Worlds Apart (19 page)

Five minutes later, he fell again,
and stayed down, giving in to the demands of the moon. His shaking
form curled into a ball of fur, long nose tucked into burned and
bleeding forepaws.

For a time, he rested, licking his
sores. Then he raised his snout, sniffing the air. Meat. The moon's
rage stirred within him and he howled to her presence. He stood,
yelping with pain, and began picking his way across the ground,
following the smell. He stopped when he saw the building, but
stayed within the protection of the trees. There was no sound, no
movement. He smelled goblins. His fur stiffened along his neck as
he crept forward, crossing the clearing with slow limps, shaking
with rage.

His nose told him part of the
story. Blood was drying in the metal box and the odor of singed
flesh still hung in the air. Goblins lay on the ground, alive, but
not moving.

He growled, uneasy, smelling fear,
danger, and hate. He wasn't safe here. But these creatures were
food. One of the bodies stirred, rustling against the dirt and
leaves. He growled once, and leaped.

Chapter 21

Tina kept pressure on the inside
of her elbow, watching as Shandari placed a drop of her blood under
the microscope. She had expected to have to explain the microscope
and how to draw a blood sample, but Shandari assured her they used
similar equipment in Kaarmanesh.

“It's true that I can See into a
body, and amplify the components of blood and bone for thorough
viewing,” the healer had told Tina, “but what if the patient is not
physically present? Healers often consult with each other, and in
that case, we need to share samples. I'm quite familiar with
obtaining a blood sample.”

Shandari had needed just a brief
description of the test tubes for storage of the blood, before
nodding and deftly inserting the needle into Tina's arm. She was
done before Tina counted to ten, and now Tina waited with a tapping
toe for her first glimpse of the werewolf component. The
Kaarmaneshians called it a
vyra-stribdal
. Shandari assured
her it was in her blood, a by-product of her baby’s disease. From
the front office, Tina heard the murmur of Kasia's voice, as the
captain organized a search for the missing werewolf. She commanded
a small army of magical beings, most of them invisible to human
eyes, and sent them about with quick instructions, some to search
the forest, others to remain as guards for the town.

“That's it.” Shandari straightened
and stepped away from the scope. She waited with folded hands, her
eyes acknowledging Tina's reluctance.

Despite the fact she'd been
longing for this moment, Tina wasn’t sure she wanted to see it. The
click of Kasia's shoes as she paced the front office seemed to echo
in the small laboratory. Tina shrugged off her aversion, and
stepped up to the microscope.

It was impossible to miss.
Outlined in purple, hundreds of the stringy
vyra-stribdal
floated in her blood sample.

“There is no doubt they are
vyra-stribdal
,” Shandari said over Tina's shoulder. “But do
you see that one end is jagged, while the other is straight?” Tina
nodded, unable to take her eyes from the microscope.

“In normal
vyra-stribdal
,
both ends are jagged. During the full moon, the ends meet up with
each other to form colonies. This precipitates the Change. I
suspect your fetus started with normal
vyra-stribdal
, but
your body has produced a defense against them. In addition to the
straight end, the jagged end of your
vyra-stribdal
is
asymmetrical. The ends no longer match with each other, and cannot
join at all.”

A catch in Shandari's voice made
Tina glance up. Shandari was staring at her.

“Do you understand what this
means?” the healer whispered.

Tina sat back, taking a deep
breath that she was unable to release for a moment. When she did,
she stood with the force of it. “You think it's a cure.”

“I think it can point the way to
one,” Shandari said. “I don't understand it yet. But if you are
willing, we can study it.”

“Study me. Study my
baby.”

“Yes.”

Tina turned away, but stopped when
her glance fell on the microscope. She pointed at the slide. “Did
these
vyra-stribdal
come from the fetus? Or from Clive
Winslow?”

“Are you asking if they are
transmitted sexually?” Shandari shook her head. “No, the werewolf
disease is only transmitted through a bite when the were is in wolf
form. Even if Clive bit you, it would not infect you if he was in
human form.”

“Yet I'm infected.”

“Not precisely. The
vyra-stribdal
in your blood are from the fetus. They are not
reproducing in your body, just his. Your body is producing the
antivyra-stribdal
, which in turn are infecting the fetus,
and keeping him from Changing.”

Tina stared at the ceiling,
thinking of the full moon hidden behind the clouds. “His
vyra-stribdal
are not joining together? None of them? Will
you look again?”

Shandari’s eyes sparked into
Seeing mode and she gazed into Tina's womb. She smiled as her eyes
returned to normal. “None of them. They are more active than usual,
but are unable to fit with each other. It is really amazing to
See.”

“What if a few are able to join?
What will happen?”

Shandari shook her head. “Again, I
don't know, Tina. There has never been a case of a partial Change
occurring. The Change happens very quickly once it starts—a matter
of minutes. The changes begin internally as the
vyra-stribdal
affect nearby tissues. If your fetus should
experience a partial Change…,” She pursed her lips as she paused to
think it through. Tina waited, her own thoughts too disturbing to
pursue.

Shandari shook her head again. “A
small change might be reversible. But I don’t know how much is too
much. This is all new ground for us.”

“He could die,” Tina said, her
hand on her stomach.

“You know I would do everything in
my power to save him,” Shandari said softly. “But yes. Until we
know more, every full moon is a grave danger for your
baby.

Chapter 22

Clive floated on soft warmth, his
mind resting in an oblivious innocence. He felt time pass in dreamy
darkness, and turned further in, longing to remain. When light
probed at the edges of his dream, he resisted, wanting to stay
hidden from pain. But it was no good—the light brightened, drawing
his mind upward to conscious thought and awareness. His body buzzed
with the remembrance of intense pain and fear. He kept his eyes
closed, and evaluated his circumstances.

