Year's Midnight

Rachel Neumeier

Description

A gifted psychiatrist, Daniel Dodson is perfectly aware that he's in a tough place personally following the death of his wife. Then a mysterious new patient offers a welcome professional distraction.The world of swords and magic that Tenai so vividly remembers obviously can't be real. The deadly enmity and long war that left such deep emotional scars plainly symbolize something else. But perhaps Daniel can use the signposts of those confabulated memories to aid Tenai in moving forward into a new life in the real world.

Sujets

• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Book View Cafe
• Date de parution: 28 septembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781611389791
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Year’s Midnight
Death’s Lady #1

Rachel Neumeier

www.bookviewcafe.com
Book View Café edition September 28, 2021 ISBN: 978-1-61138-979-1 Copyright © 2021 Rachel Neumeier
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Prelude:
-1-
-2-
-3-
-4-
-5-
-6-
-7-
Endnotes 1
Interlude:
-1-
-2-
-3-
-4-
Endnotes 2
Read a Sample of
-1-
Copyrights & Credits
Also by Rachel Neumeier
About Book View Café
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Kristi Thompson, Elaine Thompson, andespecially Kim Aippersbach for their invaluable critiques of the manuscript
Prelude:
The Year's Midnight
-1-
Tenai told Dr.Dodson, long after the event, that her first vision of her new world was oflight. Light laid over darkness: she stepped out of a cold midwinter night, andfound the starlit darkness she left behind was nothing like the shatteringconfusion of headlights and streetlamps and glaring reflections she entered.Half-blinded, surrounded by bewildering violence—the squeal of brakes, theshattering crash of one vehicle into another, shouts of alarm and anger—Tenaileft her dangerous sword Gomantang buried in the hood of a gray Ford truck,there in the middle of the intersection into which she had stepped.
In time, Daniel Dodson got the sword backfor her. The police found reasons to return it when the request made its way tothem—after all, no major crime had been committed with it, and besides, somehowno one really wanted to keep this particular sword near at hand. Daniel did notgive the sword back to Tenai right away. When he showed it to her, she smiledher narrow, secretive smile and agreed that it might be as well if he kept itfor a time.
“Gomantang was forged in the dark country,”she told him. “He is not a kindly weapon, but his song can be sweet. I wouldnot suggest you put him where your daughter can touch him, Doctor.”
“I'll leave it in my office here. But youkeep your hands off it too,” said Daniel, who by that time was comfortable withher, and Tenai smiled again and said, “I will not touch him until you give himto me, doctor; but you do not touch him, either. Yes?” And of course Danielagreed.
That was how Tenai spoke, once she decidedto speak: with a turn of phrase that struck the American ear as odd andforeign. She might actually have been foreign; no one could tell. She was adark woman: dark of hair and eyes, skin of an ambiguous shade that made it hardto mark her race on the hospital forms. She was dark of mood as well, andcapable of violence when she wished; tall enough to be intimidating—an inch orso taller than Daniel himself. She was not beautiful, but she compelledattention.

