In one of my more lucid periods, I was aware of a charming domestic scene of father and son playing chess in a corner of my bedroom while the green lady sang softly under her breath as she turned a potter’s wheel. The scent of clay hung in my nose and the back of my throat. I wasn’t hungry anymore and although my lips were chapped, I didn’t want anything to drink. What I wanted was for this appalling feeling of utter helplessness to go away. I knew I couldn’t move a finger to save my life. Didn’t want to, I wanted to die and just get it over with.
“He’s awake,” the younger man said and stood up to move gracefully over to my bedside. I expected him to be dressed as a king in fancy robes or his three piece designer pinstripe but he was wearing black denim jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt with Madonna on the front.
“Vintage,” I murmured and raised my eyes to my older face. A few years older, leaner, more chiseled but if I wanted to see what I would have looked like in my late twenties, it was standing before me.
“Ghost, is he---?” he asked and a silver ring on his finger pulsed, slid off and expanded to the size of a dinner plate. Hovering over me, it scanned me head to toe with a blue laser. In its wake, I felt tingles of electricity.
“Like you, Dad, he has inherent power of both the Logus and the Pattern. He hasn’t walked the Pattern yet but there are undertones that he has had some kind of contact with it. As for his body scans, his temp is 102.4°, BP is 95/54, pulse is 88 and thready. I suspect he is on the verge of septic shock, there is a pocket of gas gangrene in his abdominal cavity behind his right kidney that needs to be treated or he is going to...expire.”
“What are you, robo-doc?” I asked and let my body sink into the mattress.
“I am an artificial intelligence in the process of becoming sentient,” it returned.
“Sort of like a super smart phone. I’m going back to sleep now. Nice to finally meet you...Dad. I guess that makes me the older bro?” My voice trailed off but not before I heard them all leap to their feet as a pack of people started ordering each other around. Angry voices shouting words like hospital, surgery, death. Flora, the city and armed escorts. Doctors, critical are and damn all. Sirens and lights and me floating.
Murphy gripped my shoulders with his stone cold gargoyle arms and spoke into my ear so loudly I couldn’t help but hear him. “Master,” he spoke calmly. “Your father will take you to safety where I dare not go. Trust him.” He hugged me, gathered me into his arms and suddenly, we were airborne above the castle with that Ghostwheel at our side.
“Follow me,” Ghost said and led us to the top of the cliff into a copse where Murphy set me down next to a fancy marble cenotaph with Gothic carving proclaiming Corwin, Prince of Amber’s birth and death date. Seconds later, Merlin stepped out of nothing and took me from Murphy’s hold. He smiled down at me.
“Ready, Bro? Murphy, he’s in good hands.”
Murphy nodded and swallowed as if he had a lump in his throat. “Bring him back to me, Master Merlin,” he begged.
“I promise. Word of a...Father,” Merlin returned. He looked at the wheel and we were gone in a flash.
I remember an emergency room in a huge hospital and a hurried ride down a long, brilliantly lit corridor, bouncing against walls and elevator doors on a shaky gurney with Merlin close to my side until my feet hit the big double doors and green masked faces leaned over me with serious eyes and deep smile lines at the corners. They called my name and told me to count to ten; I never reached higher than four.
“Raven? Raven, honey. Open your eyes. Wake up, Raven. Your Dad is here and your grandfather. Wake up, Raven.” I didn’t know the woman’s voice, my ears tuned out the sounds of dishes banging, the hiss and thump of a machine. Sirens and beepings, alarms and the ticking of a loud, annoying clock. I yawned, more of an attempt to get extra oxygen than because I was tired.
I took an assessment of my body. A tiny pain in my hand and another in my elbow. Numbness from my waist down and a heaviness in my bladder, dry mouth and something stuck in my nose. I tried to move and my hands only went so far before I felt restrained. I struggled against the constriction, crying out in confusion.
“Easy, Raven,” the woman soothed. “It’s just some gauze tied so you didn’t pull out your IV lines. Hold still and I’ll cut you loose.” I felt her fingers on my wrists and was loose. “Open your eyes, honey,” she urged and stuck a thermometer in my mouth.
Huge brown blob that gradually formed into a round face in Christmas scrubs. Dark skin, deep black eyes and long, curly hair tied in a ponytail. Around her neck, she wore a lanyard with her ID. I couldn’t see her name but I could read the Hospital’s. I was in California, San Francisco.
“How do you feel?” she asked, removing the thermometer, an old fashioned kind. “99.2° Much better.” She shook the mercury down.
I opened my mouth. It felt as if I had gargled with gravel, it hurt and what came out was a whisper. “Water.”
“You can suck on ice chips,” she smiled. “You had surgery two days ago and the doctor has you on NPO till Sunday night. After he does the dye test.” At my confused look, she added, “this is Saturday morning, sweetie and we want to make sure your bowels aren’t leaking into your tummy. I’m Peg Moore, I’m the ICU nurse who’ll be taking care of you today. You ready for some company?”
I nodded and touched the thing in my nose, felt plastic prongs and tubing.
“Oxygen. The doctor will probably d/c that later today. Your poor lungs were having a hard time breathing with the infection. Want to try and sit up a little?”
She didn’t wait for my answer but fiddled with the bed controls, raising my head and shoulders as well as my legs. I could see other beds in the ICU unit and bustling nurses in cheerful scrubs working between other beds with kids in them.
“Kids?” I said hoarsely and she understood me.
“This is the PEDS ICU, honey.”
