Shaman, Healer, Heretic (25 page)

“Min!” she yelled into the wind. “Min!”

But the words were whipped away by the gale. Min could have been standing next to her and not heard a sound.

Where was she?

She looked up to the sky. Tiamat was getting nearer, even in the gale. Then she saw Kam, a tiny white speck compared to Tiamat, as he went sailing past her. He was nearly tumbling in the wind, completely out of control. Livvy knew, though, that if she backed off the wind Tiamat would be on them.

Livvy ran up the small hill in front of her and finally spotted Min, who had also seen Tiamat–for the first time. The terror that accompanied that sight had frozen her. Beyond Min, Livvy could see that Tiamat had managed the impossible and was starting to land.

Oh no
. As soon as Tiamat was on the ground, the gale would be useless. Livvy watched in disbelief as Tiamat slowly lowered her head against the wind, sank, and gently touched down. As though in triumph, she raised her beak to the sky and shrieked.

Min knelt on the ground now with her hands over her ears. Livvy flashed on her own first encounter with Tiamat and how it had paralyzed her. As she watched, Tiamat furled her wings and hunkered low against the gale, to Livvy’s left. The fountain, reachable if she ran directly for it, was to her right. Min knelt between the two. The choice was clear. As the ground began to shudder, Livvy charged down the hill to Min. Just as she reached her, the shadow of Tiamat covered them. Min screamed as Livvy grabbed her from behind.

“Get up,” Livvy yelled. “Run!”

She jerked Min off the ground, even as it seemed to tip and shake with Tiamat’s approach. Livvy started to run, dragging Min with her, heading into the gale. Finally, the fountain came into sight. Livvy half-turned to look behind her, still dragging Min. A light was coming from Tiamat’s eye.

“No!” she screamed, remembering the white circle of heat on her chest.

Suddenly, Kam swooped from the sky, lunging at the eye. Tiamat, caught by surprise, ducked her great head and snapped her enormous beak at Kam, who flitted chaotically out of reach.

“Kam!” Min screamed, breaking free from Livvy’s grip.

“No, Min!” she yelled.

Kam dove again at Tiamat, who was ready for him this time. As he neared her unmoving head, she whipped her tail through the air and flicked him away. Kam was hurled into the distance as Tiamat turned her attention back in Livvy’s direction.

“Kam!” Min screamed, and Tiamat turned her eye toward her.

A faint circle of light appeared on Min’s legs.

Livvy looked up to the sky, stretched up her hand and tilted her head back.

“Lightning,” she whispered.

She felt the arc pass over her. In moments, there was a crackling explosion and the smell of ozone. The concussion of the blast knocked her backwards. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Tiamat had backed away and raised up on her hind legs, shrieking and buffeted by the wind.

In her panic, Livvy had missed Tiamat entirely and nearly brought the lightning down on herself. But where was Min? As her eyes darted around in a frantic search, a horrible thought filled her mind.
Had the lightning landed on Min
?

No! There she was, next to the crater that the lightning had created, but she wasn’t moving.
Oh gods, no, please no!
Livvy rushed to her and turned her over. Although her face and chest were red, she was alive. Her dazed eyes looked up at Livvy. There was no time for relief, though. Livvy grabbed her arms and started hauling backwards.

Tiamat looked at the crater and then up to the clouds, as if watching for another strike. It was just enough time for Livvy to make one last push. She pumped her leaden legs, afraid to stop even when she hit the fountain with her back. Although her hands and arms screamed in agony, Livvy clutched Min to her chest and shoved with her legs. With a final heave, her back scraped up and over the lip of the fountain. As Tiamat screeched, Livvy and Min tipped over the edge into the water.

The blackness swirled around them but surfacing in the black lake of the Middleworld was taking too long. Still holding Min, Livvy struggled in the dark water not able to tell which way was up or down. She felt Min being pulled away, tried to tighten her grip. Her arm felt like it might be pulled from the socket and her fingers seemed about to break and finally, she couldn’t hold on any longer. The darkness had closed in.
 

IN THE REAL world, Livvy’s body spasmed. SK clenched his phone so hard the plastic cracked.

“Come on, Liv,” he muttered. “Come on.”

“Clear,” said Joel, as his partner raised his hands.

Again, her body jerked upward.

“I’ve got a steady pulse,” said Joel as Livvy sucked in a huge breath of air.

“Thank the gods,” said SK, closing his eyes and exhaling.

He had called 911 the minute he realized that something was going wrong on the other side. Livvy seemed to alternately hold her breath and then breathe heavily. Min was doing the same. By the time the paramedics showed up Livvy had just stopped breathing, although Min seemed to be doing better. Then, Livvy’s pulse had started to get thready.

“Livvy,” said Joel. “Livvy, can you hear me?”

She opened her eyes with great effort.

“Yes,” she managed to croak, her lips parched.

A fireman came through the open front door, rolling a gurney.

“Right over here,” said Joel’s partner.

Although Min had seemed all right when they checked her vitals, she was unconscious, as though she were deeply sedated. A couple of firemen had already transported her downstairs.

As SK watched, the emergency crew moved Livvy to the new gurney, which was now collapsed to ground level.

“On three,” said Joel’s partner. “One, two, three.”

SK came up on the tips of his toes, subconsciously helping them as they lifted her over and set her down.

“Is she gonna be all right?” he asked, once they’d finished.

“I think she’s going to be fine,” said Joel as he packed up.

“SK?” Livvy squeaked, as the gurney was raised with a metal ratcheting sound.

He quickly moved to her side and looked into her eyes.

“Hey, you” he said.

