve lived up to what she’d been expecting.

  There were a couple of other caravans on the caravan grounds when they arrived. This didn’t make the caravaners around her happy. They didn’t like competition. Gloria heard one of the elders reassure a complainer that the caravans already on the grounds would’ve come from the north or east—they’d have different goods for sale than their own group.

  Since the Blacksmiths were just traveling—not doing business—once they’d cared for their mules they didn’t have a lot of other work to do. Gloria saw Tarc starting into the city. Since, at their other stops, he’d come by to ask her if she’d like to look around the town together, she felt a little hurt. At least he isn’t taking Nyssa, Iris, or Serena, she thought, then felt petty for her jealousy.

  Deciding she’d follow Tarc into town, she told her mother she was going in to see the sights. Unfortunately, Sally brightly said, “I’ll go with you. I’d like to see Realth myself. Besides, you shouldn’t walk around a big city by yourself.”

  Gloria said, “Oh, look, there’s Tarc,” pretending she’d just noticed him. “I could just catch up to him, save you the trouble?”

  “No trouble at all.”

  After they’d walked a little way, Gloria asked, “Do you have any idea what things we should try to see?”

  Her mother shook her head, “Let’s catch up to Tarc.” She looked at Gloria with an arched eyebrow, “He must know his way around.”

  Gloria realized her mother was referring to the fact that Tarc, as Hood, was supposed to have killed Uray, the previous king. He might be going in to check on what’s happened since he did it, Gloria thought. She felt a little surge of hope, Maybe that’s why he didn’t ask me to go with him? It could be something he’d rather do by himself. But by the time she’d thought of this her mother had hurried ahead, calling Tarc’s name.

  Tarc stopped and turned. Rather than frowning as Gloria’d feared, he gave them a big smile. “You guys going in to check out the big city?”

  “Yep,” Sally said. “We’re hoping you can give us a tour.”

  “Sure,” he said, not sounding at all reluctant. “Um, you know Realth punishes lawbreakers with temporary enslavement?”

  This took the smile off Sally’s face, “I’d forgotten. Do they have any weird laws we might break by accident?”

  “In the past, they’ve had laws like that, the ones that might catch you by surprise, posted at the gate. For instance, they used to have a law against healing. They figure you should know it’s against the law to murder, rape, steal, cheat customers, etcetera. So, they only post things that are unusual. But we should definitely stop and look at the postings.”

  Sally gave him a surprised look. “Laws against healing?”

  “Yeah, the king before Uray decided all healers were charlatans and made it against the law. My mother got in trouble for it.”

  “They didn’t have the law against healing posted?”

  “They did, but… my mother’s kinda hardheaded. She was healing people without charging them, thinking that’d be okay.”

  “She got enslaved?!”

  He nodded, “Not for long though.”

  Sally’d always taught Gloria almost all healers were swindlers, so for a moment Gloria was put off, thinking of Tarc’s mother as a fraud too. Then she thought, Wait a minute. Tarc… Tarc saved my dad’s life! And Carissa Womble’s life! He’s a real healer, not a charlatan. Could his mother actually be one too? Could she be doing at least some good? Then Gloria remembered Tarc had implied she might’ve inherited her talent from her great-great-grandmother Hyllis. If I inherited it, he probably inherited it. Maybe his mother heals people the same way he does?

  No, wait. His mother would’ve married into the Hyllis name.

  Gloria decided she needed to ask Tarc about whether his mother had a talent and used it for healing people. I keep thinking I’ll have plenty of time to learn more about him, but he’s working so many hours I don’t get much time to talk to him. With a little laugh at herself, she thought, His damned job’s seriously cutting into my time.

  They read the posted laws at the gate. Gloria didn’t think the supposedly unusual laws that were listed seemed all that bizarre. She said, “I think we can avoid breaking any of those, don’t you?”

  Tarc took them to a restaurant he said they should definitely try. It served chicken and claimed to be using an ancient recipe fo
r what they called kintukee fried chicken. Gloria wasn’t sure what a “kintukee” might be, but she loved that fried chicken

  After that, he took them to a museum of the ancients. Tarc enthusiastically showed them item after item, pointing out how the displays often had multiple copies, sometimes even thousands, of the same item, each one exactly like the others.

