“Graely, go render aid to one of my assistants. Or attend to your own warriors and leave me to my duty.” Without sparing a glance, Laethan dismissed Graely, who muttered something unintelligible as he stomped away.
“This boy reminds me of my own son. Not Wesley—I have an older son. His face looks very similar, though my son is clean-shaven and not as muscular. His hair is dark and curly like this, just like my wife.” Brian endeavored to clear the eerie thought from his mind. It was disturbing to picture his own son with such a grievous injury. “What can I do to help you?”
“I’m trying to staunch the flow of blood from this wound, but nothing seems to be working. I’ve already seared the injury with a hot iron, but the blood still flows.” He grimaced as if the memory of the procedure was painful. “Thankfully, he passed out again right after the burning, but it didn’t work. As soon as I release the pressure the bleeding starts again. His breathing is slowing as well, so I fear he doesn’t have much time left in this world.”
Brian nodded, replacing Laethan’s hand with his own and bearing down on the bloody cloth covering the wound. “I’ll stand here and keep pressure on it as long as I need to. If the boy dies, he won’t be alone. I can’t sense this bloodbond thing you guys were talking about, so it doesn’t bother me at all.”
As Laethan left him to his task, Brian reached with his left hand to push aside the hair covering the boy’s face, his breath catching at the startling resemblance to his own son. He noticed heat radiating from the boy’s skin and wondered if he was developing a fever. Or perhaps people in this realm had higher core body temperatures.
One second he was pushing on the wound and testing his forehead with his hand, and the next moment he watched the boy fall away from his hands to a grey linoleum floor at his feet. Crying out, he dropped down to reapply pressure to the open injury.
“Dad?” Brian jumped as Wesley knelt beside him. “Who’s this?”
“Where am I? How did I get here?” He looked up, taking in his surroundings.
“You’re at the hospital in Montana, in Alora and Kaevin’s room. Alora transported you here.” Wesley gestured behind his back.
Brian craned his head over his shoulder, sucking in a breath. Good Lord, Kaevin looks awful. He plastered an encouraging expression on his face as he addressed Alora, who didn’t seem to have the strength to lift her head from the pillow.
“I’m glad you’re both okay, Alora. But how’d I get here? I thought we had to lock arms and go with you.”
“I’m sorry. I know I surprised you, but I didn’t want to transport to Laegenshire without Kaevin.” Her lips quivered as she spoke.
“No, it’s fine,” Brian was quick to reassure her. “I’m not mad or anything. Laethan’s going to wonder what happened though. I don’t know what we’re going to do about this guy. He’s about to die, and we’re going to have a body to explain.” Brian turned his attention back to staunching the blood flow.
“Maybe we can save him. I’ll go find Doc Sanders.” Charles spoke the words as he hurried out the door.
“Who is this guy?” Wesley was frowning at the bleeding body. “He looks like…”
“I know,” said Brian. “He looks so much like Steven, it’s kind of creepy.”
“Isn’t that a Water Clan warrior?” asked Alora. “I think he’s the guy that attacked Jireo on the roof.”
“They’re taking him to the emergency room.” Charles pushed the door open wide.
Dr. Sanders scurried into the room, calling out orders to three other people in scrubs, pushing a gurney. In seconds, the almost lifeless body was lifted onto the wheeled stretcher and rushed out of the room. Brian felt a band tighten around his chest as the boy disappeared from his sight.
“I feel like calling Steven to make sure he’s okay,” Wesley remarked.
“I know what you mean.” Brian put his hand on Wesley’s shoulder. “I kind of want to hear his voice, too. But I doubt he’d appreciate us calling him at… What time is it, anyway?”
“According to that, it’s almost five a.m.” Charles pointed to the clock on the wall.
“Five in the morning? We’ve got to get home right now.” Brian felt his insides churning. “Karen always wakes up at five; she’s going to kill me.”
“She didn’t know you transported to Laegenshire?” Charles raised his eyebrows.
“I left her a note, explaining the whole thing, since I didn’t want to wake her up.”
“Well, we can’t call Steven in Australia because it’s eleven p.m. over there, and we don’t have our cell phones. Not only that, we don’t have cars to drive home.”
“Steven’s in Australia now?” asked Charles.
“He’s working on his PhD in astrophysics. Claims he’s studying under one of the top guys in the world.” Brian couldn’t hide the pride in his voice.
Dr. Sanders burst through the door, a facemask hanging from one ear and grey hair askew on the top of his head. “Okay, Charles, what’s the story on this kid? How are we going to explain him if he dies? It was hard enough coming up with a convincing story when we had Graely and Jireo in here, but at least they were alive.”
“Do you really think he won’t make it?” Alora spoke in a wobbly voice.