“What in the Seven Circles,” she said to herself, watching him incredulously.
Aiden blinked, shrugging and half-heartedly waving one of his hands. “Um, hello Nurse Bandari. Is everything okay?”
The nurse immediately put her handful of bed linens on an empty bed and bustled over to him. “Well, I should certainly say it isn’t, young man. A very large and very heavy barrel struck you square on your head. Truthfully we were worried you would be dead by morning, yet here you are looking around like a baby Chivnel with a fresh apple.” She put her hand to his head lightly, then looked deeply into his eyes one after the other, pulling his lower eyelids down as she did. “How do you feel? You look like you’re feeling fine but that can’t be.”
“I was hit by that barrel?” Aiden asked, looking confused. “I…I don’t even have a headache. Where did it strike me? Maybe it just mostly missed?”
Nurse Bandari eyed him darkly and shook her head, standing back up and staring at him with her hands on her hips. “Aiden, you had a dent in your head. A dent. You should have been unconscious for quite a few more days instead of just waking up as if you’d taken a cat nap.” Her eyes narrowed, and she began wagging her finger in his face. “This isn’t some of your wizardries is it, because, if it is, you are being completely unfair to the rest of the patients and giving me a heart attack in the process?”
Aiden watched her with growing alarm. “No! No, I mean I don’t think so. I didn’t do anything on purpose, at least.”
She squinted her eye and leaned forward. “No magic pill or some potion?”
Aiden shook his head emphatically. “No, Ma’am.”
She leaned back, continuing to frown at him as if she expected him to turn into a fish. “Very well, I’m going to go get the doctor now. You had best be here when I return. No,” she waved her hands in the air, wiggling her fingers, “Hocus-pocus or disappearing. I will hunt you down and drag you back here if I must.”
Aiden nodded again and then tucked himself in under the blanket as he peeked over the covers, watching her walk away. As she left, Glowby slowly floated up from under his bed, catching Aiden’s attention.
“Fat lot of good you were,” Aiden said, eyeing his friend.
Glowby winked and dimmed apologetically, giving his version of a shrug. Aiden just snorted and wrinkled up his nose though he didn’t hold that face for long. It's not as if Glowby could have done anything to help him. Still, his momentary grumpiness made him feel better despite being completely illogical.
“So what do you think happened, Glowby,” Aiden asked quietly. “Why would I feel fine? She said I had a dent in my head.” He looked over at his softly flickering companion. “Do you think it had something to do with that place we were? That other realm?”
Glowby flared a bright, sky-blue and then bobbed, confirming Aiden’s guess.
“So, somehow I was healed. My whole body felt like it was tingling. Is that why you took me there last night? Or part of the reason? Gods, I wish you could talk.”
Glowby flared again, and Aiden could feel his friend’s agreement. After his confirmation, Glowby moved towards Aiden and settled on his chest, slipping into a darker, melancholy blue.
“I was going to die then. That barrel did get me.” Aiden settled deeper into his pillow, digesting the information. It felt right, and Glowby flickered a few times in response as well. He had almost died or should have if his friend hadn’t taken action. Aiden looked again at his friend and sent him warm waves of gratitude, making him brighten.
“So that’s something to keep in mind. I’m sure healing can come in handy just as long as I don’t turn into one of those floating things.” Aiden said, watching as his friend became even brighter. Aiden nodded to himself. It was something handy, and maybe he could tap into that somehow? He desperately needed to talk to Professor Reivus. He’d never heard of anything like this from the glimmer man, but in all his thousands of years of life surely he had learned something about it.
Aiden watched as Nurse Bandari appeared, followed by a few more nurses and a couple of doctors. All of them were looking at him incredulously, and he groaned inwardly. Before he could do anything, he had to get out of the infirmary and with the way they were looking at him, he began to doubt his ability to escape.
The doctors and nurses came over to him, poking and prodding at him carefully as they grilled him on how he felt. He withstood their intrusions as patiently as he could. If he’d come in here with a dent in his skull, he couldn’t fault their worry.
Finally, they decided to undo the bandages from around his head. Aiden grimaced when he saw them caked with blood. It looked terrible and he realized why they had been worried.
“My goodness, there’s not even a scar,” the man said before looking at Aiden. “You say it doesn’t hurt at all?”
Aiden nodded silently, watching as Glowby circled the doctor’s heads and bathed them with a dull blue light. He suspected Glowby was somehow trying to influence them in some fashion but wasn’t sure in what way.
Another doctor, a large woman with a kind face was taking notes but looked up after a moment. “Is there any sign of indentation or weakness of the bone?”
The first man shook his head, pressing more aggressively against Aiden’s scalp. “No, nothing at all. There’s a fading burn, but It is not anywhere near where the injury had been. It was not there last night. Perhaps it was a scrap that took time to reveal itself,” the doctor said doubtfully.
Aiden recalled that was where one of the floater's tentacles had brushed him though he wasn’t about to tell them about his trip. That would lead to many more questions, some of which he was sure he didn’t have the answers.
“I think we should do some tests for memory, at least,” the female doctor said, frowning. “And keep him for observation. We need to find out what healed him.”
