Thomas Gown's connection to a group of powerful wizards who lived thousands of years ago is finally revealed, and he learns that he may be able to save his world and his civilisation, along with others beyond number, from a threat that will manifest...
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"Get Timothy Birch!" cried Thomas, cradling the limp body of his wife in his arms and pressing a hand to the terrible wound in her stomach in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. "Get him now! Now!"
The soldiers were still frozen with shock, unable to do anything but stare in horror, but Timothy appeared anyway, having followed the two wizards in their mad dash across the ship. "Lay her down!" he commanded and Thomas obeyed, almost dropping her into the hard metal walkway.
Timothy dropped to his knees beside her, mindless of the pool of blood that stained his clothes, and pressed his hands against the wound, praying desperately to Caroli to send as much holy power as he was capable of receiving. In this distant, alien universe, though, only a tiny trickle of the Goddess's power was able to filter through, and the cleric concentrated on making the best use of it he could. Ignore the gross injury to the flesh, he thought. Concentrate on blood vessels and internal organs. Stop the bleeding. If we can only stabilise her, we can deal with everything else once we're back in our own universe.
There was no apparent change to the injury, but the bleeding did seem to slow a little, and when Daleen arrived, right behind Timothy, she added her own effort, praying to Ramthara for whatever help the Goddess of Life was capable of giving. Together, the two priests slowed the bleeding to a trickle, but the effort it required of them was so great that they were both drained completely and slumped against the bulkhead, breathing in shallow gasps, their bloodstained hands falling to their sides.
Thomas grabbed a cleaning rag from the ballista toolbox and pressed it against the wound, unmindful of the dirt he was introducing to the injury, and he tied it in place with a leather belt handed to him by one of the soldiers. Finally the bleeding stopped, although the demi shae gave almost no sign of still being alive. "We need to get her back to our own universe!" he cried, staring desperately at the faces gathered around. "She needs proper healing."
"What's going on here?" demanded Callan, appearing in the airlock doorway. "What's happening?"
"We need to take the ship back through the portal!" screamed Thomas, staring up at him and pulling his wife into his lap. "She needs healing! Fast! Please, take the ship back through the portal!"
"She just went crazy," said one of the soldiers. "She stabbed herself with that." He showed him the knife he'd picked up off the floor. "I thought she was going to attack us, but she stabbed herself with it."
"The, the enquiry can wait, surely," said Timothy, climbing unsteadily back to his feet. "Let's get her, get her healed first. We need to take the ship back through the portal."
"We can't leave the Captain," said Callan, however. "We have Potions of Healing in the stores, do we not?"
"They also require the presence of Caroli to be effective," said the cleric. "Here, they'll be no more use than ordinary water. She needs the presence of Caroli, and she can only get that in our own universe."
