I brushed the Seeker's coarse black hair out of the way, exposing the little pink line at the base of her skull. I stared at her olive tan skin and hesitated.
"Would you cut, Doc? I don't. . . I don't want to. "
"No problem, Wanda. "
I saw only his hands as he came to stand across from me. He set a little row of white cylinders on the cot next to the Seeker's shoulder. The scalpel winked in the bright light, flashing across my face.
"Hold her hair out of the way. "
I used both hands to clear her neck.
"Wish I could scrub up," Doc muttered to himself, obviously feeling underprepared.
"It's not really necessary. We have Clean. "
"I know. " He sighed. What he really wanted was the routine, the mental cleansing that the old habits had given him.
"How much room do you need?" he asked, hesitating with the point of the blade an inch from her skin.
I could feel the heat of the other bodies behind me, squeezing in to get a better view. They were careful not to touch either of us.
"Just the length of the scar. That will be enough. "
This didn't seem like enough to him. "You sure?"
"Yes. Oh, wait!"
Doc pulled back.
I realized I was doing this all backward. I was no Healer. I wasn't cut out for this. My hands were shaking. I couldn't seem to look away from the Seeker's body.
"Jared, could you get one of those tanks for me?"
"Of course. "
I heard him walk the few steps away, heard the dull, metallic clunk of the tank he chose knocking against the others.
"What now?"
"There's a circle on top of the lid. Press it in. "
I heard the low hum of the cryotank as it powered on. The men muttered and shuffled their feet, moving away from it.
"Okay, on the side there should be a switch. . . more like a dial, actually. Can you see it?"
"Yes. "
"Spin it all the way down. "
"Okay. "
"What color is the light on top of the tank?"
"It's. . . it's just turning from purple to. . . bright blue. Light blue now. "
I took a deep breath. At least the tanks were functional.
"Great. Pop the lid and wait for me. "
"How?"
"Latch under the lip. "
"Got it. " I heard the click of the latch, and then the whir of the mechanism. "It's cold!"
"That's sort of the point. "
"How does it work? What's the power source?"
I sighed. "I knew the answers when I was a Spider. I don't understand it now. Doc, you can go ahead. I'm ready. "
"Here we go," Doc whispered as he slid the blade of the scalpel deftly, almost gracefully, through the skin. Blood coursed down the side of her neck, pooling on the towel Doc had placed underneath.
"A tiny bit deeper. Just under the edge -"
"Yes, I see. " Doc was breathing fast, excited.
Silver glinted out from the red.
"That's good. Now you hold the hair. "
Doc switched places with me in a smooth, swift movement. He was good at his Calling. He would have made quite a Healer.
I didn't try to hide what I was doing from him. The movements were too minute for him to have any chance of seeing. He would not be able to do this until I explained.
I slid one fingertip carefully along the back ridge of the tiny silver creature until my finger was almost entirely inserted into the hot opening at the base of the host body's neck. I traced my way to the anterior antennae, feeling the taut lines of the bound attachments stretched tight like harp strings into the deeper recesses of her head.
I twisted my finger around the underside of the soul's body, caressing down from the first segment along the other line of attachments, as stiff and profuse as the bristles of a brush.
I felt carefully at the juncture of these tight strings, at the tiny joints, no bigger than pinheads. I stroked my way about a third of the way down. I could have counted, but that would have taken a very long time. It would be the two hundred seventeenth connection, but there was another way to find it. There it was, the little ridge that made this joint just a bit bigger-a seed pearl rather than a pinhead. It was smooth under my fingertip.
I pressed against it with gentle pressure, tenderly massaging. Kindness was always the way of the souls. Never violence.
"Relax," I breathed.
And, though the soul could not hear me, it obeyed. The harp strings loosened, went slack. I could feel the slither
as they retracted, feel the slight swelling of the body as it absorbed them. The process took no more than a few beats of my heart. I held my breath until I felt the soul undulate under my touch. Wriggling free.
I let it twist itself a little farther out, and then I curled my fingers gently around the tiny, fragile body. I lifted it, silver and gleaming, wet with blood that was quickly shed from the smooth casing, and cradled it in my hand.
