The Law of Isolation by Angela Holder Read Free Book Online Page B

emptied and poured out the pink-tinged water. He bundled the bloody towels and added them to the pile of soiled linens for the Cleaners’ Guild to pick up.
    Elkan still wasn’t back. Josiah took a last look around the cubicle. It was spotless, ready for the next patient. He hoped they could break for the midday meal first. His energy was coming back, but he still needed to rest. Sar had the right idea. The donkey stood, eyes closed, one back hoof cocked up, to all appearances asleep.
    Josiah eyed the cot wistfully, but it was reserved for patients. He was about to flop in one of the chairs when he spotted something he’d missed in his cleaning. On the table by the front screen, where Elkan had put it, was the bowl containing the removed organ.
    Josiah went to stand by it and looked down with mixed disgust and curiosity. It looked smaller than he remembered, just a lump of dead flesh not much bigger than his thumb. He glanced at Sar, but he didn’t want to disturb his familiar’s nap. The Mother’s power wouldn’t show them anything, anyway. Once living tissue died, it became opaque to the Mother’s healing power. He bent closer. Elkan had said there were stones inside. He’d felt them. Were they really rocks? How could stones get inside a person’s body? Unless you swallowed them, but he couldn’t believe Master Tava would do that.
    He jumped at Elkan’s voice. “Hard to believe such a small thing can cause so much trouble, isn’t it?”
    Josiah backed guiltily away from the bowl. He’d been trying hard to curb his impulses to poke into things he shouldn’t. It had been at least a week since Elkan had scolded him for eavesdropping on the wizard and patient in the next cubicle. He’d lost track of how many times Elkan had lectured him on the importance of their patients’ privacy and of keeping the confidences imparted to them. This probably fell into the same category.
    But Elkan came to stand beside him and gazed into the bowl. “But it’s often small things at the heart of the problem.” He drew his knife from its sheath and used it to turn the lump on its side. He probed the base of the tiny duct with the tip. “Fetch some fresh towels, and I’ll show you more while we let Tobi and Sar rest.”
    Josiah ran to fulfill Elkan’s request. Elkan spread a thick layer of towels on the table and slid the bile reservoir onto them. With delicate motions, he sliced through the wall of the organ, releasing a gush of greenish fluid. He spread the walls open, revealing dark, lumpy sludge within the pocket.
    “Here’s the culprit.” The tip of the knife pried a pale lump from the wall of the reservoir. Elkan picked it up, wiped it on a towel, and handed it to Josiah.
    Josiah wrinkled his nose, but took it and turned it in his fingers. It was about the size of a pea, a dirty yellow color, and clumpy, as if several smaller stones had fused together. He tried to remember where he’d seen a similar shape. “It looks like a hailstone.”
    “Hmm. I guess it does.” Elkan stroked his knife through the rubble of other stones. Some were even larger, but most were no bigger than grains of sand. “Yes, I can see why Master Tava was having so much trouble.”
    “Where did they come from?” Josiah was sure there was no opening into the reservoir big enough to admit the larger stones.
    “As far as we can tell, they form from the bile itself. Have you ever seen a candymaker make rock candy from sugar syrup? The water dries up and leaves sugar crystals behind. We think something similar happens here.”
    “Why?”
    “No one knows. It seems to be a little more common in folk who are heavy, like Master Tava, but plenty of thin people get them, too. Usually they’re healthy otherwise.”
    “But why—never mind.” No matter how often Elkan tried to explain the theology behind illness to Josiah, he was never satisfied with the answer. He still thought the Mother could have saved them all a great deal of trouble if