Dorian frowned, “No, why?”
For a moment I considered keeping her confidence by misdirecting his question, but for once I was too tired for subtlety. Instead I gave him the most direct answer I could, “You need to ask her that yourself.”
He stood, as if ready to do so right then and there, “Perhaps I will then.”
“Before you do that, I need some advice,” I interjected.
“On what?”
“What do I do now?” I asked.
Dorian looked at me as if I had grown a second head. “You should know the answer to that as well as anyone. We rebuild and we go on. George has already begun moving people back to Washbrook, and we will soon begin repairing the damage to the keep itself. Other than the loss of life, we suffered fairly minor damage to the town and outer walls.”
“Not that,” I said, waving my hands. “About the gods… I think I’ve convinced Doron and perhaps even Millicenth to give us a wide berth, but I’m worried about Mal’goroth. He’s become too powerful, even the shining gods fear him now. Worse, he’s here, in our world, but I have no idea where, or what he might be up to.”
“I told you before; I’ll deal with the shiggreth and the foes that can be fought by mortal men… I leave the deities and such in your hands. You and Marcus were always better at strategizing when it came to politics or matters of the gods,” he replied.
“Marc!” I said loudly. “You’re right, of course. I need to talk to him.”
“Good luck. You haven’t forgotten he moved to Agraden have you?” reminded Dorian.
I hadn’t. “No, but I can still contact him. Have you seen Penny yet today?”
“She’s been tending to Elaine. I’m afraid the girl isn’t doing well,” said Dorian.
“What do you mean?”
“She isn’t breathing well,” he replied, “though I’ve never really understood how a leg wound could cause problems with the lungs.”
Unlike my friend, I had learned quite a bit over the past few years about how the body responded to wounds. In particular, I had an excellent mental map of how the vasculature carried blood, and his comment set off alarm bells for me. “I need you to do me a favor,” I said without preamble.
“Sure.”
“Go to my study and open the cabinet to the left of my desk. I keep magical letter boxes in there. Find the one labeled ‘Marcus’ and bring it to me, along with something to write with,” I said, outlining my request.
He didn’t waste time and moments later he was gone. As soon as the door had shut, I sat up and put my legs over the side of the bed. The world began spinning and my stomach clenched rebelliously. I can deal with that, I thought quietly, if only my head would stop pounding. Ignoring my body’s warning signs, I stood and started my way across the room. I didn’t have to get very far; Elaine was being kept in the guest room across the hall.
By the time I had reached her door, I wondered if I had taken on more than I could handle. I spent several minutes retching as I lost control of my stomach. It was with considerable regret that I surrendered the tea Elise had brought me. Penny won’t be happy about the mess either, I noted.
Gathering my strength once my internal storm had passed, I opened the door and stepped inside. Both Penny and Walter looked at me in surprise. “What the hell do you think you are doing out of bed?!” said my lovely wife by way of greeting. She looked exceptionally glad to see me.
“Morning dear,” I said sweetly.
She gave me an evil glare, “It’s afternoon, genius.” She rose and moved toward me, clearly meaning to escort me from the room. “You don’t need to be in here right now.”
“I heard she’s having trouble breathing,” I replied. Looking over Penny’s shoulder, I could see Elaine sitting partially upright in the bed. Her face looked strained and her breath came in rapid shallow gasps, as though she had just run a race and couldn’t get her wind back. She was watching me from where she lay, and the panic in her eyes was enough to confirm my fear.
Penny’s face broadcast a warning to me. She was trying not to frighten the patient any more than was necessary. Her words were loud and brazen, as though she hoped to distract Elaine from her life and death struggle, “Let me take you back to bed before you infect Elaine with a bad case of ‘stupid’. Honestly, you do something like this every time you’re ill. I would think you’d learn eventually.”
I held my hand up before she got close. “My power has returned, in some measure at least. I need to help her before it is too late.” Walter’s eyes were watching me throughout the exchange.
“You can worry about that when you’re strong enough,” said Penny reasonably, “not today.”
“She won’t live past today if I don’t do something now,” I answered bluntly. That brought her up short.
Penelope’s eyes narrowed as she stared at me in a look meant just for me. There was fear there, hidden in her gaze, fear of losing something she had just regained. “You might not live past today if you do something rash and aren’t strong enough to recover from your mistake.”
“I have to try,” I said, leaning forward to kiss my wife. To her credit, she did not flinch from me, though I surely couldn’t have smelled very good. I found myself leaning upon her afterward, for my balance was uncertain.
“Are you certain this is a good idea,” asked Walter. His features were sunken from lack of sleep and prolonged stress.
Is it a good idea? No, certainly not, I told myself inwardly, but I knew I had to try. “Put your hand on my shoulder,” I said, ignoring his question. “Watch and try to lend me your strength if I seem to be faltering.” As I spoke I eased myself into the bed, stretching out beside my hyperventilating student.
Since my first attempts at healing years ago, I had learned to categorize what I did by what level of connection was required. Simple healing was an act of will, requiring only desire and the ability to manipulate aythar; plain wizardry in essence. There was no contact of minds or spirits, and it didn’t matter whether the subject cooperated or not. Simple healing could close wounds and mend bones, and it was really as much as Walter had ever mastered.
More skillful wizards could, at some personal risk, connect themselves and send their spirit into the patient. Using such a technique gave the wizard much more control, as they could then use the body’s own senses to inform and augment their magical senses. That was what I had done the first time I had used magic, when I possessed the Duke’s horse, Star. I had done it again when Penny was dying, after being impaled by a ballista bolt.
The third level of healing was what Moira Centyr had taught me, and how I had actually saved Penny’s life when wizardry alone was insufficient. I had listened to her body and made her body a part of myself, using her body’s physical memory to restore her to the state of physical well-being. That level of healing required an archmage.
Today I faced several new problems, first being that I wasn’t sure my body was well enough to survive the absence of my spirit for any period of time. The second problem was that I was unsure if I could fix her problem with wizardry alone, and my magical senses hadn’t returned to the point yet where I could be confident in attempting to ‘listen’ to her body in that way. In fact I could barely hear even the earth, and it was normally the loudest of the voices in the world around me.