Telepath by Laurence E. Dahners
“Telepath” is the fourth in a series of stories featuring the members of the Hyllis family. After a plague induced apocalypse collapsed civilization back to iron and horsepower, the Hyllises developed a genetic tendency to inherit “talents.” Eva Hyllis and her ancestors became healers because their talents let them feel inside their patients. This helps them diagnose the underlying causes of many illnesses. Having made a diagnosis, sometimes they can do something. Unfortunately, often they cannot. However, Eva’s children Tarc and Daussie have inherited telekinetic and teleportation talents. Telekinetic pressure can stop bleeding and teleportation can remove stones and arterial plaques. In this book, they realize their young cousin Kazy’s a telepath! Tarc realizes his girlfriend Lizeth’s a precog… just before she breaks up with him. Now they’re rapidly finding more and more medical conditions their talents allow them to treat. And, they discover an ancient, undisturbed medical facility which promises more equipment and knowledge. Perhaps Eva’s long held dream to teach and practice medicine full time might become possible?
Excerpt
Tarc ran up beside Daum, “He took something?”
Daum nodded, then saw the bow in Tarc’s hand. He quickly said, “Not something worth ending his life over.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the young man stagger. By the time Daum turned his eyes back onto the fleeing teenager, the stagger had turned into a sprawl. Tarc shot him before he even asked me whether the boy’d stolen anything? Tarc set down his bow and quiver, then trotted after the young man who was lying face down on the ground. Daum saw there weren’t any arrows protruding from the kid. As Daum started trotting after Tarc, he heard Lizeth call after them, “I’ll stay with the wagon.” Daum sprinted a few steps to catch up to Tarc, then said, “You didn’t shoot him? Right?” “No,” Tarc said quietly. “It turns out that spinning the fluid in the canals of someone’s ears renders them completely incapable of staying on their feet. Since the fluid doesn’t have much mass, I can do it at a long distance.” “Oh,” Daum said, once again dumbfounded by the things Tarc thought of doing with his telekinesis. And, once again, he thought with frustration, it’s something I won’t be able to do since it requires accurately reaching inside someone. He chided himself, But, at least my son’s taught me how to use my ghost to sense things at a distance—which is pretty damn useful in its own right. They’d come up on the boy. Tarc picked up something from where it lay beyond the young man’s outstretched hand. He held it out to Daum who saw it was the silver box containing the Hyllis’s best firestarter kit. Flint, steel, several precious matches and a bit of tinder. Tarc dropped to a knee beside the youngster. The young man rolled to his side. As if he had no idea, Tarc asked curiously, “What happened? You were running full tilt toward the woods when you just kind of leaned to one side and fell down.” Appearing confused and dismayed, the young man blinked up at Tarc and said, “I don’t know. I got dizzy.” “You feeling better yet?” Tarc asked, reaching out a hand. The youth said, “Yeah, the dizziness passed.” He gently shook his head, as if testing, then took Tarc’s hand for a pull back to his feet. He glanced around, his eyes momentarily catching on the firestarter kit in Daum’s hand, but quickly moving on. He said, “I saw a guy running into the woods.
