James Axler – Starfall

“Simples are potions,” the man said. “Poultices. Mebbe even jolt that she uses to get her brain all frenzied up to do some of the big stuff. They carry herbs and such, too. And there’s cards.”

Ryan went through the pack, finding the things that the man recited. The potions were in ceramic containers with corks, wrapped in layers of cloth to keep them from break­ing. The poultices were in other containers and smelled strong and sour.

“Let me see those,” Mildred asked.

Ryan handed them over, then returned his attention to the pack. Phlorin rocked, slowly and steadily nearby, her attention focused totally on him. He found herbs packed in homemade wax paper, the plants and flowers pressed neatly between the pages. And he found the cards in a drawstring leather pouch.

There were sixty or seventy of them. All of them had faces and figures painted on them. The art looked original, drawn from some kind of source, but not printed out the way they used to be in the predark ages.

“Hand painted,” J.B. commented. “But there looks to be more than your regular fifty-two cards and jokers.”

“There is.” Ryan spread the cards out before him, con­templating the array of women featured on the cards. One showed a winged woman pouring from one cup to another, with a road leading up a mountain in the background. The legend at the bottom read Temperance. Another was of a woman with one hand on a wolfs head, the sun blazing high overhead. The legend on that one was Sun. The suits seemed to be broken down four ways, just like a normal deck. But the suits were moons, bowls, knives and spears. “I’ve seen something like this. When I was riding with Trader, we come upon this ville had an old woman in it who said she could tell the future with cards like these.”

“The tarot,” Mildred said. “Supposed to be a game from the Middle Ages. Maybe even further back than I can remember. Storytellers used them to help make up stories as they went from town to town. From there, I guess some­body got the idea of making those stories more personal and started telling futures.”

“Do not be so hasty as to dismiss the power of those cards, dear lady,” Doc said. “The great and learned minds of the Totality Concept had committed prodigious amounts of capital investment into the research and development of cogitation as regards to the black arts. Some were not so sure that those tales contained only the accoutrements of Joseph Campbell’s myths.”

“Those cards are so much bullshit, Doc,” Mildred ar­gued. “Good for slumber-party excitement.”

Ryan returned the cards to the drawstring leather pouch. “What about those herbs and potions?”

“Purely homeopathic cures and aids,” Mildred said. “Some of them make sense. Like this plant.” She held up a piece of bark wrapped in wax paper. “Aloe. Helps with burns, as an antibacterial and as an insect repellent.” She fanned out the other packages in front of her. “Some of this stuff I can figure out, but there’s a lot of it I’m not sure about.”

“Can we use the things in there?” J.B. asked.

“Some. I don’t know about all.”

“Make room in the packs for them,” Ryan said. “We’ll sort it out later.” They didn’t pass up on meds when they could get them. Traveling as they did meant a lot of risk, and there were few healers along the way.

He glanced up at the man. “What’s your name?”

“Elmore. Franklin Elmore.”

“You ever heard of one of these Chosen taking over somebody else’s mind?” Ryan asked.

“No, but I’d believe it if you say it’s true. I’ve even heard those women could fly.”

“Their society consists of women only?” Doc asked. “No men have evidenced these powers?”

Elmore nodded. “From what I’ve always been told.”

“What about the men of their community?”

“There ain’t any,” Elmore answered. “Just women. A man tries to get too close to them, they chill him. Anybody who’s been up and around this territory and come across any stories of the Chosen, they’ll tell you that.”

The comment started Ryan’s mind spinning again, think­ing about the things Krysty and the woman had said to him. That explained the way she’d treated him on top of the building, not wanting to touch him. And it explained Phlorin’s statement that he’d taken Krysty’s birthright from her.