‘I am,’ Hannah said, ripping open a little packet and pulling out a small piece of thin cloth that smelled peculiar. She rubbed a spot on Steven’s shoulder clean with the strong-smelling cloth, then snapped off the protective cap of the needle and, holding her breath, injected the fluid. ‘There,’ she said, and passed the ampoule to Hoyt who turned it over in his hands like a piece of treasure.
‘Look at that,’ he said. ‘How do you know how much to inject?’
‘I don’t,’ Hannah said. ‘I figure since these are normally administered in emergency situations, what with the built-in needle, I’d just shoot the whole works in there.’
‘How long will it take to fix him up?’
‘If it works,’ Hannah pulled the tattered blankets up to Steven’s chin, ‘he should be fine by tomorrow, maybe even tonight.’
‘And if it doesn’t?’
Hannah paused. ‘Well, it might make him sicker – I don’t think it will kill him, but I guess it could.’
Hoyt saw how difficult it was for Hannah to admit that. She could just as easily have told them that the anti-stuff was harmless. What would anyone in Eldarn know? He huddled deeper in his blankets and said, ‘Well then, that took courage, Hannah Sorenson. I’m sure he’ll be fine.’
She worried a piece of Steven’s tunic between her fingers. ‘I hope so,’ she whispered.
‘So how does this work, anyway?’
Hannah explained, ‘As far as I know, in my world these deadly creatures are milked for their venom. Then, using tiny doses, they help horses develop immunity. With that done, they isolate what they need – they’re called proteins – in the horses’ blood, and then use that to extract and mass-produce the anti-venom for people unfortunate enough to be bitten. The molecules in venom are big and slow, especially through the lymph system. With an injection following soon after a bite, the proteins in the anti-venom can usually counteract the effect of the toxin.’
‘I was with you until proteins,’ Hoyt said, smiling. ‘Remember, the medical books I read are already a thousand Twinmoons old.’
‘Uh, proteins… huge, specialised molecules.’ Hannah dug in her coat pocket. ‘That reminds me-’ She tossed him a plastic medicine bottle with a child-safety cap. ‘You need to take one of those, with food, every six hours… every two avens, give or take, until they’re all gone.’
Hoyt shook the bottle and tried to read the label. ‘What is it? More molecules extracted from horse blood?’ He laughed; it didn’t make him look any healthier. ‘And I thought medicine was more advanced in Colorado.’
‘It is,’ Hannah said, ‘and no, that’s not extracted from horse blood. Believe it or not, the molecules in that handful of magic come from mould.’
‘Mould?’
‘Good old-fashioned mould.’
‘No thanks.’ Hoyt tossed the bottle back. ‘I’ll take my chances with the querlis.’
‘You have no idea what I went through to get that,’ Hannah said sternly, ‘so you will take one, with food, every two avens, or I will drag you topside and toss your sick-and-sorry self overboard.’
‘All right, all right! I surrender,’ Hoyt wrestled with the safety cap. ‘Good rutters, how do sick people even get them out of the pissing container?’
Hannah sighed. ‘Must I do everything?’ She gave him a pill, which he examined for a moment, then began to chew.
‘Whoring lords!’ he cried, ‘it tastes like grettan shit!’
‘You’re not supposed to chew them, you dope.’ She passed him a water-skin and he tipped the liquid straight down his throat, swishing water round his mouth to get rid of the taste.
‘I hope it’s powerful medicine, Hannah, because that’s the only one of those I’ll be eating.’ He tried to squeeze the spilled water from his blankets.
Hannah looked at him like a disappointed schoolmarm. ‘In two avens’ time I’ll help you with the second dose. Christ! Men!’ She handed him a chunk of bread. ‘Now eat that.’
Footsteps sounded in the companionway followed by a knock on the cabin door. ‘Come in!’ Hoyt wheezed, ‘come in and save me from advanced medicine!’
Alen and Gilmour joined them, looking grave. No one had elected to remain behind in Pellia, despite the captain’s impassioned speech.
Hoyt sat up. ‘Where are we?’
Alen sat on the edge of Steven’s berth. Gilmour remained standing. ‘We’re about a day south of Pellia. The incoming tide helped, but we lose ground when the tide goes out and the tacks are difficult and time-consuming for a boat this size. Captain Ford is working himself to exhaustion.’
‘What did you give him?’ Alen reached for the spent ampoule.
‘Anti-venom,’ Hannah said.
‘For a biological toxin?’ Alen cocked an eyebrow. ‘Steven was attacked by a tan-bak.’
‘Gilmour said Steven had disabled the tan-bak, but left it alive,’ Hannah explained. ‘He also said the insects died when you stepped on them or crushed them. That doesn’t sound like a creature armed with a mystical toxin. I just hope the bug that bit Steven is close enough to the arachnid family we use to brew up this serum.’
Gilmour agreed. ‘While the tan-bak is a monster, Steven’s quick thinking showed us that it is a living, vulnerable monster. And, in Steven’s case, the tan-bak’s tiny emissary didn’t have a chance to burrow inside his brain, like the one that attacked Marrin.’
‘The first mate?’ Hoyt asked.
‘That’s the one – Marrin had an insect inside his head for days. I can’t begin to speculate what it was doing, maybe incubating in there, but when it saw an opportunity, or when it knew its partner had been found out, it struck.’
‘And Marrin died.’
‘Last night, I’m afraid,’ Gilmour said.
‘What are you taking?’ Alen pointed at the plastic container.
‘Mould extract.’ Hoyt leaned against the bulkhead. He was exhausted and needed to sleep. ‘It tastes like last Twinmoon’s booacore.’
‘Amoxicillin,’ Hannah said. ‘It kills bacterial infections. There’s almost nothing better in our world. And while it’s possible that Seron didn’t infect Hoyt with a bacterial infection, at least this medication won’t do any damage.’
‘How’d you get it?’ Gilmour asked.
‘My mother and I robbed a pharmacy.’
‘A what?’ Hoyt said, sitting up again.
‘A secure office where our doctors keep our strongest and most dangerous medicines – healing substances.’ Hannah put a hand on Steven’s chest. She felt the comforting rise and fall of his chest and thought of the Mexican restaurant on South Broadway near her grandfather’s store.
‘That sounds dangerous.’ Gilmour felt Hoyt’s forehead. Expecting to sense a wave of Larion power, Hoyt flinched. Gilmour said, ‘Just checking your temperature, my boy. Don’t worry.’
‘Sorry.’ Hoyt closed his eyes.
‘How’d you manage it?’ Alen asked.
‘It was a small town,’ Hannah said, using English for words that wouldn’t translate. ‘Mom and I drove by the police station; there were only two officers on duty for the night. We stole a car, my mother dropped me off near the pharmacy and then drove out to the edge of the officers’ jurisdiction, way out on the side of a mountain. It was cold, and it had snowed the night before; so the roads were a bit icy, especially that far off the main road. My mother drove her car into a ditch, crumpling the front end against a tree, so it looked like a serious accident to passers-by. Then she lit a length of cloth with her lighter-’
‘I have one of those,’ Gilmour interrupted. ‘Steven brought it back for me from Idaho Springs. Alen, remind me later to show you how it ignites-’
Hannah smiled at him and continued her story. ‘Anyway, using a lighter, my mother started the car on fire and then ran off through the snow-’
‘Thus drawing the two police officers away from town for what was probably the biggest crime any of them had investigated in fifty Twinmoons,’ Alen finished for her.
‘She wasn’t done yet,’ Hannah said. ‘You see, by fleeing through the forest, she left a trail-’