Abandoned: Bitter Harvest, Book Three

by Ann Gimpel

  “Then I’ll rig cable. Something easy to follow if you become disoriented. And a way we can haul you back topside.”

  “Not necessary—” Recco began.

  “Yeah. It is. You’ll have twelve minutes. Fifteen tops. If you’re not back on the platform by then, I’m reeling you in.”

  They reached the auditorium, and Recco pulled the doors open. Poseidon and Amphitrite were still there. Leif was gone. Daide was packing the last of several large ampoules into a box. He stood and headed for Recco and Juan.

  “What happened to our patient?” Recco asked.

  “It took too much magic for him to maintain himself, and he was fading. I suggested he wait for us outside the hull.” Daide took one of the suits from Recco and a mask from Juan. “I’m relieved you located these. I was afraid we wouldn’t have a way to work on him in the water.”

  Zoe walked to Poseidon and his queen. “It’s storming so fiercely, it will be dangerous for Daide and Recco to exit the ship so they can reach your Shifter.”

  “We will create a perimeter of clear water,” Poseidon said. “We already discussed it, recognizing the need.”

  “Hurry,” Amphitrite urged. “Leif isn’t recovering as quickly as I’d hoped. I told him not to join us in here. He didn’t listen.”

  “It’s what makes him a good alpha for his people.” Worry turned Poseidon’s eyes to midnight blue. “We will be in the sea, awaiting your arrival.”

  “Do the best you can for our dolphin,” Amphitrite murmured. Light flared bright around her, and she and the king transformed into colorful beams as they left the same way they’d arrived.

  Recco was careful pulling the hooded dry suit on atop his insulated clothing. A tear could spell disaster. From long habit, he checked the seals on Daide’s suit, and Daide did the same for his.

  “Meet me at the gangway on the port side,” Juan said. “I’ll bring the tanks and set up two cables.”

  “Do you have a communication system?” Daide asked.

  “Use telepathy,” Karin snapped, sounding like her surly self. She stood. “Once the water calms down, I’ll be at the bottom of the gangway along with Juan. It will be an easier reach for my magic, and Leif can swim next to the platform as he recovers.”

  Karin might have harsh edges, but Recco silently blessed her for her faith in them. That the dolphin was so weak he couldn’t remain inside didn’t offer much in the way of hope. Animals passed a point of no return where they kept sinking no matter what you did.

  “Ready?” Oblivious to Recco’s concerns, Daide flashed a grin. “Damn, it feels good to be back in the saddle.”

  Recco grinned back. He’d been too worried to let himself enjoy being a vet again. Trust Daide and his unflappable nature to put a positive spin on things. The ship’s motion quieted as they moved to Deck Three. When Recco stepped outside, he was thunderstruck and stopped moving as he absorbed a scene out of a Hollywood movie.

  The storm still raged from a sky heavy with black clouds. The wind still howled. In violation of reason and physics, a fifty-foot perimeter around the ship yielded calm water beneath gray skies.

  “It’s impossible, but I’ll take it.” Daide sprang ahead and loped down the gangway steps.

  By the time Recco got there, Daide had his oxygen equipment strapped in place and his mask on. Juan was clipping him into a harness attached to a length of cable wrapped around a stanchion.

  “Here’s yours.” Juan dangled another harness.

  Recco got ready as fast as he could. Despite the relative calm, it was bitterly cold, and he worried about how their fingers would fare. Both of them wore thin, neoprene gloves tucked beneath the dry suits’ wrist seals. Beefier gloves would interfere with their tactile ability.

  Karin joined them and sat on the bottom step. “Quicker is better,” she said. “I’ll link to Leif with my magic while you’re doing your IV meds. It’ll be like a one-two punch. I’ll be able to hold him on this side of things while your medication takes hold. In case it’s not a good match for his physiology.”

  “All set,” Daide said. “Same plan as always. I’ll get the IV in place, and you hand me ampoules.”

  Recco nodded. He tucked the drugs Daide had parceled out into a dry sack, sealed it, and tied it to a loop on his suit.

  Zoe worked her way down the gangplank and gave him a thumbs-up before hugging him fast and hard. “Be careful. I’ll help Karin with the magic parts.”

