At my own house, I checked on Tarah, telling her to hold on a little longer for me but getting no response.
Then I ran back to the infirmary.
Steve woke up as Mike and I grabbed his upper arms. We hauled him off to the master bathroom so we could stand him in front of the large wall mirror mounted above the sink. We held him still, his bony skeletal body not making it much of an effort for us, while the older healer wrapped him from head to toe in the red yarn, leaving only his nose bare. Then we each held a mirror facing towards him and slowly began to chant, “We bind you, Steve, from doing any harm. Your spells reflect back at you now.”
For several long minutes, he struggled against the bindings, his mouth working to free itself past the strings across his face. And I began to wonder if I was wrong, if I was so desperate to save Tarah that I’d finally snapped and wrongfully accused an innocent man, a man about to lose the woman he loved, just like me.
“What are you doing?” Pamela gasped, hugging the door jamb with both arms for support. Cassie clung to her mother’s side, her eyes wide and bright. “Is that...is that Steve under there?”
“Daddy, you look silly!” Cassie giggled.
“How are you feeling?” I asked Pamela, reaching out to touch her forehead. It was cool to the touch.
“Better. Tired. Shaky. But better. I woke up and thought I should check on the worst of the patients in here, and heard you guys... Are you using a new healing method?” She gestured tiredly behind her as several people rose up on their elbows, murmuring and looking around in confusion.
Steve froze.
The older healer, Mike and I all exchanged looks.
“We tried something new, all right,” Dragon Lady said, her lips forming a tight, thin line. “A binding spell on your husband.”
Pamela turned pale again.
“I’ll be right back.” Handing the mirror to Pamela, I ran out of the bathroom, out of the infirmary, and over the now familiar minefield of tree stumps to my tiny house, the light from the wood stove making its windows flicker and glow. With every step, I prayed as hard as I could to find Tarah better when I opened that door.
CHAPTER 24
I leaped up onto the porch, yanked open the door...
She was still sleeping.
“Come on,” I found myself muttering as I took the three steps through the house and over to her, stopping to kneel at her side.
I took her hand in mine. Then, with my free hand, I touched her cheek.
Her fever was gone.
Her eyelids fluttered open, and she smiled up at me. And it was the single best moment of my life.
“Hey beautiful,” I murmured, smiling back. “How are you feeling?”
She sighed. “Tired. Sleepy. Really hopeful that you installed a shower in this thing and got the water hooked up too.”
I’d tell her the bad news about that later. “But you’re feeling better?”
“Mmm hmm. And thirsty. Can I have some water?”
I held her head up and helped her steady the cup as she eagerly sipped water from it. My hands shook as I took the cup from her when she’d finished. I added another log to the fire, covered her up again, and tried to hide my face as I used my shirt sleeves to wipe at my damp cheeks.
“All right. Sleep for awhile, and I’ll be back with some soup or something. Okay?” I said.
But she was already asleep again. Which was strange. Pamela had been sick longer than her, yet was already back up on her feet. Most of the other patients had been sitting up already as I’d run out of the infirmary just now.
I felt Tarah’s pulse at her wrist. It still wasn’t strong, but at least it was steady now. Could the attack have caused permanent damage to her heart?
Steve better pray that it hadn’t.
As I stalked back across the clearing to the infirmary, the weak-kneed relief quickly morphed into anger, then fury, then a near blinding rage. I knew exactly what I wanted to do to Steve in return for his nearly killing Tarah.
The answer was simple...I would kill him. With my bare hands, my fists, my feet, and my Clann abilities. It wasn’t noble, but it was far less punishment than what he deserved. I would beat him until he felt the pain I’d felt while I’d thought Tarah was going to die. I would beat him over and over, letting him feel as helpless as I’d been while his spell had attacked Tarah’s defenseless body over and over.
I would beat him until he was an empty shell, a meat carcass useful for nothing more than a quick and ugly burial in the ditch somewhere. Because a burial in this village’s cemetery beside the others he’d killed would be too good for a murderer like him.
I ripped open the infirmary’s storm door, then threw open its front door, revenge the only thought on my mind now.
Until I saw Cassie hugging her mother, the both of them surrounded by recovering patients who were sipping tea and quietly talking.
Pamela and Cassie had already gone through so much. And judging by the way Pamela was sobbing and rocking her daughter, they knew they were about to go through a lot more as they dealt with the truth of what their husband and father had done.
If I killed Steve, what would it do to them?
As I entered the living room, Pamela looked up at me then away. In shame? The thought of Pamela having to bear the burden of her husband’s actions for the rest of her life renewed my fury. But it also honed it, compressing the fire inside me, giving me a measure of control. Steve would pay. He had to, for the sake of justice and righting his wrongs, to restore a sense of peace and hope and trust in this village. He’d made me, and no telling how many others, afraid of this place when it should have been a haven of peace and safety.
But I couldn’t be the one to decide how he should be punished. This wasn’t a dictatorship I was running here. In fact, for days now I hadn’t been running anything, caught up in the selfish pursuit of trying to save Tarah while believing I was powerless to help anyone else. This was a community of people, and I wasn’t the only one here that he’d hurt. Tarah had survived. What about the two families here who had lost loved ones?
I only wished Bud’s family could weigh in on the judgement too.
I made my way past all the patients to the master bath, where the older healer and Mike still held watch over Steve.
“Can you two round up everyone outside?” I asked them. “I think it’s time we held our first village meeting.”
The older healer left without a word. I’d have to make a mental note to get her name later. She was one tough broad. Sort of reminded me of my grandma. I’d have to thank her later, too.