Chap. 187 The Dragonhealer

Chap. 187 The Dragon healer

“He might die, K’ndar. I’m sorry,” Salish, the weyr’s dragon healer said.

Siskin’s limp form was on her clinic’s stone table. The blue appeared to be unconscious, his breathing labored.

Going between had frozen the netting on Siskin’s skin, turning it into a powder.

The sticky netting on his riding jacket and gloves had mostly turned to powder, too, although there were spots where it had somehow survived the cold of between and was still viscous.

His hurried warning to not touch it had resulted in Salish and her assistant cutting his jacket off his back. The gloves had come away from Siskin’s body reluctantly, tearing the skin in some spots. It made all three of them cringe.

“This is some nasty, nasty shit,” Salish said, shaking her head. She turned to her assistant. “Please, and carefully! won’t you take samples of that stuff, both powder and whatever sticky you can find, and we’ll send it off to the Healer Hall,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” the man said, “and I think we should send some to Landing, too. Their lab folks will want to see this.” He turned to gather what he needed to sample.

“Excellent idea,” she said, and then turned her attention to Siskin.


Watching Salish examine his fire lizard, answering her questions, feeling guilty that he’d not unharnessed Raventh, stupefied by the unexpected emergency, feeling utterly helpless to do anything more than fear for Siskin’s life, swearing he’d NEVER do ‘exploring’ again, wait a minute, didn’t I promise that with the islands?...K’ndar’s mind was a maelstrom of emotions.

Raventh had landed in the large bowl behind the weyr, knowing where the dragon healer's clinic was. His hand still glued to Siskin’s body, K’ndar had clumsily slid off of Raventh and paused, wondering how to unharness him when his hands were glued to Siskin?


Don’t worry about me, someone will unharness me. Siskin needs the healer right away Raventh had said.


How comforting, to have Raventh in his heart and mind. How amazing was it, that this little blue creature had found room in them, too. What would I do without you, little blue?



“I’ll be honest with you, K’ndar. He’s only the second fire lizard I’ve ever treated, believe it or not. They’re tough critters. The first was an egg bound green and that was an easy fix. I honestly have no idea what Siskin is dealing with,” she said.

Tears rolled down his cheek, his worry and grief overwhelming him.

D’mitran is unharnessing me. Careth told him why. I told the dragons what happened. Many riders are coming.

She gently picked up Siskin’s uppermost foreleg. The normally warm, smooth skin felt smooshy and yet corrugated, as if someone had taken a wire brush to it. Edema, she thought, the veins running just below his skin pulsing at high speed. His system was trying to clear SOMETHING.

He whimpered, so softly that they barely heard it.

“He’s conscious?”

Surprised, Salish said, “I think so,”

“He stopped bleeding, at least. I can treat these wounds, but, these wounds, all over him...from a ‘net’, you said? For the life of me, K’ndar, these marks look like Thread score, but we haven’t had thread in what seems a lifetime. And there’s something metabolic going on. This is just a guess, but I think that netting had some sort of poison or venom in it, judging by Siskin’s condition,” she said.

“Oh, no,” he moaned, unable to think of anything better.

She looked up at him.

“By the way, you have a big gash on your face, was it from the netting?”

“I don’t think so. I caught him when he fell on top of me, one of his claws gouged my face. I didn’t think of it at the time,” he said, touching his face gingerly. Now that she mentioned it, it began to hurt.

“Given that he was in the water, then, I think YOU need to see Billek as soon as possible. I can’t imagine what nasties were in that water. WHERE exactly were you?”

“I don’t know, ma’am, I reversed the coordinates in my head and boom we were there. I’ve never even HEARD of that area, never mind the creatures that attacked him...and us,” he said.

A crowd was forming outside the clinic. They were, for the most part, silent. But a voice cried, “Let me through, that’s my brother!” and Glyena pushed her way through.

