Ashes on the Waves (31 page)

I didn’t answer for fear of saying the wrong thing. He put a stethoscope in his ears and placed it to Anna’s chest. Even though I’d never seen medical instruments, I’d read enough newspapers and magazines to recognize it. He scowled and rolled her to her side. “Breathe deep for me, Annie,” he said. She coughed. He moved the end around on her back while he listened.

“The woman who called the Leightons said she had fallen in the water and had become severely chilled.”

“Yes.”

He shook his head. “Breathed in some water, maybe?”

I nodded.

“Did she vomit?”

“Yes.”

“Might have inhaled some of that too.” He put the stethoscope back in the bag and pulled out several white plastic packages of different sizes. “I’m going to give her some fluids and antibiotics. It looks like she has aspiration pneumonia. You were smart to contact me. We got it early and she’ll be fine.”

I let out the breath I’d been holding.

“Can you hold her arm for me?” he asked, pulling the wrapping off what looked like a small, clear version of the water bottle I held against her to warm her up.

I walked around the bed near the arm he indicated.

After tying what looked like a large rubber band on her upper arm, he unwrapped a piece of plastic with a needle sticking out of it and turned her arm over wrist up. Anna groaned. “You’ll be better soon, Annie,” he said. “Hold here and here,” he said, indicating her wrist and behind her elbow.

I held her wrist. He looked up at me, taking notice of my left arm hanging limp at my side. “That should be fine.” He wiped the inside of her elbow with a piece of cotton and stuck the needle straight into a blood vessel visible through the surface of her smooth pale skin. I winced. He looked up at me again after he taped the needle with the plastic bit on the end to her arm. “Have you never seen this done before?”

“No. We don’t have a doctor on Dòchas.”

“I figured as much. It explains your arm.”

All my life I thought a demon failing to put my skin on correctly was the reason for my useless arm. Since Anna, I knew no such demon existed. “What caused this?”

He hooked the bag of liquid to her headboard and ran a tube to her arm, fitting it into the end of the plastic. “Were you born with it?”

“Yes.”

He turned a round wheel in a blue plastic housing partway down the tube. Drops of the liquid fell into a clear cylinder farther up the tubing. “Was the birth traumatic? Is it possible your collarbone was broken during the delivery?”

The birth had certainly been traumatic—especially for my mother. A broken collarbone was possible. “Yes.”

He watched the drips in the cylinder for a moment, then stood and touched my neck and shoulder. He lifted the bad arm and ran his hand over my shoulder to my neck again. “I’m pretty sure this is Erb’s palsy. You’re lucky. Most people who have it suffer aۀe it suft least partial paralysis on an entire side of their body. I’ve never seen an arm in isolation before.”

“What exactly is it?”

He closed his bag. “When you were born, you suffered an injury. If you had been born in a hospital, a surgeon would have performed a procedure and restored use of your arm. Since you were born here, without medical intervention, paralysis occurred.”

I had already reached the conclusion a demon was not the cause of my disability, but hearing it from someone who was an authority brought me considerable relief. I was not and had never been a demon.

“I’ll need to keep an eye on Annie for a day or so. Who do I see about that?” He put his black bag on the seat under the stained-glass window next to the stack of books saved from my shed.

“Miss Ronan is in charge of the house,” I said. “Shall I get her for you?”

He shook his head. “No, you stay here with our girl. She should be feeling much better soon and would probably like it if you were here.” He studied me a bit longer. “I sat with her at dinner at the wedding reception. She spoke of nothing but you. She’s changed. I attribute that to your friendship.” He nodded and closed the door behind him.

“Liam,” Anna said. “Stay.”

“I’m here,” I said, lying beside her.

“Forever,” she whispered.

* * *

Muireann hadn’t seen a single Na Fir Ghorm since the storm. As night fell, she repositioned herself off the beach where the couple had become bound so she could watch the house and the cave.

Not long after darkness fell, her location proved to be the right choice. Brigid Ronan, flashlight in hand, hurried to the end of the boulder where she had met with the Na Fir Ghorm before. This time, Muireann was determined to listen. The Na Fir Ghorm usually swam as deep as possible, only coming to the surface when they had to. Swimming a wide circle, she
zipped just under the surface, coming up on the back side of the boulder.

Brigid Ronan paced from one end of the flat outcropping of stone to the other, flashlight swinging loosely by her side. Her usual calmness was gone. Muireann had never seen her like this.

“News?” a Na Fir Ghorm demanded immediately upon breaking the surface. Muireann scooted farther to the far side so he would not see her.

“None,” Brigid Ronan answered, switching her flashlight off. “They have only grown closer. I beseech you to abandon this. The Bean Sidhes will not hold you to the wager. They will willingly let go.”

“Never. We will move to the next step.”

Muireann’s breath caught when Brigid Ronan began to weep. “No. I beg of you, no.”

“You owe us a debt. We made a bargain. You agreed to do our bidding.”

“I don’t want it—any of it if it means her life. Take the boy’s,” she begged. “He’s the one you want.”

Muireann couldn’t see the Na Fir Ghorm from where she hid, she only had a view of Brigid Ronan, but she could hear the smile in his voice. “What better way to destroy him than by destroying her?”

Brigid Ronan fell to her knees. Long after the Na Fir Ghorm departed, she continued to weep.