A healer carried a yellow-skinned man. Fa paled! “Ba! O!”

He looked at him as the healer’s holo put him on a leiwege and bent it. Pas took his hand. “My son, I am Pas—”

“Pas! O, heal me quickly before he comes back!” The poor man had a white gown to his feet and twin-toed socks and scars between silver curls.

Fa waved up a bowl of ea fae and smoothed it over his arms. Lots of cuts and bruises healed.

I waved off his socks and worked on his right root. Farley did his left.

Rose put some on his right arm. Jo held a handful of the white foam near his head but didn’t seem to know where to put any. For her, every small thing has to be perfect. Karl just watched.

Pas saw his points and grimaced. I’d seen that in Rainbow. A healer tries to heal someone, and he’s too scared to let him see anything. He pulled Jo’s hand over and guided her to smooth the ea fae on his hair. Then, she did it on her own. Pas also helped Karl that way and put him at Uncle’s feet.

But, I watched Molly a lot when she was in our building. I asked her once what her secret was.

‘Oh, I just get on their Outer Circles with my gentlest touch, and wait. Slavers plow right in. I wait, and when they hear how eager I am to heal ‘em, they let me in. A little. I have to be very patient, because slavers aren’t.’ Her green eyes had that sparkle. That kind of enthusiasm is contagious. Wish I had some!

So, I took his hand. “Ba, Pas wants to heal you. He is kind.” I spoke Elshar, but very gently. Elshar is a harsh language with a lot of guttural sounds. It’s all verbs and very little of anything else, so they supplement with Zheien words to describe things. Zheien is mostly syllables. Healers warned me not to use my telepathy with injured people, because you can destroy what’s left. So, I just pictured myself singing comfort.

“Must I let him? Are you my master?” Farley’s uncle shivered. “Where is the work, Master?” He looked at me.

I waved a blanket on him, since we put ea fae everyplace we could. “Bae, you must rest. I think you are weary. You did good work today, and now is time to rest.”

“Master, I nae worked. I slept, and Ba could nae wake me, so he left me in the sleeping chamber. You did nae know, so I must tell you.” He shivered harder.

“Bae, I got you from a bad slaver. If you could nae wake, you were unwell, and one who is unwell must have healing. Wish you for Pas to heal you?”

His blue eyes turned dark. “You will make him give me terminals, because I disobeyed.”

“Bae, I will nae punish you. I wish Pas to heal you, and he wishes to heal you. Will you let him? He does nae wish to put terminals in you, and I will nae make him. You told me the truth, and I wish to reward you with gentle healing, from Pas.” I pulled Pas’ fingers onto Bae’s forehead.

His hand moved over Pas’. “Please, heal me. I will take Pas’ punishment, Master.” His blue eyes watched me, not Pas.

“Oh, I will nae punish him. You are good, and earned healing. Fear nae, Bae. Let Pas heal you. Go ahead, Pas. I will nae punish you.” I smiled.

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Pas very gently moved his fingercorners to the right places across Bae’s forehead without letting his hand slip off his.

At first, Bae trembled harder. But, he looked up. “You wish Pas to heal me? You nae try to hear secret?”

I lifted his other hand to my forehead. “Bae, I married Farley. I love Farley. You are his uncle, so I love you, too.” My voice broke. “I will nae invade your mind. We love you, and we will take you home.”

“Home.” He trembled.

Pas rubbed his forehead. “Home is safe now. We will go to Rainbow Elshar Zheiea and stay there for a time. There are many healers to watch. Slavers can ne come.”

He lifted his head, so Pas sat him up a bit and held him up, and supported his head, so he could look around without effort. “He will nae find me?”

“Ne, my son. He is with Ih Esta.”

Suddenly, he hugged Pas. “I feel clicking. Engines. But there is nae pain. I nae feel nesfa. May I speak to Kon?” His voice broke.

“Ea. Speak to him, while I see you, my son. Here is safe.”

His blue eyes wavered between light and dark. I only saw that on very panicked Zheien! “Ba, is safe? We safe?”

“Eae, we are safe! Esta Faho moved to a new world, Elshar Zheiea, and we are a prov with King Challet. Nitomahan has more well. All of our people are safe, if we can believe.”

They hugged. “O, will you stay, will you stay by me?”

“Eae! I will stay, and sleep by you, Ba! I missed you so!” Both of ‘em cried.

Farley hugged ‘em, too.

Pas checked his points three times, then sang him to sleep. Gave him crushed nesfa, after he laid him in the leiwege. “Ne fear, my son. Sleep long. You lie in healing. We go home. When you wake, look for those in white robes and ne rise without help, for a few wakings. Sleep now and we speak later.” Now those scars on his head and other places were gone, and his silver hair laid straight. Fa stroked it and his tears left yellow sparkles in it.

Then he comforted Fa. But, there were a few others, so Fa went to one of his friends who already had healing and slept, and gave him a massage with the ea fae.

The girls went to someone else. Daddy sat by a teen who woke up scared and held his hand. I went to a young girl who stared. Women—Zheien women, especially—usually don’t survive in a mine.

But, when I put a little ea fae on her hand, she looked at my hand. I kept on.

After a while, I put some on her face. She smiled, just a bit, but a nervous smile. I talked to her about going home, how it’s safe there.

Farley talked about Biehshah security.

Then, Pas asked me to help him write progs for them. Uncle needed a prog to give him nesfa every time he woke up, in case healers didn’t notice. So, a routine to ask for his healer, first, and if Pas wasn’t around, or Konomai, then it would give it automatically.

Konomai was with another man and they had the memory-sharing stare.

So Elsie and I got a lot of practice writing simple, easy healer’s progs.

It got harder. We helped everyone who seemed to be from Esta Faho, but Fa recognized someone sitting with a Thordes DS Team. They all moved to our group. He gave Fa a hug and went back to sleep, and he was fine with his Team holding him. He needed epilepsy progs, which Pas taught me to write.

Farley recognized another friend from Esta Faho. It went like that. We found ‘em all over the ship. Sometimes, with a DS Team. But some just hid. It’s a saucer. There’s no cargo boxes to hide behind. A lot of scared slaves get gray skin, just from fright. So it makes it harder to recognize a Zheien who’s sick enough to be gray.

But, we had progs that compared something a lot more complex than DNA to identify Zheien. These poor fellas were crouched over their knees under blankets, thinking we couldn’t see ‘em. Pas warned us to be careful. If we scare them, they can die.