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Sight Unseen
by Bekah See
Chapter 4 The walk back to their little dwelling seemed to take forever. Janet’s mind was a blur of nightmare images and feelings, and she shivered as she walked, grateful for Sam’s comforting arm around her shoulder. Once they were back inside, Janet went to lie down while Sam stirred up the fire, though the day was rapidly warming.Janet laid still, listening to her friend move around in the other room, and tried to rest.But she couldn’t. Flashes of gray skin and white eyes, memories of terror and burning pain filled her mind, keeping her eyes from closing for long. Finally Sam entered the room and sat beside her friend. She took her hand and just held it, studying the lines of tension around Janet’s still closed eyes. A tear leaked out of one corner and Sam saw the doctor’s jaw clench around a sob. She knew Janet hated to cry almost as much as she did, and only then did Carter realize the extent of the shock the doctor had gone through.“Janet,” she said softly. “Do you want to go home?”“No,” Janet answered immediately, sitting up and wiping her eyes furiously. “I’m fine. I just didn’t expect that to happen this morning.”Sam smiled a little. “I know what you mean. Do you want to go for a walk? We could go check out the market.”“Yeah, that sounds great.” Janet stood and took a moment to smooth her clothes and pull herself together. The women walked out of their home and into the dazzling light of late morning. A group of young men sat in a circle fletching arrows with able fingers, and telling wild stories of their most daring battles and hunts.Several brilliant smiles flashed toward the two Earth women as they passed, and they smiled back, waving and greeting the ones whose names they knew.Passing the young men, they continued on through the village and entered the market square where they began to admire some of the many wares on display. Sam stopped in front of a booth that offered a brilliant array of intricately patterned scarves. Designs of embroidered flowers nestled among whorls of striking colors were the most prominent, but she dismissed these as being too gaudy for her taste. Then a flash of ruby red caught her eye, and she began to dig into the mound of silk.Her hand closed around her quarry, and she pulled it out, breathing in at the beauty of the piece as it caught the warm sunlight. Deep, rich red whirled around intricacies of fiery orange and midnight blue throughout the length of silk. Sam ran it over and over in her hands, marveling as the material seemed to float just above her fingers. She smiled at the woman hovering in the booth.“This is beautiful! How much is it?”The vendor grinned toothily at her, took the scarf out of her hands, and arranged it so that it covered most of Sam’s head and knotted at the back of her neck. “If you will tell everyone where you got it from, you may have it,” The woman said, answering Sam’s question. The she turned to Janet. “Which one do you like?”Janet glared good-naturedly at Sam for a moment for grabbing the best one, then looked around the booth again. “That one,” she said finally, pointing to a gorgeous wrap of violet swirled with vivid green and sky blue spirals. The woman, named Trista, wrapped the gift around Janet’s head and sent them off with a wave.Both woman thanked the vendor profusely, feeling much buoyed by her generosity, and continued their perusal of the square. They examined jewelry patterned with the intricate knots reminiscent of the people’s Celtic ancestry, and Sam stopped at several stalls filled with weapons for hunting and fishing, examining the javelins, bows, unfletched arrows, knives and spears. She admired these people for sticking to their roots. There was just something about the idea of hunting with something less… destructive… than a rifle.Janet pulled Sam away from the weapons, rolling her eyes at her friend’s interest, and walked up to a baker who was selling fresh meat rolls and loaves of dark, yeasty bread. She purchased some of these with the coin in her pocket. She wrapped the foodstuffs in a cloth and put them in a bag supplied by the baker, intent on sharing them for breakfast the next morning. Finally they reached the end of the market square, and in the last booth at the corner of the last row, Janet stopped again, staring at the knick-knacks on display. Sam stopped beside her, curious at what had caught her friend’s eye.Janet reached out and picked up a small, palm sized half sphere that stood out among the rest of the junk on the table like a diamond in a coal yard. Its surface was an inky black, etched with strange symbols in a metallic silver script. A thin band of the same silver encircled the bottom of the dome.“Look at this.”“That text is Ancient,” Sam breathed, astonishment stealing her voice. She looked at the vendor, a small, oily man, and in fact the first person she had seen on this planet who was not astonishingly beautiful. “What’s your name?” she asked him, trying to ignore the greasy smile plastered on his face.“Donaldo is my name, fair lady, and I can see your taste is as wonderful and true as your beauty.”Janet rolled her eyes at the flattery and held up the object. “Where did you find this?”“Ah, you are one for a tale of adventure, are you not?” he blathered. “That is a rare and special artifact, unearthed by myself and my companions many months ago as we searched for the lost temple of…”“Just tell us where you got it,” Janet snapped, her patience wearing thin.