A World To Lose

by Frances Ellen

  Though as Sky moved through the jungle, he quickly came to the conclusion that whoever it had been, wasn’t there anymore. Sky had learnt from Sophie that if the birds started singing again, and many of them were doing so, that that was nature’s way of saying whatever danger there had been, was there no longer.

  Sky’s search led him to spot a tree, to the right of which he could distinctly see a pair of legs lying on the ground. It was quite a bit further up ahead, and Sky used his magic to get closer faster. The other side of the tree led to a small clearing, but Sky had no eyes for the open space as he dropped down next to the Affinite Sky recognised as Percy Kelly’s wife.

  He’d seen her plenty of times before; there was no mistaking her. Eva Kelly was a very bland woman, with dull brown hair and not a very pretty face. Even in death her lips were pursed in such a way that made her look like she was harshly judging everyone around her, when she was probably just curiously and calmly looking around. Her brown eyes looked blankly up at the canopy above her.

  Sky reached out and closed her eyes. While he did this, he took in the rest of her body to see how she died. A wave of nausea swept through him as he looked. Kristjan had a single stab wound in his chest; the blade must have punctured his heart. Sky hadn’t seen any other injuries beyond that; the single attack had been excellently placed. Sky had almost been impressed if he briefly forgot it had been Disciples who had done this.

  Eva Kelly’s death was nothing like Kristjan’s. Her entire chest had been ripped open. Sky could see her broken ribs and shredded organs underneath. From his anatomy classes Sky could just about distinguish what remained of her heart and lungs. Her torso was so horrendously ripped to pieces that Sky could even see part of the woman’s spine underneath. And the smell…

  Sky felt bile rise in his throat and closed his eyes for a moment. He raised his head so that when he opened them again, he would see the clearing and no longer the butchered woman beneath him. For a moment he thought of Jillian. He remembered how she’d been laughing in the café down in Saluverus’ village. How was she going to react when she heard that her mother was dead? Would she want to see the body? Would Axel even tell her how horrendous the injuries were? Sky would make sure Jillian didn’t know. No one should see their mother like this.

  Sky swallowed once and opened his eyes.

  What he saw in the clearing wasn’t much better.

  Two more bodies lay lifelessly about thirty feet away from him. Sky was about to get up and go towards them when something caught his eye. On the other side of the two bodies, something was moving, and it didn’t look like an animal…

  A human leg. It was twitching.

  Sky was beside it in seconds, his Band glowing fiercely on his wrist. He reached the leg first, and only then looked up to see who it belonged to.

  “Percy!” Sky exclaimed as he recognised the soldier. Percy’s eyes were distant and he didn’t look at Sky when his name was called. His shirt had been ripped and was drenched with blood. His leg looked shattered; Sky could see bone. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Foam was coming out of Percy’s mouth. Instinct made Sky push Percy on his side. He felt a crunch underneath his fingers and realised that the top part of Percy’s arm must also be broken.

  But it helped; the second Percy was on his side the man retched. Bile and foam and blood spewed out of the man’s mouth and onto the jungle ground beside him. When Sky figured everything had come out, he pulled the soldier back onto his back to assess him for further injuries.

  Percy’s face was bloodied too; there was a gash from above his right eye down to under his cheekbone, and from there blood was spreading all across his face.

  “Percy! Can you hear me? It’s Sky. Sky Mayne!” He leant over the man, trying to get his attention. Suddenly, Percy’s eyes became alert, and started darting every which way. When they finally met Sky’s, the soldier began to struggle. He brought his hands up beside him and started pushing himself away from Sky. Blood bubbled in his chest and bone crunched in his arm as Percy tried to move.

  “Hey, hey, hey,” Sky soothed, reaching the man. “Don’t move, all right? I’m going to get you out of here. We’ll get you all healed up, all right?”

