"Hey, you could be right about allergy, Kris." He checked through the medications he had brought with him and found several, looking from one bottle to another. "Their metabolism runs at a different level despite other similarities to our own body mechanisms. Give me your arm, Zay," he said.
When Zainal had bared his arm, he did a quick reaction test of all three possible medications. Leon whistled under his breath as he timed the testing. Behind him the boys muttered in their fevers, tossing and almost, but not quite, crying with the pain incurred by moving.
"Not a damned thing;' Leon muttered after the required reaction time was up. "At least you're not allergic to antihistamines;' Then he looked Zainal straight in the eye. "Do I have your permission to try, Zainal? At least I believe they will take no further harm from the shots."
Zainal nodded. Leon bowed slightly to the Maasai medic, who had been observing with close interest but no reaction to what Leon had been doing. Chief Materu had murmured some explanations in Maasai.
"Do I offend your Parmitoro Kassiora by using our medicines?"
Caleb Materu gave them a wide smile of very white and even teeth.
"Not at all. The boys have been good boys, and they are not Maasai so perhaps Maasai medicine could not work on them." Materu turned to Zainal.
"For that he apologizes."
"None needed." Zainal nodded once to Parmitoro in acceptance.
"That takes care of the medical ethics," Leon said in a wry tone. "I'll give one to Bazil here, and another to Peran. Then we've one spare…:' He made the injections.
And they waited. Some of the women, and that included a rebellious and surly Floss, brought food and cool water. The hut was not only stuffy but also reeked of the suppurations. Kris did edge toward the opening of the hut.
"I want out of here, bitch," Floss muttered as she and an older Maa-sai woman returned with a fresh bucket of cold water.
"Only when you're no longer one, dear," Kris replied in a low tone.
"D'you know what they do to women here?" Floss said, and there was a certain desperation in her eyes now.
"All the more reason for you to reform your outlook on life on Botany;' she said, for she had heard about the female genital mutilation practiced by some African tribes. Were the Maasai one? She couldn't remember.
Floss made a sudden movement toward Kris, which, in retrospect, Kris decided she deserved for the taunt, and immediately the tall Maasai woman grabbed hold of Floss and threw her from the hut. Kris could hear the thud of the girl hitting the hard ground. She thought she'd better make certain that the girls of the Diplomatic Corp were not required, during this reed-ucation period, to adhere to all Maasai customs. They should have brought along one of the Swahili speakers. How the hell was she going to explain this one?
They waited. They could and did try to ease the boys' fevers with the cool water, laying fresh cloths carefully over the sore-covered bodies.
It was dark before Leon extracted a thermometer from Bazil's armpit and exclaimed. "The fever's coming down."
Kris was in the process of changing a cool cloth when she noticed that the sores were no longer oozing. In fact, the smell was lessening, too.
"Hey, look!" And she pointed to the nearest sore. "It's drying up."
Zainal immediately stripped the coverings from Peran, and the younger boy also seemed to be responding to the medication.
"It's four hours. Time to give them another shot."
During the next four hours, the sores seemed to dry up in waves, starting from the chest working downward to the limbs. The boys' temperatures dropped to normal, and they each fell into a deep sleep.
"Empirical but you Catteni are not impervious to the minor ailments to which Human flesh is heir," Leon said as they all left the hut and stood in the fresh night air.
"This acacia? They swallowed it?" Zainal asked.
Materu said. "It is ground fine and a small amount taken with water."
"Do I know what you're thinking, Zainal?" Leon asked, eyebrows twitching and the gleam of a smile on his face.
"The problem would be 'how."
"Yes, it would, wouldn't it," Leon said.
Kris had no trouble following their line of thought but she also couldn't figure out how the olkiloriti could be administered to the Eosi.
How could they possibly get Eosi to swallow sufficient to kill them? Or at least give them an awful allergic reaction?
"Were the boys in real danger from just an allergic reaction?" she asked Leon. She'd never even had a bad case of poison ivy.
He cocked his head. "If the antihistamines hadn't taken effect, I don't think they'd've survived the night." He looked back at the hut. "They'll still need a lot of care… and no further herbal medications. I hope Parmitoro won't take offense."
"He would take more offense if you had come and the boys had died," Caleb Materu said with an amused snort.
"I do have some salve I used on Catteni wounds," Leon said, dragging his medical bag out into the cool night air. "To heal the sores. I know it doesn't react on Catteni. The sea, too, will help. Can they swim, Zainal?"
"They do now," Caleb said in his deep voice, and in the torchlight, his eyes sparkled.
"When the sores are closed, have them swim in the sea. Salt's still a superb cure-all;'
"You wish them to remain in my care?" the chief asked Zainal.
"I do," Zainal said firmly.
"How are the others doing, chief?" Leon asked and his eyes danced with mischief.
"They learn;'
Kris pulled at Leon's sleeve, to get him to listen to her whisper. "Floss is terrified that the Maasai will do something… down there;' and she pointed to the correct spot.
Leon covered a burst of laughter. "I imagine she would be. Don't worry. Hassan made it plain that the females must return in the same physical condition in which they arrived. He also said that Chief Materu is one of the more modern leaders."
Kris let her breath out with a whoosh.
"Don't reassure her, though," Leon went on. "Being real scared is effective conditioning as negative conditioning. Dorothy and I did discuss an aversion state, like intense fear, to be used to cancel out a lesser, unpleasant state… like choosing to be cooperative if you're angry. If there is something that does terrify that hard-boiled little minx, let's let it stand. Right?"
"Right."
LEON GAVE THE BOYS A THIRD INJECTION. He measured out tablets, which he put in a jar for Parmitoro to give the boys orally during the next ten days. Then the two medical men shook hands.
By common consent the three retired to Baby to sleep for the Botanic night wasn't even half over when the boys began to improve. In the morning, when Leon had gone over to check on his patients, Kris heard an odd noise, small but definitely not a regular sound.
She caught Zainal's attention and pointed to the passageway. Two of the Diplomatic Corp girls, and one of them was Floss, were attempting to squeeze into one of the storage compartments. It was the opening of the panel that Kris had heard.
Zainal had no sooner made it to the doorway with Floss under one arm-and Kris behind him with an arm lock on the other, younger girl than four Maasai women arrived.
"If you behave, Floss;' Kris said sternly as the Maasai women took firm charge of the would-be stowaways, "you'll come back in the same physical condition you arrived here. But if you continue to misbehave… well," and Kris spread her hands wide to indicate the outcome would be out of her control.
Floss turned dead white under the tan she was acquiring. Then she gathered herself up to snarl back and, before she could utter a word, she was pinched so painfully by the headwoman that whatever invective she had been about to spit out at Kris was lost in her yelp. Zainal drew Kris back in the ship. He was grinning.
"Doesn't like you, does she?"