“Min?” she asked, trying to raise her head.

“Min is all right, but unconscious.”

“What happened?” asked Livvy, laying her head back with a thump, not having enough strength to keep it up.

Joel placed a blanket over her and started securing the straps.

“Your friend here called 911,” he said. “I think you went into ventricular fibrillation right after we arrived.”

“No, I mean…”

But there was no time for her to finish the question. They were on their way out.
 

BY THE TIME they reached the emergency room Livvy was wide-awake, but wished she wasn’t. Not only was her head throbbing, she was getting more worried by the minute.

“Where did they take Min?” she asked SK.

“Upstairs but I don’t know where.”

“Is she all right?”

“I don’t think so,” he said honestly.

He looked awful, tired and, Livvy realized, scared.

“All right, let’s go,” she said, sitting up.

Her head felt like it could split.

“Oh,” she said, holding a hand to her temple.

“Could you just sit back for a minute?” yelled SK. “You nearly died an hour ago.”

Livvy sat back, staring at him.

“I don’t know what I would have done if the paramedics hadn’t shown up when they did,” he said, his voice shaking. “What in the hell happened over there?”

Livvy took in a long breath and slowly exhaled. “It was strange,” she began.

Then she recounted the interaction with Min, the encounter with Tiamat, and the struggle to get back to the real world. SK listened and nodded stiffly.

“You were breathing heavy, both of you,” he said. “And then you started twitching. That’s when I started to get nervous.”

He ran a hand over his face.

“I checked your pulse,” he said, looking at her wrist. “It was erratic. Min’s pulse was slowing. That’s when I called 911. Then I pulled off the goggles.”

Livvy had never heard what she looked like when she was on the other side. Twitching? She remembered trying to rise through the water and being separated from Min. Had that been when he’d pulled off the goggles?

“By the time the paramedics got there your pulse was thready, almost non-existent.” His focus had turned inward with the memory. “They had to shock you to get your heart beating right.”

“What happened to Min?” she asked quietly.

“I don’t know. She never stopped breathing and her pulse was never erratic, but she…she wouldn’t wake up.” He paused and then slowly shook his head. “Gods, I could use a cigarette,” he muttered. “I knew it was the wrong thing to do, and I did it anyway. I said it myself, the rules are there for a reason.”

Mamacita’s words came back to Livvy then. Even the Multiverse has its rules, she’d said. Shamans who violate those rules take a risk.

She sat up slowly and, as SK was about to complain, she gently held up a hand.

“I can’t sit here and not know what’s going on with Min.”

“I wish you’d just wait for the doctor,” he said, coming over to help her as she swung her legs over.

“Shamans make the worst patients,” she said, steadying herself with a hand on his shoulder.
 

• • • • •

“You’re the friends who came in with her?” asked the nurse as she tucked the sheets out of the way of the catheter tubing.

“Yeah,” Livvy said, looking at Min. It had taken her and SK nearly thirty minutes to track her down. What they found when they arrived wasn’t good.

“Is she in a coma?” asked Livvy.

The nurse paused and looked at her.

“Are either of you family members?” she asked. “No,” said Livvy, knowing there was no point in lying.

When the nurse looked away, Livvy realized she already knew the answer to the question. In her hospital gown, without a respirator, Min looked like she was sleeping, like she might wake up at any moment. Livvy watched her face intently, hoping in spite of herself that she’d do just that. She gently took Min’s hand in her own, feeling its warmth. But as Livvy remembered the dark water and Min’s hand slipping away, the attack by Tiamat, and how strange everything had seemed recently, she sensed that it would take more than the usual trip to the Multiverse to rescue her friend. Even so, Min was on the other side somewhere in need of help and Livvy wasn’t going to let her down–again.

“How is she?” said a voice from behind her.

Startled, she looked up. Joel had come into the room. She hadn’t heard him. SK had taken a seat and the nurse had left.

“Not too good,” she said, looking back down at Min.

Joel came over and stood next to her. “And how are you?”

“Fine,” she said, still staring at Min.

“Well, I kind of doubt that. Then again, I couldn’t believe you had left the ER.”

Livvy couldn’t take her eyes off Min’s face.

“Well, the reason I came up here was to see if I could give you a ride home.”

Livvy sighed and, as she exhaled, she felt a tiredness that seemed to run down into the soles of her feet.

“There’s nothing you can do here, Liv,” said SK. “You should go home. We all should.”

She heard the fatigue in his voice and saw it in the droop of his face. It had been a long day. It seemed like a lifetime ago that they had been in Watts but it had only been that morning.

“Yeah,” she said finally. “We should go.”

“I can give your little friend here a ride too.”

“Her little friend is named SK,” said SK, hopping down from the chair. “And he’s got his own ride.” He looked at Livvy. “You want me to take you home?”

Livvy felt the tension in the room.
Oh please
.
This is the last thing I need.

In fact, what she really wanted to do was to close out this awful day with SK, talk to him about everything that had happened, try to understand. As she looked at him, though, she realized that he was nearly dead on his feet despite being mad at the moment.

“You need to go home, SK,” she said, doing her best to smile at him. “Joel can take me home. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

SK threw a quick glare at Joel, then he turned a softer look on Livvy. “All right, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

He gave Min a last look and then was out the door. Livvy also found herself staring at Min again, until Joel took her arm.

“If you don’t get home and lay down, you’ll fall down. Let’s go.”
 

JOEL INSISTED ON walking her up to the apartment. It was dark outside and, although there was usually no parking on the street, he pulled his truck into the red zone and parked.

“But aren’t you …” Livvy started.