He lay on something soft. A bed. A
blanket covered him, its warmth pressing gently against his skin. A
clean smell of astringent accompanied his breath, and he became
aware of a hand holding his on top of the blanket. In the last
moments of waking, he found himself wishing it was Tina’s hand. He
wished he would see her when he opened his eyes.

He was disappointed, but not
surprised, to see Shandari instead. A light reflected off her dark
skin as she squeezed his hand and smiled. He tried to respond, but
instead just closed his eyes again, his mind drifting.

“You gave us quite a scare,”
Shandari said, her soft voice drawing him back. This time he was
able to keep his eyes open. Her fingers rested on his arm, where
his pulse pushed fretful beats against them.

He licked his lips and tried to
speak, managing after a gentle cough. “Glad I wasn't the only one
who was scared.”

A snort to his left made him turn
his head in that direction. Kasia sat on a stool, lips pursed and
foot knocking against his bed as she glared at him. “Got in over
your head this time, Winslow?”

He swallowed again. “Something
like that.” His voice was rough and Shandari held a glass of water
for him. He drank, then squeezed his eyes shut, trying to
think.

“I was in a cage. Those damn
goblins... I got out, but I don't remember how.” He struggled to
sit up, stopping with a jerk as pain lanced through his
back.

“Not yet,” Shandari said, pushing
against his shoulder. “I want those burns to heal more before you
move around and tear the new skin.”

He stared at Kasia. “What did I
do?”

She folded her arms over her
chest, a finger tapping against her tricep. “Near as I can tell,
you defended yourself. There will be an inquiry, of course. I'm
afraid you're on leave until it's settled.”

At least he wasn't in jail,
although that could be because of his injuries. In fact, he was
lucky his rescuers hadn't killed him outright. He suspected Kasia
had been among them for the specific reason of making sure they
didn't.

“You killed those goblins.”
Kasia's voice was devoid of emotion or judgment as she said this,
and Clive winced.
All four of them?

“They had me locked in a cage,” he
said. “They tortured me for hours. By the time I got away, the
Change was starting.” He rubbed his forehead, trying to remember.
“I couldn't get to an enclave.”

Kasia sighed. “I know that, Clive.
I think the evidence, and your own injuries, will prove what
happened there. But we'll have a hard time with the restriction
crowd. They'll say we had no right allowing you out alone so close
to the full moon. That your duties should be restricted to…
oh
fuck-a-pixie
. You already know what they'll say.”

He nodded, staring at the ceiling
to keep from seeing Kasia's disappointment. His throat
burned.

“Can I have more water?” he asked,
and Shandari held it out. He sipped through the straw, surprised at
how his hands shook when he tried to grasp the glass.

“You have several burns,” Shandari
said. “Your internal organs were practically poached meat. I've
healed your injuries to the point where they can reconstitute
themselves. We'll have another session tomorrow.”

Clive touched her hand in thanks.
She'd used her empathic skills to take his injuries into her own
body, where her enhanced immune system could eradicate them. This
accelerated his healing, but it was dangerous to the healer and had
to be done in stages. They reserved the treatment for the worst
injuries.

“We have another problem,” Kasia
said. She exchanged a glance with Shandari, and Clive drew inward
in sudden fear. Had he hunted innocent people after killing the
goblins?

No, surely not. Not even Kasia
would let him live if he'd done that. But he couldn’t stop
trembling as he waited for her to say more.

She stood, pacing the few steps to
the end of his bed and back again. “Tina Cassidy,” she
said.

Clive stared at her, his mind
refusing to settle on a coherent thought. “What?”

Kasia shook her head, a short,
impatient gesture. “The Flatlands woman you slept with.”

“I know who she is, Kasia.” Clive
tried to understand what Tina had to do with anything. He
remembered the pixies then, and gripped his blanket. “Is she all
right? Did she get pixie-sick?”

“No. She's fine, Clive.” Kasia
leaned forward, her face a few inches above his, as she repeated
her words in a clipped voice. “She's. Fine. Remember that. Alive.
And. Well.” Kasia straightened. “What she is, Clive, is pregnant.
With your baby.”

He couldn't look away from her,
unable to make sense of her words. He forced himself to sit up,
pushing Shandari’s hand away when she tried to stop him. His back
oozed warm fluid, which he ignored. He opened his mouth to say
something, but couldn't figure out what. He closed it to think,
then tried again.

“Make sense, Kasia.
Please.”

Kasia sighed and sank back onto
the stool. “This will take time. Lie down like a good patient and
shut up until I'm done.”

He obeyed, feeling as he did in
those hazy moments just before waking, when nothing was real. What
the
hell
was Kasia talking about?

She told him. When she finished,
his mind settled on two warring truths:

Tina was carrying his
child.

The werewolf was free in the
Flatlands.

~~

“How soon can I talk to her?”
Clive reclined in the bed, unable to accept Kasia's story while
lying down. His mind was a whirl of emotions, but his body had sunk
into lethargy, nailing him into place.

“She doesn't want to talk to you,
Clive.” Kasia sounded weary, too.

“Yes, you said that. But I don't
understand why.”

Kasia and Shandari exchanged a
glance and his patience snapped.

“Dammit, I
don't
understand
why! I think she had a good time. The only problem came up right at
the end, when I said we couldn't get together again. She was a bit
upset, but she said she understood.”

Shandari sat on the bed and lifted
his hand into her lap. “But you see, I think that's the problem.
She hasn't said much about it, but I think she felt a connection
with you. She
liked
you, Clive, and wanted to see you again,
as you said. She was hurt when you turned her down.”