The first doctor nodded though Aiden paled a bit. He didn’t want to be trapped here for several days, not with so much to do and he needed to talk to Professor Reivus.
A sudden commotion at the front of the large infirmary building distracted the doctors and nurses, though Aiden couldn’t see what was causing it. However, he could hear the voices coming in through the door. It sounded like the Duke.
“I don’t care, dammit! Get me inside quickly. Why didn’t you bring the boy to the castle with me? Just because Stelios and I were unconscious doesn’t mean you all have to lose your heads.”
One of the doctors moved, allowing Aiden to see as the Duke limped into the hall. He was using crutches and trying to push through the door as quickly as possible, hitting his cast wrapped leg against the door jam in the process. Several guards were following the cursing man along with one of his doctors, bringing up the rear. Aiden couldn’t help but grin at the sight.
When the Duke finally stopped cursing, he began barking orders. “Find him for me, quickly! We need to get him to the medibed as quickly as possible. I swear, if he’s dead, I’m going to become very inventive with punishments. Move!”
The guards and doctor quickly moved past the Duke, two moving toward the group of doctors surrounding Aiden, probably figuring they would be the best bet for finding their target. As they came up, one stopped and began talking to Nurse Bandari, but the other spotted Aiden quickly.
“He’s here! I found him!” the guard said excitedly. “By the Seven Circles,” he gasped, blinking in surprise.
“What? What happened? Is he ok? Is he dead?” Aiden heard a groan from the big man as he began to hobble towards his bed. “By the Gods, if he’s dead Ahnarad will have my head, and then Dame Tenadine will have the rest. Damn fool boy, jumping in front of a wagon like that.” He stopped in shock as he laid eyes on Aiden.
The doctor with Valeran pushed in after him, raising his bushy eyebrows in confusion. “What’s going on? This boy isn’t injured.”
The Duke blinked and then gave an accusatory glance at one of the guards. “I thought you said he was injured.”
&nb
sp; The man swallowed and blinked, nodding. “Yes, sir, as honest as I’m standing here. After removing the barrels, he was laying there with his head looking off. We sent some men up to the infirmary here, and the stretchers came. They said he was bad off, and that he probably wouldn’t live, sir.”
The Duke continued to frown, looking at Nurse Bandari who was standing next to him. She nodded, wringing her hands a bit but brave enough to answer. “Yes, Your Grace, the soldier is right. Aiden was sorely injured. I’ve not seen many survive an injury like that, sir.”
The large, female doctor interjected then, stepping next to the Nurse and speaking to both the Duke and the doctor that had accompanied him. “It is true. There was a large dent in his skull. We were not expecting him to survive the night. Nurse Bandari just found him like this, and we were examining him. There’s not even a scar or sign of his injury. We wanted to keep him for observation for a few days and try to figure out what healed him.”
Aiden got a pained look on this face which the Duke noticed. “Doctor Heken, can you check him out?” the Duke asked, watching as the curly headed man moved forward and began another round of poking and prodding.
Aiden withstood it stoically, but when the inspection was complete, Doctor Heken turned. “There’s no sign of injury other than this odd rash on his scalp. I found others on his back and leg, but they don’t look serious and certainly don’t look like they come from being assaulted by a wooden barrel. Are you sure you saw them strike him?”
Duke Valeran nodded. “Yes. Stelios and I were both rushing forward to try to pull him back. We saw one of the barrels strike him square on the head before the rest landed on us.”
Doctor Heken sniffed, “I’ll have to take your word for it, Your Grace. I do second these doctors recommendations, however. If what you say is true, we should watch him closely.”
“We can do it at the Castle, then.” Duke Valeran said, flicking a glance towards Aiden’s hopeful face.
“Of course, in fact, I would suggest it,” Doctor Heken said, looking at his counterparts. “No insult intended, but we do have more resources in the castle than you have available here.”
The two other doctors looked at each other but agreed. “It would not bother us at all. Honestly, he should have died here. We’d rather that didn’t happen. We can have a stretcher team take him to the castle with you?”
“I can walk,” Aiden interjected, not wanting to be paraded through the school grounds on a stretcher. “I’m not even dizzy or have a headache.”
“You’ll never convince them enough, Aiden,” Duke Valeran said. “Healers don’t like to take chances. Just let them use the stretcher. It will save you a lot of talking.”
Aiden blew a breath out and didn’t bother to mention that the Duke had done just that. However, it didn’t take long to load him in a stretcher. One of the younger nurses picked up his things from a storeroom and Aiden was relieved to see his stuff. There were a few things in there that he was sure people would find valuable, and after making sure they were all there, he allowed the guard to carry it for him. The trip back to the castle didn’t take long, and as they passed through the entrance, Gavin came up with a worried look on his face.
“Father? Did you find him?”
Duke Valeran nodded, continuing to stump along on his crutches. “Yes, and don’t be too surprised but you’ll notice he’s wide awake and bright as a bush chipper. The boy has more lives than Lord Dolgren.”