  “We’ll be all right.” He tried to reassure her. “You don’t have to be out here.” It was hard to let go of her.

  “Aye. I do. You do your work, and I’ll do mine.”

  Karin patted the step next to her. “Sit. Don’t ask too many questions, and open your power to me.”

  Pleasure spilled through Recco because Zoe cared enough to keep watch, sitting in the freezing cold. He cinched his mask, tumbled backward off the platform, and followed the glow from Daide’s headlamp. At first, his regulator didn’t seem to be working; he fiddled with it until oxygen flowed.

  The water was warmer than the air had been, which wasn’t saying much.

  Leif swam to them. “Let’s get moving. I didn’t realize how weak I was until the stint inside almost did me in.”

  “Apologies. My telepathic skills aren’t great,” Daide said. “I’ll be as gentle as I can, but this is a big needle. Once the medicine starts flowing, it will burn like nobody’s business.”

  “I understand. Just get it done.”

  Daide patted Leif’s flipper, moved into position, and slid the IV into place.

  Recco fumbled in the sack and handed him a glass vial. His fingers were already losing feeling. He laid a gloved hand on Leif’s flank. “Steady. This will hurt. Do not move. If you dislodge the needle, we’ll have to start all over.”

  The sea churned like a mad thing. Recco was afraid Poseidon and Amphitrite’s spell was fading until he looked around them. Dolphins closed from every side, and whales swam below. The sea Shifters formed a protective circle about them and warmed the ocean water a few degrees.

  “Karin. Can you hear me?”

  “Of course.”

  “All the sea Shifters are here.”

  “Sure and we know,” Zoe answered. “We called them, but I suspect they’d have circled the wagons anyway. Leif is their alpha.”

  Daide held out his hand, and Recco gave him a second vial of medicine. Leif bellowed and groaned but held still as Daide had instructed.

  A lighter-colored dolphin swam closer. “You’re hurting him.”

  “It’s all right,” Leif grunted between bellows.

  “What are you doing to him?” a whale asked from below.

  “Talk with them, amigo,” Daide said. “I have to concentrate so the drug doesn’t enter his system too fast. This is nip and tuck as it is.”

  Air bubbled from Recco’s regulator. His face was numb outside the mask’s perimeter. All that frozen skin would hurt like a bitch when he got back inside the ship. He focused on the sea creatures. “Your immune systems were attacked by the Cataclysm.”

  “Is it a name for the bad magic that held the sea in thrall?” the light-colored dolphin asked.

  “Yes. It’s our name for it. I’m sure there are others. Without functioning immune systems, you all fell prey to parasitic infections. Normally, they don’t kill you, but you lost the ability to fight them off.”

  “What are you doing to Leif?” the dolphin persisted.

  “My friend is injecting medicine to kill the parasites. Other Shifters from the boat are addressing Leif’s immunocompromised problem with a counter spell.”

  Recco handed Daide another vial. Lief thrashed weakly, but he’d stopped bellowing. “Let’s wait on more drug,” Recco said, worried by how lethargic the dolphin had become.

  Daide looked up from where he’d been intent on making certain he didn’t lose his placement in a vein. “Hang onto this,” he said and swam around Leif poking, prodding, and listening intently.

&nbs
p; Recco capped off the IV line. It would stay put. “Karin. How’s it going on your end?”

  “Not well. Reach into his chest with magic and clear his airway.” Her voice was terse. “Do it now. Dead lungworms are clogging his bronchi and stealing his air. Support him to the surface so he can cough them out.”

  “I heard her,” Daide said curtly. “There’s no way the drug could have worked so fast killing the bronchial parasites. Except it appears it did. Further, I have no idea how to doctor with magic. And it won’t be easy getting Leif to the surface without a sling.”

  “Sure, if we had to lift him, but we have other resources,” Recco replied and turned his attention toward the sea Shifters. “Did you hear the woman talking with me?” he asked the whales and dolphins.”

  “No,” the nearest dolphin answered.

  “We have to get Leif to the surface. Now. Dead parasites are filling his lungs.”