K’ndar was at a loss for words, but Salish stopped and said, “Quiet, lassie, please? I remember you, you’ve helped with thread scored dragons a time or two. Glyena, isn’t?”

“Yes’m but…,” then she shut up, stunned at the sight of Siskin’s body on the table.

“Is he..is he dead?” she said, her face screwing up.

“No, he’s not, but...”

Glyena fought her tears.

“No, he can’t die, he’s...he’s Siskin!”

K’ndar found himself almost relieved to comfort the girl, it took the pain from him for a moment.

“What happened? K’ndar, why is Siskin...”

He wanted to hug her. “”Glyena, for now, let’s just let Salish examine him, and then I’ll tell you about it later, okay?”

She nodded, gulping. “But you need to see Billek, too, your face is all gouged up,”
she said.

“I know. It’s just..”

“K’ndar. Right now, there’s not much you can do for him or me. The longer you wait to have that cut on your face checked, the more time you give bacteria to establish. You don’t want an infection, okay?”

“I know, but..”

“Leave Siskin here with me. He’s not going anywhere, not right now. In fact, if I need to, I’ll keep him sedated, just so he doesn’t wake up and think he’s still fighting. You’re a horseman, you know how that works. I’m going to take skin and blood tests, test them here as well as send them with the netting samples on to Healer and Landing,” she said.

Glyena took his arm. “Come on, K’ndar,” she said, having regained her composure, “I’ve seen these healers work, they’re very competent at their job. Let’s take you to Billek,” she said, in her best alpha mare voice.

Salish and her assistant both bit their lips to keep from laughing. Even K’ndar found his sister’s domination amusing.

She bent down to pick up his jacket.

“NO! Don’t touch it!” he yelled.

She snatched her hand back. She didn’t question why, not when K’ndar used THAT tone.

The assistant, wearing gloves, knelt to take the samples he needed. He brushed the powder into a glass container, then gingerly lifted up one of the arms.

“Yesssssssssssss”, he breathed in satisfaction, it’s still...viable? It’s still fresh. Shaff it but this stuff is sticky, and that’s AFTER between? Nasty stuff,” he said. “It even stinks. By the egg, look what it’s done to the leather,” he said.

“Can I help? I’ve helped you before, remember?” Glyena said.

The man smiled, despite his trepidation of her coming near the netting.

“Yes, please. Do NOT allow any contact, but here, you hold the tongs, okay, and I’ll scrape some of this infernal stuff into the jar. Got it?”

Glyena did as she was told, focusing intently on her work.

“Leave the jacket and gloves here, would you please, K’ndar? I want to see if the stuff continues to eat the leather. At least that is what it appears it’s doing, here, on the arms,” the assistant said.

“It saved MY skin, I’m certain,” K’ndar said, “it’s a good jacket, but it’s not worth getting hurt. It’s unwearable, for now.”

“I can fix it, K’ndar, don’t you worry. I know how to work leather,” Glyena said.

K’ndar became aware of a dozen faces peering in, watching the proceedings.

A voice came from the crowd, one he’d not heard in a very long time.

“That’d be from the smanda,” the voice said.

The onlookers gently opened a path to allow a very old, wizened man to reach the doorway.

K’ndar, recognized the Oldtimer. “Hello, N’orald, sir, I’ve not seen you in a very long time.” He didn’t say, indeed, I thought you were dead.

“Aye, R’nkar, aye, but I’m still here. Menkarth told me what your brown reported. So I made me way here. That stuff, that’d be from a smanda. I’ve not seen that sort o’ thing in seventy turns, but I knows it when I sees it. It’s slime from a smanda.”

“A ‘smanda’?”

“Least, that’s what me grandfather called it. How he knew, I don’t know. Grampa wasn’t a dragon rider.”

He shuffled into the clinic, and looked at Siskin’s silent form.

“He’s not dead?”

“No, sir,” Salish said.

He saw the jacket. Bending down, he looked closer.