  Percy’s eyes flitted wildly around. His head was shaking from side to side and the rest of his body started trembling. Sky placed his hands on Percy’s shoulders and was about to shimmer the both of them to the Medical Bay on Saluverus, when Percy let out a scream. An echo of the scream immediately blasted through Sky’s head. It completely threw the Aster off guard. So much so that when the soldier lurched upright and pushed against Sky, bones crunching again, Sky tumbled backwards onto the ground. A second later, Sky was back on top of Percy. He didn’t care that the man didn’t want to be shimmered. There was a wild look in Percy’s eyes that Sky had never seen before. They were darting in every direction like some terrified rabbit expecting a fox to jump out of nowhere. But Sky wasn’t a fox trying to kill a rabbit. He was trying to help the soldier; and with his magic he’d be able to.

  Sky reached for Percy’s shoulders one more time and dug his nails into the soldier’s skin. Before Percy could struggle and push him off again, Sky put his magic to work, and blue light filled his vision.

  A second later, the two of them landed on the floor of the Medical Bay, in the exact same spot as when Sky had appeared there with Sophie all those weeks ago. To Sky’s surprise, the exact same woman from that night was again standing at the patient’s desk. Sky knew her name now: Dagmara. She was Polish, like Bianka and Marlena.

  To Sky’s great relief, Bianka Mazur was standing next to Dagmara.

  The second he could, Percy swung his good arm across himself, smacking Sky on the side of his head. Sky was so glad that he made it to the Medical Bay and that the Chief Medical Officer happened to be working the night shift, that he didn’t seen the blow coming. He was in the middle of shouting “I need help!” when the blow came and Sky toppled to the side.

  Bianka and Dagmara were there in seconds. The bleeding of Percy’s chest had got worse since the two of them shimmered. Bubbles were appearing through the sheet of blood covering his ripped clothes, and Sky knew that it must be air escaping one of his torn lungs.

  “Mum, get me Katherine and Sophie now! And Jackson, too!” Sky shouted to the ceiling. He crouched beside Percy just as Bianka commanded Dagmara to do something in Polish. Bianka then crouched down on the other side of Percy and met Sky’s gaze.

  “He needs to be on a stretcher,” she explained, her accent thick through her English. She then pointed down the hall to where a stretcher was mounted on the wall.

  Using his magic, Sky got the stretcher from the wall and was back beside Percy in less than two seconds. Percy seemed to have calmed down slightly, and with the help of two male nurses who had come running, Sky and Bianka managed to get Percy onto the stretcher. The male nurses had arrived with a bed on wheels, and the four of them lifted the stretcher, with Percy on it, onto the bed.

  “Let’s get him to the operating room,” Bianka ordered.

  Sky ran alongside the rolling bed and said, “But Sophie and Katherine can heal him.”

  “Sophie and Katherine aren’t here yet!” Bianka snapped. “And I don’t know his injuries until we see what’s in there. Some cannot be healed with magic.”

  Right as she said the word magic, Percy, who had calmed down considerably, suddenly spasmed and frantically tried to move around and sit up straight. Sky leaned over the bed and forced the soldier back down. He was much stronger than his injuries made him look. One of the male nurses walking behind Bianka reached in and helped keep Percy lying down in his bed.

  “He must stop struggling!” Bianka demanded.

  Sky was using all the strength he had to do what she said. It took a few moments before the man finally gave in and leant back in the bed. As the four of them rolled the bed down the corridor, Dagmara suddenly appeared from a side corridor. She passed Bianka a small piece of paper and then took a place
in between the Chief Medical Officer and the male nurse beside the rolling bed and reached over Percy’s body. She had two small white towels in her hands, and she was pressing them against the open wound on Percy’s chest to try and slow the bleeding.

  At the end of the corridor, they turned left and headed for the lift at the end that led down to the operating rooms in the basement. As they neared it, there was a sudden flash of blue light, and four people stood blocking their way.

  Madeleine stood in the middle, with Sophie and her mother on one side, and Jackson Kelly on the other. Bianka, Sky and the two male nurses stopped moving the bed. Dagmara kept the white towels firmly pressed on Percy’s chest.

  Jackson Kelly was the first to move. “Percy!” he shouted, recognising his brother. Percy, however, didn’t reciprocate. The wildness in his eyes hadn’t gone and they were still shooting around the room in panic. Then he started spluttering, and more foam started coming out of his mouth.

