Healers by Laurence Dahners Read Free Book Online

stared up at Tarc as he labored to breathe. The third and fourth spinal nerves supplied part of the diaphragm muscle necessary for the man’s breathing, so he could breathe. But, without the function of the fifth nerve, breathing was difficult. Besides, having his arms and legs paralyzed had to be horrible. Tarc thought the spinal cord would recover quickly, having only had its circulation cut off for a matter of seconds, but he didn’t know for sure.
    “Can’t breathe,” the man gasped.
    “Yes you can, you just can’t breathe very well ,” Tarc said. He moved above the man’s shoulders, “I’ll help you breathe,” he said, pulling up on the man’s shoulders to help fill his lungs, “but I’m hoping you’re not planning to ever mess with me or my family again?” He pulled up on the man’s shoulders again.
    The man’s neck muscles let him shake his head in wide eyed negation. “No!” the thief gasped on his next exhale.
    Tarc pulled up on the man’s shoulders again, “Can you feel anything yet?”
    The man shook his head again.
    “Can you move anything?” Tarc sent his ghost into the man spinal cord. The blood flow was okay and the tissue didn’t seem different from the rest of the spinal cord, suggesting it wasn’t permanently injured. Tarc pulled up on the thief’s shoulders again.
    The man’s fingers moved a little.
    Tarc patted him on the shoulder, “Okay. You should keep getting better. I’m going to leave you here to ponder just how much worse this could have been.” He paused, then continued, “I’d suggest you get a job and stop stealing from people.” Tarc stood and started to walk away, but then turned and said, “And, you’ll remember not to mess with me or my family, right?”
    Lying supine, wide-eyed, and helpless, the man nodded.
     
    Before they left the tavern, Tarc stepped to the back door and looked out. The thief was gone. Hopefully recovered, not dragged off by someone even more despicable.
    ***
    The next day, the Hyllises nervously set up in the market, all wondering whether they would actually make any sales or not. Daum gave out tiny samples of the moonshine he’d been making. The night before, when they’d broken up the sheets of toffee into sale sized pieces, they’d saved all the tiny fragments and they used those as samples too.
    Once the stall was up and running, Tarc headed into town to find and buy supplies. He had plenty of experience with buying meats and groceries from his years doing it for the tavern. Kazy watched him go, then turned to Daussie, “Tarc’s going into town all by himself?”
    Daussie nodded, setting pieces of toffee out on the leaves they were using as small disposable plates.
    Kazy said, “Are you sure that’s safe?”
    “Tarc can take care of himself,” Daussie said without looking up.
    Kazy gazed after Tarc. He only had a work knife for a weapon. Sure, Tarc’s muscular, but could he really protect himself? She looked again at Daussie who seemed completely unconcerned, “Are you sure? I mean, this’s a strange town and you guys have just started out on the road, so he doesn’t have much experience with strangers. What if somebody tries to rob him?”
    Daussie’s startlingly blue eyes lifted to watch her brother as he turned the corner and slipped out of sight. Her eyes crinkled in amusement as she glanced at Kazy. “He’ll be okay,” was all she said.
    As the day passed, sales weren’t as bad as the Hyllises had feared, but they weren’t as good as they had hoped either. The toffee didn’t sell very well. Much more distressing though, only a few people even asked about healing. Those who did appeared highly dubious or even smirked over the thought that anyone would seek treatment from an itinerant healer. Even by late afternoon, not a single person had asked to be diagnosed or treated.
    Eva especially felt depressed about their prospects for working as healers. She’d almost always had at least a few customers per day