“It looks like smanda spit, aye, I’ll be switched if it t’aint. I’ve only seen it once before, back when I were a Weyrling. We were out in the Far Nowhere, me and some of my classmates. We’d been there a day? Seen these smandas swimming. They spit this goo out, you see, they spit it on plants, and it turns into a net. The birds and wherries swim or fly into and they’re done for. One of the lads, I can’t remember his name anymore, his bronze went to go fishing in the water and got his feet hung up in the nets, they was everywhere. Once a beast is in their net, the stuff just gets stickier, it swells and tightens up til the poor beast is immobilized. Seems to me, yes, I remember, there’s poison in it, I think. I saw live birds, trapped, they weren’t struggling anymore, they acted as if they’d drunk too much fellis. Then the smandas, they come to eat whatever it is what got caught in the net. It takes ‘em days to eat the poor beast and it’s alive all the while. Nasty beasts, the smandas.”
He shook his head.

“Your mate, his bronze got caught? What happened to him?” Salish asked. Everyone else was silent, caught by his story.

N’orald laughed derisively.

“Aye, he were the biggest bird they’d ever caught! Must have been a celebration ‘mongst them smandas! Dinner for a lifetime! But no!!

“Their nets, strong enough for a wherry, but not a bronze dragon, hehehe! He had the netting all over his legs, but whooosh! He gave a mighty down stroke and bust out of that water, a smanda already on his leg. That one, he bit the bronze and then fell at our feet. Slimy beasts, ugly beasts. The bronze, he landed but then started feeling woozy, he said. So we all went home. That’s when we learned the spit turns to powder. That bronze, he were sick for days afterwards. The bite, it went septic just like that, the healer ended up having to cauterize it. It acted a lot like thread, except it works in water. For Pern’s sake, don’t get that powder wet, it gets sticky all over again. Nasty beasts, smandas!” he said.

He laughed, lost in his memories from almost five hundred years past.

“Ah, we were so stupid, we were, we weren’t supposed to be out nomading, so we didn’t tell no one! But Weyrlingmaster, he learned about it. We were dumbskulls! Our dragons told on us! And we were confined to quarters for rest of the training ! Extra duty? For turns, it seemed we was cleaning the latrines. The ones what didn’t go, they had life easy, easy! No tasks for them, no sir! So it took a while for the dragon healer to get to the bronze, and only because the dragon was sickly like, laying about, telling the other dragons he was ill. I think iffen my mate had taken the bronze to the healer right off, it wouldn’t have got so bad,” N’orald said.

“Do you know how the healer treated the bronze?” Salish asked, hoping.

“Uh...I do remember, the healer had no idea how to help the bronze other than treating the wound. It weren’t til later he realized there was something else, something that put the bronze off his appetite, you know. The bronze, he kept saying it was ‘busy’ inside. He was sick for a sevenday, sick as a canine. It were the bite that hurt him more than the netting. The wounds from the net, they...wait..”

He was listening to his bronze dragon.

“Menkarth says, the stuff in the net is a lot like thread but ‘inside out’. I don’t know what he means. He says it makes oh…….he hasn’t the words for it. The bronze did get better, he did. He slept and slept, he said, but he did get better,” N’orald said. “He were forever scarred for the rest of his life, and it was in a net pattern, not like typical Thread score. Made him look dangerous,” he said, laughing.

Salish wished she had more information, but the Oldtimer was...an old timer.

K’ndar felt relieved. Siskin hadn’t been bitten, he was sure of that.

The assistant, who’d been working all this time, said, “Thank you, Glyena, please put those tongs in the sink, over there, and I’ll clean them. K’ndar, I think your gloves, at least, should be burned, I wouldn’t wear them again. You’re right, this stuff is sticky as can be, I’m grateful we could get a sample,” he said.

K’ndar nodded. He had no intentions of using the gloves again.

“So, he’ll get better?” he asked Salish.

She heaved a big sigh. “K’ndar...Siskin is a tiny fire lizard, not a bronze. So. Um.” she said, wondering how to keep K’ndar from too much optimism.

