For a moment Ellese was too
stunned to do anything but stare at him in dismay, then she barked
orders at the healers, who ran to obey. Bane frowned at the
spearhead, grasping it as if he intended to pull it out.
"Help me," he groaned.
"We will," Ellese pulled his
hands away, amazed to hear those words from him. "Just relax."
"Mirra..."
"Where is she?"
"Arkonen has her."
"Goddess!" Ellese blinked away
tears. "We could not stop her. When she heard you were injured, she
ran like the wind. Tallis pursued her, but she vanished."
"It was a trick," he
whispered.
"I thought as much."
Several young
healers
ran into the chapel,
carrying clean cloths and bowls of boiled water. Ellese snatched a
cloth from one and pressed it to the wound, wrapping it around the
spear shaft to try to slow the bleeding. Tallis was similarly
employed at his back, her face twisted as she shared his pain, her
hands red with the Demon Lord's blood. Ellese raised her eyes to
the Elder Mothers who had gathered, and they shook their
heads.
"We have no power, and that is a
fatal wound," a woman called Shayla stated, her mien
despairing.
"I know that."
Ellese
chewed her lip,
frowning. "We have to do something."
"He will not survive."
"If he dies, so do we all,
sisters."
"What can we do?"
Ellese's gaze flicked to the
altar. "The flame."
Several healers glanced at the
holy fire, their expressions incredulous. "We cannot, the True Fire
is too hard to control."
"In this, the hour of our
greatest need, do you think the Lady will not help us?"
"You are expecting a
miracle?"
"Perhaps I
am," Ellese said. "If she wants to save the Overworld, she
must help."
"He will die when the spear is
pulled out."
"Perhaps not, given what he
is."
Shayla frowned at Bane. "He is
filled with the dark power."
"We can do it if he is
unconscious."
As if to
oblige her, Bane
slumped.
Ellese grabbed a young healer and pulled her closer, placing her
hands on the cloth.
"Hold it. Lift him. We must get
him to the altar. The rest of you control the flame. It must not
strike him now."
Many hands took hold of Bane,
and Ellese cradled his head as they lifted him. Tallis held the
spear shaft so it did not tear the wound. The rest of the healers
bowed their heads and hummed. Bane left a trail of blood as they
carried him to the altar and laid him on the floor beside it.
"Pray, sisters," Ellese said,
pushing Tallis aside to grasp the spear shaft. "Pray as you have
never done before."
The healers sank to their knees,
clasped their hands and closed their eyes, whispering fervent
words. Ellese braced herself and glanced up at the eternal
flame.
"Help us now, Lady."
Ellese pulled, and after a
moment's reluctance, the spear slid from the wound with a wet,
glugging noise. A gush of blood followed it, lapping at the base of
the altar, and Bane's ashen skin became almost grey. Dropping the
heavy weapon with a dull clang, she rolled him onto his back and
ripped open his shirt to expose the hole in his belly. She glanced
up at the flame, willing it to respond to their need. Their last
hope of survival would die with Bane.
The healers
who prayed nearby, rocking and wringing their hands, knew it just
as well as she did. Surely the Lady would not abandon them now,
after bringing them so far along this road to redemption? It seemed
an eternity that she knelt there, joining her prayers to those of
her sisters as Bane's lifeblood flow
ed out onto the floor. It could only have been a few
minutes, however, for he did not have that long to live.
The eternal
flame brightened, filling the chapel with a soft, pearly radiance,
then flowed down from its wick and settled upon Bane's skin in a
fiery mantle. Ellese
was
amazed, despite her hope, that it had answered their prayers. Such
a thing had never happened before, and the healers fell silent,
staring in awe at the white fire.
Ellese gestured at them to
resume, and they renewed their efforts with redoubled fervour.
Taking a deep breath, she thrust her hands through the pearly fire,
laying them on Bane's skin. As far as she knew, no one had ever
used the True Fire to heal, and she was not sure how to go about
it. Despite the prayers, it slithered like quicksilver in her
grasp, defying her to use it.
