“We weren’t in a rush, either,” Jason pointed out.
“And we still wouldn’t be,” Kira said, running her hand over his chest. “I could have waited a hundred years to marry you, as long as I knew you were there with me. You know, that original paper Mother got is bloodstained because it was in an inside pocket of her jacket that day in Dorcastle, so now it’s an artifact. But Mother still carries a copy of it with her everywhere she goes.”
“Really? I’m glad we didn’t have to wait a hundred years, but… yeah. This hallucination of mine just keeps getting better.”
“You’re making it better. Without you, I wouldn’t have found the answer.” She looked up at the sky visible between the branches and leaves swaying in the breeze. “Jason, I want to lie here with you like this for the rest of forever, but we need to get back to the cottage and let Vina know we’re all right. She’ll be worried.”
“Always thinking of others,” Jason jokingly complained. “Can’t we stay like this a little longer? I don’t think anybody could have followed us here.”
“No, but—" Kira felt a chill inside as she realized something that other events had kept her from thinking about. “Jason, I can’t remember everything clearly over the last few days, but I did that invisibility spell for I don’t know how long. And before that, and maybe after, I wanted Mage Ivor to find me. I wanted to end the whole thing. I don’t think I was hiding my Mage presence, not until this morning. Mage Ivor could have sensed me, maybe from a long way off. He might be very close.”
“He might know where you are right now?”
“No. My Mage presence is well hidden again. But he might have tracked me to Vina’s cottage.”
Jason didn’t say anything else, joining her in hastily getting dressed.
She had an oddly easy time finding their way back to the cottage, as if her Mage senses were guiding her without being consciously summoned. That frightened Kira for a few moments, wondering if her problems were going to resurface, but nothing else about the world felt off. And she certainly wasn’t feeling irrationally confident.
Jason had drawn his knife. Kira had her pistol out, ready to fire, as they left the cover of the trees and slowly approached Vina’s cottage. She swung her pistol from side to side, searching for danger.
“Where’s Vina?” Jason whispered.
“Good question.”
Kira was still a few lances from the door to the cottage when she felt a sudden draw on the vast reserves of power around them. “Jas—!”
Mage Ivor stepped out from behind the cottage, his hands already glowing and thrust toward her.
She was swinging her pistol around to target him, knowing that his lightning would strike her before she could get her weapon around, feeling like she was trapped in one of those dreams where her strongest efforts were too slow and too late.
Something slammed into her, knocking Kira away and to the ground as lightning flared.
Someone, not something.
Jason, still off balance from having shoved her aside, took the lightning full on, the force of the bolt knocking him back past where Kira lay.
Rage welled inside her as she saw Ivor preparing another spell as quickly as possible.
He was almost ready to release the next spell when Kira finished rolling up onto one knee and put six shots into his chest, firing as fast as she could aim and shoot.
The growing power of the lightning spell vanished.
Mage Ivor’s body was still falling lifeless toward the ground when Kira leaped to her feet, spun about, and raced to where Jason lay.
His clothes were smoldering from heat. Severe burns marked one side of his face and one hand.
He wasn’t breathing.
Kira frantically searched for Jason’s pulse.
There wasn’t one.
She heard an inarticulate cry of unbearable pain and realized it had come from her.
Chapter Seventeen
Jason’s heart had stopped. Kira tried to think through her almost overwhelming despair. Lightning was electricity. She had to treat this as a case of electrical shock.
Kira tilted Jason’s head back to make sure his airway was clear, knelt by his chest, placed the heel of one palm directly over his heart, the other palm on top of that, and began rapidly pumping Jason’s chest. She kept it up for about half a minute, counting off the seconds, then after taking a deep breath leaned over and breathed into Jason’s mouth. His chest rose in response, relaxed as Kira took another breath, then she blew that air into him as well.
Back to the chest, pumping with grim desperation, feeling no response to her efforts.
Another two breaths.
Pumping again, her arms beginning to ache, sweat forming on her face and running down to mingle with the tears that were falling onto Jason’s clothing as Kira worked without pause.
Two more breaths, refusing to give up.
She settled into position and pumped again, ignoring the pain in her arms, fighting against despair. It wasn’t working. He wasn’t responding, and there was nothing else she could do. I’ll do anything. Anything. I don’t care what it costs me. All that matters is saving Jason. He’s all that matters.
Something nudged at her inside, a sense of a door opening. Kira let it. She didn’t black out, but she experienced a strange sense of double-sight, of being both inside herself and outside, watching her frantic efforts to save Jason.
Kira felt her Mage powers reaching out to the power available around her, the immense reserves of power that the lightning Mage’s spell had only slightly reduced. Some sort of veil remained between her and the Mage activity, clouding her ability to grasp what was happening, so Kira didn’t have any sense of visualizing a spell as she watched herself. She must be preparing a spell, though. But why? What spell could possibly help?
Her father had saved her mother at Dorcastle.
And almost died doing it.
I don’t care, Kira told herself. As long as it saves Jason.
Kira felt herself sending that surge of power down her arms and into Jason’s chest, where she realized she could somehow see his heart lying limp beneath her physical efforts.
