Wandering Warrior: Judge - Chapter 30 (Patreon)

Chapter 30

“Describe to me, in exacting detail, what this ‘twisting disease’ does to people.”  It had nearly come to blows, but I finally had everyone calm enough to answer questions.  Honestly, it was like they had no faith in my abilities as a healer.  Once I explained that I could heal more than injuries, they had stopped arguing with me.  “I need to know everything I can before we go in there.”

Murphy cleared his throat before stepping forward a bit to speak.  “It usually starts with a fever, their head hurts, and they get really weak.  It’s just like a bunch of other things, which is why it can sneak up on people before they know how bad it is.”  He grimaced, obviously dealing with some kind of memory from his past.  I knew exactly how he felt.  I motioned for him to continue.  ”They start throwing up, and then their neck gets stiff.  That’s the first real sign people know to look out for.”  He tapped at his legs.  “Eventually, if they keep breathing, their legs get all twisted up and they can’t walk anymore.”

One of the benefits of increasing my stats was how it changed my brain–an advantage I didn’t have when I was on my first world.  Most of the time my past was pretty hazy, but when I concentrated I could pull up information about some things, like when I remembered garlic was a natural antifungal.  Running through the most likely suspects, it sounded like a form of polio.  That meant it was viral, which was bad.  Bacterial infections were easy for my healing to fix.  Viruses were a little more finicky.  I could heal the symptoms easily enough, but stopping it before then wasn’t.  ‘Vaccine’ wasn’t a function of what I could do.  I looked back up at Murphy.

“Tell me, does it hit children the hardest?”  I waited for his nod to confirm what I was thinking.  “Okay, do any of you know what the Healer’s Guild normally does to treat it?”

Cross and Leedy shared a glance before looking down at their feet.  Jess laid a hand on Murphy’s back before she finally answered me.  “The Healer’s Guild usually hires the Hunter’s Guild to enforce a quarantine anywhere it pops up.  The Hunter’s Guild sends Wardens to keep people from entering, even if they are willing to take the risk.”

Murphy squared his shoulders and brushed off Jess.  “That’s the real reason why I joined the Wardens.  One Warden was asleep on the job and let my mother into the village.  She wanted to get back to my brother and me.”  His fists shook as he glanced at the closed gates.  “She was safe, visiting her sister on the coast.  She didn’t care though, and came rushing right back the moment she heard.”  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “I lost my brother first, then her.  Both of them just… stopped breathing in their sleep.  I… I never got sick.  After that, I swore to myself I would join the Wardens, and make sure something like that never happened again.  If the Warden keeping people out had done his job, I wouldn’t have lost both of them.”

“I’m sorry you went through that.  And you are absolutely right, no one should go in there if it’s what I know as polio.”  I took off my pack and handed it over to him, along with my weapons.  Stripping out of my armor took a little longer, and I put everything except my shield bracelet and one healing potion in a pile at his feet.  I only had a loose shirt and pants on.  Even my boots went in the pile.  Since I was going to burn my clothes when I got out, I wanted to keep my losses to a minimum.  “I’m going to go in there and see if I can help.  You four set up camp somewhere upwind.  I can’t remember if polio is airborne or not, but chances are it is.  I do know for sure it usually comes from drinking dirty water, so I will check their well first.  To be safe, only drink water we brought with us.  It could be in the streams nearby.”

All of them looked at one another in surprise.  “You know what causes the twisting disease?”  Jess grabbed my hands.  “Do you understand how big this is?  How many people can be saved?”

“I’ll be sure to write down what I know about diseases, where they come from, and how to treat them when things get more settled down.”  That had been something I had done at every world I had visited once my Mind stat had hit the low twenties, in world nine.  Not everyone had believed me about washing hands and avoiding poop, but at least I tried.  “For now, I need to see what I can do for this village.”  I turned and headed to the gate, where the young woman was still standing.  “Oh, and one more thing.  Fill every pot we have with water, and start boiling it.  I’m going to need it when I come out.”

They looked confused, but I had faith they would listen to me.  As I got closer, the girl started visibly freaking out.  She tried motioning me away, so I waved like a happy idiot right back at her.  Giving up, she hopped down out of sight.  A few moments later, just as I was close enough to push open the gate, a different person poked their head up over the wall.

“Ho there, stranger!  What do you think you’re doing?”  The speaker was an older woman, looking well into her sixties with white hair and a stooped back.  “Didn’t you see the sign?”

“I did, but as it happens I’m a healer.  I’d like to help.”  I held out my hands to show I wasn’t holding a weapon.  “If you let me inside, I could do some good.”

“We don’t need any help.  It’s the twisting disease.  Once it runs its course, we’ll be fine.”  The old woman waved me away.  “Now git, before you mess around and find out how sick the twisting disease makes you.”

I crouched before leaping upwards and catching the top of the wall.  The spiked wood was roughly cut, and if my skin wasn’t toughened I would have had a nasty collection of splinters.  Another push-off, and I was standing on top of the tower, looking down at the hunched old woman standing next to me.  Below us, the young woman was staring up at me in shock.

“Boy, you are a special kind of stupid, aintcha?”  She shook her head at me before turning to head down the ladder.  “Thinkin’ jumpin’ around like a jackalope is gonna keep ya from gettin’ sick.  I swear, every generation is jus’ gettin’ dumber.  Pretty soon, they’ll be nothin’ but a buncha stumps-for-brains walkin’ ‘round these parts.”