But he was a dragonrider.

He saw her thoughts in her eyes.

“So,” he said, the words breaking his heart, “He still might die?”

She nodded, grief overcoming her, too. It was so hard to say these words, she thought. Sometimes I wonder why I DO this job.

A low moan broke from the audience filling the doorway. But one did not.

“He’ll make it, K’ndar, don’t you worry,” one of the crowd said, “Salish is the best, she fixed up my boy when he was scored years ago,” the man said, “even saved his eye. That were a bad one, you remember, Salish?”

Gratefully, Salish nodded, not really remembering...she’d seen so many scored dragons, but was too polite to say so. Still, she didn’t want K’ndar to expect too much from her working with a malady she knew nothing about.

“K’ndar, this is all new to me. I am grateful, sir,” she said, looking at N’orald, “for your so very helpful information. That helps me a LOT,” she said.

“My pleasure, lassie,” the Oldtimer said, and turned. The crowd respectfully opened a path for the old man to pass through.

“Now what?” K’ndar asked the healer.

“I’m going to keep Siskin here, do you mind? He won’t be alone, I’m certain Sebastian will be here alongside him, as long as he’s needed,” she said.

“Who is Sebastian?” Glyena asked.

At that moment, a large tuxedo cat leaped onto the examining table and sniffed at Siskin.

After several long moments, Sebastian sat, his tail wrapped neatly around his paws.

“THIS is Sebastian. He is the best comforter I’ve ever known. I didn’t train him. He trained US. He knows when a sick animal needs a companion. He will sit with Siskin for as long as the lizard needs him. When he leaves, I know that the beast is better. Fortunately, I’ve not had a dragon die on my watch,” she said, giving the old cat a head rub. The cat looked impassive. He was an old hand at this, his attitude said.

“Um…”, K’ndar said, knowing it was the best for Siskin. He wasn’t a healer. But he wanted the blue next to him. She knew it. She knew dragonriders better than they knew themselves.

“After all, a fire lizard IS a dragon. Just a small one,” she said, forcing a grin.

K’ndar nodded.

“Have your dragon keep in touch with him,” she said.

“He already is. He’s just sick with worry,” K’ndar said.

Not sick. Just worried. But I am in his mind. He is not thinking right now.
Raventh said, gently.

Will...do you think he might...die?

Raventh made a sound in his mind that felt like a pat on the shoulder.

I won’t let him

“Lassie, lassie!” N’orald’s voice indicated he was returning.

He shuffled back in, excitedly.


“I forgot. My memory is done! There’s poison in the smanda spit. It gets on the skin and then works its way into his innards. The longer it’s on him, the bigger the dose. But there’s a fix for it! It's vinegar!! Douse him with vinegar, it will neutralize the poison!”

The crowd scattered, everyone running for vinegar.


Siskin opened his eyes. They were whirling all colors of the rainbow, but they were MOVING, and K’ndar almost wept in relief.

The blue rolled onto his chest and tried to open his wings, but he was too weak. Groggy, his head bobbed, his nose touching the tabletop for a moment. Then he looked up, his eyes meeting K’ndar’s, and in the weakest voice he’d ever heard, gave his typical questioning ‘wheep’?

The crowd roared. K’ndar felt his already broken heart break again. He stroked the blue gently.

“It’s okay, lad, you stay here, alright?”

Salish was laughing at the success. Her table top was crowded with empty containers. More vinegar was arriving. It was all over the floor.

Glyena was beside herself with joy.

“Vinegar!! Vinegar!!” she shouted.

“Vinegar indeed! What is going on here, are you pickling the planet? What in the world are you doing with all that vinegar?” Hariko, the weyr’s beloved headwoman, came in, incensed.

Everyone laughed.

Salish sobered. She pointed a finger at K’ndar.

“You. Off to the healer. NOW.”

“Yes’m,” he said.