“
Garth,
” there was a warning growl in Chatta’s voice. “Don’t start blaming yourself for this or I’ll smack you.”
I winced, then smoothed my face out, erasing the tell-tale wrinkle that always gave me away. Chatta continued to scowl in my direction, but when I remained stubbornly silent she harrumphed and went to check on Xiaolang. The only noise then was the cracking of rock, Xiaolang’s unsteady breathing, and Hayate’s low murmurs.
I’ve never been to the Bursiah Hospital, but I knew its reputation. Half the doctors there were magicians, and good ones. In theory it lay somewhere in the center of the capitol, in easy access for everyone. I had just found it, was starting to bring us up, when a wet gurgle sounded from Xiaolang’s direction. I looked over to see him spasming. Shield jumped to hold him down while Chatta tried to pour potions down his throat. That was it. I couldn’t take anymore. I put on a final burst of reckless speed, shooting us out of the earth in an explosion that reached fifty feet high.
Before the dirt had finished falling, a middle aged man with mussed hair and crumpled white robes stomped out the main doors of the hospital, the scent of potions and hospital trailing in his wake.
“What in magic’s name do you think you’re—dark magic!” He took in the injured party, the seizing Xiaolang. He leapt for Xiaolang, pure magic projecting around his hands. “Stout! Culler! Get out here, we have wounded!” hands working as he bellowed. He stopped the spasming, but then Xiaolang started coughing up blood. The doctor’s face grew grim. Two more doctors and three nurses poured out the doors, the two doctors rushing towards the first. Their magic joined in, almost strong enough for even me to see.
The nurses were trying to urge the injured party indoors but the team was having none of it. We stood there in the midday sun, watching helplessly as Xiaolang fought for his life. Not one of us was moving. A heartbeat, two heartbeats, thirty heartbeats later the doctors rocked back on their heels, magic dying out. The head doctor ran a hand through his brown hair.
Xiaolang lay unmoving.
My breath caught in my throat, denial whirling gleefully through my brain.
“We’ve got him stabilized; put him in a sleeping coma.” The doctor glanced up, saw our grief stricken faces, and snorted. “Relax, people. He’s not dead. At least, not yet. Stout, Culler, let’s get him inside. Still a lot of work to be done.”
I felt all the breath in my body whoosh out, leaving me light headed and trembling. Chatta, who had been tightly gripping my forearm, sagged against me. Poor Hazard fainted, relief allowing his own injuries to take over. This renewed the efforts of the impatient nurses, and this time the team trailed meekly after them. Shield picked up the unconscious Hazard, one of the nurses laying a hand on his brow, magic working while they strode through the doors.
I slung Chatta into my arms, ignoring her exasperated snort. It had only been half-hearted anyway. She snuggled into my chest, face turned into my neck. I held her tighter. I was pointed to a room, Aletha led to another. No one put up a fuss when Night followed at my heels. Everyone recognized what he was. Poor Hayate had to stay outside, however. A nurse led Night into a separate area to start cleaning the gashes on his hide.
Remembering, I paused long enough to warn her, “Be careful. He’s Jaunten.”
She blinked at me, a little surprised, then nodded in understanding.
Good. I strode into Chatta’s assigned room, barely making it through the door before we were swarmed with nurses. Between one blink and the next Chatta had been relocated to the bed and I shoved out the door. I glanced over my shoulder to see Chatta’s ruined clothes being shucked off. I quickly turned back around, face feeling hot.
I went in search of my missing teammates. Shield was keeping Eagle company as they set his broken arm and stitched some minor cuts. I tried to check in on Aletha but was told they were wrapping her cracked ribs. Hazard had been taken into a closed room to check for internal bleeding.
However, it was Xiaolang that I really wanted to know about. I cast about, searching for his magical signature. In this environment of magicians and active magic, it should have been difficult to pinpoint him, but Xiaolang felt so different from everyone else that I picked it up without hesitation. The soft, steady thrum of warmth and comfort and familiarity hadn’t changed. It was thready, but there. I followed it, weaving my way through the bustling hallways, only to be stopped at the door by a huge darkly colored woman wearing nurses’ pale green.
