Zana's mind was churning as she stormed up the road to the shelter. How can he just decide that we're leaving? How can he assume that such a big decision is his to make without even asking my opinion! Who does he think he is, Cesar Himself? Men!
Her mind obediently flashed her the images of the men who were currently turning her life into yet another catastrophe — Galen, Voltis, Heron — and honed in on the latter. Her rage intensified. Just when I've started to make progress with Boy, this scum decides to squat in Chubla and screw up everyone's common sense! Why are people so stupid? And why do the crooks always have the law on their side?
Zorya jumped up from her chair with a look of alarm when Zana barrelled into her office. "Mothers, Mila, what happened? Aren't you feeling well? Another sunstroke? You're looking overheated, sit down please, I'll get you some wet towels—"
"I'm fine," Zana gasped, and fell into the offered chair. She suddenly felt the heat under her fur, and gratefully gulped down the glass of cold water Zorya had pushed into her hands.
"I'm not fine," she amended when she was able to take in another breath, "nothing to do with the heat, Zorya, I need your help!"
"Whatever it is, the heat isn't making it better," Zorya said pragmatically, and went to get those wet towels, which gave Zana the time to catch her breath and to begin to feel that she was being a little bit foolish and overdramatic. The feeling intensified when Zorya came back and draped a cold, wet cloth over her head and neck.
"So," she said after she had poured Zana a second glass of water and had sat down again. "What's going on? Is something with Boy? Last I checked, he was still in the infirmary..."
"No, nothing with Boy," Zana murmured. "Not directly, anyway." She sipped at her water, suddenly feeling awkward. She had always been proud not to ask for favors, back in her old life. In fact, she had hated being favored for being the child of a councillor...
... but here, she was nobody. Just the wife of the cattle doctor. Somehow, it made asking for help even worse.
"You maybe heard that the circus is in town," she said sheepishly.
"I've noticed, yes." Zorya raised a brow.
"They're selling some liquid, and claim that it's a cure-all — they officially sell it only for use on animals, but with a big nudge-and-wink." Zana turned the glass in her hands, too embarrassed to meet the Orangutan's eyes. "My husband has tried to convince the farmers and townspeople that it's a scam, but everyone has bought a bottle of the Wonder Cure, and of course nobody wants to admit they've been had."
Zorya snorted. "Of course not. People being people, I'm not surprised they're doubling down."
"This morning, we received an order from Chief Voltis," Zana said, still staring into her glass, "Kova's not allowed to speak out against the brew in public anymore. The head of the circus has obtained a gag order against him!"
"What?" Zorya sounded genuinely surprised. "That's an outrage! What was Voltis thinking?"
Zana shrugged, not willing to make excuses for the Chief of the kind Galen had made. "It was the last straw after Kova had tried everything in his power to save both animals and their owners from making a grave mistake, and... and now he's so... disgusted and disappointed and resigned that he wants to leave the district and reopen his practice up north!"
"In the Badlands?" Now Zorya sounded outright shocked. "He seriously thinks of dragging you into the wilderness over this? He can't be serious!"
Zana startled when Zorya's hand was suddenly patting her own. Looking up, she saw the Orangutan smile at her.
"Don't worry," Zorya cooed. "This is just wounded pride talking. He won't leave."
"You don't know him as well as I do," Zana said darkly, and finally put the glass back on the table. "But that's not the point. I'm not going to let a circus monkey drive my husband to distraction to the point that he's contemplating resettlement!"
"And right you are," Zorya agreed, graciously ignoring the slur.
"And I need your help for that," Zana pushed on.
Zorya cleared her throat. "My help for what, exactly? People won't take my medical advice more seriously than that of your husband — I'm not even a doctor."
"No, but you are a very-well regarded citizen of Chubla," Zana pointed out. "Maybe Chief Voltis will take your opinion more seriously than my husband's..."
"He won't, believe me." Zorya's smile was a bit pained, and Zana suddenly remembered that the Chief's former wife had gained her radical outlook on humans under Zorya's tutelage — views that had ultimately led to the dissolution of the marriage. Zorya was probably the last ape in Chubla Voltis was willing to listen to.
She suddenly felt excruciatingly stupid.
"Well, I do know a few people," Zorya said, clearly taking pity on her. "Maybe Voltis will listen to them. I'll see what I can do when I meet them next time."
