To fit us both through the small opening, I have to drop Tela’s feet to the ground. Gripping under her arms, I stabilize her head against my chest and then step backwards into the tunnel. As I drag her through the passage, I have to duck at times because the ceiling is so low. At several points, the walls on the sides are tight enough that they scrape against my arms. After maybe thirty feet, I reach a small cavern.
“Awaken,” I say.
When no light appears, I peer around the inside of the cave. It’s too dark for me to make out any detail. I can’t blindly work on Tela’s wounds.
“Where can I get light?” I mumble.
As my last word bounces off the cavern walls, a purple glow spreads across the cavern. I look up to see hundreds of tiny holes in the black shale ceiling. The light seems to come from deep within the rock and radiate from a hollow maze that’s woven throughout the top of the cave.
Light, I think in my head. That’s the trigger.
The entire cavern is no bigger than a small bedroom. The floor has a slight downward slant from the tunnel entrance to the back wall. A few rocks are scattered around the edges of the oval cave, but the center is bare. At the far end of the cavern from the tunnel, a foot-wide trickle of water drizzles over the uneven rock wall. The water forms a tiny pool at the base, no more than a puddle really, and then drips into a long, thin crack in the ground.
I lay Tela down in the center of the cavern with her head pointing towards the tunnel and her feet towards the water. The eerie purple light casts a deathly pallor on her face.Resting on my knees beside her, I take her two flasks off her belt and set the one that’s empty aside. I have one almost-full flask left that I remove from my belt as well.
Since blood is still running down my arm from the wound in my shoulder, I decide that I better deal with that before trying to help Tela.I won’t be much good to her if I pass out from losing too much blood. After sparingly pouring sap on my palm, I rub it on the wound. The burning pain recedes and the bleeding soon stops.
Wanting to save all I can for Tela, I take two small sips from the flask. We used a lot of energy traveling to the flats and racing over them, but we also drank a considerable amount of sap. That’s probably the only thing keeping Tela alive right now.
Beginning on the leg with the bone sticking out of her shin, I rip her pant leg off at the knee. Trying to remember everything Larn did when he set the compound fracture I had in my arm, I start by pouring sap over the wound and softly rubbing it on the bloody skin around the gash. Bracing the back of her leg with one of my hands, I apply steady pressure with my other hand to push the bone back into place. The crackling sound turns my stomach, but Tela doesn’t move.
Based on what Larn did to me, if I can get the bone close to where it belongs, the sap will do the rest of the repair. Once her leg is as straight as I can get it, I pour a little more sap over the shredded skin. The bleeding stops as I rub my hand over the wound, and a thick scab begins to form on her leg.
Since her broken right ankle didn’t pop through the skin, it should be a little easier to set. After removing the boots from both her feet, I slide her pant leg up to the top of her calf. While pressing one hand to her ankle, I slowly straighten her foot. It’s impossible for me to determine exactly where the fracture is with her ankle swollen to the size of a grapefruit. All I can do is spread sap over the puffy area, push the bone to where I think it should be, and hope for the best.
Once I finish with her legs, I empty the first flask by rubbing the liquid all over the cuts on her face and arms. One of her shoulders is badly bruised, probably from the impact with the canyon wall. If it’s dislocated, I don’t want to try to set it now. I worry that getting her shoulder back into place might make her neck worse than it already is.
From the second flask, I dribble a small amount of sap onto my hand and spread it over Tela’s black-and-blue shoulder. Wanting something to brace her neck, I slip the empty canister from around my neck, set it aside, and take off my shirt. After folding it several times, I slide it under Tela’s head.
Kneeling at the top of her head, I coat the back of Tela’s neck with a liberal amount of sap. With both my hands, I slowly press my fingers against the lump that’s sticking out of the spine at the base of her skull. When I pop it back into place, her body jerks stiff and then immediately goes limp. Shivering from the thought that I might have killed her, I lower my ear to the center of her chest.
“Thank God,” I sigh, still hearing a faint heartbeat.
I return to upright and gently slide my fingers up and down the back of her neck. Although there’s a little unevenness, the large bump is gone and her spine feels relatively straight. Using my fingertips, I align the remaining inconsistencies in her vertebrae as best I can. Finally, I grip the sides of her head and gently pull it towards me in an attempt to straighten her neck through makeshift traction. I hold her head in the extended position for a full minute and then