Tenai had come into Dr. Dodson's careraging with a fury so tightly contained that a casual glance might have judgedher calm. She was not calm. Daniel did not need to be told this. He knew itfrom the first moment he saw her.
He inherited her three months after herarrival at Lindenwood, from Dr. Margaret Wilson, who was moving to a researchhospital with the intention of concentrating on theory for a while. Danielcould understand that. Clinical work with real patients carried realconsequences. Even a place like Lindenwood was harder on the heart thanresearch. So many patients here would never really be well. A doctor could burnout on this work.
He had never intended to return toclinical work himself. He had expected to remain in an administration position—orpossibly accept that teaching position at Yale. Something that would give himtime to write. But here he was.
“Jane can be violent,” Maggie warned him.At that time, they did not know her name. She was on the hospital records asJane Doe IV. “Be careful of her, Daniel.”
“But you have her out on the low-securityward.” Daniel let a questioning note enter his voice.
“She’s easier to handle down here.” Maggiegrinned, a warm, good-humored grin that showed in her eyes. “You'll find out,Daniel. We tried her on Anafranil. Bad call: it kicked her into a more violentmode instead of settling her down. We damn near lost her right then, butfortunately we all got ourselves calmed down just in time.”
“Sounds exciting.”
“Yeah, you have no idea. These days, thestaff knows how to manage her. Watch them with her. You'll do all right withher too, I expect. In fact, that's one reason I suggested Russell give you a callwhen I heard you were, um, at loose ends.”
Russell Martin was the director of thehospital. Daniel hadn't yet met him; he was out this morning and wouldn’t beback until early in the afternoon. Maggie gave Daniel a thoughtful look at oddswith her casual tone. She added, “Russell’s a good guy. He really is. Youalready know this place is one of a kind. Wallace might've had the money andthe strings to pull, but Russell's the guy who set Lindenwood up and keeps itgoing. Wallace knew what she was doing when she got him for the job. I'mtelling you, you'll get along fine.”
A very wealthy woman named Suzanne Wallacehad founded Lindenwood, endowed it, lined up a board of trustees in line withher vision, persuaded Martin to take the directorship, and set the whole thingup with the director running the board, not the other way around. Daniel knewall that. He was skeptical that any institution, even a small, privatelyfunded, one-of-a-kind institution, could live up to Maggie's sales pitch. But... he'd needed a place to go. A place to start, if not over, at least forward .Whatever else it might be, Maggie had promised—and Daniel believed—thatLindenwood was nothing like Belfountaine.
“All right,” he said.
Maggie was going on. “This particular Janewon't tolerate doctors who go off on power trips. She doesn't gladly sufferfools. She doesn't like anybody trying to control her.”
Daniel snorted, and Maggie rolled hereyes. “I know. Don’t say it. Not the best traits for an institutionalizedpatient, even here. She'll do better with you than she has with me, I hope.”
Daniel clicked his tongue reprovingly. “Maggie,have you been bullying the patients again?”
She laughed and shook her head. “You'vebeen working with mutism, I mean. If you can get her talking, she might be allright. If you can’t, she’ll likely be out at the end of June. Six months for acharity patient, that’s the rule, which is a damn sight more generous than most;you don’t have to tell me that. But put this one out on the street and she’llprobably assault somebody, kill somebody, who knows. If she goes to prison,she’ll kill somebody for sure . There’s no way this woman could take thepressure in a place like that. She’d sink like a stone.” She made an eloquentgesture, Down she’ll go .
Obviously she thought this Jane Doe wasworth saving, if they could do it. “Elective, you think?”
Maggie shrugged. “Yeah, my guess is,there's nothing organic wrong with her. I think it's all history. And a gooddose of pure cussedness. She talked for the first couple days, just notEnglish. Not Spanish, either. Nobody could figure out what lingo she wasslinging. Then she shut up like a clam. Not one word since. She’s a realmystery. You’re good with the weird ones. Wait till you read her admissionshistory. Serious nuttiness. You’ll love it.”
“Sounds exciting.” Daniel honestly wasgetting intrigued by this description.
“Oh, yeah. Her whole record makes excitingreading. The police tried to trace her, figure out who she is, but no dice. Nofingerprints on file or hits from missing persons or DNA matches or whateverthey do these days. If anybody anywhere is missing this woman, they haven’tsaid so loud enough for it to make waves.”
“How’d she wind up here?”
“Oh, you know how it goes, the statehospital was full up, and everyone knows we take half a dozen charity cases ayear, whatever Russell can manage. But he does like to patch ’em up and move’em out if he can. The board gets antsy if he tries to hang onto one for morethan six months, and he likes to keep the board happy when that’s reasonable.Keeps everything purring along smoothly, he says, and he's not wrong. Plus,this time we haven’t even come up with a good diagnosis. I’ve been juggling ahandful of lame-ass guesses that don’t really fit. You can read all about it inher file, but I’d suggest you meet her first, get a feel for her, maybe you’llfigure her out better if you don’t get yourself tangled up by a bunch ofbullshit theories.”
“Maggie, you’re a fine diagnostician.”
“Yeah, you can say that now. I hope you doreach her. Three months doesn’t give you much time, but if anybody can do it,I’m betting you can. I leave it all to you,” Maggie finished, with a dramaticwave of her hand that encompassed the small office she was bequeathing toDaniel, and all that went with it: names and histories and all the variousmiseries several dozen human beings could suffer, crammed into a pair of blackfiling cabinets. “Enjoy.”
“Right,” said Daniel.
“You'll do great.” She hesitated, justenough of a pause and just awkward enough for Daniel to guess what was coming. “And... how are you ?”
“Fine, Maggie.”
“I was sorry to hear about Kathy. Moresorry than I can say.”
“Yes,” Daniel said distantly. “Thank you.I appreciated your card.” He had tensed despite himself, waiting for the pain.But that, too, seemed at the moment distant. Lindenwood, at least, held nomemories. And it was the nights that were worst, anyway.
“And Jenna? How’s she holding up?”
“She’s stopped asking when Mommy’s cominghome. This new start ... I needed it, but I think Jen needed it more.” Hedidn’t mention the nightmares, the tantrums, the tears, all the volatileflotsam and jetsam thrown up by this particular storm. All that had beentapering off anyway over the past few months. This move had helped. He thoughtit had. He said instead, “She’s bouncing back faster than I am, I think.”
“Kids are resilient. They have to be.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” Both doctors weresilent for a moment, thinking about that. Both of them saw proof every day thatall resilience had limits.
After a moment, Maggie added, “And the aftermathmust have been rough on you, too.