"Thank you," Zana murmured. She didn't expect that 'next time' would be anytime soon, and it dawned on her how Galen had to be feeling — a nobody with no connections, no influence, and no means for making the right things happen.
Mothers, we've become normal citizens. I'd never have suspected how awful that would be.
She rose. "Thank you for hearing me out... and for the water. I, I think I'll see how Boy is doing before I go home."
"He'll be happy to see you!" Zorya gave her another of her patented smiles, and Zana refrained from arguing with her about the young human's attitude towards her. It was way more likely that they'd be back to the beginning after that terrible incident, but there was no point in wasting more of the director's precious time with idle chat.
She tried to steel herself for yet another setback, after a morning that had already had them in ample supply.
The following days were a depressing succession of chasing — gently — after an elusive Boy, talking down an ever more dejected Galen from packing up their things and loading them on their wagon to leave for the Badlands, and needling a flustered Hamez about the promised solution to exposing Heron, all to the underlying hum of worry and impatience over Zorya's promise to talk to some unrevealed Chublan dignitaries.
Zana tried to distract herself from her worries over Galen by working with Boy, and from her worries over Boy by harassing Hamez, but she found no way to distract herself from ruminating about Zorya's promise and her own foolishness for believing in it. Even if Zorya had been genuine, Zana's worries couldn't be pretty high on her list of priorities; maybe she'd not even remember to breach the subject when an opportunity finally did present itself.
Lying awake at night, Zana caught herself imagining what life in the Badlands would be like.
She was determined, though, not to slide back into the habit of hiding in her room all day; even if part of her motivation to join Galen for breakfast every morning might have been her own anxious need to check on him in case he started loading up their wagon in secret, she liked to tell herself that the greater part of it was her re-found courage to face whatever unpleasantness each day would bring. She had bested General Urko; she would not hide from an oily con-ape operating out of a circus.
" Good morning, dearest doctor," she greeted Galen as she marched through the door to the living room. She had put on a new robe, this one in a light blue that most scandalously broke with the established color scheme favored in the City, to underscore her defiance of societal expectations, and of fate in general.
Galen, who had been staring morosely into his tea, flinched a bit at the volume of her voice, but smiled when his eyes fell on her. "A good morning to you, too," he said. "You again look very pretty today."
"Thank you." Zana sat down and grabbed an apple the way a hawk would swoop down on a rabbit. "How are we going to defeat that clown today? I'm in the mood for an evisceration — metaphorically speaking, of course." She bit into her apple with a fierce crunch.
"I still have no idea," Galen sighed, "but I heartily approve of your ferocity."
Zana frowned. "You should lay off Hamez; maybe that will motivate him to finally come up with something."
Galen cleard his throat. "Speaking of whom..." He cast a meaningful glance over her shoulder.
Zana turned around to see Hamez hovering in the door. "Well, Hamez? What is it?"
The young ape shuffled into the room. "Good morning, vetya. Ah, no, I broke my fast in the kitchen," he declined Galen's offer of the chair at the far end of the table. "I was wondering if you wanted me to drive out to make the rounds to the farmers today, since it actually is, uh, the day we're making visits..."
"I don't see the need, to be quite honest." Galen slumped in his seat and reached for his tea. "Prila told me earlier that Heron plans to open up a, a 'health center' outside Chubla, to offer, and I quote, 'blessings and spiritual healing for ape and animal alike'. They intend to stay here for good." He blew on his tea, a useless gesture as the brew had to be cold by now.
"Blessings for the apes fall under religious practice and not medicine...," Hamez mused. "He's cunning, no doubt."
"He's a crook and a criminal," Zana growled, "and we're not having him here forever. Not even for another week! You have to think of something!" She stared at Hamez, who visibly shrunk under her accusing glare.
"Well, the doctor disapproved of an idea I presented to h—" he began, but stopped as loud voices sounded from the front door. Two female voices, one of them Prila's.
Zana exchanged a confused frown with Galen, but before either of them could react, an Orangutan stormed into the living room in a whirl of flaming red robes, stopping directly before Galen. Prila appeared in the doorway a moment later, upset and embarrassed. "I'm so sorry, Doctor, she just pushed me aside and—"
" Doctor Kova!" The Orangutan leaned down until she came almost nose to nose with Galen. "I didn't know you were a macaque — I never noticed the tail that you're tucking as you're preparing to scoot!"