  “Move out of the way,” a whale trumpeted and blasted upward, balancing Leif on his broad back.

  Displaced water knocked Recco sideways. Once he recovered, he followed the whale to the surface. When he got there, Karin and Zoe were bent over the gangway platform, jets of blue-white power gushing from their hands. Leif lay across the whale, not moving as the women’s magic buffeted him.

  Daide’s head broke the surface next to Recco. “Damn it,” he sputtered. “I’d figured at least three vials of my mixture. I had no idea he wouldn’t tolerate even two. Or it would work at ten times normal speed.”

  “Epinephrine to kickstart his heart?” Recco asked. His best guess was magic mixed with antibiotics were responsible for the quick reaction, but they could sort it out later.

  Daide swam to the whale and began to clamber onto its back. A growl shook the water, and Daide backed off. “Please. I can help him.”

  “What you’ve done so far hasn’t been much help,” the whale’s deep voice resonated through Recco’s skull.

  “Yes. Sorry.” Daide paddled next to the whale. “I can see how you’d interpret it that way, but medicines can be additive...”

  “I’ve got it,” Karin crowed. “Found the right combination. Finally.” Her voice shook, revealing how close they’d come to losing Leif.

  Recco hauled himself onto the gangway platform, water streaming from him as he ditched his mask and O2 tank. His teeth were chattering, but he’d be damned if he’d leave before he was certain the dolphin was out of the woods.

  Daide joined him and withdrew a syringe fitted with a long needle and a vial of epinephrine from a dry sack tied to his suit. “Sure we won’t need this?” he asked Karin.

  She nodded, and he put it away and shucked his own tank of compressed air, leaving it next to Juan along with his mask.

  “Thanks for not dragging us out of the water at the fifteen-minute mark,” Recco told Juan.

  “Thank Karin. She told me everything was under control.”

  Leif thrashed from side to side on the whale’s back. He hacked and coughed, and a stream of gray worms blasted from his nostrils and mouth, followed by bloody spumes. Recco gaped as gallons of lungworms poured from the dolphin. This many would be surprising in a whale, let alone a dolphin.

  “Amazing he was still alive,” Daide said.

  “No kidding.” Recco shook his head as the worms kept spewing.

  Leif coughed and rasped, “I can breathe. Finally.”

  “It will keep on getting better,” Daide assured him. “You’ll have some gut cramps too, as the trematodes die off and you expel them.”

  “I’m all right,” Leif told the whale. “You don’t have to support me anymore.”

  “Are you sure?” Concern rumbled through the whale’s deep voice.

  “Quite.”

  The whale’s huge dorsal fin sank slowly.

  “I need to do one quick thing,” Daide said, “and remove the needle.”

  Leif turned around, and Daide lay on the platform on his belly to withdraw the IV. Bright blood followed, and he pinched off the vein.

  “Got it.” Karin bent over him. “Sealed it with magic. You can let go.”

  “How about the rest of your magic?” Leif twisted to gaze at Karin. “Were you successful?”

  “I believe so. Your aura feels whole to me, which means you should be able to finish the healing yourself.”

  Three dolphins surfaced, forming a half circle around Leif. “You were who poisoned the oceans,” one said, staring at the group crowded onto the gangway and its small platform.

  “Rotters. Bastards,” another yelled. Its blue-gray skin was more mottled than Leif’s.

  “Aye, ’twas our kin who were at fault.” Zoe held eye contact with the dolphins, and Recco was proud of her. “Verra few of us, mind you, hatched up a nefarious plan in secret, but the result was still devastating, and we are deeply sorry.”

  “It’s not enough,” the third dolphin screamed. “Thousands of us are dead. Because of you.”

  Leif spun in a circle in the water, making it whip around him. “They went out of their way to save my life.”

  “So?” the smallest dolphin countered. “They’re the reason we’re sick.”

  “They owed it to you. To us,” another screeched. Surging forward, it closed its jaws around Daide’s arm and pulled him off the platform and into the ocean.

  Daide yowled and punched the dolphin in the snout. It let go, and the two of them squared off, snarling at one another.

  “Leave the animal doctor alone.” Leif positioned his body between Daide and the others.

