D. MacHale - Raven Rise

“When will we know?” I asked.

“Every moment he stays alive, his chances for survival increase” was Telleo’s professional answer. “We’ll see if he makes it through the night, and then reevaluate in the morning.”

She sat down and put her arm around me. I didn’t fight her. She clicked out of professional mode and into friend mode. “This is hard, especially with Siry gone,” she said with compassion. “I know how much Loque meant to him.”

“Loque helped save Ibara,” I said.

“We’ll do all we can to save him,” Telleo assured me.

She held me tighter. I think she wanted me to hug her back, so I gave her a quick hug, but then pulled away and stood up. Telleo seemed a little surprised but didn’t say anything.

“Can I see him?” I asked.

“He’s sleeping. Better not disturb him.”

I nodded. “Okay. I’ll be back in the morning. I’m glad you’re here for him, Telleo. Siry would be happy about that.”

Telleo smiled. “I did all I could for the Jakills. You know that.”

I nodded, and left Tribunal Mountain to find a quiet spot near the beach to lie down and sleep. There was nothing I could do to help Loque. Knowing that he was in good hands, my mind went to the two words he’d said to me.

“They’re coming.”

Two simple words. What did they mean? Should I be worried? Or should I dismiss them as the fevered ramblings of a very sick guy? It was yet another reason why I didn’t want Loque to die. I had to know what he meant. I don’t know how long I lay there under the stars, rolling the possibilities around in my head. At some point I know I fell asleep, but that’s only because in the middle of the night I was suddenly shaken awake.

“Pendragon!” a frantic voice called. “Wake up! It’s Loque!”

I forced myself back to reality and looked up into the wild eyes of Twig.

“What?” I mumbled. “Is he awake?”

“He’s dying!” she shouted, and ran back toward Tribunal Mountain.

I was running before I was awake. I passed Twig and sprinted up the sand path toward the mountain. The village was asleep. Good thing. If anybody got in my way, I would have knocked ‘em down. I ran into the cave at the base of the mountain and sprinted through the tunnels, directly to the medical area. People were hurrying in and out of the cavern room where Loque was staying. Something was happening. I didn’t wait to get permission. I barged right in. Twig followed close behind.

Loque was surrounded by several medical people, including Telleo. He was leaning over the bed, being held up by two of the stronger-looking guys. I don’t know how else to say this so I’ll just say it straight out: He was puking. I mean seriously puking. Telleo had a hand on his forehead as his entire body shuddered with each heave.

“It’s okay,” Telleo said to him soothingly. “Let it go. You’ll feel better.”

Another doctor walked in. I grabbed him and said, “What happened?”

“Overdose” was the answer. “It’s a good thing one of the nurses checked on him. He was convulsing. We’ve induced the vomiting to clear out what we can. This is the last thing he needed.”

Overdose. How could that have happened? The poor guy was clinging to life. He relied on these doctors. To die because of getting too much medication was just…wrong.

After a few minutes Loque’s puking turned into the dry heaves. His stomach was empty, but his mind didn’t know it.

“Let’s lay him down,” Telleo instructed the others.

The medical personnel got him back onto the pillow. He lay on his back, breathing hard. Telleo looked across the room. We made eye contact. She shook her head gravely.

“Stay with him,” she ordered another one of the nurses, and went for the door.

“You too,” I said to Twig.

I followed Telleo and caught her outside.

“What happened?” I demanded.

Telleo looked as shaken as I felt. “I don’t know,” she said nervously. “Wrong dosage. Wrong medicine. It could have been anything.”

“That’s not good enough, Telleo!” I bellowed. “He deserves better than that.”

“I know!” Telleo shouted in tears. “I’m going to stay with him. Nobody will touch him but me. I’ll double-check everything the doctors do from now on.”

“Will there be a ‘from now on’?” I asked.

“We may have purged him in time. I can’t say for sure.”

This time I didn’t leave the mountain. I sat outside of Loque’s door and slept right there. If something was going to happen to him, I wanted to be close. I sent Twig home. There was no sense in both of us sleeping on rock. I was angry. Loque had been through hell. Mistakes can happen, but it didn’t seem fair that after all that, he should die because somebody made a dumb mistake. I wished there was somebody I could yell at, but nobody knew who was responsible. They said that it could have been anybody, or a combination of people. Or or or-it didn’t matter. Between Telleo and me, we were going to make sure that Loque was taken care of properly. Everything would be double-checked and second-guessed. How could they say no to me? I was on the tribunal!

I spent the rest of the night dozing in front of Loque’s doorway. The floor was hard rock. The wall was hard rock. There was nothing comfortable about it, but I wasn’t going to move. Whenever somebody tried to go into the room, I immediately woke up and asked what they were going to do. Some gave him medicine. Others were just checking to make sure he was okay. When morning came, I didn’t know it. I was out cold. Literally. The rock floor was freezing. It didn’t matter. I probably would have slept for a few more hours if one of the nurses hadn’t gently shaken me awake.

“Huh?” I gurgled.

“He wants to talk to you,” she said softly. “What? Who?”

“Who do you think?” she said with a smile.

The smile gave it away. I took a deep breath, rubbed my face, and jumped up to go inside. Loque was lying flat on his back. He didn’t look any more awake than he had on the beach. Had I just dreamed that the nurse asked me to come in?

“Pendragon?” came a hoarse whisper.

I ran to the side of the bed, my heart racing. “Don’t talk,” I said.

“I’m tired of not talking,” Loque said. “Can you give me a drink of water?”

I looked to the nurse who stood at the foot of the bed.

She nodded. I thought she was going to cry. I wasn’t sure if they were tears of joy, or grief that the guy was on his way out. I grabbed a small cup from the side of the bed and held it to his lips. Loque took a few small sips, coughed, but got most of it down.

“Thanks.” The little bit of water helped to clear his voice.

Loque had bandages over his eyes. His skin looked just as nasty and red as I’d remembered. The blisters from the sunburn were gruesome and painful looking. But he was alive. For how long I didn’t know. I struggled for words to say to him. There was so much I needed to know. All I got out was one simple question: “How?”

“You mean how come I’m not dead?”

I nodded, then realized he couldn’t see me. Idiot. “Yes,” I answered.

“Luck.”

I glanced back to the nurse. She didn’t need to hear any of this. “Can I talk to him alone?” I asked. The nurse hesitated, but she wasn’t about to say no to a member of the tribunal. It’s good to be a boss. She nodded and left.

I turned back to Loque. “The Flighters shot a cannon into the stained-glass wall,” I said, bringing us both back to the moment of truth.

“I figured it was something like that,” Loque whispered. “All I knew was that the whole world exploded. I looked up to see colors raining down on me. I wish I hadn’t.”

He slowly lifted his hand and touched one of his bandaged eyes. I winced. I couldn’t even imagine what that must have felt like.