The power hit and Jason’s heart jerked.
Kira watched herself, still not knowing what she was doing, but feeling herself focusing all of her strength into gathering more and more power for something. Be well. Was she thinking that or willing it? Her arms stopped pumping, resting on Jason’s chest, but before Kira could fight against the halt to her efforts, she felt the power race down her arms once more, a mighty wave, a hammer, seeing Jason’s heart and the power flowing into it all at once, filling his body as it had just filled hers.
The heart jolted, and pumped. And pumped again. And again.
Kira sat back, fully herself once more, the odd double-self-vision gone, not understanding what she had done. Her arms trembled with weakness that filled her whole body, and she knew it must be caused by the spell as well as her recent exertions. She stared at Jason, her mouth hanging open in wordless hope, before quickly leaning down and breathing into him again.
Her second attempt to give him breath stopped when Jason inhaled on his own.
Kira felt herself shaking from surprise and exhaustion, unable to believe what had happened. She leaned toward Jason again, to feel his pulse.
“That’s enough,” a harsh voice called from not far off. “He’s dead. You couldn’t revive anyone after a shock like that.”
She turned slowly, seeing an older man with a stout build standing a few lances away, an old-style Mechanics Guild revolver in one hand pointed steadily at Kira.
Whoever he was, he didn’t know that Jason was breathing again, his heart going again. She had to keep him from realizing that. And her own pistol lay a lance to one side where she had dropped it in her haste.
Kira stood up as quickly as she could, wavering on her feet and fighting off dizziness because of how weak she felt, seeing the pistol shift slightly to remain centered on
her. She eased a little toward where her pistol lay, hoping that the man hadn’t seen it, but he shook his head and gestured in the other direction.
She stepped to that side and a bit toward him, then took another wobbly step, to keep the man’s eyes and attention centered on her. He seemed too old to be a mercenary, and had the arrogant tone and attitude of the old-style Mechanics that Kira had occasionally encountered. Mage Ivor had escaped the ambush at Cape Astra. Was this Mechanic his counterpart? “Who are you?”
The man’s smile was thin and triumphant. “I am Senior Mechanic Stimon.”
“And?”
His gaze on her grew furious. “You must know who I am!”
“Sorry,” Kira said, taking another step to the side and a little closer to him. Despite the almost overwhelming weakness still hindering her movements, her only chance would be charging him, hoping not to take a fatal hit from his pistol. She needed to be sure that Jason was out of the line of fire when she made that last-ditch attempt. “I’ve never heard of you.”
“Ringhmon! I was Guild Hall Supervisor at Ringhmon! Before that fraud Mari destroyed everything!”
Kira measured her chances of getting to Stimon before he could fire and didn’t like them at all. Keep talking. Give herself time to recover more strength. Maybe make this Stimon mad enough to do something stupid. “Why do I keep running into people who want to blame my mother for the results of their own bad choices?”
His face tightening with anger, Stimon raised the pistol to aim. “You look so much like Mari did when she messed up everything in Ringhmon that this is going to give me extra pleasure, like I’m killing both of you at once. I’ll shoot you first in the leg. Then the other leg. Then both arms, one by one. Maybe I’ll see how long it takes you to bleed to death, or maybe I’ll shoot you in a few more places.”
Kira braced herself to leap, knowing she had little chance of success.
Her eyes caught the glint of sunlight on steel as Jason’s thrown knife flashed through the air and buried itself in Stimon’s stomach.
Stimon staggered, staring down at the handle of Jason’s knife, his pistol hand dropping momentarily.
Already readied for action, Kira burst into motion. Stimon belatedly noticed her charge, trying to bring his revolver back up to bear on her. He almost made it, but she was able to knock the barrel aside just before it fired, the bullet flying off barely to one side of her.
Kira locked her grip on the wrist of Stimon’s gun hand, but the old Senior Mechanic was strong enough to keep a firm hold on the weapon. His free hand swung at Kira’s head. She blocked the blow, grabbing his hand, and for a moment they strove against each other, deadlocked. But he was strong, and she was still far from recovered from the effort of the spell. She would lose this struggle if it went on much longer.
Jason’s knife still protruded from Stimon’s stomach. Kira raised one knee and slammed it against the knife’s handle, producing a grunt of agony from Stimon. His grip on her loosened.
Breaking Stimon’s hold on her hand, Kira brought it to the same arm holding Stimon’s pistol so she was grasping that arm with both hands. She brought the forearm down on her knee with brutal force.
Stimon screamed as bones cracked. His gun hand relaxed, the pistol falling to the ground.
Free of the threat of the weapon, Kira turned on Stimon with both hands, landing a furious series of blows rendered more powerful by her anger and worries over Jason. Her last strike dropped Stimon senseless to the ground.
Pausing only long enough to stoop and pick up Stimon’s revolver, Kira raced back to Jason, barely able to stay on her feet.
He was still lying down, but his eyes were open, watching her anxiously. “Did I hit him?” Jason gasped.
