Beyond the Boundary Stones (The Chronicles of Tevenar Book 3) (49 page)

Thanna nodded grimly. “We can try the other places if not.”

Josiah had her sit in a chair, the sleeve of her dress pushed up and pinned so it would stay out of the way. Sar positioned himself at Josiah’s left. Nalini opened the first vial, handed it to him, and moved in with her scalpel. Josiah put his hand on Sar’s back and the donkey sent the Mother’s power over Thanna’s arm, dulling her pain as Nalini cut a neat slit and directing the blood away so only a little seeped out.

Nalini stepped back. “All right. Put it in.”

At Josiah’s direction Sar pulled a small amount of liquid from the vial. The blob glimmered in the light of the Mother’s power as it floated toward Thanna’s arm. Sar elongated it into a thin stream that flowed into the cut. Josiah could see and feel and hear how the liquid moved into and through the fatty tissue, the minuscule blood vessels absorbing it. He urged Sar to widen their awareness and paid careful attention to the flavor of Thanna’s disease.

The sweet thickness didn’t diminish, but her body reacted in other ways. The area around the cut began to redden and taste sour. A smoky smell accompanied a sensation of heat.
Stop!

Sar ceased the flow of liquid into the wound, depositing the rest back into the vial. Together they worked to ease the trouble, but as long as the foreign substance remained under her skin Thanna’s body kept reacting to it. Eventually Sar had to speed the effect through to its end, with Thanna’s own natural processes breaking down and eliminating the invader.

Finally her arm was back to normal, as far as Josiah could tell. He pulled his hand away from Sar’s back and took a deep breath. “Well, it wasn’t that one,” he said, but his forced levity fell flat in the face of Gevan’s worry and Nalini’s skepticism. In a shaky voice he explained to them what had happened and how he and Sar had dealt with it.

“We knew that sort of thing might happen,” Nalini said. Gevan indicated his agreement. She pulled the wax stopper from the next vial. “Keep going.”

“Thanna, are you all right?” Josiah almost hoped she’d say no.

But she rubbed her arm and nodded. “Not surprising it wasn’t the first one.”

They’d healed the cut, so Josiah had Nalini shift to a different spot and make a new one. The second liquid didn’t provoke such an unpleasant reaction, but it didn’t do anything to alleviate Thanna’s diabetes, either.

One by one they tested each of the vials. Most set off a similar inflammatory response. A few were inert. One sent Josiah into a flurry of panic as Thanna’s throat swelled, nearly cutting off her breathing. Sar had to slow most of her body until he could get the fluid moved out of her tissues and clear the offending substance from her system. None of them had the effect they were looking for.

Finally they reached the last vial. Josiah’s shoulders sagged. He’d had such hopes. Now they’d have to start over from the beginning. What good would the Mother’s revelation do if they didn’t have any insulin to inject? He plopped his hand on Sar’s back and braced for the power drain as Nalini made one last cut. Poor Thanna must feel like a well-basted piece of meat.

Sar sent the clear liquid streaming into the cut. Good, no immediate bad reaction. Maybe this would be one of the harmless ones.

The Mother’s power enveloped Thanna’s body. Josiah monitored the sweet, heavy hum in her blood. It was getting pretty bad. They’d need to give her pancreas a good nudge after they were done to tide her over until tomorrow’s treatment.

Wait. Was that…

For several long minutes he watched, but he still couldn’t be sure.
Put more in, Sar!

He heard Nalini’s indrawn breath as Sar pulled another, bigger blob of liquid from the vial and sent it into Thanna’s arm. Gevan murmured a question, but Josiah ignored him.

It was working. It
was
. The strong honey flavor was abating. The hum was subsiding to a normal background level. The flow across his skin felt smooth instead of sticky. Just like after they’d sped up her pancreas and caused it to deposit a good amount of insulin into her bloodstream.
More, Sar!

Once again Sar pushed a thin stream of what Josiah was now certain was insulin into the cut on Thanna’s arm. The additional dose accelerated the affect. Her body felt nearly indistinguishable from a non-diabetic person’s, now. If this was the first time he’d examined her, he’d never know she had it.

He opened his eyes and met the others’ intent gazes with a wide grin. “That’s it. It works just like we hoped. That’s insulin.”