From how she was acting, this woman was obviously important in the village.  I wasn’t going to get anywhere without her help, so I grabbed her and spun her around.  She had a wavy dagger in her other hand faster than I expected, understandably ready to stab the stump-for-brains that put his hands on her without permission, but I ignored it as I spit on her forehead and drew a circle through it with my other hand so fast my movements were a blur.

Before she could stab me in the face, I shoved enough energy through the connection to freeze her in place.  The shock of my dense power made her drop the blade, and I heard the woman below shout something.  Instead of worrying about whatever trouble she was brewing up, I focused on what to do with my magic.  I still wasn’t in full control of how much energy I had used, but it was thankfully far from the point of making her pop like a meaty water balloon.

The first thing I did was focus on her spine, encouraging it to straighten and strengthen back into something more normal than her current hunch.  A good bit of power went to her joints, especially her swollen knuckles on both hands.  Minor injuries accumulated from a hard life lived on a dangerous frontier added up to a lot of issues, and her body took every bit of the magic I had pushed into her.  Decades of wear and tear slowly diminished, until she had nothing left for me to fix.  I pulled the small excess energy that still remained back into myself, where it settled without a problem.

She collapsed into me, and I gently laid her down on the rough planks of the tower’s floor.  I looked over the side and saw a cluster of villagers already forming, the young woman gesturing wildly as she pointed up at where I was standing.  When she realized I was looking at her, she let out a yelp and ducked behind a broad-shouldered man wearing a leather apron that screamed ‘blacksmith.’

“What did you do to Granny Crow?”  The blacksmith was holding a metal bar still hot from the forge.  “You better not have hurt her, fella!”

I looked back at where she was still recovering.  She already looked about ten years younger, and I could tell it would only be a few minutes until she was back on her feet.  “She’s fine, just recovering from my spell.  I’m a healer.  All I want to do is help.”

“You’ve got to be the worst healer in the Healer’s Guild if you came here, then.  Everybody knows you can’t do anything but wait out the twisting disease.”  The blacksmith shaded his eyes from the setting sunlight as he looked up at me.  “Now, let us talk to Granny Crow, before there’s any more ‘misunderstandings’ between us.”  His eyes flickered to the side, and I saw a man holding a crossbow trying to hide behind some stacked crates.

“Give the woman a minute to recover before you try shooting holes in people.”  I backed away from the edge, ruining any chance of catching a bolt.  Granny Crow was finally coming around, so I bent down and helped her back to her feet.  She was still unsteady, but rose to her full height, stretching her back and working her hands open and closed.  “How are you feeling?”

“Well, I’m feelin’ a mite foolish, one could say.”  She shook her head and finally focused on my face.  “You even fixed my eyes?”  Granny Crow rubbed at them before looking back at me.  “I apologize, young man.  I shoulda’ known someone strong enough to jump the wall would have more th’n a few tricks an’ such up their sleeve.”

“Granny Crow!  Are you okay?”  The blacksmith’s shout drew us back over to the edge of the tower, where the villagers could see that she was unharmed.  Hell, now she was better than unharmed.

“I’m fine, don’ get yer pants in a twist!”  Granny Crow pulled me up next to her.  “This here’s the real deal!  A healer that knows his business.”  She turned around with a spring in her step and scooped up her dagger.  “Come on, fella.  There’s folks that need ya.”

While she climbed down the ladder, I hopped down to the ground with a flick of the wrist, creating a gust of wind strong enough to let me drop to the ground gently.  The not-so-subtle display of power was calculated, and from the murmurs coming from the villagers it had worked as intended.  I was wasting energy, but I figured it was worth the cost.

“Granny Crow, what’s going on?”  The blacksmith, still serving as a human shield to the nervous young woman, came stumping up to her as she hopped off the ladder.  When she rose to her full height, the blacksmith took a quick step back, accidentally knocking the young woman into the dirt.  He glared at me for a moment before looking back at her.  “Wha-what happened to you?  He’s not wearing a healer’s uniform, or carrying their symbol.  Is he some kind of rogue wizard that cast a glamor on you?”

“What happened?”  Granny Crow danced a little jig, doing a medieval version of jazz hands blended with riverdance.  “I’m young again!  Do ya think I care one whit if he’s wearin’ the right clothes or not?”

I walked over and motioned for her to calm down.  “No, you aren’t young again.  You’re just healed.”  I gauged my recovery rate from the excessive healing I had done on her.  I could either do two or three more big healings like I did on Granny Crow, or several minor healings on people without such a large amount of chronic issues.  “Why don’t we hurry this along?  You guys can keep talking after you take me to the sick people.”  I chose to ignore his comments about me not displaying any affiliation with the Healer’s Guild.

“Oh, right.”  The blacksmith turned and saw the young woman still sitting in the dirt.  “What are you doing down there, Lilly?”  He reached down and hauled her back to her feet.  “You take this young man over to the tents, and we’ll be along shortly, after we’ve had a chance to talk about… things.”  His eyes flickered over to me before looking back at Lilly.  “Make sure you get him whatever he needs.”

“Me?”  Lilly’s voice came out more like a squeak than words.  “You could send–”

Granny Crow waved away her concerns.  “Quit bein’ such a plucked duck.  He ain’t gonna eat ya.”

Apparently, being a plucked duck was quite the insult here, because Lilly snapped her mouth shut and her cheeks went flaming red.  “Fine.”  She motioned for me to follow her.  “This way.”