Crystal Healer (31 page)

The commander escorted us by glidecar to the Valtas's central medical facility, located in one of the largest triad structures in the city. At the entrance the medical officer I had met in our chamber waited, and greeted me with a dour glare.

"Your patient has been a great trial to us," he said as he led us through the assessment area and back into the treatment rooms. "He refuses to let anyone examine him but you. I would have sedated him, but for his condition."

I stopped in front of the isolation chamber, and through the viewer saw Jylyj's shadow behind a modesty curtain. "What
were
you able to do?"

"I managed to take a hematological scan. The level of crystal infecting his bloodstream is rising. I also detected traces of it in his internal organs." He gestured toward a portable dialysis machine. "We have attempted to use the filtering treatment that you described to me. It had almost no effect."

I checked the machine, and in the reservoir saw blackened pieces of heartwood. "You used heartwood charcoal?" The medical officer nodded. "That is where you went wrong. Most of the resin is burned out. Have someone refit the unit with seasoned, unburned wood." I tried to open the door to the treatment room, but it was secured by pass code. "What is the entry code?"

After giving the commander a worried glance, the medical officer told me the code, and I went inside.

"Healer Jarn," Jylyj said from behind the curtain. He sounded relieved, but when I reached for the curtain, he added, "No, leave it closed. Tell the others to leave, and then come around."

I turned to Reever, who nodded and spoke to the commander. "I would like to see the other members of our team and arrange to contact the one who remains on the surface."

After the men had left, I walked around and entered the gap in the curtain. Instantly, I saw why Jylyj had not wanted the others to see him; small spots of crystal glittered in his darkening fur, and the shape of his face had also altered. His once-dark eyes, now a light green, had tiny cataracts of crystal occluding the irises.

"Initiate sterile field," Jylyj said, and a bioelectric curtain formed around us. To me, he said, "This will keep them from overhearing us."

"Just so." I found a container of gloves and pulled on a pair before I went to him. "Either the crystal wishes you to be an oKiaf when it kills you, or you lied to me. Which is it?"

He glanced down at himself. "I told you as much of the truth as I could. Genetically I
am
Skartesh, or at least I was until an hour ago. My body is reverting to my natal form."

"You were born oKiaf, but you were alterformed into a Skartesh." As he nodded, I used a scanner to detect the level of crystal infection, which was indeed rising, before I checked the occlusions in his eyes. "The League scientists didn't do this. Their technology is not this advanced."

"After the initial alterforming, my body did it on its own," Jylyj told me. "My immune system must have responded to the changes made to my DNA. Within a few hours, all of my oKiaf genes were gone, replaced by Skartesh."

"This reversion could be a good sign. Excuse me for a moment. Deactivate sterile field." As the bioelectric field vanished, I went to leave.

"Reinitiate sterile field." Jylyj seized my arm. "You can't tell them. I have already violated tribal law. If they learn of who I was"--he shook his head--"it could be very bad for the rest of you."

"Why?" Now I felt utterly confused. "Who are you?"

"I was a major in the Allied League intelligence forces," Jylyj said. "I was originally alterformed to infiltrate the Skartesh when they fled to K-2," Jylyj said. "My real name is Shon Valtas."

I frowned. "Then these are your people. Your tribe."

"Not since I enlisted," he told me. "My father forbade it, and when I defied him, he cast me out of the tribe. It's the same as being dead to them, and as an outcast, I could never return here."

"But you did." My head hurt. "What laws did you break, and how much trouble are you in?"

"Outcasts are shunned by the tribes and driven from the planet," he said slowly. "If they ever return to oKia and are discovered, they're handed over to Elphian for punishment. As is anyone who helps them."

"What is the punishment?"

"Enslavement, or imprisonment for life." He sighed. "Forgive me."

"Oh,
now
you're sorry." I thought fast. "We can probably keep them from finding out who you are for a little while, but we really have to get you out of here."

"In a few hours, it won't matter," he said. "I regret that I didn't tell you the truth. I only wanted to die on my homeworld."

"You
did
jump in that pit of crystal deliberately." I stared at him. "That's why you kept telling me afterward to let you go. You were trying to kill yourself."

"The League has been hunting me ever since they discovered that I was a touch healer. I changed my appearance, assumed the identity of a dead Skartesh medical resident, and even hid myself on Joren. But I knew they would never stop looking, and I grew tired of running." He lay back on the table and stared into the emitter hanging over it. "My father was like me, although not as strong. He said the crystal was one of the few things that could kill us. After I lost Jadaira . . . I only wanted it to end."

I felt like slapping him. "I don't know who Jadaira is, but you're a healer with a tremendous gift. You could use it to help so many, but instead you decide to commit suicide. That isn't as stupid as it is obscene."

He propped himself up on his arms. "Do you know what the League wanted me to do? What oKiaf touch healers have always done for them? We're used in interrogation centers. Prisoners are beaten and abused to the brink of death, and then we're brought in to heal them, so they can be tortured again. And again. And again."

My stomach clenched. "You could have refused to do it."

"You don't refuse the League. You know what they're capable of." He gave me a weary look. "They murdered my little brother. They drowned him after my father refused to serve as their chief interrogator."

Little wonder the father had made Jylyj--Shon--an outcast for joining them. "But they didn't know about you or your abilities, or they would never have discharged you from the military."

He shook his head. "I concealed what I was from them for years, until one of the aquatic pilots on K-2 fatally injured herself while saving the Skartesh. I found her dying, and because I cared for her, I couldn't let her go. After I used my ability a second time to save the young leader of a neighboring world, word got back to the League, and they came for me. And I wasn't discharged from the military, Jarn. I deserted."

