Only one task was left to me now, but it was the most daunting. If Penny was ever to live normally again I had to fix her spine, but the intricate complexity of the nerves there were beyond simple comprehension. I began slowly sorting through the damaged endings, trying to match them with their proper mates but the sheer number was too much for my mind. Fear ate at my confidence as I realized I could never hope to fix the damage there.
I paused, focusing on the now steady beating of her heart. As I listened to it I heard again the deeper beating of the earth below us, a deep primal sound that had existed long before either of us had been born. Reaching out with my mind I called to it again, please help me, I can’t fix this, but if it heard me it had no answer for me. I had been a fool to think something so vastly different could help me to heal a human being.
I can hear you now Mordecai, came the voice again. The voice of the stone-lady, though I had no eyes to see her with.
I know your name now, I answered mentally. You were Moira Centyr.
Yes! her triumphant response came. I had never hoped to remember that name.
Can you help me? I do not know how to fix this, I told her.
No. You must do it, but I can show you how. Relax your spirit. The mind cannot heal something so complex, you must feel it. Send your feelings through her; they know where the nerves should lead. Use that sensation to make it as it once was. Thinking will only bring your effort to ruin.
I focused on her words and sent myself along the channels that represented Penny’s spine. Relaxing I felt a light welling up from within and sensations began to flow again from her feet to her brain. An age passed as I lay within her, bathing in the light and feeling my way through every nerve in her body. I found more damage than I had known was there, things that had previously gone unnoticed. I fixed those as well.
Eventually I knew it was finished and I lay exhausted inside her body. My senses had gone dark and I could no longer feel anything beyond her flesh. My mind drifted and I wanted nothing more than to relax and sleep. I could feel a cool wind drawing my spirit away... calling me to some other place.
Stop! Moira’s voice came to me again. You must leave; you have been too long in this body.
I’m tired. I don’t know how to find my body anyway. Just let me sleep, I replied.
Use her eyes, wake her up!
Grumbling mentally I did as she asked, sending impulses into Penelope’s brain, rousing her from unconsciousness. Confusion swept through her, for she could feel me within her. Opening her eyes we could see my limp form lying on the ground beside her. A feeling of mutual affection passed between us and then I threw myself outward, seeking my own body. Darkness came over me and I drifted into oblivion, unsure if I had found my proper place or not.
Chapter 40
I woke slowly. Opening my eyes I could see I was back in my own bed. Penny lay quietly beside me, awake and staring back at me. Neither of us spoke for long minutes, content simply with the fact that the other was alive.
“I felt you,” she said softly. “I was dying but you wouldn’t let me go.”
A lump formed in my throat, “I couldn’t.”
“You almost died with me,” she said.
“Better that than the alternative,” I replied. “You really are pregnant by the way.”
“You told me that before,” she answered with a puzzled face. “Is the baby alright?”
“Yes, he’s fine,” I smiled.
Penny had always had a quick mind. “You lied before didn’t you? You didn’t know I was pregnant.”
I sighed, “Yes, but things worked out didn’t they?”
“You really are a bastard sometimes,” she replied, and then she kissed me to emphasize the point.
I pulled away for a moment, “You should be thanking me.”
“I think we came out even in this exchange,” she replied. “I saved you first.”
“Not that, I made some improvements while I was healing you,” I said with a smirk.
“What?”
“Don’t your breasts feel a bit different?” I added.
She sat up suddenly and brought her hands up to her chest. The sight of her frantically cupping herself made me laugh. “What did you do?” she said loudly.
“Well I always thought they could stand to be a little larger, so I added a bit to them,” I lied. The look of shock on her face was priceless. She began struggling to get out of her chain byrnie, writhing to escape the heavy metal and the padded tunic beneath it. Sometimes jokes work out better than you expect.
“They look just the same! What sort of game are you playing at?” she demanded once her torso was bare.
My laughter was uncontrollable now. “Relax I didn’t change a thing. They were perfect already anyway,” I reassured her.
“Then why would you say something like that?” she said. My eyes ran down her shoulders and over her beautiful curves. She was much more attractive without the mail and blood soaked tunic covering her. The look told her everything she needed to know. “You are unbelievable!” she shouted and picking up the bundle of heavy mail she dropped it on my face.
“Ow!” I exclaimed as I pushed the gory bundle off and stumbled out of the bed. “You didn’t have to do that!”
Her thoughts had already shifted. “How long do you think we’ve been up here?” she asked suddenly.
“I don’t even know how we got here. I suppose some of the men brought us,” I replied. Stepping to the window I