  After some prodding, he walked them around the walls of the king’s palace, stopping at the gates so Sally could get small glimpses of the buildings inside the walls. As they stood peering through one of the gates, Gloria’s mother said, “So, what happened to King Uray?”

  Tarc looked at her for a moment, then said, “He was killed by an arrow while visiting a friend.”

  “Who shot him?”

  Tarc shrugged, “No one saw the archer.”

  Sally rolled her eyes. “Just like in Walterst… Freehold, huh?” she said, correcting herself to the town’s new name.

  Tarc gave her a little grin, “Something like.” He waved across the street, “You guys might want to look at some of the trinkets the street vendors are selling over there.”

  Sally looked at Gloria, shaking her head, “We’re not interested in that kind of stuff, are we?”

  Gloria saw Tarc give her a pleading look. “Oh, come on Mom, let’s go have a quick look.”

  Reluctantly saying, “Okay,” Sally turned to Tarc. “Are you coming with us?”

  He said, “No, I’ve got to talk to someone.”

  “Who?” Sally asked, suspiciously.

  He shrugged, “A friend. It’ll only take a few moments.”

  While she and her mother were perusing the cheap gewgaws on display at the street stands, Gloria suddenly realized her vendor was staring across the street at the palace gate. When she turned to look, she saw Tarc embracing a well-dressed man at the entrance. She said, “Who’s that?”

  The vendor said, almost reverently, “Jamal Harris. The new King.”

  “You guys like him?”

  “Oh yes…”

