The Golden Amulet (PJO, Sequel to The Silver Ring)

Chapter 35

This time, because of my pain, I could only watch with hopelessness as the doctor and Psi poured the whole vat of water onto me. 

It soaked through my bandages and then my clothes, touching every bit of my skin. I immediately felt my body going into overdrive, and a tiny bit of pain faded away replaced with energy every second as I healed at a superhuman rate.

I was fully healed in just five minutes, save for some bruised ribs. Even water didn't have the power to heal a demigod to full health; it could only partially repair the urgent damage, like broken ribs which would severely affect my movement, or wounds that I would eventually bleed out of, like the wound at my abdomen caused when the hellhounds' claws sunk into me.

All of this was gone.

But I knew this was a blessing before the curse.

As the doctor helped me out of my bandages, I knew that, in a matter of time, I was going to be back on the floor, this time not restrained by the bandages, but paralyzed by the water.

I didn't react as the doctor laid me back on the bed to make sure I didn't have any serious wounds, too disturbed by the thought of what would happen next. (By this time, a maid had appeared a couple of minutes ago and had changed the wet sheets for dry ones. This was good since I would have otherwise probably had another heart attack if I was in contact with water.)   How would I help save Omega if every minute I was slowing my team down? 

I was more of a liability than a help.

I brought us into ambushes accidentally. I had no immortality to save me, so my team always had to try to protect me, rather than watching out for their own backs. I was the weakest person on our team—I couldn't even fight consistently, for Hera's sake!

"He looks almost fully healed," the doctor said to Psi after his quick exam, sounding as though he couldn't believe the water actually helped me this much. "Wait a few hours for him to rest and eat, then you both will be good to go. Make sure he doesn't strain himself for a few days—you'll hear his ribs crack if he works too hard. If it comes to that, you could always just dump him into the nearest water source."

Yay, I thought grumpily. Just what I needed. More water. With my luck, I'm going to break some of my still-healing ribs, and this is going to be reality sooner than I expect it to be.

I tried not to think that I wouldn't get the chance to break my ribs and get tossed into the water, even though it seemed more likely with each passing moment. We didn't have that much time to spare, I was dead weight, and, given my past experience with it, my body was going to freeze up soon. I couldn't even dry my clothes fully since I no longer had any power over water. However, the only good thing—or maybe the only not negative thing—was that the bandages had absorbed a significant portion of the water that had been dumped on me, so instead of wearing fully drenched clothes, they were just mildly moist.

The doctor left, and I found myself only graced with Psi's company. "When do you think you can leave?" he asked me. He sat on a nearby chair, facing me.

I looked at him in shock, pleasantly surprised that he would take my opinion into consideration. "I'm a bit famished," I admitted as I realized that I felt as though my stomach was trying to eat itself to survive. "Food is a good place to start. How long was I unconscious?"

"Three days."

"Three days!?" I repeated, aghast.

"Three full days. That leaves us a week before Lord Chaos invades Deeplige with his army. I fit comes to that, Omega would probably already be dead, since there's a high chance Lord Chaos would try to save him if he was alive and our mission would be considered a failure." I had a feeling he was glaring at me under his hood, as though it was going to be my fault if we failed to save Omega.

I was struck by a thought. "We're not going to meet up with Rosaline?"

"Of course not. We have no idea where she is, how far away the werewolf teleported us, and how far away from Deeplige we are."

"So you're telling me you did nothing for the past three days?"

Psi did nothing to defend himself and showed a shred of his regular personality when he said, "I didn't see you doing anything."

I looked at him incredulously. "I was unconscious you idiot. I can't do anything. But if you want to pull at strings, I was doing something—healing so I could actually help you."

"Great! So why don't you help me right now instead of insulting me and we'll call it a day? We'll leave in the morning."

"We're finding Rosaline first," I reminded him. "I'm not going to be stuck with only you for the rest of our journey." And potentially get stabbed in my sleep, I silently added.

"Fine," Psi grumbled, as though he didn't want Rosaline to accompany us, but I knew better; he was just disappointed that he wouldn't be able to stab me in my sleep. "I'll get a map while you eat. Then we leave. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

Little did we both know, the process of leaving would be much more difficult than a proclamation.