the Combes

The Combes is a small hilly hamlet off to one side — ten homesteads scattered on a hill, far from the roads, where everyone knows everyone and matters are settled by the elders, not by any office. People here live off the land and off clay dug in a dry ford, the old bed of a bygone river. The center is Ted and Hala's house, where everyone gathers; two wells, east and west, mark the poles of the village. For one season the Combes saw impossible, quickened healings — ribs knitting, clean wounds, fevers breaking — all on the eastern side of the axis. The folk called it "the blessing"; the local healer traced it to a certain thing of the old world found in the ford clay, and when that thing was taken away, the healing went back to its usual pace.