Home Is...Series Vol.06 Home Is Change

6th Volume in Home Is Series.

Dovetails with Internet Sighs

Dovetails with Rainbow’s Start, Vol. 1 in Rainbow Series.

Zhea~ Year 7824

Ryonne~ travels with Emperor Ry’nao to negotiate with Dai’nos, King of Ishah and Praefate of Elshar, for healers. While there, Ryonne~ collapses of exhaustion, and Ry’nao’s choice of treatment has adverse effects. Ahstam comes to help. Patients Doug and Jen, Russ and Suma, benefit from the Yeff delegation. Laura's heart surgery saves her son W'Vie & Geor~geh, Dai’nos’ adopted son. Will trade of her Earthan surgery techniques convince King Dai’nos?

ASIN: File Size: 377 KB (Kindle Edition - July 22, 2009)

Home Is v.06: Home Is Change Kindle Edition

Excerpt. © Dannis Cole. All rights reserved.

I enjoyed supper with our new friends, as Laura complained of the slowness of aandat shipments. But, I felt Ryee’s weariness with so much hard negotiation with the King. He wished to contact his advisors on every treaty point. Even in such a short treaty, the details grew exponentially.

Suddenly, Ket rushed in to take Laura. Geor~geh lay close to death. We could not wait for the aandats!

We entered a room where healers wrapped him in special garments to provide warmth but leave his chest open for the surgery.

Ket and Laura had decided together to combine some of the newer opening of the body Elshar healing with dissolutors and dissemblers as our scientists helped her use. He would open Geor~geh’s chest; she would place muscle grafts. They would sedate him lightly because his heart could not take much anesthetic. A healer would stand behind him to keep him unconscious and another would keep his hands on Geor~geh’s chest to block his pain. There would be enough healers to replace everyone when they felt the least fatigue, except for Laura and Ket. Many healers stood in the room to observe and learn.

Laura nodded. Ket opened his chest using telepathy. I sent energy to them. The procedure seemed to take very little time; I gave thanks that I could speed time and spare Geor~geh some strain.

I paid little attention to the surgery, lest I feel sick and distract myself from my task. I needed only to supply great amounts of healing energy to all the healers. To help myself concentrate, I focused on the young healer’s whitened face. As did all Ishah and Elshar, he had blue eyes. As did most Ishah, he had three fingers and three toes on hands and feet. Deci held his hands and pulled rhythmically at each flat finger. She thought of Earthan waltzes, and they kept him calm. His dark curls—but, he was younger than Ryee—my husband came straight from negotiations to stand in the Circle.

“Ryee, you need to go rest. We’ve got plenty of healers. Go lie down.” Laura became exhausted quickly; with extreme care, she had to guide the placement of each muscle fiber to match each nerve ending so the muscle would contract in rhythm with the others. After the first hundred, she was very tired.

“I am needed, Laura. I will rest after.” He sounded out of breath. Our eyes met, and I began to ask him to go to rest. Suddenly, our patient became most unwell.

The healer at his head lost control of Geor~geh’s consciousness; the pain became too much to sustain the balance between anesthetic and sleep trick.

“Somebody do something! His temp’s going down!” Laura shouted. Deci paled. Geor~geh’s skin turned greenish.

Ryee leapt in the healer’s place; he blocked Geor~geh’s pain in a unique manner. He reached deeply into the young man’s brain and rerouted thousands of neurons with his mind. Carefully he tracked each group of inputs, so as not to block vital functions, and he also lowered his consciousness to the level that it was. The temperature readings came back up. Ni’olmai stood beside him and helped him maintain this grueling task.

For the next hour, Ryee stood motionless and maintained his concentration. Two other healers stood with them to try to duplicate what Ryee did and relieve him. He appeared most pale. Finally, three others stood with them. I expected the five of them to replace him. They did not. They could not.

Laura finished, Ket closed, and Ryee fainted as other healers came and the nine of them took over what Ryee had done alone. Two more replaced Ni’olmai, who caught Ryee. Quickly, Laura finished checking her patient, then turned to Ryee, who lay still in Ni’olmai’s arms.

She checked his points. Sighed. “He needs to rest, and he seems to do better with you folks. Do you mind?”

“Mind? I would prefer he stay with us. Will you guide me, Laura?”

We walked quickly. Healers moved out of our way as we took one hall, and then another.

“I told you he shouldn’t’ve tried to stand in the Circle,” Laura grumbled. It was late afternoon. Our new friends did not expect us so soon, and Suma gazed at Ni’olmai, her strong husband, as he walked to the beds. I held one of my beloved’s pale, limp hands and wondered if he needed only rest.

I sighed as we walked swiftly across the room. “I asked him not, but he wished so badly to help us. I am much grateful to you, Ni’olmai, for your healing skill. Geor~geh would be meeting Riyhupur now, if not for your help; Ryee could not have done it alone.”

“He’s still gonna meet Riyhupur if we don’t get an aandat soon. I’d give him mine if I could keep it alive in the process!” Laura looked up as Ni’olmai tried to jump onto the bed as the healers did–and fell over with his friend. Suma leapt down from D’gmiash’s bed just as Na caught them; Lem appeared from nowhere to take unconscious Ryonne~. The healers laid the two men on Russ’ bed. Ni’olmai fainted! Suma climbed up to him. I stood beside my husband. His forehead was cold!

Ni’olmai’s eyes opened as she touched his face. “Did I hurt him?”

“No, Love, he’s beside you. He didn’t fall. Why did you faint? Are you sick?”