Gavin looked in surprise at the stretcher, seeing Aiden watching him as they carried him past. His smile quickly exploded onto his handsome face as he moved over to his friend. “Aiden? Father said a barrel had smashed you and it was just lucky you weren’t already haunting him. Do you remember what happened?”
Aiden looked up at his friend. “Yes, or at least I think I do. I remember seeing the barrel coming towards me, but there was nothing I could do about it. It happened too fast. Then nothing.”
Gavin looked as his Father in confusion, but Duke Valeran only shrugged. “I have no clue. Trust me; those barrels were plenty big enough to hurt. Our armored shirts saved Stelios and me, but I got a broken leg for the trouble, and Stelios hit his head on the street. Bad luck that. I didn’t even know Aiden hadn’t come in with us until this morning. We’re taking him down to the medibed room right now to check him out.”
Gavin tagged along with them as they made their way down into the bowels of the castle, going to the lower rooms Aiden knew were under the edifice. They ended up in a large room that resembled the infirmary. It had a strange mix of too-clean rounded edged furniture that survived from ancient times and handmade wood and metal.
Aiden knew that Terek Castle was one of the single largest ancient artifacts to survive the Cataclysm. It had, to him, been visibly damaged in the past with some of the walls on the upper floors replaced with current day glimmer steel, but was still mostly intact. He also knew that under the castle was a maze of rooms and hallways. Most of which he hadn’t seen. All of it was ancient glimmer steel, but this was the first time he’d ever seen the part of the castle where they stored the medibed, and he was impressed.
He was taken to a door on the far wall that whisked open, triggered by a flat panel one of the orderlies touched. Beyond it was a strange object that looked like a large bed inset within a half-cylinder. At the top and above where it looked like a patient rested their head were several thick rings. He didn’t have a clue what their function might be, but he was nervous when they picked him up and laid him on the soft material.
“Okay, Aiden, now just relax. All we’re going to do is have the bed tell us if it can find anything wrong with you,” Doctor Heken said kindly. The man had long, just-beginning-to-gray curly hair but kept it tied behind him. He pointed to the rings above Aiden’s head. “Those will start moving when I began the procedure. There will be some lights, but nothing bright enough to bother your eyes. The rings will move down your body and then back up. That’s it. Nothing to worry about.”
Aiden gave the Doctor a nervous look but nodded. He’d seen enough strange things that he wasn’t going to let himself worry too much. He watched as the doctor stepped back and pushed on a panel that floated up in front of him. It resembled some of the bridge stations in the Skywitch, and Aiden wasn’t surprised when the bed he was laying on began to hum softly, and the rings started to move.
Just as the doctor said, the rings first moved down over his body. There were three of them with one stopping over just over his head, the second over his waist and the third under his hips. They were large enough that they didn’t make him feel claustrophobic, so he was fine just to lay there. After a few moments, they began moving again, each ring rotating a dull blue light over a different part of his body.
Whatever they were doing took about ten minutes, and when they completed several cycles, the lights turned off, and the three rings all moved up to their rest position above the bed.
Aiden watched as the doctor continued to do things on the floating panel. The doctor’s frown worried Aiden. As each minute passed, the doctor’s face looked more and more perplexed. Glowby floated over to the doctor, flickering with curiosity and hovering as if reading over his shoulder. If Glowby wasn’t worried, Aiden knew he didn’t need to be as well.
Gavin leaned against the medibed. “Well, your visit with the medibed is better than the last time I had to be in here, or so I’m told.”
Aiden nodded, remembering their mad flight from the pirate ship with the injured and unconscious Gavin laying in the bottom of his small skimmer. It had been a terrible time, and they’d all been afraid he was going to die. Still, Aiden recalled that he hadn’t had a huge dent in his head, so wondered how close to death he’d been.
“Yeah, you were pretty bad. I’m glad we got back here in time.” Aiden looked around, poking at the padded sides of the medibed he was laying in. “This thing is odd, how does it heal you?”
“Oh, well, be glad you don’t need it,” Gavin said, “Thi
ngs on long, spindly arms come out of each of those rings. Some of them are very pointy. I remember once when I was young, I had a cut over my eye. They brought me in here to have it stitched up, but the minute I saw all these things come folding out of the rings, I panicked. They had to hold me down and put a burlap bag over my face with a hole where the cut was.” Gavin shuddered, “it didn’t hide everything, and I still remember seeing this needle coming towards my eye. Ugh. Not fun.”
Aiden wrinkled up his face and looked back up at the rings. “Did it hurt?”
Gavin shook his head. “Nope. Not even a little but that wasn’t the point. Needles coming at your eye is enough. It took Father to hold my head still while it finished up.”
Doctor Heker came over, followed by Duke Valeran as they interrupted Gavin’s story. “Well, Lord Aiden, I’ve got some interesting news.”
Both of the boys turned, paying attention to the doctor. The man cleared his throat and then tilted his head. “It appears you were injured exactly as had been described, but the medibed also says you’ve completely healed from it. It’s classifying it as a fatal injury and a non-existent one. I’m not exactly sure what to make of it.”
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 70