"Wha—?" Galen pressed his body into the backrest of his chair, staring wide-eyed at the intruder, who now poked her finger into his chest.
"Don't deny it! You're planning to desert me! At the moment of my greatest need! How could you?!"
The voice, the dramatic delivery — suddenly Zana remembered their nightly visitor. Zaylissa! The Orangutan with delusions of starting a human breeding business right under her nose! How had she gotten wind of—
Zorya. Of course, one Orangutan knows another Orangutan, especially in a small town like Chubla... well, small compared to the City, anyway...
Still. This was Zorya's idea of helping her?
Galen had recovered from his surprise in the meantime. "It's the good citizens of Chubla who prefer the Wonder Elixir over my humble art, vetya Zaylissa, I'm merely taking their very, very broad hint. There isn't much of a business left for a veterinarian when his clientele prefers to treat their livestock themselves."
"But I need you," Zaylissa cried, and dramatically whirled away from him to fall into a chair that Hamez had hastily pulled out for her. "My Incan needs you! What if some other terrible sickness strikes? You cannot leave, Doctor! You have a duty here!"
"She would be my only patient," Galen said tiredly. "And unless you'd be willing to pay me what Chief Voltis is currently paying me — which accounts for my services for the whole district — I'm afraid I won't be able to make a living in Chubla. The most venerable Heron has put me out of business."
"I don't understand how a monk can support this fraud," Zaylissa moaned. "He's violating his vows! He's putting his very soul in danger!"
"Not to mention the lives of innocent humans," Zana remarked.
Zaylissa ignored her, focusing her indignation wholly on Galen. "Why aren't you doing something against Heron?"
"Believe me, I tried," Galen sighed. "But he's outmaneuvered me at every turn. I'm not even allowed to speak against him in public anymore." He handed her the scroll.
All histrionics drained from Zaylissa as she read Voltis' cease-and-desist order. When she looked up from the scroll, Zana was taken aback by the fierceness in the matron's expression.
"This is outrageous," Zaylissa said calmly. "And we can't let this stand. I promised you to support you in any way I can when you saved my human's life, doctor, and I stand by my word. Just tell me what you need."
"A miracle," Galen said with a sad chuckle. "I just have no idea what it would look like."
"Since Voltis is unwilling to deal out mundane justice, we will deal out poetic justice instead," Zaylissa declared, a hint of her usual melodramatic flair creeping back in. "This Heron needs a taste of his own medicine!"
"I agree," Galen said, "but I'm at a loss what that would look like."
"If I may...?" Hamez nervously pushed back his glasses. "You did make a suggestion a few days ago, vetes."
Galen raised his brows. "I did?"
Hamez' nose twitched frantically, making his glasses bob and slide down again. "Yes, vetes. You spoke of a doctors' duel, but dismissed it immediately, but with vetya Zaylissa's, uh, help, I know how we can, we can set up such a duel."
He turned to Zana, a goofy smile on his lips that immediately made her want to slap him. "I hope you'll find that I'm indeed worth my humble salary."
"It's not that humble," she said acidly. "So that idea of yours had better be good."
He bowed jerkily. "We'll poison vetya Zaylissa's human."
There was a moment of stunned silence as everyone stared at Hamez. Through the fog of her disbelief, it seemed to Zana that the young ape enjoyed the shocked, undivided attention of his audience.
He held their gaze for another beat, then threw up his hands. "Not, not permanently, of course."
This seemed to break the spell. Galen leaned forward in his seat. "Do you, by any chance, remember the first rule of our profession, young man?"
"M... maybe 'poisoning' was not the appropriate word," Hamez stuttered. "I merely meant something very obvious for the layape's eye which Heron wouldn't be able to remedy with one of his bottles."
"This is so out of the question!" Zana protested.
But the Orangutan matron leaned forward in her seat now, too, squinting at Hamez. "What did you have in mind, exactly?"
"You can't be serious!" Zana gasped, incredulous.
Hamez flicked her a nervous glance, before he returned his attention to Galen and Zaylissa. "There are a number of, uh, of effects one could provoke — a strong emetic, for example, or a narcotic... anything that provokes a strong reaction from the body, and, and only responds to a specific, a specific antidote."
