"She cursed and broke the furniture. She snarled. Her eyes turned yellow then, too."

"And you stayed near her when she was like that?"

"Asuli said I had to be brave, no matter what she did, so that she would do

the healing. Asuli said that lady would keep Momma from dying."

"Asuli said that, did she?" The healer's voice was mild, but there was a steely tone in it, and Gamon had a sudden vision of where Dion had learned some of her habits. The old healer put her hand on the boy's shoulder, then moved toward the back bedroom. She took in the worm bowl, full of bloodred, hairlike clots; took in Asuli, bandaging the last of the incisions.

She eyed the intern for a long moment, then stepped in and checked Xiame's pulse.

Elibi frowned and checked Xiame's pulse again. She gave Asuli a sharp

look. "When you came to see me, I thought you wanted experience seeing patients with parasites. You said nothing of this involving Dione-I'd have come with you if you had."

"Dione stopped wearing her healer's circlet. I thought this would snap her out of it."

Elibi's voice was hard. "At the cost of speeding Xiame toward death?"

"The patient isn't dying, Healer. Check her pulse again."

"Dione bled her-that's obvious-to get rid of some of the worms. But Dione would know that the cytro would leave too many dead worms in her bloodstream. There will be clots from Xiame's lungs to her brain. This woman will be dead in a day."

"You're wrong. The patient's pulse is stronger than before."

"I felt that, aye. But that could simply be a reaction to losing some of the worms."

"It's more than that. The woman is cured."

"Dione is no faith healer to play games with people's hope. She knows

there's no cure for hairworms. She would never have bled a woman just because a boy asked."

Asuli shrugged and kept her eyes on the patient.

Elibi's lips tightened almost imperceptibly. "I may be old, but I've still the eyes to see what you're thinking. Just what did Dione do?"

Asuli finished her bandaging, then looked up. "I may be a temporary intern, but I don't dispute my healer's work, no matter how long I've been with her. That is for you and Dione to discuss."

"I don't doubt it." The old woman's gaze was sharp as she took in the

alignment of the wounds.

Roethke watched her from the door. Finally, he asked, his voice small, "What does Ovousibas mean?"

Automatically, Elibi answered, "It's an Ancient art. One that the Ancients used with the wolves... " Her voice trailed off as she caught sight of the bedpost. She couldn't help her sharp intake of breath.

Almost involuntarily, the old healer reached out to finger the wood. The carved post seemed to have melted: part of it was detailed with designs of vines and flowers; part of it was shapeless and filled with finger depressions. She tested the bedpost for strength, pressing against it with one

finger, then rubbing at the surface. Some of it came off like ash. The old woman found herself staring at Roethke's mother, at the pattern of the cuts, at the bowl that Asuli washed; when she looked up at the intern, whatever she saw made her blanch with a deep-seated terror. The healer closed her eyes for a moment as she sank heavily to the bed. "Moons above," she whispered.

"Healer," Asuli began.

The old woman raised a hand to halt the intern's words. Then she opened her eyes, set her wrinkled lips in a determined line, and called for Kiyun to

come into the room. When he did, she pointed to the bedpost. "Can you break that off?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Then do so. Put it in the fireplace. Make sure it burns completely."

Elibi and Asuli covered Xiame with a sheet, and the burly man kicked the

post. What was left of the wood broke off with a crack. He picked up the chunk with the melted end and rubbed his fingers over it. It felt odd-as if it was somehow lighter and drier than it had a right to be. The melted section almost crumbled in his fingers. Thoughtfully, he carried it out to the fireplace in the other room. When he started to build a fire, Gamon raised his eyebrows, but Kiyun gave him a meaningful glance toward the other woman who was there. Gamon joined him at the hearth.

"The healing-it was never like this," Kiyun said, his voice low.

The older man nodded. Neither said what they were thinking- that the currents that had crackled out of the wolfwalker's eyes were not of wolves or of humans.

Elibi returned to the living room and motioned for the other woman to

leave. "I will send Roethke for you when we need you again."

The other woman nodded. She left quietly, but not before she took another glimpse of Dion's haggard face. Asuli, who had followed Elibi in, started to sit in one of the chairs, but Elibi shook her head. "You too," she said flatly.

"You're staying at the commons house? Then go there and wait. I'll send for you when it's time to discuss what you've done."

Asuli's face shuttered, but she didn't argue. Instead, she turned sharply on

her heel and strode from the house.

Elibi sat heavily in one of the living-room chairs. No one spoke, but the silence was not uncomfortable. It was merely one of waiting. After a few minutes, Tehena got up and went to the kitchen, foraging for something to eat. She came back with a loaf of bread, cold meatrolls, and tubers still warm from the ash pit. She offered some to Elibi, but the older healer shook her head, then went back to the bedroom to sit with Xiame.

It was an hour before Dion opened her eyes. Her breathing changed; then she looked at the room. It was still fogged, but the sense of the Gray Ones was fading. Slowly, she sat up. Her limbs no longer trembled-they felt rubbery and numb, as though they had passed through exhaustion into a state where they had no strength to shake.

Wordlessly, Tehena handed her a meatroll and a mug of rou. The wolfwalker tore into the meatroll, but waved away the mug as she let her gaze take in the others. "Asuli?" she asked. Her voice was still half a growl, but she didn't care.

"Outside," Tehena answered. "The healer sent her away."

"Elibi." It was more of a statement than a question, and Gamon nodded.

The other healer heard her voice and came into the living room. "Dione."

She nodded.

Dion started to rise, felt her knees buckle, and sat again heavily on the

couch. "Healer Elibi. It's been a long time."

"It has." Elibi looked at her soberly. "We need to talk, Dione."

Later, out in the front of the commons house on the cold wooden steps of the porch, Asuli stared at her hands. She had felt Dion's mind-had felt the wolfwalker's pulse as if it were her own. She had felt a power that reached past skin and bones into the very cells of another human being. She sucked in a long, slow breath. Everything she had done, everything she had learned in the last ten years was nothing. She put her head in her hands and cried.

XX.

From the Blue Mountains north, From the Night Islands east, From the Red River west, This land is Ilwaco, Of suicide hills, Of star-shattered skies.

Star-castles of ice, And eyes made of stone: Land of Aiueven And alien death.

Previous Top Next Elibi stood with Dion at the hitching post and watched the wolfwalker lash her gear to the dnu. "You could stay," the older healer said.

Dion paused and looked at her. "You know I can't, Elibi."

The old woman sighed. "Asuli will remain with me, then."

"I don't think you can do much with her in a ninan."

"I don't either. That's why I'm taking her on a full internship."

"You're not."

"I am."

Dion almost smiled. "I admire you, Elibi, but I don't envy you a bit."

"Nor I you, Dione. You've not chosen a simple road. What you seek... "

The old woman shook her head.