  “On his side!” Bianka commanded. Sky and the male nurse on the opposite side of the bed worked together to move the soldier. Dagmara tried her best to keep the towels in place so no more blood would escape the open chest wound. Sophie and Katherine came up on either side, while Jackson remained at the foot of the bed, looking over at his injured brother.

  The moment Percy lay on his side, he coughed, and more blood, foam and bile came out of his mouth. Part of it landed on Dagmara’s forearms; the nurse didn’t flinch. She kept her hands firmly on the towels on Percy’s chest. Once all that was blocking Percy’s airway was out, the soldier breathed in once more. Sky and the male nurse were starting to turn him back onto his back, when suddenly Percy’s wild and shifting eyes found Katherine’s. The split second Percy recognised Katherine, he started moving himself away from that side of the bed. Pushing off with his one good leg and one good arm and moaning something none of them understood. Dagmara tried, but she couldn’t keep her hands firm on Percy’s chest as he struggled. Blood stained the white sheets red.

  “Percy! Percy!” Katherine called. “I’m here to help you, just let me help you!”

  She reached out her arms, and the Band on her wrist started glowing golden. Instead of calming him down, this only seemed to make Percy want to get away from her more. Violently he started flaying his arms about him, preventing Katherine from finding a clear place on his body where she could rest her hands and let her magic work.

  “Katherine, move back!” Bianka ordered.

  Sky and the male nurse on the other side were trying their best to hold Percy down by his shoulders and legs, but it was only through the soldier’s own will that he finally settled down again. It seemed to coincide with the moment Katherine left his field of vision. She had moved up behind his head. The second she could, Dagmara was there again, pressing the towels to the soldier’s open wound.

  Everyone kept still as they watched Percy calm down again. There was so much blood on the bed and the floor underneath now. Sky knew they needed to get him healed or to an operating room fast. The soldier was bleeding out right in front of them.

  Bianka looked up at Sophie, who had come up beside Sky. Even though Percy was barely moving in his bed, his eyes were still actively scanning the space around him and his breathing was extremely shallow. Bianka nodded at Sophie, and she leaned over the bed, her hands outstretched, her Band glowing golden.

  Percy’s reaction was instantaneous. Shouting gibberish he frantically started pushing himself away from Sophie’s outstretched hands.

  “Hold him steady!” Katherine commanded, coming back around from Percy’s head and to Bianka’s side. Sky and the male nurse opposite him reached over and clamped down on Percy’s shoulders. The other male nurse, who was now beside Sophie, practically threw himself over the bed to pin down Percy’s legs.

  But the man didn’t stop struggling. In fact, he squirmed and spasmed harder than he did before. Especially once Katherine leaned over the bed as well.

  “Steadier!” Katherine snapped.

  But it was impossible. The more people came in to help keep Percy steady, the more distressed the soldier became. Blood was bubbling even more fiercely from his chest wound now and Percy was even using his shattered leg and his broken arm to try and manoeuvre himself away from being touched by Sophie and Katherine’s magic.

  “They’re trying to help you, Percy, stop!” Jackson yelled, panic stark in his voice.

  A bone snapped.

  The sound seemed to reverberate through the corridor. Percy Kelly was willing to break his own bones to get away from the magic.

  “Everybody STOP!” Bianka ordered. “Katherine, Sophie, move back NOW!”

  The Aster and Ceder of Health stepped back, shocked both by Bianka’s sharp tone and Percy’s reaction to them. Percy continued to struggle, but less so now.

  “Let him go and step back,” Bianka commanded. The two male nurses stood back up straight and stepped away from the bed. Sky still had his hands firmly on Percy’s shoulders. His struggles were slowing, but he hadn’t stopped trying to get away yet.

  “You too,” Bianka told Sky pointedly.

  Sky looked up at Bianka; the Chief Medical Officer stared him down fiercely until Sky reluctantly lifted his hands from Percy’s shoulders. Only Dagmara was still there, holding the now red-stained towels against Percy’s open chest wound. Sky still didn’t dare to take a step back; he was ready to jump on top of the soldier again if he tried to get away and make his injuries worse. But to his great surprise, Percy stopped moving altogether, and slumped down, his head resting against the blood-soaked pillow.