It was beautiful. The soul whose name I'd never known billowed like a silver wave in my hand. . . a lovely feathered ribbon.
I couldn't hate the Seeker in this form. An almost maternal love swept through me.
"Sleep well, little one," I whispered.
I turned toward the faint hum of the cryotank, just to my left. Jared held it low and angled, so it was a simple matter for me to ease the soul into the shockingly cold air that gusted from the opening. I let it slide into the small space and then carefully relatched the lid.
I took the cryotank from Jared, easing it rather than tugging it, turning it with care until it was vertical, and then I hugged it to my chest. The outside of the tank was the same temperature as the warm room. I cradled it to my body, protective as any mother.
I looked back at the stranger on the table. Doc was already dust-ing Smooth over the sealed wound. We made a good team: one attending to the soul, the other to the body. Everyone was taken care of.
Doc looked up at me, his eyes full of exhilaration and wonder. "Amazing," he murmured. "That was incredible. "
"Good job," I whispered back.
"When do you think she'll wake up?" Doc asked.
"That depends on how much chloroform she inhaled. "
"Not much. "
"And if she's still there. We'll have to wait and see. "
Before I could ask, Jared lifted the nameless woman tenderly from the cot, rolled her face-up, and laid her on another, cleaner resting place. This tenderness did not move me. This tenderness was for the human, for Melanie. . .
Doc went with him, checking her pulse, peeking under her lids. He shone a flashlight into her unconscious eyes and watched the pupils constrict. No light reflected back to blind him. He and Jared exchanged a long glance.
"She really did it," Jared said, his voice low.
"Yes," Doc agreed.
I didn't hear Jeb sidle up next to me.
"Pretty slick, kid," he murmured.
I shrugged.
"Feeling a smidge conflicted?"
I didn't answer.
"Yeah. Me, too, hon. Me, too. "
Aaron and Brandt were talking behind me, their voices rising with excitement, answering each other's thoughts before the questions were spoken.
No conflict there.
"Wait till the others hear!"
"Think of the -"
"We should go get some -"
"Right now, I'm ready -"
"Hold up," Jeb cut Brandt off. "No soul snatching until that cryotank is safely on its way into outer space. Right, Wanda?"
"Right," I agreed in a firmer voice, hugging the tank tighter to my chest.
Brandt and Aaron exchanged sour glances.
I was going to need more allies. Jared and Jeb and Doc were only three, though certainly the most influential three here. Still, they would need support.
I knew what this meant.
It meant talking to Ian.
Others, too, of course, but Ian would have to be one of them. My heart seemed to slump lower in my chest, to curl limply in on itself. I'd done many things I had not wanted to do since joining the humans, but I couldn't remember any this sharply and pointedly painful. Even deciding to trade my life for the Seeker's-that was a huge, vast hurt, a wide field of ache, but it was almost manageable because it was so tied up in the bigger picture. Telling Ian goodbye was a razor-sharp piercing; it made the greater vision hard to see. I wished there was some way, any way, to save him from the same pain. There wasn't.
The only thing worse would be telling Jared goodbye. That one would burn and fester. Because he wouldn't feel pain. His joy would far outweigh any small regret he might feel over me.
As for Jamie, well, I wasn't planning on facing that goodbye at all.
"Wanda!" Doc's voice was sharp.
I hurried to the bed Doc was hovering over. Before I got there, I could see the tiny olive hand fisting and unfisting where it hung over the edge of the cot.
"Ah," the Seeker's familiar voice moaned from the human body. "Ah. "
The room went utterly silent. Everyone looked at me, as if I were the expert on humans.
I elbowed Doc, my hands still wrapped around the tank. "Talk to her," I whispered.
"Um. . . Hello? Can you hear me. . . miss? You're safe now. Do you understand me?"
"Ah," she groaned. Her eyes fluttered open, focused quickly on Doc's face. There was no discomfort in her expression-the No Pain would be making her feel wonderful, of course. Her eyes were onyx black. They darted around the room until she found me, and recognition was quickly followed by a scowl. She looked away, back to Doc.
"Well, it feels good to have my head back," she said in a loud, clear voice. "Thanks. "