Linnea's Arc

Chapter 7 of 14

Word spread faster than Mia ever managed. By morning the field held twice the people from before. But Mia was gone, and with her went the lines she once forced into order. No one stood in rows now. The sick pushed toward the barn door in one shoving mass. Linnea saw an old woman knocked to the mud, and no one stopped to lift her. Soraya reached the door, elbows out. "They'll crush the weak ones," they shouted over the noise. "The sickest can't fight this. They'll never reach you." A man on a stretcher lay stranded at the field's edge, his family unable to break through. Linnea's stomach turned. Mia had built the crowds, but Mia had also held them back. Now that job was Linnea's, and Linnea had no rope, no fence, no plan. They gripped a soft-leaved plant in the pot by the door, its blue and purple blossoms trembling. The pot bore small marks near its base, signs for those who moved through the world differently. Linnea thought of the woman in the mud, the man on the stretcher. Order had to protect them, not the loudest. "I need a barrier," Linnea said. "Something they'll obey." The purple panther rose from the barn's shadow. Its coat glowed with faint marks. It walked into the crowd, slow and heavy, and people fell back from its path. The winged creature lifted off the panther's back and flew low over the mass, chirping. Behind them came the strange cow with the split purple and black hide, pink spots down its flanks. It planted itself sideways across the field, a wall of muscle no one dared push past. Linnea understood. The guardians would make the line she could not. "Sickest first," Linnea called. "Those who can't stand. Send them to the panther." The panther paced a wide arc, carving a lane through the bodies. The cow held the far edge. The winged creature darted between them, nudging people gently back. Slowly the mob broke into a single file. Linnea ran to the woman in the mud and pressed a bloom to her lips. Her cough eased at once. All afternoon the lane held. The panther paced. The cow stood firm. Families carried the stretcher man through the open path, and Linnea healed him where he lay. No one fell. No one was trampled. By dusk every truly sick person had passed through the door and left well. Soraya wiped mud from their hands. "You did it. But look." They pointed past the cow. The crowd had not shrunk. It had grown. "They saw the beasts guard the line. Now they think this place is a wonder. Twice as many will come tomorrow." Linnea watched the panther settle by the door, calm again. The trampling was over. The quiet was not. Their name was safe today. Tomorrow the whole province would arrive to see the healer with magic beasts.