“You can’t go in there now,” she said in a voice like crunching rocks. “They have their hands full and don’t need an interruption.”
I certainly didn’t want to get in the way if they were focused on keeping my friend alive.
“All right. Can you tell me what his condition is?”
She searched my face for something, small eyes narrowed, then relaxed a bit.
“I’ll go check, Magus. Wait right here, please.”
After five minutes of nervous pacing on my part, she returned.
“Your Captain suffers from various gashes along his body, three of his ribs broke, two more cracked. One of those broken ribs punctured the left lung. He has a rather severe concussion, which is what’s causing the unconsciouness. There’s no cranial bleeding, but he will need to be monitored closely for the next couple of days to make sure there’s no brain damage and that the swelling goes down. Even with magic, the brain is a complicated organ to heal.”
All the blood drained from my face, my knees going weak. She took a step forward, placing a meaty hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Magus. We have the best team of doctors working on him. They should be done patching him up in a couple of hours or so. Then it’s just going to take a few weeks for everything to be back in proper working order. He’s a fighter. Don’t worry too much.” She squeezed my shoulder with enough force to pulverize an orange, and with a rustle of fabric, was gone.
I stared sightlessly at the operating doors, unheeding to the ebb and flow around me.
Punctured lung. Possible brain damage.
I staggered weakly backwards, sliding down the wall with a thump. I placed my head in my hands.
He’ll be fine, I told myself. Just fine. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. It’s not your fault. They’ll all be fine. Breathe in, breathe out.
“Garth?
”
Breathe in. Chatta’s just fine. It’s only a broken leg. Breathe out.
“
Garth, why are your hands clenching and unclenching like that? What’s wrong?
”
Hmm?
“
You’re going to pull out all your hair if you keep doing that, you know.
”
I looked up to see Night standing next to me, ears flicking back and forth. That’s when I realized my hands were clenched in my hair. I pulled them away, a few strands going with. Oops.
“
Does your new fascination with hair pulling have to do with recent events?
”
“I should’ve been there, Night. I should never have left everyone alone.”
Night gave a rude snort. “
Busted buckets, Garth. You went on Xiaolang’s order. You couldn’t have known.
We
couldn’t have known!
”
I knew that. I really did. It didn’t ease the guilt though.
“
There’s no talking to you in these moods.
” Night flicked his tail irritably. “
I’ll let Chatta handle you.
”
That almost sounded like a threat. Scratch that, it
was
a threat.
“Thank you, by the way,” I whispered.
“
You’re welcome. What for exactly?
”
I rolled my eyes. “For protecting them. For letting her on your back.”
Silence.
“
I love her too, Garth.
”
“I know.” I couldn’t come up with a better response than that. My head lolled against the wall. Night shifted his weigh and delicately cleared his throat. As delicately as a horse can, at least.
“Yes, Night?”
“
How is Xiaolang?
”
“Punctured lung, major concussion,” I replied to the ceiling. “They said he should be fine, but it’ll be a couple of hours before they know for sure.”
“
Ah
.” Night was silent a moment. “
Xiaolang… Xiaolang was the first one to take that Priest on. That’s why he’s injured so badly. He was literally thrown off his feet and slammed into the ground pretty hard. If it weren’t for Shad’s quick reflexes we’d be short a captain right now.
”
I shuddered imagining this.
“
He’ll be fine, Garth. He won’t end up like Elis. He’s already better off than Elis was.
”
Suddenly I felt a warm, sloppy tongue in my ear. I yelped and fell sideways, hand clasped over my ear in horror. I stared at my traitorous nreesce.
“
Enough of this pity party. Time to see if the others are finished. And someone needs to report to Guin.
”
I winced. “And I suppose with everyone else injured I get to report all of this?”
“
Normally, yes. But, I think I’d better go. You’re not an eye witness. You can’t give a full report.”
The thought hadn’t occurred to me until he mentioned it. I blew out a breath and scrubbed both hands over my face, hard.
“Right. Okay. Let’s check on everyone’s status, see if we can spring them to somewhere more comfortable. No need to stay in the hospital if they don’t have to.” And then I could come back to wait on Xiaolang.