  “Take this,” Bianka told Madeleine, passing her the note that Dagmara had given her a few minutes ago. “The locations of the best surgeons on the island. Dagmara has already notified them. Send them to Operating Room One.”

  Madeleine nodded once, looked down at the note and shimmered out of the corridor.

  Bianka motioned to the people around the bed that she was planning on moving Percy Kelly towards the lift again.

  “No!” Jackson exclaimed urgently, blocking their path. “You’re not taking him to surgery. How will he survive it? Heal him! Use magic!”

  Katherine made to move back to Percy’s side, but no sooner had Jackson spoken the word magic, than Percy spasmed and started struggling again.

  Sky and the two male nurses jumped back in and tried to keep Percy as still as they could so as to not make his injuries any worse than they already were, but it was well-nigh impossible.

  “Katherine, keep your distance. This patient wants no magical care, that much is clear,” Bianka stated baldly. “If he wants none, then he gets none.”

  “He doesn’t know what he wants. He is obviously distressed. You don’t know if he will survive long enough to even undergo surgery! You have to force him to get healed. Sedate him first if you have to.” Jackson had turned from shouting at the Chief Medical Officer, to pleading with her.

  “That is against the rights and the wishes of the patient. You have seen it. It will only make things worse. He will not stay still long enough for them to work and he will create new injuries if he struggles further during their healing. I have my best surgeons coming in. They are his best chance now. Now please, move aside.” Bianka’s voice was strong, her tone resolute. She pushed the bed forward and didn’t wait for the Commanding Chief to step to the side.

  The lift doors opened and the entire company, except for Jackson, Sophie and Katherine, stepped inside. As the lift doors closed Bianka called, “Inform Axel!”

  The lift began to move. When the doors opened again, Sky’s mother and two women Sky didn’t recognise were waiting on the other side. The two women were already prepped and ready for the surgery and took the places of Dagmara and Bianka. Madeleine moved out of the way, keeping out of Percy’s line of sight, as Dagmara and Bianka slipped off to the side and started washing their hands and prepping themselves. The two male nurses followed suit. Through the glass, Sky could see another five people in the ope
rating room.

  Sky watched as a mask was dropped over Percy’s nose and mouth. A few moments later, Bianka and Dagmara entered the operating room from a side door. Gowns and gloves were given to them once they stepped in. Bianka moved to Percy’s side and gestured with her hand. Dagmara took one of the scalpels from a tray at Percy’s feet and handed it to the Chief Medical Officer.

  “Sky.”

  Sky turned to his mother. Her eyes were bright and alert.

  “Were there any others?”

  Sky realised she was talking about the Affinites in Brazil.

  “There were three dead. I don’t know if there were any others. Or if they could be alive,” Sky answered.

  “But there is a possibility?” Madeleine pushed.

  Sky nodded. There could be. Percy was still alive. And there were more Affinites still unaccounted for.

  “Then let’s go.” She held out her hand. Sky took it. His mother didn’t know where to go. But Sky did. Once he’d been somewhere, he could shimmer there again without someone calling him.

  Sky put his magic to work and shimmered himself and his mother back to the Amazon Rainforest, wondering even in that split second of flight, what awaited them there.

  Chapter 12

  When Sky had spotted Percy across the clearing, he hadn’t looked around much further. When he went back with his mother, he realised how blind he’d been. Aside from Percy’s personal soldier, Kristjan Stefansson, and Percy’s wife, Eva, Sky and Madeleine found another four Affinites. To his own disgust, Sky found himself relieved that they had been dead a while. Even if it had dawned on Sky to return the second the two male nurses had arrived to hold Percy still, he wouldn’t have found any alive.

  Of the four of them, Sky only recognised Yua Tanaka, Percy’s other personal soldier. He could tell these four were Affinites by their clothing and their weapons lying close by. He hadn’t expected to have to make that distinction, but in his rush and panic to keep Percy alive, Sky had completely missed the fact that there were not only Affinites there.