Chapter 42
Brightarm came by with food for me. He held out a tray with soup, something ground up and shake with a straw in it. He set it on the end of the bed and stared at me. I had been toileted by the Doctor but still had messed myself; I wasn‘t capable of cleaning myself up and couldn‘t do my own basic needs.
"How are you, Jade? You" he asked and I could not detect any mockery or sympathy in his words.
"What you want?" My tone was weary and depressed.
"I just came to tell you, we breached the Towers." I opened my eyes wide. "Where has the Tree gone, Jade? It wasn‘t there."
I couldn‘t help myself. I laughed. He was angry but did not take it out on me. He seemed puzzled. "It‘s there and nowhere. On one plane and every plane," I answered a little crazy in the head.
"I have 2 pints of your blood in me, Jadewyn. That‘s what she calls you. I can almost feel her, almost sense her." He grabbed my hand and held the palm up speaking the words to call the Seillach pangorum and a faint green glow lit my fingers. "Blood of my blood," he whispered.
"Bone of my bone." He turned to someone out of my sight and snapped, "Get Martini. Tell him to ready the surgical team. I want him treated and fixed. He‘s more valuable to me alive." His hands cupped my face and forced my eyes to focus. "Jadewyn, why did you come here? To die?"
I nodded. "Because in dying by my hand, you‘ll force an end to this confrontation? What? The Tree feels you die, the Strings tear, and the Seillach blows up?"
"All of that," I smiled. "The Druz will leave your soul. I brought them here. With my death, they go back to hell and you‘re only a Colonel who meets his end in a bus accident crossing the street."
He kissed me, teeth, deliberately nipping at my face and drew blood. He sucked, his eyes flared with that eerie blue glow, brightened and then he sent my head down on the mat. "My little blood bank," he whispered. "How I will enjoy drinking from your fountain. Ah, Doctor Martini. Fix him up." He stood and left me in the doctor‘s care.
"Put him on the gurney. Careful now, he has several breaks that are open fractures. And I want an IV in him STAT, on Lactated Ringers, potassium and D5W. Two units of type A+.
Jadewyn, are you in pain? I‘m going to give you morphine. Actually, I‘m going to put you under why all we take you for x-rays. This is going to be very painful. Get Trauma–3 ready, call my surgical team and have them set up to go in ten minutes." I listened to him barking orders, barely had time to ask him to let me die before he stuck a plastic cup over my face and I watched his face recede to a pink moon with blue craters.
*******
When I woke, I was surprised to do even that–but I did wake in a suite of rooms decked out like a private one in a fancy hospital with several doctors, nurses and uniformed guards standing at my bedside. They were all looking down at me. "He‘s conscious, Doctor Martini, Sir," the speaker said. "We just took the ventilator tube out of your lungs. You had some major surgery and Oral surgery to repair broken teeth, your maxillary and orbital ridge. Jaw and eye," he translated. My face felt huge, two black eyes swelled my vision nearly shut, and even my tongue felt as if a furry animal had died in there.
"Howloon?" I managed and tried to sit up. I had heavyweights all over my body; they must have buried me in 50 pounds of plaster.
"A week. We kept you under so you could rest without pain. How do you feel?"
"Weak. Hurts."
"Frankly, you‘re lucky to be alive. I had my doubts, but the Colonel said you would make it. Your system is totally out of human standards–nothing reads like I expect. Your blood pressure – well, it‘s more like a tree than human. Then again, you‘re not really human, are you?"
"The girl-Zip?" I asked trying again to get up and one of them lifted the back of the bed with the controls. I could see down the hallway through the open green door. I could see armed, uniformed personnel. "Fort Bragg?"
"Aramid. Containment and isolation labs. Level IV biohazard," he answered me.
"Who are you?"
"Doctor Crater. Expert on Druz physiology and Celene anatomy."
"How?"
"We‘ve had a long time to study your people, Jadewyn," he said gently. "This is Doctor Peterson, Doctor Martini you met already. Doctors Julkovich, Kleiner and Sampson.
Neurologist, orthopedic surgeon, Microbiologist and a psychiatrist. I am a trauma surgeon and cardiac specialist. You have any questions?"
"Yeah. Why didn‘t you let me die?"
"Do I really had to answer that?" He returned gently and almost kindly.
Doctor Martini interjected. "Give us the artifact and we will accommodate your wishes."
"Where‘s Zip?" I asked again.
"She‘s down the hallway in another room. She‘s okay. Do you want to see her?"
"Let her go, that‘s what I want."
"I‘m sorry, we can‘t do that. She‘s the first cousin of the Celene king and is a valuable hostage," Brightarm said as he came in the doorway. "Surprise to be alive, Jadewyn? I‘ve contacted both Revenal Juris and your generals. They‘re eager to make a trade. You for almost anything I suggested that the lady Zyperia might make a better swap and they did not hesitate."
"What are you going to do with me?"
"Keep you alive. Get you well and healthy, and then swap you for access to the tree.
Jurists assured me it would be granted. Should I return you alive and unharmed. Well at least alive."
"You won‘t do that," I stated.
He smiled. "We shall see.”