  When Gloria looked around, he saw her mother had followed the entire conversation and was studying Tarc intently.

  ~~~

  The sun had gone down when they decided they’d better be getting back to the caravan. To keep John, Nyssa, and the girls from being pissed that they’d gone off without them, they dropped by to get some kintukee fried chicken and take it back to the caravan with them. While they waited for it, Sally started asking questions about the man Tarc had met at the palace gate.

  Tarc dissembled, saying he was just a friend Tarc had met on the trip to Freehold.

  Sally snorted, “We asked one of the vendors. He said that was Jamal Harris, the new King.”

  Tarc gave a reluctant nod, “Yeah. But I met him before he assumed the throne.”

  “Come on! Tell us how he came to be king.”

  Tarc studied her mother for a moment, then said, “Can you point to the sun for me?”

  Gloria’s heart caught in her throat.

  Her mother frowned, then said, “What?”

  “The sun. Even though it’s gone down, can you point to it?”

  Gloria watched tensely as her mother looked around searchingly. She stood up out of her chair and turned her eyes to the west. After a moment, she pointed, “About there. Somewhere to the west anyway.”

  Gloria’s heart fell. Her mother’d pointed in the correct general direction, but not directly at it.

  Tarc said—as if there hadn’t been anything special about the question— “See there, I have some idea how my friend came to be king, but it’s pretty vague, just like your idea of where the sun is. I don’t like gossiping about things I don’t fully understand.”

  Though Gloria felt sad her mother didn’t appear to have talent, her esteem for Tarc rose another increment.

  Though I’m not sure how it could get any higher...

  ***

  Marissa’s husband George had arrived in Clancy Vail and they’d moved into a small house in town. Today she was sitting in the clinic at the tavern, waiting for a series of checkups on her cancer.

  George had started selling his clothes through one of the shops on King’s Avenue. The business had gotten off to a good start after he’d had the idea of putting on a show. He’d put up posters to attract a crowd. Meanwhile, he’d outfitted each of the pretty young girls who were working for Eva. For the “show” he’d had them walk around King’s Avenue in the clothes he’d made for them. They’d been embarrassed about being models, but excited to get new clothes. They were willing to wear pretty much whatever he’d made for them. That is, with the exceptions he’d had to make for Daussie and Kazy. They’d insisted on simple clothing without frills or decorations.

  Her sister’s daughter was so beautiful that the simple clothing looked stunning on her. She took people’s breath away. Daussie’d worked so hard for so long to hide her looks that most people had no idea who they were seeing when she first appeared. When the crowd started to gasp in awe, Daussie’d gotten embarrassed and gone back into the store. Then she’d refused to go out in the second outfit George had fitted for her.

  As she waited, Marissa watched Daussie move gracefully about in the clinic. She was back in her shapeless clothing, wearing her hair combed out but un-styled. She never wore makeup, not even any color on her lips. Yet she’s still beautiful, Marissa thought.

  Gorgeous.

  Daussie sat down at a little table near Marissa and began talking to a man who Marissa’d seen massaging his jaw. Shortly thereafter, Daussie was peering in his mouth and telling him he had an abscessed tooth. “It’ll have to come out.”

  Apprehensively, the man nodded, He said, “I’ve heard you’re supposed to be able to pull teeth without much pain?”

  Daussie nodded, getting up. “We can, just let me get someone to help me.”

  A few minutes later, she returned with Jadyn Gu and a pair of shiny pliers. She told the man, “Lean your head back against the wall and open your mouth. Jadyn’s going to massage your head a special way to keep you from feeling the pain.”

  Marissa watched the man nervously lean his head back. Jadyn put her hands on his scalp and leaned her head close. The man opened his mouth, his eyes darting anxiously about.

  Daussie leaned close and reached in with the pliers.

  The man’s eyes glazed over.

  Jadyn’s put him under, Marissa thought.

  Daussie twisted her wrist, though Marissa could tell she hadn’t made any significant effort doing so, like you would if you were pulling a tooth. Daussie leaned back with the rotten looking tooth in the pliers. She reached back in the man’s mouth with a piece of gauze, held it there for a moment, then pulled it back out and threw the gauze in the trash. Daussie put another piece of gauze in his mouth and packed it into place.

  She ported that tooth into the pliers. Marissa thought, Even though he was momentarily asleep, porting it out has to hurt a lot less than ripping it out. Then Daussie ported pus into the first gauze. The second gauze was jammed in there to stop the bleeding.

  The man blinked his eyes as they sharpened back up. He reached up and rubbed at his jaw. “When’re you going to do it?”

  “Already done,” Daussie said. “Check your mouth. There’s some gauze packed in there where the tooth used to be.

  An astonished look on his face, the man put a finger in his mouth and gently felt around. “Amathin’,” he mumbled around his finger.

  “Now,” Daussie said, all business, “you’ve got to start taking better care of your teeth or you’re going to lose all of them.” She started instructing him in dental hygiene.

  Marissa noticed that Jadyn stayed there for the lesson in how he should clean his teeth. Marissa suspected the telepath was reinforcing Daussie’s instructions so they’d be followed.

  That done, Jadyn came over and sat to examine Marissa. Each of the students was supposed to examine her, trying to find any metastases of her cancer. Eva claimed this had two benefits, one bein
g that the students got to practice looking for cancer. The other was that Marissa got checked multiple times so it’d be less likely any lesions would be missed.

  While Jadyn was examining Marissa, Eva was checking a little girl a couple of chairs away. The girl’s mother was enthusiastically reporting that the child was able to do things. Things that, to Marissa, sounded like simple and ordinary activities for a child that age.

  Marissa found it puzzling that the child’s mother seemed so happy the girl could perform such activities. Once the child and mother got up and left Marissa said, “Eva?”

  Eva stopped momentarily and arched an eyebrow at Marissa, “Yes?”

  Lowering her voice, Marissa said, “Why was that child’s mother so excited that the girl could run and jump? Shouldn’t kids that age all be able to run and jump?”

  Eva nodded, “But Susie was born with an abnormal heart.”

  “Really?!” Marissa asked, taken aback. “Then why does she look… so normal?”

  “Though the abnormality was causing a lot of trouble, it was actually a pretty simple malformation. Just an extra blood vessel. Tarc tied it off.”

  Marissa felt her eyes widen, “He opened up her chest?!”

  Eva shook her head, “He used his talent to pull a needle and thread into her chest and around the abnormal vessel. Then he tightened it, tied a knot and it was done.” She shrugged, “Really the girl’s almost normal now, but her mother keeps bringing her in to be checked.” Eva leaned close, “Listening to her mind, she’s terribly afraid the ‘cure’ won’t last. I’ve reassured her, but…”

  Someone called Eva away, so that was the end of the conversation.

  Right before Hareh came to examine Marissa, he was seeing a woman who seemed ecstatic to be pregnant. Since pregnancy was a dangerous time for most women and the more common concern was getting pregnant too often, she asked Hareh about it.

  He said, “She had scarring of her Fallopian tubes. Um, that’s the passage from the ovary, where the eggs form, to the uterus, where the fertilized egg becomes a baby. Daussie—”

  “Wait. Egg? Like a chicken?”