But one of those was seeing her deteriorate here when she could be helped there.
“We have equipment that can tell us more about her condition,” Tilly explained. “It can tell us if any parts of her spine are broken, for example. But even if it does so, we won’t be able to do anything about those injuries.”
Her precious spine. Skies help me.
“My toes.”
All of us ceased speaking at once when Nazreen’s hoarse voice cut in. Our eyes went to her feet, which she was moving in weak little circles. Then, she shakily clenched and unclenched her fists.
“That is a good sign,” Salina said from near Nazreen’s feet. “She is conscious, and her limbs can move freely.” Nazreen got suddenly paler the same moment that Salina added, “She might need to be sick.”
I kept one hand in place holding the yellow plank, the other supporting Nazreen’s shoulder and neck, gently helping her roll without twisting her head. She vomited over the side of the plank, then lay back again, breathing hard.
“Would visiting the Vrika’s peak help her?” I demanded, the idea suddenly coming to me. “If the Lavrika’s pools have helped others?”
“But the Vrika lives at the top, doesn’t it?” Valeria squinted in the direction of the Vrika’s tall spire of stone. “In the Sea Sands, the Lavrika lives on the ground, in its pools. It’s not about the Lavrika’s blood. Lavrika’s blood alone can only do so much. It’s about being where the Lavrika is. It can make things happen. It’s what gave all of us the Sea Sand language and the ability to speak to you now. Just dumping some Lavrika’s blood over your head wouldn’t accomplish that.”
The Vrika did live at the peak. Yeralk could get us partway there, but for the last treacherous stretch, one had to climb. Ithought of making that climb while also somehow holding her fragile body in my arms and my heart contracted painfully.
I could do it.
I could also make things worse.
“We need to make a decision,” Valeria said, her eyes now on the skies. “I don’t want to still be standing out here when that thing comes back.”
“It was even bigger than the shuttle,” Oxriel said. “While I’d like nothing more than to take Nazreen back to the Sea Sands now…What happens if the borog attacks the shuttle in the air?”
“We’d be completely fucked, that’s what would happen,” Valeria admitted after a tense moment’s thought. “My shuttle isn’t as agile as something like a braxilk. If it surprised us midflight, there wouldn’t be much of anything we could do.”
“Then you will stay,” I decided. I could not risk a second attack on them in the air.
Especially if I was not there.
“We will take good care of her, Gahn,” Salina assured me as Valeria jerked her head up and down in one tight motion.
“Yes,” I vowed, gazing down at Nazreen’s face, no longer slack with unconsciousness but drawn tight with pain. “We will.”
20
NASRIN
Icame to awareness slowly, wondering how the hell I’d gotten kicked by a horse on Zaphrinax. I cracked open bleary, burning eyes, my tongue fused to the roof of my mouth. It took too much effort to try to move my tongue and speak, so I moved my eyes instead. Although even this proved to be something I couldn’t handle for long, pain clanging through my head like a gong.
But I was able to look around enough to tell that I wasn’t in my sleeping cave. It was a place I’d never had cause to spend much time in before – the healers’ cave. I was lying in one of the three narrow beds in here, the other two empty. Along the wall behind my head were shelves with bandages and candles and jars of Vrika’s blood.
“She’s awake.” A Deep Sky face swam into focus above me. Salina. “Here.”
Something cool and slightly sticky was pressed to my lips. Valkiri gel. Easier that trying to drink water while lying down, I supposed. I parted my lips and accepted the hydrating gel. It helped ease the dryness and gross taste in my mouth.
“What…What happened?” I asked, unable to fathom why I was here. “And where…” I gritted my teeth for a second. Every word made my head throb. “Where’s Thaleo? I thought…I thought he was here.”
Why I thought that, I had no idea. I had no memory of being in this room at all.
“He was here,” said another voice. Valeria’s face winked into existence above me, beside Salina’s. “He was here with you all afternoon and all night as well. He slept briefly on the floor by your bed, but then he had to go do Gahn shit. It’s just before dawn now.”
All afternoon? All night? Dawn? None of this made any sense.
How long had I been here?
