Dreamsnake
by Vonda N. McIntyre
Snake is a healer on post-apocalyptic Earth. Healers in those days use serpents in their healing. The genetically-modified diamondback and cobra can be drugged to produce venom to heal most conditions. The rare dreamsnake can ease a patient’s suffering, and in cases where the it will ease their passage into death.
During her proving year, Snake travels across the desert where few (any?) healers have visited. However, the tribe that summons her is fearful of snakes, knowing only of desert snakes with deadly-poisonous venom. In their ignorance, they kill her dreamsnake.
Snake feels crippled without the dreamsnake, but knows that there is already a shortage of dreamsnakes, so there is little chance of her receiving a second one. Rather than returning to the healer’s home, she embarks on a quest to find a dreamsnake.
McIntyre creates strong characters into a page-turning story. I enjoyed this one about as much, perhaps more, than her The Sun and the Moon.