The walls were painted blue with cartoon characters like Spiderman and Transformers, big windows looking out over the city skyline and the bay. Puffy clouds broke the soft haze, it looked warmer outside than New York. Other towers stood nearby, part of the hospital complex.
“Where am I?”
“San Francisco. University Hospital,” she said and went to the end of the bed, peered around the curtain that separated me from the other beds. “I’ll bring your family in, Raven. They can visit with you for a little bit. They’ve been here since Friday.”
“Ice chips,” I reminded her and she said okay, left me to stare at the checkered drapes and my knees under a light blue blanket and green cotton sheets.
Corwin and Merlin were escorted in on the heels of a surgeon wearing a white lab coat over scrubs and one of those funny little hats they wear to keep control of their hair.
My...Dad and Grandfather were both in gray pinstripes, holding woolen overcoats which they folded over the backs of the chairs an orderly brought in. The doctor closed the curtain and shook hands with them.
“Mr. Corey,” he said to Corwin. “Mr. Merle, nice to see you again. Your son is doing much better now that he has woken up. Raven, I did the surgery on you. As you know, he was admitted with a fever over 105° and suffering from a pretty severe infection in the abdominal cavity. We opened him up, irrigated, drained a pocket of gas gangrene and have antibiotics running through both his IVs and flushing the surgical site. I’m afraid we had to remove his right kidney and part of his upper bowel. His temp has come down and he’s responding well to the treatment. If all goes well, he should be able to return home in a week, ten days.” He paused. “He will need to return in two weeks to repack the wound and make an appointment to suture the incision closed. Right now, the surgical site is open with a drain and covered by a sterile mesh. We’ve given him a nerve block so the pain is manageable and when that wears off, he’ll be on morphine. Any questions? By the way, the police want to talk to both of you, the injury is obviously a knife wound and they want to know how Raven was injured.”
They had several questions but I was paying more attention to the nurse and the promised cup of ice. Slowly, she spooned a few tiny chips in my mouth and the sensation of cold soothing my parched and abused membranes was...awesome.
“Raven, how are you doing, buddy?” the doctor asked, hands under the covers and on my belly. I could see but not feel, didn’t really want to look at my insides. That’s why they were inside and supposed to stay inside.
“Okay,” I whispered. “Doesn’t hurt. Just fell really weak. Tired.”
“Your body has suffered a major trauma, Raven, so you will be very weak for a while. You’re young and you’ll bounce back quickly. In a day or so, we’ll take you off the intravenous feedings and try some solid food, see how your tummy and bowels progress. I expect you’ll be eating burgers and fries by Friday. Okay? Let me know when the nerve block wears off and the nurse will see you’re comfortable with some morphine. Don’t suffer in silence, it’s bad for your healing. I’ll stop in this evening to see how you’re doing. It was nice to see you again, Mr. Corey, Mr. Merle Raven.” He was gone in a rush.
“Can I get you gentlemen anything?” Peg offered. “Coffee, soda?”
“We’re fine, thank you, Peg,” Corwin smiled and stared at her until she got the hint and left us alone. Then, it was my turn. Luckily, my throat was sore enough that speaking was difficult and Merlin took it upon himself to spoon ice chips down me until the cup was empty. Of course, the nurse had only filled it with two chopped up cubes to start with.
“More,” I said hoarsely and he shook his head.
“Nope. The nurse said only what was in the cup. You’re on a restricted diet.”
“Come on, Dad,” I wheedled and Corwin snickered.
“He’s playing you, Merlin. Don’t give in.”
I closed my eyes, suddenly tired beyond belief. “What happens when I need to pee?” I whispered.
“I think you’ve got one of those catheters up your...” He peeked and nodded. “Yup. You’re good to go.”
Corwin sat, I heard him grunt as he folded into the chair and another scrape as Merlin dragged his closer to the bedside.
“Put my head down, please,” I asked and he leaned over to work the controls. He smelled of expensive aftershave and coconut shampoo. My body went flat and I sighed in relief. “Thanks.”
“Did Flora say why she was interested in you, Raven?” my grandfather asked.
“No. Just that she thought I had the blood of Amber or the Court place in me. When she assumed I was only human, she lost interest. Told those things to play with me. Eat me.”
“We taught them a lesson they’ll not soon forget. Not to touch one of our people,” Corwin growled. “Especially the royal family of Amber and Chaos. As for Flora, she was conveniently missing.” He stared over my head at his son. I could feel it even with my eyes closed.
I opened one eye on my...dad. “Tell me what my mom was like. I don’t remember her.”
“She was pretty. Tall. Athletic,” he mused. “I met her at a computer convention in England. She invited me to a Celtic Music Festival in Ireland. We explored the Henges. She liked red wine and adored gargoyles, was forever picking up stray dogs and cats, finding them homes instead of taking them to shelters. She believed in magic, had a lovely singing voice and could paint.
“She had long black hair and green eyes, as green as Irish grass, could dance in the moonlight like a Fae spirit and couldn’t tell a lie to save her soul. She giggled and was ticklish, liked to run barefoot in the surf. I loved her madly.”
“Why did you leave her?” I burst out defensively. “You ruined our lives!”
“I didn’t. She left me, I went home because my uncle, the King was dying. When I came back after to look for her, years had passed here. Time flows differently from Shadow to Shadow and in Amber. What is a year home could be twenty or even a hundred on the shadow worlds. How did she die?”
“You’ll have to ask Murphy. I don’t know all the details, all he would ever say was that she died in a fall trying to save me,” I mumbled. “I’m tired.”
They were quiet and in mere minutes, I was falling asleep and not even a thunderstorm would rouse me.