"You did what was necessary." I didn't care if he was a criminal. He had destroyed his life in order to remain true to his oath as a healer and do the work. In my eyes, it had been a noble act. "It must have taken great courage. You have no reason to feel shame."

His voice turned bitter. "I will if the League captures me and forces me to use my ability on their prisoners."

"The League is not here, and you are not giving yourself to the oKiaf, either." I jabbed my finger into his chest. "You are going to fight this infection, and give me time to find a treatment for it. You are going to live, Major Valtas."

"Why should I?"

Anger surged inside me."In all the years Cherijo Grey Veil was hunted for what she was--for what I am--she never gave up healing. It is why we were made, and to deny it or run away from it or to kill yourself rather than face it is the act of a sniveling coward. I am many things, but I am not that, and whatever happens to me, I will not be remembered that way." I gave him a look of contempt. "Is this how you wish to be remembered?"

"My father is dead. My tribe would have me imprisoned or sold to slavers." He closed his eyes. "There is no one left who cares."

"There is me, and Duncan. There are others like you and me. They are the brothers and sisters of our hearts." I took his paw between my hands. "We will be your tribe now."

He made a rough sound. "You don't even like me."

"Then give me a reason to. Live. Be my brother." I gripped his paw as the tears in my eyes spilled over. "Shon, please. I have never met anyone like me. I can't tell you why, but I know, in here"--I pressed his paw to my heart--"we need you."

Some of the pain left his gaze, and then he looked away. "This is a useless conversation. I will not survive the infection."

"You let me worry about that." I draped him with linens and quickly wrapped most of his face and head with gauze. "I need to put you back on dialysis until we can arrange transport off oKia. I will tell them that the crystal is suppurating through your skin and you have to be kept under quarantine."

He glanced at his arms. "Crystal
is
coming out of my skin."

"You see? I will not even have to lie," I said. "The risk of exposure should keep them out of here." I turned toward the room's control console. "Deactivate sterile field."

I went out of the isolation room and into the corridor. A technician had just finished replacing the charcoal in the filtering reservoir with fresh wood shavings.

"The patient has crystal erupting through his derma," I told the technician, whose eyes bulged. "Anyone who enters this room risks exposure and infection, so I am placing it under strict quarantine. No one enters without first obtaining my permission. Show me how to change the security code on this door panel."

Once I changed the access code, I wheeled the unit into the isolation room, secured the door, and started the treatment.

"What do you think of me now, Healer?" he asked.

"I am glad to know that your name is
not
Jylyj," I mentioned as I monitored the level of crystal in his blood. "I never liked it much. It doesn't suit you at all."

"It was that or Hurkuut."

I grimaced. "That sounds like someone regurgitating."

"So I thought, but the Skartesh language is not known for its lyrical qualities." He watched the scanner with me. "You did see me coming out of the water that morning on Joren. I couldn't risk exposing myself by telling you the truth."

"I knew it." I frowned. "But how did you learn to swim? As a Skartesh, you should have gone into shock from being immersed."

"I did not acquire the Skartesh's biological aversion to water." His voice changed. "Ever since my brother drowned, I'd hated it, and feared it. Then I met Jadaira on K-2, and she was an aquatic. To be with her, I had to learn to swim."

I had no great love of water, and silently gave thanks that Reever had not turned out to be an aquatic. "How did that go?"

"Awkward at first. Dair coaxed me into a little pond, and I thought I'd choke to death on my fear. But she was patient with me, and gradually I learned to tolerate it, and then to relax in it, and finally to love it, as I loved her."

The thought of an oKiaf falling in love with an aquatic should have seemed bizarre, but I found it both charming and sad. "You said you lost her. Did she die in the war?"

"No, I lost her to another male." He grimaced. "She gave her heart to one of her own kind. They are far more happy together than she and I would have been."

"That doesn't make it any easier to accept." I thought of all the jealousy I had felt toward Cherijo for being Reever's first wife. "If you are in love with this aquatic, why have you shown such interest in me?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "It was your scent at first--you may not be beautiful by oKiaf standards, but you smell like the loveliest of females. And then you touched me, and I swear to you, I felt it in my soul. It was as if I recognized you, here." He tapped his chest. "I didn't know how complete your bond was with your mate. I guess on some level I wanted to test it."

"Duncan and I . . ." How did I explain the complexity of our relationship? "We belong to each other. There will never be another for me, or for him."

"I never wished to admit it, but I felt the same for Jadaira. It was never meant to be, however." He looked over at the dialysis unit. "This will stabilize the infection rate, but that is all it will do. We have never found any method of removing the crystal once it has infiltrated a living body."

I was slightly relieved by the change of subject. "It mutates like a virus, spreads like cancer, eats like bacteria. I have never seen any pathogen like it. Yet its composition is mineral--almost identical to that of common quartz."

"Perhaps it is a silica-based life-form." He seemed amused. "If it is, will you name it after me?"

"Shon's planet-eating rock?" I suggested.

"Valtas crystal," he corrected. "It sounds more dignified."

Someone chimed the door panel, and I handed the scanner to Shon before I went to see who it was. Reever and the commander stood waiting in the corridor, and neither looked happy.

"I'll return in a moment," I told him, and stepped outside. To Reever, I said, "I've started Sh--Jylyj back on dialysis. His readings are stabilizing, but the infection has advanced. Were you able to signal Xonea?"

My husband shook his head. "We have been unable to reach the ship at all. The station has been overtaken by mercenaries. They are holding the Elphian hostage and have demanded an exchange. The Valtas have agreed to their terms."