Free Healers by Laurence Dahners

smiled again, “Ah, we’ll need to check you for that.” He raised an eyebrow, “Even if you don’t got no money, you do got a couple of horses.”
    Kazy felt lightheaded as one of the men beside the horseman said, “And the girls, bossman. Them girls are purdy!”
     
    Tarc reined in his horse as it got almost nose to nose with the other man’s animal. He felt an itching between his shoulder blades where his throwing knives rested. He desperately wanted to reach back for the first of the five throws it would take to rid humanity of these men.
    Instead, remembering his promise, his ghost reached out to the haunch of the man’s horse. Glad Daussie had been doing all the work on their patient so his talent wasn’t already tired; he began to excite the molecules there.
    As the skin began to heat, the horse shied a little to the side. The man cursed at it, tugging its reins and trying to steady it. A moment later, the horse, driven to a frenzy by the burning, began bucking wildly. It spun away from the burning spot, kicking out.
    The horse knocked over one of the man’s accomplices. The other sprawled out to the side to avoid the kicking hooves. A second later, the rider flew off his mount, still cursing.
     
    Kazy’s thoughts had been the bleakest black as it seemed she was about to be captured again. It felt like her heart had stopped beating, then the highwayman’s horse suddenly went wild, kicking, flailing, bucking, and neighing. Tarc kicked his horse ahead, between the men, saying, “Come on Kazy!”
    Kazy kicked her own horse and it surged ahead. The men on the ground didn’t even reach out for her as she and Daussie rode past. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw the man who’d been thrown off the horse looked like he’d been injured. At least he must’ve had the wind knocked out of him; he lay there unmoving. The other two had risen to a knee while the two men who’d blocked the road behind them ran a few steps after them, but realized they couldn’t catch up when the Hyllises were on horseback.
    The highwayman’s horse was cantering smartly down the road ahead of Tarc.
    Kazy turned a little and asked Daussie, “What do you suppose happened to that horse?” She didn’t want to question their luck, but couldn’t understand what had suddenly driven the horse wild.
    Daussie said, “I think a wasp stung it.”
    Kazy certainly hadn’t seen a wasp, but supposed she might not have been paying close attention to such things, considering their predicament. She glanced back over a shoulder to see what the thieves were doing. One of them was jogging down the road behind them; Kazy supposed the man wanted to catch the runaway horse.
    Before they caught up to the caravan, the highwayman’s horse slowed and turned off to the side. Eventually it stopped to begin placidly cropping some grass. Tarc rode up beside it and gently took its reins. He began leading it as he rode back onto the road and after the caravan once again.
    Kazy looked back over her shoulder. She saw the thief who’d been running after them slow and stop, looking dejected. They passed through a few scattered trees, but still didn’t see the caravan ahead. Tarc slowed and looked over at Kazy and Daussie when they came up beside him. “Dauss, you feeling better yet?”
    Daussie said, “Yeah, just tired now.”
    “You up to moving over to this horse so old Blackie won’t be so overloaded?”
    “Sure.” They paused for a few minutes while Daussie got down from behind Kazy and mounted the thieves’ light brown horse. They walked the horses to the next set of trees in order to rest them, then began trotting again to go through the next wooded area.
    As they came out of the woods on the other side, they saw a couple of the caravan’s guards riding back towards them. Moments later, Jason and Wayne rode up to them. Jason looked pissed, saying, “Where the hell have you guys been? Arco got all wound up when he realized you weren’t with