"... can you repeat that in plain language?" Zaylissa demanded. "I'm not a doctor!"
"He means giving Incan a substance that makes her vomit," Galen supplied, "or puts her into a deep sleep that you can't rouse her from, unless you give her a special medicine that counteracts the first."
"Oh." Zaylissa sat back with a slightly stunned expression on her face.
"May I remind you that the poor girl has just given birth? And hasn't been well for... a while?" Zana caught herself in time before saying through all of her pregnancy — that was something she wasn't supposed to know. "I'm not a doctor, either, but I do remember your first rule: 'Do no harm'!"
She glared at Hamez, who prudently avoided looking in her direction; so she glared at Galen instead, who returned her gaze with an unsettlingly calculating look. "An emetic wouldn't harm her," he said.
"I fully trust your expertise, Doctor," Zaylissa crooned.
"Would, would the effect be strong enough to convince the crowd, though?" Hamez interjected, and Zana felt her fur bristle. The sedative! Of course that was the actual goal, the emetic was just a diversion!
She stood abruptly. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"
Galen rose, the thoughtful glint still in his eyes. "Prila, bring our guest some refreshments. We'll be back in a moment."
He followed Zana out of the living room and up the stairs into her bedroom. Zana made sure to close the door and keep her voice down — you couldn't really close the window with a summer screen — but that only made her hiss more vicious. "You're not taking this crazy idea seriously, are you?"
Galen sat down on her bed. "But Hamez is right — an emetic won't put her in any danger."
Zana threw her hands up. "He's not talking about an emetic! He wants to drug Incan so that she'll fall into a sleep that Heron can't wake her from! Don't tell me that's not dangerous! I know what can go wrong with that!"
"Yes, I know that you know," Galen said meaningfully.
Zana bristled. "I did it to save their lives! I was meant to kill them! If I hadn't switched injections—"
"We'd be doing it to save human lives, too," Galen interrupted her. "Many human lives. If Heron opens his 'health center', a lot of people, and a lot of humans, will come to harm."
"Humans are people, too," Zana said heatedly.
"Not before the law," Galen pointed out, "or Voltis would've cracked down on this matter a long time ago. We're on our own here, Zana, and we've both racked our brains for days now. I know of no better solution, but I'm willing to hear yours."
"I refuse to believe that this is a solution!" She sat down beside him, then let herself flop back onto the mattress. She felt incredibly tired all of a sudden. "It feels so utterly wrong to do this to the poor girl. She's been through so much already, she can't consent to it, and, and if it goes wrong, Galen... I fear what it would do to you."
Galen half turned and smiled down at her. "I'll make sure it doesn't go wrong, then."
Zana closed her eyes and shook her head. "It stays wrong. I feel dirty just talking about it."
She heard Galen sigh. "Let's go over the facts, then. Voltis says his hands are tied — he has no legal grounds to ban Heron from the district. The citizens and the farmers alike are completely under Heron's spell, and although I do think they'll wake up at some point, who knows how many of their animals will have died by then? I know the humans are your main concern, but I also think of the farmers that this will have ruined.
"And I'm not even allowed to make my case against these apes anymore; I had planned to write an article for the Herald, and invite letters to the editor, in the hopes of sparking a discussion, but that's off the table now, too. So it... well, it seems we have to fight fire with fire now. I don't like it any more than you, but I see no other way."
She didn't open her eyes. "What about your first rule of Do No Harm then?"
"The rule actually says 'do no avoidable harm, and if it is unavoidable, do the least harm possible'. It's not a Law from one of the Holy Scrolls, you know? More like a guideline."
Zana sat up with a huff. "Trust the son of a Councillor to know how to bend the rules to his liking!"
Galen exhaled heavily. "I don't like it anymore than you do. But we have to make a decision now. And frankly, to me it comes down to either meeting Heron in the, uh, 'Doctors' Duel', or to admitting defeat and leaving Chubla... and there aren't a lot of options left to where we can go. Up north it'd be, into the Badlands."
Zana buried her face in her hands. "Are you sure you'll be able to safely put her to sleep and safely wake her up again?"
There was a moment of silence, and Zana wondered if Galen was weighing the risks of the operation in his mind, or the question of whether telling a comfortable lie would be preferable to admitting a scary truth.
But when he spoke, there was no trace of uncertainty in his voice. "Yes. Yes, I'm sure."