Other Places 1: Shortcuts (27 page)

She didn't seem like she wanted to share the information, but after a few seconds Hiram took a deep breath and nodded.

"Holy crap. Well, I'm here for you. We can set up some trigger alarms so that if you try to use we'll be alerted. I know, it's like being an un-trusted teenager, but I've lost too many people to that garbage. We can do that now. Or, well... I should eat first. You want anything? I was about to make a food run." He glanced at Wu-Li and then Lisa. Both of whom shook their heads.

Wu-Li tilted his head at Lisa a bit however.

"Perhaps some broth? I know that you aren't hungry right now and won't be for some time, but you have to eat regularly, to rebuild what we took from you. Samsara isn't a thing to take lightly. Also, if you could get a cup of hot water?"

Nodding, Hiram took off, and the Master apothecary unloaded an envelope he was carrying onto the front counter.

"These are for you, Mr. Hartley. Master Yang suggested that we do not delay your treatment. Your energy isn't moving as it should and if it does not begin to soon, you will sicken and die. Take these herbs once every four hours. I'll also give you some energy treatments as well as exercises for you to do daily." There was a stillness to his face then, a thing that was slightly troubled. "I... do not actually know if doing this will cause your ability to walk the nodes to fade or not. If you don't, you'll die however."

There was a low growl from the surface of the glass counter in front of him, but no words came. For his part he shrugged.

"Won't know until we try, will we? I don't think doing that involves energy at all, really. I could be wrong, but it never seems to take anything out of me. If I can't do it, then I'll just get a car like everyone else." Of course it would mean being without a job, most likely, but he'd deal with that when he came to it. Being dead would
also
mean not having a job.

As if still trying to convince him to take the herbs, Wu-Li gave a long explanation of what might happen if he didn't have a normal energy flow for a long period of time. It amounted to internal organ failure on a massive scale. It didn't sound fun at all. Then, he wasn't planning to fight the guy on it.

"Right. You can show me these exercises and all that while we go to get the ingredients we need for Bob's wife. I need to eat something first, and drink that tea. If this might take my ability away we need to get right on that." It made sense to him, but Lisa looked like someone was beating her puppy in front of her. She didn't try to stop him, just tearing up a bit instead.

The food was Chinese again, and the broth seemed to be chicken from what Zack could see over the brim of the cup. Not one minute after Lisa was done with it, Hiram pushed his half eaten plate aside and took her to the back room to set those alarms up.

"Your new friend seems very efficient. Are you certain you feel up to the journeys we will need? There will be some walking involved. We can do most of it during the night here, but a few more days healing might prove advantageous to you."

Except the part where he might not be able to do anything useful in a few days. That didn't get mentioned at all. Not that fixing Bob's wife was really his business, but for some reason it felt important, like he needed to really try, even if it all failed. That could happen, he knew, but if he did nothing the woman would probably just fade away. Bob with her. They weren't friends, but when you saw a person in need, you helped them, if you could. That was what his grandparents had taught him, growing up.

For some reason it had seemed to stick too.

After he finished his tea and egg rolls, leaving over half the fried rice, he stood and hobbled slowly to the back room. It looked like it was going to be a long couple of days, but they also needed to get Lisa off to a protected retreat, as soon as possible. If Maddy had a plan in place for getting them help, she hadn't shared it with him yet. It might not come, and, if they got things done fast enough, it might not be needed.

He patted Lisa on the shoulder as he passed, feeling the bone a little too easily and got Wu-Li to hop as they went through the node toward Tibet. The shop they found was open air and so isolated that strange looking creatures and oddly dressed people walked in the cold breeze as if they did it all the time. It wasn't their end point for the day at all it seemed, since the being they spoke to, who seemed to be related to the Trolleinkein, but with a lot more hair and a shorter body, all in white, didn't have what they needed. It was going to require them to go high into the mountains and search for it.

The creature, who was a male, seemed more than willing to go along, if they could get him there. It meant borrowing some warm clothing from one of the other merchants, a rather ripe coat that was made of animal fur, two node trips with five tries for the new person to get the hopping thing right, and took hours of climbing and searching. Finally, just shifting some rocks to the side in the snow, in a patch that was melted a bit, the being found what he was looking for, which turned out to be a grapefruit sized fungus.

It generated its own heat, which was interesting. It was a bland pale yellow color and didn't have any odor that Zack could determine, though the white furred man obviously could from the deep and happy sniffing he was doing. When they got back to the market the being pulled a large and sharp looking knife, then proceeded to cut the thing into thirds, handing part of it to Wu-Li and the final chunk to Zack.

The Master bowed, and Zack tried to, which was good enough for everyone involved it seemed, since no one said anything about his poor manners. Then they returned the coat, which foul smelling or not, was warm. The air had gotten colder as they searched, which meant it was a good time to go back, as far as Zack could tell. Or at least to the next location.

Since it was the second thing that happened he was glad to find that it was in Australia. Near the middle of summer too, which meant nice and warm at their node. Toasty in fact, even with air conditioning in the rather nice office complex it was in. It was older than Westfield, at least if the warping of the physical structure could be taken into account, but it looked sparkling otherwise. The only problem was that they came out in the Vampires embassy, not the Mages.

"Why hello!" The rather perky looking brown haired woman said, smiling at them with fangs showing the whole time. "What a surprise. Can I help you with anything?"

On the surface she seemed fine, but there were subtle clues that she might be a little worried by people coming in through the node. One of those was the very large blade she suddenly had in her hand. Wu-Li bowed a little and Zack forced a still painful grin. The cold hadn't really helped his lips, which felt chapped now. He held up his little bit of yellow fungus as if showing it to her.