"Help me, Lady," she
whispered.
A glimmer of
golden radiance formed between the white fire and Bane's skin,
soaking into her hands. She channelled it into him,
encounterin
g the dark power’s
acquiescent barrier. At first it resisted her, and she concentrated
harder.
A soft blue glimmer appeared
within the wound as the black power strived to oust her magic, then
the light slipped into him, and the bleeding slowed. She struggled
to control the fire. The flame's power was far more difficult to
use than the sun's benign light. The huge wound defied her, soaking
up power without healing, until, at last, a faint glow appeared
around it, and the torn organs healed.
With a groan, Bane woke. Ellese
recoiled as blue fire engulfed the wound, burning her hands as she
snatched them away. The Demon Lord opened his eyes and
grimaced.
Ellese turned to Tallis. "Fetch
a sleeping draught."
Bane tried to
sit up and flopped back with a grunt,
clasping the half-healed wound. Ellese held him down,
gripping his chin to make him look at her.
"Bane, you are not healed yet.
Lie still. We cannot heal you while you are awake. I have sent for
a sleeping draught."
He frowned. "If you put me to
sleep, you will all die."
"Why?"
"Arkonen will send his army to
finish me off."
"We have to complete the
healing."
"Then you had better pray I wake
up before they get here."
She nodded. "We have been doing
a lot of that lately."
Bane closed his eyes, too weak
even to object to her touch. The shadows had burnt away the sweat
that had sheened him, and made inroads into the blood too.
Ellese turned to the nearest
healer. "Go and find Martal."
The woman left as Tallis hurried
back in with a wooden cup. Ellese took it and gestured for her to
lift his head. The young healer hesitated, then obeyed, and Ellese
pressed the cup to his lips.
Tallis cradled
the Demon Lord's head in her lap, his hair spilling over her hands.
He drank slowly, coughing a little, and fresh blood oozed from his
wound.
She wondered why she
had feared him so much before. He seemed so helpless now. When he
finished the potion, Ellese set the cup aside and watched him,
clearly concerned by his pallor and rapid, shallow breaths. A
normal man would have perished from such a wound within minutes,
and Bane's hold on life was precarious at best.
Martal strode in, his boots
clacking. "So he failed!" He sounded almost triumphant, and Ellese
turned to glare at him.
"Scum-sucking Underworld..." He
trailed off when he spotted Bane. "Goddess!"
"When you have faced the Black
Lord, Martal, you can fling insults at the only one of us who can
and has," Ellese said.
"Is he alive?"
Bane opened his eyes. "You may
yet rue those insults."
Tallis found
that she was stroking Bane's
glossy hair, and snatched her hands away. His eyes
closed.
Ellese rose and faced Martal.
"The Dark Lord's army is returning. You may have to hold them off
until Bane wakes up again."
"My men are exhausted! Those who
are not dead, that is."
"We have no choice."
"No, I suppose
not." Martal
frowned at Bane.
"How long?"
"A few hours at most. As soon as
he is asleep, we can complete the healing, then we just have to
wait for him to wake up."
He glanced at
the
twisted iron spear, six
feet long and as thick as a man's wrist at its widest point. "How
the hell did someone get that into him? I thought he was
all-powerful."
"A demon," Bane muttered. "I
was... distracted."
Ellese took Martal's arm and
turned him towards chapel door. "Go and rally your men. You are
keeping him awake."
Martal left, and Ellese went to
talk to the other healers out of Bane's earshot, leaving Tallis
with him. She started to ease his head off her lap, intending to
leave him to lie on the floor.
"Do not go," he murmured. "The
floor is damned hard."
Tallis
hesitated, undecided. She hated him
for treating Mirra so cruelly, yet Mirra loved him. Now, groggy
from the sleeping draught and almost too weak to move, all he
stirred in her was pity. Certainly he was no danger to her, and she
settled his head back on her lap, resolving to treat him as a
patient.