I pushed myself off the floor. Night and I wound our way through the hallways back to Chatta’s room. They were putting the finishing touches on her cast when we arrived.
“Pretty nasty break, this was, but you should be able to walk on it in about two weeks,” the doctor said cheerfully. “I just love magic, don’t you? Just think. Without it it’d be six months at least before you could walk!” She gave Chatta’s cast a pat, then exited the room humming. Chatta rolled her eyes at me. I grinned. All was fine here at least. Minus the cast from knee to ankle wrapped around her right leg.
“Perky doctors. How’s everyone?”
“Shield is fine, only bumps and cuts that’ll heal on their own now that he’s been dosed. Shad doesn’t seem to be hurt at all, no surprise there. Aletha has cracked ribs. Not sure about Hazard. He hasn’t come out of the—”
“Correction, he has.” We glanced over to see the team standing in the doorway. They smiled wanly and filed in. Shad just grinned and gave a finger wave.
“Cracked ribs as well, no serious damage,” Hazard reported. He sat in the empty chair with a wince. “Hurts like hell.”
Aletha murmured in assent.
“Broken arm for me. Be awhile before I hold a book.” Eagle stared mournfully at his right arm.
“And I have a broken leg,” Chatta laughed. “What a collection we make.”
“How’s our C2?”
Everyone looked at me. I winced, hands gripping tightly behind my back. I told them the news, watching as their faces grew serious by varying degrees. My gaze drifted from the walls to Chatta’s bed to the floor. Why did hospitals insist on using white? It was hardly a soothing color.
Know what? Enough of this. I was starting to go crazy. “He’ll be fine, we all know he will. So in the meantime, I thought we could relocate somewhere more comfortable. No need to recuperate in the hospital when there’s no need.”
“That sounds wonderful, Garth,” Chatta said gratefully.
“I’m game,” Hazard said. Everyone else gave assent as well.
“Great. I’ll just go check with the doctors.”
“
And I’ll go report to Guin now. I’ll see you all later
.”
The doctors said we could all leave, just to report in a week or so. Once permission granted, it was time to get the next set, from my mother. I dug the mirror broach out of my pocket and tapped it. Chatta had linked the broach to a mirror standing in my parent’s living room months ago—she claimed it was to give me easy access to talk to my parents. I’d abused the privilege shamelessly since then. In between Asla, Aral, and Hayden, there was always bound to be at least one magician within hearing when I called home.
This time was no exception. I only had to wait a few seconds before there was an excited, “
Uncle Garth!”
I nearly smiled at this enthusiastic response. “Hey, Aral. I need to speak with your grandmother. Is she around?”
“
Yup, she’s in the kitchen. She’s coming.”
There was a pause, and then my mother’s concerned voice, “
Garth, you’re back home very early. Is something wrong?”
I sighed. Wrong? That was a terrible understatement from where I stood. “Unfortunately. I can’t go into details now, but practically the entire team is injured—”
She gasped in horror.
“—and it’s going to take a few weeks for them to heal. I know you’ve got a house full of people, but I can’t think of anyone else….Mom, can we house them for a week or two? They can’t stay in the hospital the entire time.”
“
Of course they’re welcome here!”
she protested indignantly.
“I wouldn’t hear of them being holed up in some inn instead. You bring them directly here, Garth. I’ll have the rooms ready for them by the time you get here. But give me some idea of what to prepare for. How badly is everyone injured?”
I tried to give her the status of my friends in an emotionless tone but my voice cracked a little when I came to Xiaolang. I had to take a deep breath, shoving my emotions back down, before I could continue. It was a mercy when I ran out of things to say.
All my mother said was,
“I see. I definitely want to the full story when you bring them here, Garth. When can I expect you?”
“In about an hour or so, I think. They’ve been released but it might take a while to actually move out. Chatta may want to go home too.”
“
I understand. Well, go on. I need to get busy here.
”
I cut the connection, took a steadying breath, and went back inside Chatta’s room.
“I’ve spoken to my mother, and she’s insisting that everyone stay at the house.”