  Recco reached into the water and hauled Daide onto the platform. He snorted water and shook himself, eying the gash in the arm of his dry suit. “Think I liked it better when my patients couldn’t talk,” he muttered.

  “Imagine all the names they’ve called us over the years.” Recco tried to laugh. Instead, shivers racked him.

  “You’d be welcome inside.” Daide bowed formally at the circle of dolphins. “All of you, but no biting allowed.”

  “Will you help my brothers and sisters?” Leif asked.

  “Of course,” Daide replied.

  “What if we don’t want help from them?” A dolphin tossed its head and dove for the depths.

  “I’ll talk with them,” Leif said. “They’ll come to their senses. At the least, perhaps we could get some of the medicine and use our own magic.”

  “However you wish to proceed.” Recco tipped his head. “You just let us know.”

  Juan hefted the tanks and trudged up the gangway. Daide followed with Karin behind him.

  “Get moving. Ye’ll shake the gangway to splinters.” Zoe nudged Recco gently.

  “Look.” Recco angled his gaze outward. Fins cut the surface where whales circled the ship. “It appears they’re not letting us out of their sight.”

  “We’ve done all we can for now. You dying of hypothermia won’t alter the outcome.”

  “Should we talk with Poseidon and Amphitrite again?” he asked as he dragged himself up the gangway, shocked by how much the cold had weakened him.

  “Doesn’t work that way.” Zoe nodded to Juan who activated the switch to raise the steps. “They’re gods. If they want to talk, they’ll find us.”

  Chapter Nineteen: Bargains

  “Get moving. Ye’ll shake the gangway to splinters,” Zoe nudged Recco and did her damnedest to push past the fear that had gripped her when the dolphin nearly died on them. She still tasted the bitter aftermath of an adrenaline surge. They’d come within a hairsbreadth of the sea Shifters turning on them and sinking Arkady. All the nice words about do your best, had been mere words. Leif was the alpha, and alpha deaths were always avenged.

  Because she’d held her magic wide open for Karin to tap into, she’d witnessed the dolphin’s acute distress when the medicine entered its system. Apparently, the Shifter’s physiology was quite a bit different from animals the men were used to treating. She’d kicked herself for summoning the other sea Shifters to observe, but at the time she’d h
oped Recco and Daide’s intervention would forge positive links between the two estranged branches of Shifter-dom.

  Och aye, and they would have shown up regardless. ’Twas hubris on my part to believe my puny invitation carried aught in the way of weight.

  She knew better than to ask Karin even a single question while she redirected energy patterns, patching healthy parts together and gluing them with her own magic, in hopes they’d be enough to counteract the mass parasite die-off. It had begun immediately. Cells burst, depositing wee beasties throughout the dolphin’s body. Miniature horrors that would have done a nightmare dreamscape proud.

  Because Zoe wasn’t familiar with any aspects of medicine, at first, she’d thought it was a normal reaction. Karin’s drawn expression crushed that hope, ripped it out by its roots. Offering up her own magic was little enough, and she’d felt helpless. Juan had sensed something was seriously wrong and asked about reeling in the cables, but Karin shook her head, too embroiled in magic to answer with words.

  The dolphin’s life force had flickered and dimmed. Cursing in Gaelic, Karin moved from the steps to the platform, power arcing from her fingertips. Zoe joined her, and Karin grabbed her to strengthen their linkage. She exhorted the men to move the dolphin to the surface, but Zoe was afraid they were too late. No matter how hard they tried, the ocean muted their power, made it reverberate in unexpected ways.

  When Leif’s limp form broke through atop the whale’s broad back, she figured he was already dead. Karin didn’t bother with anything as elegant as an assessment. She blasted the dolphin with magic, altering the pitch and timbre of her working endlessly until its heart lurched into rhythm again.

  Zoe had always known Karin was a gifted healer. Today elevated her respect to a whole other level. Engaged in hand-to-hand combat with death, Karin had been indefatigable and refused to accept defeat. A very much alive dolphin Shifter was the result. She’d tried to articulate her admiration to Karin. The other Shifter waved a dismissive hand and told her it was all in a day’s work.