Satisfaction flashed across Nalini’s face, quickly veiled as she took back the vial and carefully stoppered it. Gevan clapped Josiah on the back. Thanna stared at the spot on her arm as Sar sealed it closed and let the Mother’s light fade. “You’re sure?”

“Absolutely.” He threw his arms around her in an exuberant hug. “Just think. As soon as we make some fang-needles that work, you won’t need wizards at all. Just Nalini or someone else who can make the insulin. She can recruit people and teach them how. We can make lots, enough to treat every kid with diabetes in Ramunna. Tevenar, too. No one will ever have to die from it again, whether or not there’s a wizard to treat them.” His head swam at the prospect.

“That… that’s wonderful. Amazing.” She shook her head hard. “Nalini, you’re sure you know exactly what you did to get it? You can make it again?”

Nalini tapped her notebook. “Don’t insult me. Of course I can.” But pleasure lurked behind her offended tone.

Gevan pulled out his notebook and began rapidly sketching. “I know just who I’ll go to for the needles. Mollirre is the metalsmith who made the casings for the window-glass and enlarging glass. He works with a man, Sorenna, who draws lovely even wire. If anyone can make what we need, he can.”

Josiah leaned over his shoulder and made comments on his design, pointing out errors and making suggestions. Nalini went to a cabinet and lifted out a large container full of ground cow pancreas steeping in alcohol. She brought it over to the workbench and decanted a generous amount of liquid, humming to herself.

After a while Josiah looked up from the plans for the fang-needle. “Hey, Thanna, I guess we should get back to the others. To the Mother’s Hall, I guess we can say now—Thanna?”

She blinked at him woozily. “Wha…?”

“Are you all right?” He scrambled to his feet and rushed to her.
Sar!

Thanna looked at him and tried to say something, but her eyes rolled back and she slid bonelessly out of her chair, crumpling to the floor. Josiah crouched over her, frantically grabbing for Sar. Warm fur met his hand and the Mother’s power flowed over Thanna’s still form.

It feels like she hasn’t eaten for days.
Instead of sweet, her blood tasted far too salty. A sharp lemony smell joined a grating sound and a pulling sensation. Her whole body was washed with a bluish tint.
What’s going on? Did we give her too much?

I fear so.

Can we take the extra insulin out?

I don’t know of any way to do that.

Josiah gulped.
More food then. To balance it out. Do you think that would work?

It’s worth a try.

Josiah tore his eyes open, though he kept his hand pressed hard to Sar’s neck. “She needs something to eat. Something soft, easy, quick to digest.” He thought of the honey taste of her blood when it needed insulin. “Something sweet. Candy?”

Gevan jumped to his feet. “One of my colleagues keeps some for when his grandchildren visit. I’ll fetch it.” He hurried from the room.

Josiah closed his eyes again, focusing on the sensations of Thanna’s body. They weren’t good. A thin whine like a hungry child begging for food joined an echoing, hollow feeling.
How could it happen that fast? Don’t people turn extra food into fat, and use it up when they don’t have enough to eat? She’s not got that much fat, but it should be plenty for her to go for weeks without eating.

I don’t think her body can convert the fat fast enough to counter the effects of the extra insulin. A properly functioning pancreas must be able to sense just how much to release.

I guess.
Josiah opened his eyes to find Nalini watching them with interest. He rubbed his forehead. “We gave her too much,” he explained.

She tilted her head thoughtfully. “I wondered about that when you went for the third dose.”

Josiah clenched his fists and rose to his knees to glare at her. “Why didn’t you say so then?” he demanded.

She settled back in her chair and crossed her arms. “It’s just as well to find out right away what can happen. Now that we know it’s possible to overdose and what the signs are, we can watch for them.”

“But Thanna might die!”

She shrugged. “That would be unfortunate, but she’d have died before now if she hadn’t come to you. Mistakes are inevitable when experimenting with new treatments.”

“I won’t let her die because of my mistake!” He turned his back on Nalini and returned his focus to Thanna.

It didn’t do any good. All he could do was watch as she got worse and worse. Sar kept trying to speed up various parts of her body, mostly the ones associated with digestion, but Josiah feared it wouldn’t work. The Mother’s power couldn’t create what wasn’t there.