I touched her arm. “In the Circle, we give much energy. Ni’olmai is not harmed, but he needs to rest to be well.” I rested my forehead against Ryee’s arm. Oah put me up on the bed.

“Y-your knees, Dear. They pain you. Let Oah heal you, Suma.”

Ni’olmai could barely keep his eyes open, yet he worried about her. “Okay, if Oah doesn’t mind climbing up here. I want to stay with you, Ni’olmai, if you want me here.”

He lifted one arm and pulled her against him.

Doug screamed. “Father! Help me!” His arms and legs spread-eagled, and his back arched as he jerked wildly. Jen struggled to hold onto him.

Laura came to touch Doug’s head. “Don’t try to hold him still! You’ll hurt him.”

“I’m not holding him still, I’m trying to keep him from falling on the floor!”

“He won’t fall; I’ve got a containment field supporting him.” She bent over Doug and moved her hands again. “You’re really having a rough day, aren’t you, Sweetie.”

Ryee sat up, and Ni’olmai grabbed his arm to steady him. He missed the first time, but clumsily found him the second. “I must help your brother,” he sighed, and moved to crawl across.

“No, my friend. You are not rested.” Ni’olmai held onto his arm.

“I agree. Let me help him, Love, and you may watch through my eyes.” He insisted he would help us!

“NO, Buddy,” Laura complained. Ryee ignored her.

Ni’olmai put his hands out; Laura placed them on Doug’s head, and the shaking stopped. We also put our hands with his.

“F-father,” moaned Doug.

“Father is not with us. Do you recognize me, Brother?”

“I don’t know your name,” he sobbed.

Ryee spoke quickly. “Let us enter his Inner Circle, to comfort him. He cannot find comfort here; the words hide.”

As we entered D’gmiash’s personal chaos, I was vaguely aware that Ryee neared fainting. Laura, help Ryee, I begged.

Laura took her hands off Doug’s head and put them on him. He shivered. Oah put a blanket on him. Then I noticed Laura wipe moisture off his forehead. Panic nearly thrust me from Doug’s mind!

“Ryee, your body can’t handle this. You’re going to be throwing water in a minute!”

“I must help him, Laura. He is much frightened!”

Laura reasoned with him as I held weeping Doug in his Inner Circle.

Suma pulled on Ryee’s arm, and he stared at her. “Don’t make yourself sick. We all worry about Doug, but we’re all here to help him.” Laura helped Suma take him over to the space beside Doug, and they made him lie down. Jen moved to make room for him, and patted his shoulder timidly before turning back to Doug, who lay very quiet now.

Ryee stared vaguely, and his pupils were so dilated I barely saw any orange. He let them put him on the bed with no complaint.

Laura rubbed the sweat back into his face. Then he gasped deeply. I looked from his white face to hers and held his hand; his back arched and he started shaking. Violent shaking while he gasped in pain.

“Ryee, it’s okay, we’re right here. Ay’s helping Doug, so she’s nearby, but not where you can see. Okay? I’m gonna help you; maybe you’ll only throw water this once–oh, boy. This is a bad one.” She sighed, as suddenly his skin drenched with sweat. The scent of licorice filled our area.

Suma started to mop him off with a self-cooling cloth as his body relaxed; he panted. “No! He’ll get dehydrated! See what I’m doing? I’m rubbing the ammonia back into his skin so it’ll reabsorb.”

“Ammonia?” Suma helped her rub the moisture into his skin.

“Laura,” he whispered in an impossibly high-pitched voice. I ached to go to him, so I tried harder to comfort Doug. The misery afflicted him such, I do not think he kept awareness of me in Inner or Outer Circle.

“What is it, Ryee?”

“Where...are...we?” His eyes stared at Suma.

“On Ishah. Lay there and rest; I’m getting a group of healers over here, and we’ll–”

“Ay?”

“She’s helping Doug. You were helping Doug, too, but you weren’t up to it, honey. It’s okay. You’re lying on a bed in Nesh Havhana Prov on Ishah, and hey! Here comes ‘Ao and Ket to help you.”

“Our Emperor? I must rise and greet him–” His hands tensed slightly, but nothing else moved; Suma squeezed his hand, and he weakly held on to her.

“You stay put! He knows you aren’t able to sit up after throwing water, so close your eyes and lie there.” Ryee did not close his orange eyes; they stared past Suma.

“Throwing water! How did Ryee become so unwell?” The red-skinned Emperor put his hand on his diplomat’s forehead, and tears came to his eyes. My husband did not move.

“He tried to help Doug, there, and Ay and Ni’olmai are getting pretty exhausted now. They’re in his Inner Circle trying to tell him where he is.”

The Emperor touched Doug’s head, and his eyes squinted. “This one needs much healing. But, I fear, so does my dear son. He is near regen! How many times has he thrown water?”

“Only once. I don’t think he recovered completely from day before yesterday and that Imwa stuff, then George’s operation took all night–”

“Let us gather the Circle, quickly!” They put their hands on his head as his breathing became shallower. Slowly, the orange eyes shut.

They sang fervent healing. After they finished, Oah enlarged the bed: The Emperor climbed up. He very carefully pulled Ryee into his arms with the blanket around him.

“You don’t have to hold him, ‘Ao. He’s just sleeping; he’ll be fine.” Laura blinked her green eyes at him.

“He will feel my presence, and hopefully find comfort. J~oie is sleeping. In absence of family, all I can offer him is myself.” The old man held the younger man across his lap with his arms around his upper body, and leaned against the wall with a sigh.

Go to Vol.7 Home Is Unwell