was huffy at first but when he saw that she had no intention of giving in to him after having faced down a duke he relented.
His first move was to remove Mordecai’s clothing which proved to be difficult, till Penny began assisting him. He gave her an odd look at first but said nothing. Once that was accomplished he carefully went over Mordecai, checking his neck and chest, feeling his head and looking into his eyes and mouth. Eventually he sighed and stood up. “He’s got several cracked ribs and I think one of them may have pierced his left lung. In addition he certainly has a concussion from the blow to his head. From the description of his fall I’m surprised his neck wasn’t snapped, but something protected his neck. He should be dead already.”
“Well he’s not dead, so what do you plan to do?” Penny asked.
“There’s not much to be done, bleeding him might help a bit though. Let me get my case…” he headed toward the black leather bag he had left by the door.
The doctors had bled her mother till she was too weak to survive the illness that claimed her life. “You’re not bleeding him. He’s bled enough already, if that’s the best you have to offer you can leave,” she said, standing between the doctor and the bed.
“Fine, you already seem to think you’re a doctor.” Sean Townsend was annoyed, he had dealt with troublesome family members before but this woman was beyond frustrating. “If he wakes, try not to let him go back to sleep, he might not wake again. Don’t get your hopes up though; he probably won’t make it through the night.” With that pronouncement he left. She could hear him muttering about stubborn women as he walked out the door.
Some of those who had been waiting outside filtered back in, anxious to hear what the doctor had said. Penelope related the physician’s words to them. There was quite a bit of discussion over that, but eventually most of them left, and finally only Marc, Dorian and Rose were still there.
“You should go, get some rest Penny; fretting over him won’t help,” Marc said.
“I’ll leave when he’s dead,” she replied frankly. “Take your own advice. I’m sick of people telling me what to do.”
He started to argue but Rose got his attention, “Let it go Marcus, she’s not leaving, and I don’t blame her. If you want to help, try to keep the rest of them out of here.”
“I can manage that,” Dorian said, “I’ll be outside, making sure his lordship doesn’t come back to finish the job. In the end only Rose remained, sitting with Penny through the long evening and into the night.
“You need some rest Penny,” she said at last, when midnight was approaching.
“I’ll sleep here,” Penny replied.
“There’s only one bed, and it has a naked man in it,” Rose raised her eyebrow.
“Everyone knows I’m a ruined woman anyway, what more can they say about me? Leave me be, I’ll lie with him till it’s over,” she never took her eyes off Mordecai. Rose nodded then stood, without a word she left.
Once she was alone Penny barred the door and removed her dress, she hadn’t brought her nightclothes but she hardly cared. She eased under the covers and lay beside him, watching him breathe till the candles burned down and darkness covered the room. In the dark she still kept her hand on his chest, feeling it rise and fall, listening to the wet sound of his breathing. She never meant to sleep, but at last she did anyway.
Chapter 15
Theologians generally divide the gods into two categories, the Dark Gods and those believed benign to humanity, the Shining Gods. Yet the ancients had other theories. They thought the nature and motivations of each particular deity must be related to its origins. The Dark Gods were thought to predate the Shining Gods, having arisen from the beliefs of some long dead race. The loss of their people may have driven them mad, for their relationship with mankind is anything but beneficial. While the Shining Gods derive their power from faith, in a mutualistic bond, the Dark Gods take their sustenance forcibly. Even those who worship them willingly are often subject to sacrifice and dark rituals.
I dreamt restlessly. I was swimming in a deep lake, one that held no light. I was drowning, choking on the water as I sought uselessly to breathe. The dream seemed endless yet I never quite finished drowning, until at last, I woke. Reality was not much better though. My lungs felt full of liquid, and each time I drew breath a burning pain shot through my chest. Everything hurt.
The pain was so great that it was a while before I realized I wasn’t alone in the bed. The first sign was soft hair, tickling my nose when I turned my head to the side. In the dark I couldn’t see whose hair it was, but the scent told me. It was Penny, curled gently beside me. Her hand rested lightly on my chest but she had been careful to avoid placing any weight on me. If everything hadn’t hurt so damned badly I might have been excited, but the pain drove all such thoughts from my mind.
What the hell happened to me? I thought. A moment later I remembered. The hunt, the chase, my folly, I had been a fool. Next time shield your horse too. If there was a next time, at the moment I was none too sure about that. I didn’t want to move and disturb Penny, and just shifting my weight immediately told me I wouldn’t be moving anyway. The slightest motion caused a stabbing pain in my chest, great enough to make me aware that the previous pains had just been playful warnings.
I lay there for a long time, aching. The worst part was the constant sensation of drowning. My lungs weren’t working properly, and they felt heavy, full. A short cough blinded me with pain, and I resolved not to do that again. I tried to distract myself by examining the room with my special ‘sight’, feeling the room with my mind. Then a thought struck me, perhaps I could do the same with myself.
Turning my mind inward I slowly explored my body. My task was made difficult by my ignorance, so much of what I found was strange. A few things were easy to recognize, such as my heart, which was steadily beating. I worked out from there, finding my lungs and ribs. One lung was very different, filled with blood, unable to work at all. A sharp piece of one rib had pierced it and torn arteries were still pushing more blood into it and the space around it. I almost panicked then, as I could tell I was dying. Slowly but surely, the blood was filling the other lung, drowning me. Worse, while I thought my abilities might be able to fix some of it, I didn’t know the words to use.
Ignorance left me helpless. Still I decided to try anyway, I already knew magic could be done without words; it was simply much harder, requiring perfect focus. I sent my attention to the rib that had pierced the lung and imagined it sliding away, back to its normal location, meeting the other part of itself. At first I wasn’t sure if anything was happening, but then it began to move, sending waves of pain through me. I clenched my teeth, fighting a scream, but then I didn’t have enough air to scream anyway. I nearly passed out by the time it was back in its place, and then I was horrified to feel it sliding back as soon as I took my attention from it. Fighting against fear I held on grimly and tried to envision it joining the other bone, becoming whole again. At last it stayed, and I slowly relaxed, letting go of it.
Next I tackled the problem of my punctured lung. It took me long minutes but finally I felt that the hole in it was sealed, though that still left me with a lot of blood to deal with. Unsure how to get rid of the blood I decided to seal off the arteries still leaking blood into my chest cavity, that was easier. That done, I considered my lung again, and I tried using the aythar to inflate it a bit. That sent me into painful spasms as my body began to cough, heaving to try and get the blood out. The other ribs were splintered and sent stabbing pains throughout my body.
Ok, ribs first then, I thought. One by one I eased my other ribs back into place, trying to fuse each with its estranged parts. The agony was excruciating and I could feel my strength fading. At last I thought I had them all in place and began to consider the task of coughing up the blood that still choked me. There should be a chamber pot under the edge of the bed. I wondered if I would reach it in time.
Steeling myself I sat up and got out of bed. Well that’s what was supposed to happen, when I sat up my head made its own issues known. The room reeled about me like a drunken sailor after a three day binge. My attempt to get out of the bed ended with me falling to the floor, still tangled in the sheets. The coughing started the