Ellese returned and knelt beside
him. "Is he asleep yet?"
"No," Bane said.
Elder Mother smiled at Tallis.
"Maybe we should sing him a lullaby."
"What is that?" he
whispered.
"A song mothers sing to their
children to make them sleep."
"Ah. That explains why I do not
know what it is." His words were slurred and his breathing had
slowed.
Ellese placed
a hand on his chest, the powerful throb of his heart reassuring
her. The rest of the healers had gathered on the far side of the
chapel to talk or pray, and some watched Bane with a mixture of
dislike and concern. Ellese shook him gently, and then
turned to Tallis.
"I think he is asleep." She
paused. "I know you hate him, but we are making history here today,
child. By saving him, we are saving the world. He is, after all, a
god."
Tallis
frowned at Bane. "But... he is a
man."
"Yes. He is both."
Tallis raised her eyes. "How can
a man also be a god? Surely he can only be one or the other?"
"It is possible, though it is
rare."
"How do you know?"
"I witnessed the ritual Arkonen
performed before he was born, and only a god can wield the dark
power as he does."
Tallis' expression hardened. "A
pity he is an evil one."
"But he is not. He uses the dark
power, but his heart is good."
"How can you say that after what
he did to Mirra?"
Ellese sighed. "Perhaps you
would not blame him so much if you knew what was done to him in the
Underworld. Also, the dark power corrupts, and he has been using it
for four years, yet he remains pure at heart. That in itself is
remarkable."
"That does not excuse what he
did to Mirra."
"Maybe not, but he has
changed."
"I do not understand how she can
love him."
Ellese smiled.
"Well, you do not seem to be afraid of him
anymore."
Tallis realised that she was
idly stroking Bane's hair again, and snatched her hands away. "He
is asleep."
"And he is nice to touch, is he
not?" Ellese stroked his cheek. "That is because he is a god, and
also a gift of the dark power. It abhors dirt and flaws, strangely
enough, and bestows a seductive aura. He was a handsome lad before
he took it up, but it has perfected him."
"And if he gives it up?"
"I think its effects are
permanent now."
Tallis frowned
down at him
again, her hatred
weakening.
Ellese said, "He could have done
a lot of worse things to Mirra, my dear. He did not ravish her, nor
did he allow his men to."
"He allowed them to do it to a
lot of other women."
"Yes, but he
never did it himself. In fact, he did very little killing himself,
when you consider how much he could have done, had he wished it."
Ellese dipped h
er fingers in
the pool of blood and held it up. "The blood of a god."
The young
healer grimaced, and Ellese dabbed it onto Bane's chest,
where it slowly vanished. "The
powers of a god."
"Why did he not ravish her?"
"Because he is not like
that."
Bane sighed. "You almost make me
sound human."
Tallis jumped in surprise, and
Ellese smiled. "Only you could resist my potion for this long,
Bane."
"Interesting conversation... Try
a lullaby. I should like to hear one."
"Go to sleep."
Bane sighed again, and Ellese
gestured for Tallis to be silent, then rose and went to join the
others. Tallis longed to question him about Mirra, filled with
dread for her friend. She wondered what was happening to Mirra and
shuddered as several terrible possibilities occurred to her. The
fact that Bane had abandoned her only proved his lack of
trustworthiness and disregard for her. After all Mirra's kindness
and loyalty, he had betrayed her, and Tallis used this to stoke her
hatred.
Ellese waited half an hour to be
sure that Bane was deeply asleep, then gathered the healers to pray
around him while she attempted to call down the white flame again.
For a while it resisted her efforts, and she feared it would not
respond a second time, now that the immediate danger was past.
At last it
flared and drifted down to mantel Bane with its soft glow. Once
again
, she channelled the
golden power into him, past the evil’s resistance. The healing
light restored the last of the damage, closed the wound and left a
faint white scar. When the light died, she sat back, satisfied. The
assembled healers ceased their prayers and looked at
her.