At last Gevan burst through the door. He thrust a fistful of paper-wrapped sweets at Josiah. “Here. See what you can do.”

Josiah ripped the paper off one. Good, it was soft, some kind of taffy. He didn’t want Thanna to choke. He pulled off a small piece. “Thanna, wake up. Swallow this.”

She stirred as he pushed it between her lips. Her effort to swallow was weak, but Sar boosted the movement of her throat muscles. Josiah fed her more bits of the candy, all the time watching her body’s reaction and begging the Mother to let this work.

Slowly, it did. The signs of starvation eased and the sensations swung back toward normal.
Look,
Sar told him.
Here, in her liver. Her blood is going back to normal faster than the small amount she’s eaten should account for. I think there’s another substance here that counters the insulin’s effects.

Balance.
That was one of the basic principles of how bodies worked.
Can you see how to trigger it without food?

I think so.
A brief surge of power sped the process fractionally.
Yes. If this happens again, I’ll know how to deal with it.

Good. Though it’s good to know it can be fixed without the Mother’s power, too. But we’re going to have to be a lot more cautious until we figure out the right amount of insulin to give.

Mindful not to repeat his first mistake, Josiah quit after the first piece of taffy and waited until Thanna quit getting better, still a good way short of fully recovered, before giving her more. By that time she was fully awake and could chew and swallow on her own.

When her wooziness cleared, he helped her up from the floor and back into the chair. “Rest until you’re sure you feel well enough to walk back down to the Mother’s Hall. I want Elkan and Tobi to check you and make sure you’re really all right.”

She scrubbed at her face. “Is that going to happen every time?”

“No. We got carried away and gave you too much.” Josiah shrugged, his face hot. “Now we know to be more careful.”

“You’d better be.” She shook her head experimentally. “I’m feeling a lot better. Let’s go tell the others.”

Josiah assisted her to her feet. She was a little shaky at first, but it quickly went away. They bid farewell to Gevan and Nalini and headed back to the Mother’s Hall.

Thirty

I
t wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. They were wrong. Every time Nina sent the Mother’s power through her to work its miraculous healing, Kevessa was more certain. Vigorre and Nirel were either mistaken or lying.

But whenever her familiar was asleep, or apart from her for whatever reason, the doubts crept back. Surely her friends wouldn’t lie to her. And Nirel’s story had been so vivid. Kevessa strained her imagination, creating all sorts of bizarre scenarios to explain how Nirel might have misinterpreted some perfectly innocuous event, but none of them seemed even slightly plausible.

She should tell Master Elkan everything. But she’d promised Nirel not to go to him until they’d discussed it again. And then Nirel had vanished. Supposedly her father had insisted she accompany him on a trading voyage with Ozor, but Kevessa had her suspicions about that. More likely she’d jumped aboard in order to escape Kevessa and the consequences that would follow if the other wizards learned about her lies.

Vigorre was avoiding her, too. It had been a whole week and they’d exchanged only a few brief words, quickly hushed when one of the other wizards approached.

Borlen’s addition to the Guild was wonderful, of course, but in the short term it meant more work for her. Today Master Elkan had spent most of his time instructing Borlen and Shadow in the basics of wizardry. With Josiah off at Gevan’s workshop all morning, that had left the bulk of the healing to Kevessa. She’d been too busy or drained to think all day.

Now, though, she was determined to put an end to her uncertainty, one way or another. She couldn’t observe the event in question, which had taken place far out of range across the ocean, but she could investigate the parts of Nirel’s story that had happened in Ramunna. And she could confront Vigorre with what she found.

The first part was simple. Mama had invited her and Father to spend Restday at home again. This time Kevessa had flatly refused to leave Nina behind, and Mama had reluctantly agreed to let her come along.

She bid farewell to the other wizards at the door of the new Mother’s Hall. Elkan, Josiah, Borlen, and their familiars walked toward the palace together. Vigorre climbed into one of his family’s carriages and it drove off. Father held out his hand to assist her up the steps of Papa’s most elegant carriage.

Once they were out of sight of the Hall, Kevessa leaned toward Gevan. “Tell the driver to make a detour. I want to go by Lady Yovella’s house. We might need to stop on the street outside for a while.”