The Terrorists of Irustan by Louise Marley

you!” It was more statement than question.
    Zahra chuckled. “Perhaps you overestimate me.”
    “No, I don’t,” Ishi declared.
    Lili put down her sewing and smoothed her veil. Zahra sometimes suspected Lili even slept fully veiled—just in case the Prophet came for her! Lili folded her arms as she said, “It isn’t for us to question the Makers plans, Ishi. Perhaps Asa was meant to be here, sent just for us. If it were not for his—condition—he would have gone to the mines, like other men.”
    Zahra had recently treated just such a deformity as Asa’s. An infant boy, delivered at home with only an anah to help, had been brought to her with one tiny foot bent and twisted. It wasn’t so difficult to rearrange the ligaments and tendons and inject the ankle with regenerators so the tender bones of babyhood could grow straight. His own medicant had known Zahra’s work, and sent him to her. Under Nura’s guidance Zahra had tackled everything that came her way. She had learned how to use tutorials like the one she was studying now. She had never asked Asa why his own foot had been left as it was, so twisted that he was forced almost to walk on his ankle, but she was sure Lili had the right explanation, if not the right reason. There were few ways to keep an Irustani boy from the mines; disability was one that was certain.
    Ishi tapped the scroller on her reader impatiently. “These lessons are stupid,” she complained. “How is all this going to teach me to be a medicant?”
    Zahra leaned to look. Ishi’s screen was alive with strange colors and shapes, things no Irustani had seen. Beasts with stripes, with spots, with hooves, with huge ears or armored hides, marched across the page as she watched. Some lumbered, some flew, some loped with unbelievable grace, some chewed stolidly, seeming to stare back at her. “They’re beautiful,” Zahra said mildly.
    “Not as pretty as a patapat, or a puffer!” Ishi cried.
    “No, nor as scary as fithi, or hellbirds either!” Lili said. Zahra hid her smile. Lili had probably never seen either.
    Ishi flung a glance at the anah. “I don’t see why I have to learn Earth animals,” she said stoutly. “Most of them are gone, anyway! Do you think Earth children have to learn them?”
    “I’m sure they do,” Zahra said. She reached to cup Ishi’s cheek with herpalm. “My Ishi. Be patient. They assure us that you are studying the same lessons as Earth students. You just pay special attention when you get to the math and the biology. You’re going to need them.”
    “Soon?” Ishi pressed her. Her eyes curved into long dark crescents as she smiled, and her little pointed chin dimpled. “Really soon?”
    “Soon,” Zahra promised.
    “And when I’m a medicant,” Ishi bubbled, scrolling the reader briskly through the panoply of creatures, “I’m going to learn how to fix Asa’s foot!” Lili stalked to the bed and bent over Ishi’s reader to press a finger firmly to the keypad. “Now you go back and learn what you’re supposed to learn,” she said sternly. “No skipping. And be grateful! There are girls all over the Medah who would love to have these lessons.”
    Ishi sighed and pulled the reader away from Lili’s hand. “All right, Lili! I’ll study them. But maths next!”
    Zahra smiled behind her hand as she returned to the tutorial. She had not forgotten the pure joy of discovery, the thrill of fresh knowledge, the deep satisfaction of putting bits of intelligence together. It was possible to do a medicant’s work by rote, not even telling the medicator what to do, allowing its programs to take responsibility. Zahra had never been content with that, and she was sure Ishi wouldn’t either. Ishi’s eagerness was as refreshing as a night breeze from the reservoir.
    Just the same, Ishi would never be allowed to do all she planned; their medicines, their tools, their techniques were all such a remote distance from Earth. How long was the flight now,