Jean Lorrah Savage Empire 02 Dragonlord Of The Savage Empire

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screamed in agony before he could shut it out, and then he found Helmuth on
his feet, his face white, staring at him. "My lord "
"An explosion," Lenardo gasped. "Near Northgate. The man's still alive. Get
Sandor!" As he ran out, he added, "Get Aradia. Hurry!"
He was breathless by the time he arrived at the site of the tragedy, both
from running halfway across the city and from Reading the victim's pain.
Aradia was already on the scene, trailed by Greg and Vona. She glanced up at
Lenardo, saying, "I heard him scream," and returned her concentration to the
injured man, putting him to sleep.
It was easy enough to see what had happened. One of the workers digging
around the foundation of a warehouse, to repair a crack before it weakened the
structure, had struck a yet uncleared sewer line with a pocket of gas in it.
His metal pick must have produced a spark, and the pipe had exploded, slamming
the man against the wall of the building.
He had slight superficial burns, not serious, but the blow had broken his
left arm and leg, which had hit the wall.
"Where is the internal bleeding?" Aradia was asking. How did she know that?
Then Lenardo actually looked at the man he had beenReading and saw that his
lips were turning blue. "Two broken ribs have pierced his lung."
"Guide me," said Aradia, laying her hands over the man's side.
This, Lenardo understood, was working against nature, forcing the broken ribs
to withdraw and return to place. An Aventine surgeon might have done it by
cutting into the man's chest, but in the time it took, the patient might bleed
to death. If he lived, he would develop an infection untreatable with the
antiseptics they understood. But Aradia could work in the knowledge that if
she saved the man immediately, she could drive out any infection with healing
fire.
When the ribs were back in place, Lenardo Read the bleeding veins and
arteries, while Aradia, in such rapport with him that a single word seemed to
guide her to the right spot, joined them and then closed the punctures in the
lung tissue.
The man was out of danger now. Worried that Aradia would use up her strength,
Lenardo said, "Let Sandor take care of his burns and broken bones. He's good
at that."
"They're not simple fractures," Aradia said. "He'll be lame if his leg is not
set right."
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Sandor, who had been hovering nearby for some time, said, "It's a blessing
you are here, my lady. I don't think I could have saved him, even with Lord
Lenardo's help. But now we should take him to my house so that after the bones
are set, he won't have to be moved again."
Several boards were quickly lashed together, and the injured man was
carefully lifted onto them and carried to the house near the bathhouse, where
the infirmary was. It was an elegant home, with which Sander's wife was
greatly pleased, although Lenardo's main motivation in giving it to the healer
was the central location and the size, which permitted a number of rooms to be
used as a hospital and still leave plenty of room for the family.
Aradia did not seem inordinately fatigued. "When we healed Nerius," Lenardo
said, "although it took a long time because the work was so delicate, it was
certainly not somuchwork as you have done already today. Yet both you and
Wulfston were so exhausted that you collapsed."
"Oh, no," she replied, "that was enormously harder work. We didn't just move
my father's tumor, we destroyed it. There was no way to burn it or otherwise
remove it in a natural way. It had to be disintegrated, made not to be. That
was more against nature than any work I have ever done before or since."
Made not to be. A chill went through Lenardo as he realized the implications
of what he had Read but not understood.I didn't understand because I could not
conceive of such a thing. He still could not, but he let it pass. There was
work to be done.
Lenardo, Aradia, and Sandor set to work on the injured man's arm and leg. It
was tedious work, combining physical manipulation wherever they could with
Adept influence to align the bones and set every chip and splinter back in
place. Again, Lenardo found an astonishing rapport with Aradia. The work did
not seem to tire her beyond what the same amount of physical labor would have
done. Perhaps she had regained her full strength. Lenardo was glad. He no
longer wanted to blunt her powers.
When they finally finished, it was late afternoon. Sandor, pale and drawn,
was assured that his patient was healing now and was sent off to sleep
himself.
"You should sleep, too, Aradia," said Lenardo.
"Oh, I will, but first I want a bath and some food."
"I can't believe you're not as tired as Sandor. You did far more of the
work."
"But I am a Lady Adept, fully empowered. I am bone-weary, Lenardo, but I
won't collapse. Give me a good meal and let me sleep through till I wake on my
own, and tomorrow I won't know I did all that today."
They found the patient's wife waiting in the hall, three children clustered
around her. She had already been told that her husband would recover fully,
and her gratitude rang far beyond her inadequate words.
"Your husband's going to be just fine," Lenardo told her. "If you and your
children need anything before he's better, come to me."
The woman managed a smile at Lenardo's naivete. "Brad ain't my husband, not
like fine ladies got. But he's my man, and these is his children. I guess
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we're just stuck like glue."
"Some people are," Aradia murmured. "Now, don't you worry. You can go in and
look at your man if you want to, but he'll be sound asleep for several days.
Then you'll have to care for him until he gets his strength back."
"Oh, my lady, 'twas fate you was nearby! The other men said Brad was so
scared he didn't even cry out."
As she and Lenardo left the building, Aradia said in a puzzled tone, "I know
I heard him scream. That's why I came running."
"You must have heard the explosion."
"No, I don't remember hearing that at all, just a scream of such fear and
pain " She shivered.
"Whatever brought you there, I'm thankful," said Lenardo. "I am partly
responsible for what happened to Brad. I Read the crack in the foundation, and
I Read the sewer line close to the buildings along there and warned them not
to break it."
"Well, then, it was the man's own carelessness."
"No, it was mine. I didn't even think to Read for gas in those pipes. Then
that work was interrupted for the festival, and the workmen had probably
forgotten all about my warning by the time they got back to it." He sighed.
"There ought to be a Reader checking every work crew every day. A child could
have prevented the accident today, not by Reading the gas but by Reading the
pipe."
Aradia studied him, but it was obvious that she was too tired to concentrate.
"Lenardo, we will talk tomorrow. Right now I need a bath, a good meal, and
sleep."
Although she knew that she would be virtually unconscious from the moment she
lay down, Aradia insisted that Lenardo come and sleep with her. He finished
his interrupted work, inspected the city as he did each evening without
leaving his room but with more thoroughness than usual and then crossed the
forum to Aradia's pavilion. The guards and Aradia's maid said pleasantly,
"Good night, my lord," as he passed. His presence on this night when Aradia
was already deep in the Adepts' recuperative sleep confirmed their certainty
that whatever the reason a Reader and a Lady Adept were spending their nights
together, it wasn't sex. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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