“Oh. Uh, well, if you must know, I found it in the ground a few hours walk from here. That way.” He pointed a stubby finger at the road leading out of the village to the north. “One of a kind,” he boomed suddenly, intent on resuming his pitch. “You’ll never find another like it this side of…”“How much?” Sam said, calling him off his rant.“Well, for something that valuable and rare, I simply could not take less than ten sikes.”Janet snorted and dropped the dome on the table. “You can’t be serious. I’ll bet I’d find a bunch of these lying around off that road if I looked. I’ll give you two.”“Two?” Donaldo spluttered. “Do you have any idea what I went through to get that?”“You mean by picking it up off the ground? I’ll give you three.”“Seven is the lowest I could possibly go.”“Four.”“Six.”Janet turned away. “Let’s go, Sam. I’m not really in the mood to be ripped off today.” She started to walk back toward the center of the market.“No, wait, alright, I’ll give it to you for four sikes,” Donaldo said, pouting dramatically. “ But you realize you’re taking food from the mouths of my wife and children, do you not?” Sam glared at him, and he dropped his act. “Alright, so I do not have a family. This is still thievery.”“We’ll be sure to alert the authorities,” Janet said dryly, handing the vendor his money and slipping the artifact into her pocket. Then she grabbed Sam’s arm and hurried her away into the crowd, Donaldo watching them leave with narrowed eyes. “What do you think it is?” Janet asked, pulling the artifact from her pocket. Sam took it from her and examined the markings.“I’m afraid I don’t read Ancient very well. Where’s Daniel when you need him?”“Probably off breaking every female heart in the archeological community.”Sam grinned. She knew Janet and Daniel had glimmers of feelings for each other, but nothing had ever come of it. She wondered idly if anything ever would.“How about some lunch?” Sam asked, handing the artifact back to Janet, who pocketed it.“Love to.” The midday meal consisted of slices of warm dark bread slathered in butter and honey, coupled with rich yellow cheese and thin slices of some kind of meat, washed down by mugs of the lightly fermented meade favored by the locals.The women ate leisurely, looking out over the rolling hills that led to the stargate. The sun was directly overhead, warming them from the outside in, and chasing away the last of the shadows that still hung over Janet’s mind. She knew she would need to return to Tessa’s house when they were done, and was not looking forward to facing the crotchety old woman again. Sam had promised to help some of the village women with their archery work, so once they had finished, the girls cleared up and parted ways.Janet walked slowly toward Tessa’s home and entered without knocking. The healer turned at the sound of the door and grunted when she saw who had entered.“Oh. It’s you. Come over here and grind this into powder.” Janet raised an eyebrow as she moved to obey. Evidently Tessa had decided to pretend nothing out of the ordinary had happened that morning. Janet had no problem with this, and took the mortar and pestle from her tutor and set about mashing the dried plant within the bowl into powder.As she worked, she thought about the peculiar object stashed safely in her pocket. What was it doing here? What business had the Ancients had on this world? Did they have something to do with the Krallik Tessa was so afraid of?The doctor finished her grinding and poured the newly pressed yellow powder into the small vessel that had been put on the table for that purpose. Then she labeled the jar with Tessa’s special erasable ink and put it in its proper shelf on the wall before turning to see what else needed to be done. She spotted the old woman kneeling before the fire, ladling broth into a bowl.“What is that?” she asked curiously.“Medicine,” Tessa answered absently. “Gowen’s new boy has a cough, and he is too young to go without eating for long. This will clear his lungs for a time and allow him to eat and rest. His body will heal on its own.”“What’s in it?”“Some of the fan moss you gathered yesterday, as well as a salty broth, a bit of taso, and…“You’re giving that stuff to a newborn?!” Janet almost shouted. “Do you want to scare him to death?”“Calm yourself, Doctor. The moss negates the psychotropic effects of the root, which in turn enhances the calming properties of the satgo leaves I was about to mention.” She narrowed her eyes at Janet. “You should know that by now.”Janet’s mind ground into gear as her panic receded, and she remembered that fan moss and satgo were both on the A-list for mixing with taso. “Of course you are right, Tessa. Please forgive my outburst.”“Hmmph,” Tessa grunted. “Here. Take this to Gowen, and when you return, we will begin the last phase of your instruction.”“Last phase?” Janet said, surprised. “But there’s still so much I don’t know.”“The knowledge you already possess is the basis for all of our medicines. You now have everything you need to take that knowledge home and use it to help your people. This final lesson will clear up your confusion on this,” she held up the red taso, “and hopefully give you the last piece to the puzzle.”So Janet delivered the broth to Gowen, a young woman with her first child. She was well built, with raven hair and clear blue eyes. Janet made much over her son and gave her Tessa’s instructions on how much medicine to give the child, and when. Then she stood and, with a final wave, walked back the way she had come, ready to finally understand what had been eluding her for so long.
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