"Collecting medicines for a sick person, in the U.S. I'm Zack and this is Master Apothecary Wu-Li. Could you help us?"

The woman started to shake her head a little, but then let it turn to a nod.

"I might be able to after a fashion. We have an Aboriginal man here that does all that stuff, with herbs and potions, maybe you should talk to him? I can walk you over and give you an introduction, if you want?"

"Sounds perfect. What's your name?" Zack hoped he wasn't being rude, asking, but it seemed like Australia was a big enough place he'd probably end up being back at some point. Making friends couldn't hurt.

"Oh, Tamara. Ambassador here. You blokes opened a node just to get medicine for one person? You Mages then? Must be someone important even then, to go through all that trouble. Most would just have it sent air mail." She was digging for information, but Wu-Li didn't leave her hanging.

"Yes. This man is Mr. Hartley, known as the Line Walker to some? It is one of his personal skills to travel the lines without great cost."

That got the woman to seem more tense rather than less, and she hurried them out as if they might decided to take something away with them if left to examine the office too long. What that would be, he didn't know, since other than some office furniture and a large screen television they didn't seem to have a lot there. Well,
Tamara
, but if she thought they could just drag her off with them she was greatly over estimating what Zack was feeling up to.

On the good side, she knew where they were supposed to go and even helped them get a good deal on the root they needed to get, which the man in front of them had on hand and was willing to simply give them, since they were friends of hers. Zack looked at the lump in his hand and asked Wu-Li if it was really that useful. The Master smiled as Zack handed it over in exchange for what the long bodied, dark skinned older man was giving them. The fellow seemed excited, but cut off a chunk of the spongy thing and handed the rest back.

"Balance. Might I call on you if we need anything here in the future?" His words had a funny cadence to them, but Zack wrote down the number for Candles and More and tried to smile about it. Given how fair the man was being it probably wouldn't be for something as fun or easy as a trip to Disneyland when he called on him, but it might just be very important, all the same.

Then they were on to Iceland, where he parted with more of the stuff he carried, in exchange for its weight in flowers and was given a potion to rub on his skin to help the swelling from the beating go down. That was just free it seemed. After that he started to lose track of all the places they went, most of them in true fetch quest fashion, getting the one thing that someone else needed, so they could send him and Wu-Li along to someone else that would trade for what they simply had to have for the treatment Evelyn needed.

He was exhausted when Wu-Li started teaching him how to breathe. It was during a time period when they were waiting for a man to dig through a mountain of bottles, hoping to find an extract they could use.

"Breathe in through your nose, allowing your stomach to extend, then when it can go no further, tilt your head back a bit and allow your chest to fill as much as you can straightening the spine. Keep trying to inhale the whole time, until you reverse the process, when no new air is coming in, but let the air exit through your mouth and keep exhaling until nothing leaves. Do it only ten times to start with, since it will cause you great pain right now, with your ribs being broken."

He was right about that part, it hurt pretty badly. He was barely panting by the end really, but the Master watched him closely and nodded once.

"Do that at least one time per hour that you are awake. It will help you to feel energized and aid in energy flow. Now, I'm going to try and pass some energy through your body. I will have to be very gentle, since doing this might kill you, if your chi is blocked as badly as it seems."

Holding a single hand over his head he did something, which made Zack's head hurt instantly. It wasn't a stabbing pain, but it was real enough. Then everything else started to ache a bit too. After ten minutes of this or so, the man stopped, hearing a rustling from the other room, indicating the shopkeeper they were trying to do business with had returned.

He held the vial of rust colored liquid and seemed eager enough to trade with them for some of the things they'd gotten along the way, just for that purpose.

Every hour he had to stand and try to breath, no matter how much it hurt and twice more Wu-Li held his hands toward him and made pain come from his body without touching him. Finally, after dealing with a woman that seemed to think Wu-Li was
very
cute, in a place so distant you could only get there through the nodes, they got to go home. It had taken well over a day he thought, and for the most part he'd had nothing but tea the whole time, so he was a bit hungry and thirsty.

For all that he felt a little better. He still couldn't take a full breath, but it was a lot closer than it had been before.

"Very good. Now, it will take me several days to prepare this, but we have what we need. I know that I pushed things, but..."

"But you aren't sure that I'll be able to travel like this anymore, after the energy stuff starts to flow again?" It made sense in a way, he was blocked and had a power, so freeing that up might well take it away.

"That
is
what I was thinking, yes."

He stopped and did his breathing exercises again, trying to imagine inhaling energy and letting it flow through his feet as he let it out. The Master nodded, a little sadly, but didn't suggest he stop.

"If it does, it does. So far I haven't noticed anything happening, everything seems just as easy as always."

After that, saying no more than a few pleasantries, the Master took off. It wasn't until he walked past Lisa's office himself that he noticed there was someone else sitting there, instead of his boss. It wasn't Bob either. The man looked young and strong, and a lot like he did really, if in better shape. There were a stack of paper forms in front of him and he was rather efficiently going through them, filling things out and adding signatures where needed. Finally he looked up and smiled, standing as he did it.

"Zack! There you are! We've all been waiting for you. Did you get what you went looking for?" The voice was polite and slightly hopeful as the man walked around the desk and gave him a small, very careful, hug.

"Yes. I think so at least. We won't know if it works until we try, of course." Then he nodded, realizing that Maddy probably didn't tell him about her plan on purpose. Conniving politician that she was.