Yesha pulled several leaves from their bundle, then moved to a jar full of stubby roots on a small table. How can this lady be a better healer than the guy with a clinic in Navarro? “I don’t understand.”
Yesha stuffed the plants into a rabbit-hide satchel and turned to Kira. She gently touched Kira’s forehead and closed her eyes. Kira swallowed and did her best not to move.
“Ah, there. I can feel it.” Yesha opened her eyes and smiled. “Your mind runs on energy. Every creature does. The mind uses energy to talk with the body.” She tapped Kira’s forehead. “We can sense this.”
Kira’s eyes widened. “With Phoera?”
“Yes. Human minds use a certain amount of energy. My dogs use another amount. Fish use another.” Yesha selected a cluster of flowers that hung from the roof supports. “And Aeo created many other creatures that are much, much smaller than you can dream. Indeed, much smaller than my little one!” She patted her belly.
Kira stuffed the Emberhawk tunic into her backpack. “And you can sense the energy in these creatures too?”
“Ah, no! Not me! Only the greatest Phoera users can sense them. But because of this, we know they are there,” Yesha said. “Some of them live inside us. Aeo made many of these creatures to help us, but not all are good. When the balance goes toward the bad, a person can get sick. I think the creatures are stealing your mother’s food. This is cloud sickness.”
Kira wasn’t sure she understood the concept, but Yesha’s confidence rang clear. The healer topped off the satchel with another dried leaf, pulled its drawstrings tight, and pressed it into Kira’s hand. “Make a tea of these and have your mother drink it three times each day until they run out. They will kill the bad creatures but not harm your mother.”
Tea . . . okay. Kira reached out to take the satchel. “Thank you.”
But Yesha didn’t let go of the satchel. “Forgive me . . .” Her eyes narrowed. “I gave you the shirt as a good pamoosh under Aeo, but I can smell that you have something I need.” Yesha tapped her nose. “I can smell much better than I could before now, thanks to my little one. And sunburst has a very distinctive scent.”
“Oh, right!” Kira dug into her pack and retrieved the bundle of sunburst she’d kept for herself. Suddenly she was very glad that Ryon had suggested they keep some for trade in Jadenvive. “Here, take all of this. And my friend has more if you need it. How much do you want?”
“Ah, this is plenty! Thank you so much.” Yesha accepted the sunburst with a bright smile and released Inowae’s remedy. “I am so sorry to have asked. I would get some myself, but they only grow near the Silvermead River, and our leader does not want to travel that far east into Katrosi lands.” She snatched a piece of twine from a pile on the table and wrapped it around the sunburst stems. “We also hear the blood-hawk are in the d’hakka forest near the Silvermead now.”
“Do you mean the Emberhawk?” Kira maneuvered the satchel into her pack with care. I hope this cure works.
Yesha reached up to hang the sunburst from the tent supports beside the other herbs. “Yes. We call them blood-hawk because they are as bloodthirsty as their false goddess. They attack our camps unprovoked and take our strongest elementalists.”
Kira’s throat went dry. “Wait, so that song was about the Emberhawk? They attacked you recently?”
Yesha nodded. “Just days ago. We lost much, but Aeo is good. The rains come, and now we will have plenty of fish, and much to be thankful . . .”
Her words trailed off in Kira’s ears. Dread coursed through her veins as Ryon’s words replayed in her mind: “Lysander is the queen’s hand. He does whatever she commands.”
31
RYON
Ryon tuned out the conversation between the fishermen, wondering if Kira would be able to trade for anything useful from Yesha. And how long the river-folk would try to get them to stay. Probably long enough to write fifteen ballads about Kira’s enchanting azure eyes and deer-like grace or whatever other embellishments they could cook up.
But he feared they hadn’t embellished much about the Emberhawk raiding their last camp.
Young men watched Ryon from the fire pit, murmuring and glaring with vengeance in their eyes. Four teenagers stood from their sitting-pillows and approached.
Uh oh. Ryon’s mask suddenly felt heavy. He wondered how potent Lysander’s