On Fire's Wings - Christie Golden [21]
She had gone to see Maluuk, the healer for the Clan, in his small stone home near the great House. Maluuk was almost as old as Sahlik, and like her, was plagued with stiffness and pain in the joints. The discomfort was incentive for Maluuk to constantly work on perfecting a salve to ease such pain, and he and Sahlik often commiserated on the perils of growing old.
She sat now on a bench in his cool stone house, which was rich with the fragrance of herbs. They were everywhere—in jars on tables, hanging to dry from the ceiling, growing outside in the garden. Maluuk sorted and labeled jars while his apprentice Asha ground herbs and mixed the ointment.
“I have started adding this,” he said to Sahlik, extending a jar.
She took a cautious sniff, and then began coughing. Maluuk wheezed with laughter.
“I find…nothing amusing,” she managed to say, tears streaming from her burning eyes. She gulped from the waterskin he held out to her.
“I could not resist,” Maluuk said, chuckling. “I add the ground pepper to the salve, and it warms the joints. Trust me, it will feel good.”
Sahlik gave him a skeptical look and was about to make a sharp comment when a shrill cry interrupted her.
“Maluuk!” The voice belonged to Tiah, one of Yeshi’s attendants. “Maluuk, come quickly, Ranna has been bitten!”
Faster than Sahlik would have given the old man credit for, Maluuk had leaped off his stool and raced out the door. Sahlik followed.
Tiah, a curvaceous woman about Yeshi’s age, was gently leading Ranna up the steps toward the healer’s house. The younger girl stumbled from time to time, as her eyes were fixed on her right hand, which swelled almost before Sahlik’s eyes.
Maluuk met them halfway. His touch was always gentle, but Ranna cried out and tried to pull her hand away.
“What bit her?” he asked Tiah.
“I’m not sure,” Tiah replied. “A fly, a wasp….”
“Asha!” Maluuk called to his apprentice, “Insect bite. What do I use?”
“Garlic and then a white clay mud poultice,” the boy replied.
“Good. Come, Ranna, we will take care of you.”
Sahlik said, “I will pick up my ointment later.” Maluuk nodded, barely hearing her as he led the two distraught women into the hut.
Despite a particularly sore knee, Sahlik hastened down the steps toward the House with alacrity. The moment would pass soon, and she was determined to seize it.
Yeshi strolled in the garden alone, her long, well-manicured fingers reaching to touch a fragrant bloom now and then. Because of the House of Four Waters’ claim to that most precious of fluids, she was able to enjoy growing things that would normally never be seen in the desert. There was insufficient water to grow the exotic fruits and vegetables for trade, but enough so that Yeshi’s table always had something intriguing for her to nibble.
Both her women were gone, after Ranna was stupid enough to touch the flower that had the angry-looking insect hovering about it, and Yeshi was bored with no one to talk to. Ranna hadn’t looked well, and she certainly hoped the girl was all right, but her first thought as Ranna’s hand began to swell like a filling water bladder was that it would be some time before Ranna would give her one of her magnificent massages.
Yeshi liked the garden, as she liked all pretty things, but she had no real interest in learning much beyond which flower had which scent. Now she lounged on a long, intricately carved and padded bench in the small pavilion. The thin fabric walls billowed with a fragrant breeze, and she idly wondered what her husband planned for the evening. Her hand dropped to the beaten gold bowl beside her and she snared a lush fruit.
“Great khashima, forgive me for disturbing you,” came Sahlik’s raspy voice.
Yeshi sighed in exasperation. A frown marred her pretty countenance. “Enter. What is it, Sahlik?”
“I saw that Ranna and Tiah were with the healer, great lady,” Sahlik said, stepping just inside the pavilion. “I thought you might be lonely.”
“Not lonely enough to want your company, old woman.”
Sahlik didn’t bat