Vonda McIntyre - Dreamsnake

“You can’t send her away,” Ras said. “It’s just the same as selling her as a bondservant.”

“Ras, my friend,” the mayor said gently.

“Don’t try to tell me any different. I know better and so will everyone else.”

“But the benefits—”

“Do you really believe anyone would offer this poor little thing the chance to be a healer? The idea’s crazy.”

Melissa glanced quickly, surreptitiously, at Snake, her emotions as always masked, then lowered her gaze again.

“I don’t like being called a liar,” Snake said.

“Healer, Ras didn’t mean that the way it sounded. Let’s all be calm. We aren’t talking so much about reality as appearances. Appearances are very important and they’re what people believe. I have to take that into account. Don’t think it’s easy keeping this office. More than one young firebrand — and some who aren’t so young — would move me out of my home if I gave them a chance. No matter that I’ve been here twenty years. A charge of bonding—” He shook his head.

Snake watched him talk himself back toward refusal, helpless to turn him toward acceptance. Ras had known exactly what arguments would affect him most, while Snake had assumed that she would be trusted, or at the very least be given her own way. But the possible healer’s interdict against Mountainside was a future problem, made even more serious by how rare healers’ visits to the town had become in recent years.

If the mayor could risk accepting her ultimatum, Snake could not risk bringing it into force. She could not chance leaving Melissa with Ras another day, another hour; Snake had put her in too much danger. What was more, she had shown her dislike of the stablemaster, so the mayor might not believe what she said about him. Even if Melissa accused him, there was no proof. Snake searched desperately for another way to win Melissa’s freedom; she hoped she had not already ruined any chance of gaining it directly.

She spoke as calmly as she could. “I withdraw my request.”

Melissa caught her breath but did not look up again. The mayor’s expression turned to one of relief, and Ras sat back in his chair.

“On one condition,” Snake said. She paused to choose her words well, to say only what could be proven. “On one condition. When Gabriel leaves, he’s going north. Let Melissa go with him, as far as Middlepath.” Snake said nothing about Gabriel’s plans; they were his business and no one else’s. “A fine women’s teacher lives there, and she wouldn’t turn down anyone who needed her guidance.”

A small damp patch widened on the front of Melissa’s shirt, as tears fell silently on the rough material. Snake hurried on.

“Let Melissa go with Gabriel. Her training might take longer than usual because she’s so old to start. But it’s for her health and her safety. Even if Ras loves—” she almost choked on the word — “loves her too much to give her up to the healers, he won’t keep her from this.”

Ras’s ruddy complexion paled.

“Middlepath?” The mayor scowled. “We have perfectly good teachers here. Why does she need to go to Middlepath?”

“I know you value beauty,” Snake said, “but I think you also value self-control. Let Melissa learn the skills, even if she has to go elsewhere to find a teacher.“

“Do you mean to tell me this child has never been to one?”

“Of course she has!” Ras cried. “It’s a trick to get the girl out of our protection! You think you can come to a place and change everybody around to suit yourself!” Ras yelled at Snake. “Now you think people will believe anything you and that ungrateful little brat can make up about me. Everybody else is afraid of you and your slimy reptiles, but I’m not. Set one on me, go ahead, and I’ll mash it flat!” He stopped abruptly and glanced right and left as if he had forgotten where he was. He had no way to make a dramatic exit.

“You needn’t guard yourself against serpents,” Snake said.

Ignoring him, ignoring Snake, the mayor leaned toward Melissa. “Child, have you been to a women’s teacher?”

Melissa hesitated, but finally she answered. “I don’t know what that is.”

“No one would accept her,” Ras said.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Our teachers don’t refuse people. Did you take her to one or not?”

Ras stared at his knees and said nothing more.

“It’s easy enough to check.”

“No, sir.”

“No! No?” The mayor flung off the bedclothes and got up, stumbling but catching himself. He stood over Ras, a big man confronting another big man, two huge handsome creatures facing each other, one livid, one pale before the other’s rage.

“Why not?”

“She doesn’t need a teacher.”

“How dare you do such a thing!” The mayor leaned forward until Ras was pressed back in the chair away from him. “How dare you endanger her! How dare you condemn her to ignorance and discomfort!”

“She isn’t in danger! She doesn’t need to protect herself — who would ever touch her?”

“You touch me!” Melissa ran to Snake and flung herself against her. Snake hugged the child close.

“You—” The mayor straightened and stepped back. Brian, appearing silently, supported him before his leg failed him. “What does she mean, Ras? Why is she so frightened?”

Ras shook his head.

“Make him say it!” Melissa cried, facing them squarely. “Make him!”

The mayor limped to her and stooped down awkwardly. He looked Melissa directly in the face. Neither he nor she flinched.

“I know you’re frightened of him, Melissa. Why is he so frightened of you?”

“Because Mistress Snake believes me.”

The mayor drew in a long breath. “Did you want him?”

“No,” she whispered.

“Ungrateful little brat!” Ras yelled. “Spiteful ugly thing! Who else but me would ever touch her?”

The mayor ignored Ras and took Melissa’s hand in both his.

“The healer’s your guardian from now on. You’re free to go with her.”

“Thank you. Thank you, sir.”

The mayor lurched back to his feet. “Brian, find me her guardianship papers in the city records — Sit down, Ras — And Brian, I’ll want a messenger to ride into town. To the menders.”

“You slaver,” Ras growled. “So this is how you steal children. People will—”

“Shut up, Ras.” The mayor sounded exhausted far beyond his brief exertion, and he was pale. “I can’t exile you. I have a responsibility to protect other people. Other children. Your troubles are my troubles now, and they must be resolved. Will you talk to the menders?”

“I don’t need the menders.”

“Will you go voluntarily or would you prefer a trial?”

Ras lowered himself slowly back into the chair, and finally nodded. “Voluntarily,” he said.

Snake stood up, her arm around Melissa’s shoulders, Melissa with an arm around her waist and her head turned slightly so the scar was almost concealed. Together they walked away.

“Thank you, healer,” the mayor said.

“Good-bye,” Snake said, and shut the door.

She and Melissa walked through the echoing hallway to the second tower.

“I was so scared,” Melissa said.

“So was I. For a little while I thought I’d have to steal you.”

Melissa looked up. “Would you really do that?”

“Yes.”

Melissa was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“Sorry! What for?”

“I should have trusted you. I didn’t. But I will from now on. I won’t be scared any more.”

“You had a right to be scared, Melissa.”

“I’m not now. I won’t be any more. Where are we going?” For the first time since Melissa had offered to ride Squirrel, her voice held self-confidence and enthusiasm with no undertone of dread.