The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk

Author:Starhawk [Starhawk]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-47765-1
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-08-09T16:00:00+00:00

18

I am changed, Madrone thought. The bees have marked me, as surely as their scar sits on my forehead. She moved through a world that came to her now as much through instinct and smell as through sight. Even when she stayed out of the bee mind, she knew what was blossoming and who was about to become ill. She walked through zones of smells, pungent sage, new-leafed oak or sycamore, human sweat. She knew where the birds nested and where scurrying mice piled their droppings. People had their own unique fragrances; her nose told her more than her hands or eyes about the energies moving in their bodies, about their needs and lacks and imbalances, about states of arousal, anger, or fear. She often felt mildly nauseated, without appetite in spite of the meager diet. The honey that infused all they ate nourished her more fully than she would have believed possible.

The sun was hotter in spring, and no one moved much by day. Even the able-bodied spent much of their time sleeping in the shade. The flu had abated, but Baptist had woken one night crying out in agony. Madrone had gone to him to try to soothe the pain. The ammonia tinge of the air around him told her he had a blocked kidney. Her hands did the rest, shifting his energies, feeling out the obstruction, easing and stretching the tubes of the ureter so the stone could pass. By morning, he was sleeping peacefully, and she was exhausted.

“How’s Baptist?” Hijohn asked her, coming over to squat companionably beside her as she perched on a log to drink her morning’s ration of water.

I’m getting to be like a dog, Madrone thought, smelling her own adrenaline rush of irritation. Don’t interrupt me when I’m eating or drinking. But she answered him courteously.

“He’s better. I was able to strengthen his kidney ch’i, and he passed the stone. But it could happen to him again—or to any of us. We all need more water.”

“We need a lot of things.”

“Hijohn, what about some sort of rotation, between the camps with more water and this one? Like, three months on and off, even—just to get everyone good and hydrated periodically. Otherwise, over the years you’re going to get out-and-out renal failure.”

“What’s that?”

“The shutdown of the kidneys.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s so.”

“The good camps are too far away.”

“Far away from what?”

Hijohn looked up at her and smiled, his lips stretching into a challenging line. “Maybe it’s time we sent you on a raid.”

He smelled a lot like the trees, like acorns and honey, and she had a sudden urge to reach out and touch his wizened cheeks. Diosa, Madrone thought, I do find him attractive. She’d been too long without a lover, except for the bee women, and what they had done had only amplified her need for touch, skin on her skin.

“What kind of raid?”

“Pharmacy. The boys down in Hollywood thought if you went with them, you could help them identify some of the drugs.

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