“You hit him,” Kira said, dropping to her knees beside Jason, fighting off another wave of tears as she looked at him breathing, watching her, alive. “You didn’t need to practice throwing your knife in the queen’s railcar after all, did you?” Her vision wavering with exhaustion, Kira wanted nothing more than to collapse next to him, but she knew she couldn’t give in to her weariness. “I… I need to check on Vina and make sure no one else dangerous is nearby. Are you strong enough to use this?” she asked, placing the revolver in Jason’s hand.
“Yeah,” he said.
“I’ll be right back.” Tearing herself away from Jason was one of the hardest things she had ever done. So was getting to her feet again when her legs seemed to be made of gelatin. She staggered over to where her own pistol lay and after managing to pick it up without falling over, stumbled to the door of Vina’s cottage. After taking a moment to recover a little strength, holding her pistol at ready, she swung inside, searching for targets.
Aside from Vina, lying bound and gagged on the floor, there was no one else inside.
Kira pulled out her own sailor’s knife and dropped down by Vina, cutting loose the gag. “How many are there?”
“Two,” Vina gasped, breathing quickly and deeply with the gag off her mouth. “One talked and looked like a Mage. I don’t know about the other.”
“Just two? You’re sure?”
“Yes! They argued. The one who wasn’t a Mage said he’d go off looking for you.” Kira laboriously sliced through the bonds on Vina’s arms and legs, the simple task rendered difficult by the weakness in her arms and hands. “The Mage is dead. The other one came back when he heard me kill the Mage but isn’t going to bother anyone else for a while. I need to get back to Jason.”
She only got to her feet again by grabbing onto a nearby chair and using it to pull herself up. Kira staggered outside, ignoring the figure of the still-unconscious and bleeding Stimon, once more falling to her knees beside Jason and staring at him. “How do you feel?”
“Kind of weak. Better than you seem, though. What happened?” Jason asked. “You’re looking at me… sort of strange.”
“You were dead.”
His gaze grew even more anxious, then to her surprise Jason suddenly grinned. “I must have been only mostly dead.”
She looked at him in bewilderment. “Why is that funny?”
“I… it’s a long story.” Jason gasped again, breathing deeply. “Wow. So, my heart stopped?”
“Yeah. No breath, no pulse.”
“And you used CPR on me?”
“I have no idea what CPR is,” Kira said. “I used HBR. Heart Breath Recovery. Something Mechanics learn. Just as if you’d been shocked by a piece of equipment.”
“Okay,” Jason said, smiling. “Whatever you call it, I’m glad it worked.”
“It didn’t work, Jason. You didn’t respond. I couldn’t get your heart beating again.”
His smile vanished, replaced by apprehension. “You… it… what is this? Am I—?”
Relief and happiness flooded her as Kira tried to explain, words spilling out in a more or less steady stream. “The HBR wasn’t working and I was thinking that I’d do anything that would work, no matter what, because you were all that mattered, but I didn’t know what else to do, and then I felt my Mage powers trying to help, and I let them, Jason, I trusted them, and I didn’t black out this time, I was, it was really weird, it was like I was there and outside there at the same time, and my Mage powers gathered the power available here, there’s an enormous amount of power here, Jason, absolutely enormous, and she sent it down her arms, I mean, I sent it down my arms, and into your heart, because I could see your heart, Jason, and that was really weird, too, and it didn’t work the first time so she, I mean I, tried again, and this time I really hit your heart and I think maybe I told it to be well, told everything to be well, and your heart started beating again, Jason, just like it should, and then you started breathing, and I couldn’t believe it but here you are you’re alive and talking and looking at me and you didn’t die.”
Jason’s stare on her stayed fixed. “Um… so… you used your Mage powers to get my heart going again? I feel a lot better than I should after a heart stoppage.”
??
?Yeah, I don’t know exactly what I did but I think I was trying to make it all right again and— Oh, wow. It fixed your burns, too. They’re all healed. I didn’t notice that. I’m weak, but I’m all right, too, and I don’t quite understand that because it almost killed Father when he saved Mother. Maybe it’s because she’d been shot and had a lot of injuries and lost a lot of blood and you didn’t really have anything broken, you just needed your heart restarted and everything set back in balance. And I had so much power to draw on here so I didn’t have to drain myself to save you. I’m sorry I’m talking so much.”
His smile reappeared, matched to a wondering look in his eyes that made her feel embarrassed. “Kira, you are the most awesome girlfriend ever.”
She laughed. “No, I’m not.”
“You’re going to be modest about this?”
“No, you can call me awesome,” Kira said, smiling at him. “But I’m not your girlfriend.”
“Oh. Yeah. That’s right.” His smile grew even wider. “You are the most awesome wife, ever.”
“That I will accept,” Kira said. She leaned down to kiss him, marveling at the feel of his breath, understanding now just what a wonder each breath was.
“Kira!” Vina called. “If he is all right, I need your help with this one to keep him from dying.”
Kira grimaced. “That wouldn’t be any loss,” she muttered.
“Kira,” Jason said, “go help. He wouldn’t have helped. Don’t be like him. Don’t let people like him make you into someone like him.”
She frowned down at Jason. “Is this my reward for saving you? That you’ll be my external nagging voice of conscience?”
“Um, yeah. Pretty much. Among other things.”