Othermoon (20 page)

CHAPTER 16

“Dez?”

I was rocking in a tiny rowboat on a dark sea. Above, a full moon hovered too close,
craters black and unfamiliar, its reflection in the ocean somehow larger than the
moon itself. I tried to steady the craft, but the waves kept washing me from side
to side. All around the air was glowing, pressing in on me. Any second I’d lose my
balance, fall in, and drown.

“Dez, wake up!”

I opened my eyes to see Arnaldo standing over me, thick eyebrows drawn together in
concern. I sat up too fast, and my head spun.

“What is it?” I said. “What’s wrong?”

“Your mom,” he said. “They’re taking her to the hospital.”

“What? What happened?” I threw back the blankets, shoved my feet into the stupid terry-cloth
slippers left over from the Naiad Hotel, and grabbed for a shirt and jeans.

Arnaldo stepped back to let me get dressed, not even blinking at me in my underwear.
Shifter kids took that kind of thing in stride.

“Is she worse?” I was walking toward the door even as I zipped up my jeans.

“I don’t think so. But she’s not better either.” He followed me as I broke into a
run. “They’re getting her into the SUV now. She won’t wake up.”

I took the stairs two at a time, and ran without a glance past the other kids clustered
in the kitchen and out the front door toward the garage. There I saw Caleb helping
Richard gingerly lay my mother down in the backseat of the SUV. Raynard was already
climbing into the driver’s side as Morfael watched, leaning on his staff.

“What’s going on?” I ran up as Caleb stepped back. “Why didn’t you get me?”

Richard was leaning half in the car, adjusting a pillow under Mom’s head. Her eyes
were closed, dark rings like bruises shadowed under them. Her skin was so pale and
thin I could see the tiny veins and capillaries threading over her forehead and nose.
She was wrapped in a large gray blanket, like a mummy, but she looked more like a
child, so tiny and vulnerable.

“We sent Arnaldo to get you,” he said. “About five minutes ago I tried to wake her,
and when I couldn’t, we decided to take her to a hospital in Vegas.”

“I’ll sit with her,” I said. “I can put her head in my lap.”

“If you’re sure you can get away,” Richard said. His voice was mild, but he wasn’t
looking me in the eye.

I looked down at the muddied snow at my feet. An arctic breeze lifted my hair off
my neck. “Don’t you want me to come with you?”

“She’s going to be okay,” he said. “At least I think so, from what Morfael says. And
I know you have things you need to do around here.”

“Nothing’s more important than Mom.” I tucked my hands into my armpits and turned
to Morfael. “What’s wrong? Why won’t she wake up?”

“Your mother’s body is in excellent health,” Morfael said. “And the entity which possessed
her is gone. But some part of her consciousness has not yet returned from Othersphere.
I believe that if she is taken to an area where the veil is thicker, she will return
to herself.”

“Then why take her to the hospital?” I looked back and forth between Morfael and Richard.
“If she’s going to get better as soon as she’s out of this area, just take her home.”

“We don’t know how long her return will take,” Morfael said. “Probably not more than
an hour or two, but she hasn’t eaten or had anything to drink in awhile, so it’s best
she get fluids and other sustenance with an IV until she can eat and drink on her
own.”

“And the sooner the better,” Richard said. “I didn’t want to wait for you to get ready
and eat breakfast. I’m sorry.”

“No, no, I’m sorry. I don’t need to eat. I don’t need anything else. I’m coming with
you.”

“Okay,” Richard said, his face softening. “Good.”

“Dez?” I looked over to see Amaris walking up warily, as if unsure of her welcome.
“If you’re going, do you want my coat?”

“Yeah, thanks.” I walked over to her as she shed the heavy coat she had thrown over
her clothes. I was jittery, but not just from the cold. I couldn’t quite grasp that
we were on our way to the hospital again with my mother.

Amaris handed me the coat, getting her mouth close to my ear, and said quietly, “Lazar
is on vid conference downstairs on the computer right now. What do you want me to
tell him?”

Oh, God.
Of course he’s calling now
. I closed my eyes.
Focus.
“Does he have any news?”

Amaris helped my left arm find the coat sleeve. “He says he does. Big news. I don’t
know what it is yet, but he says we need to go in tonight.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Caleb. He wore the same closed expression and stood
too far away to hear us. “Tonight? Why?”

Amaris shook her head, moving around to help me with the coat’s zipper. “I haven’t
had a chance to ask him yet. I ran up here to grab you before you left. He says he
might not be able to find a time he can talk to us again. Do you think you’ll be able
to get back here tonight?”

“I don’t know.”

Richard had finished settling Mom in the back cab, and had one leg up on the step
into the passenger’s side of the truck. “Are you coming or not?” he said.

“He has an idea of what the particle accelerator is for,” Amaris said. “And it might
be online as early as tomorrow.” She looked up at me. “You should go with your mom.
We can handle this. Caleb could talk to Lazar.”

I took a deep breath to stay calm. Any second now Lazar could be forced to hang up
the call in order not to be found out. If I missed this chance, we might never be
able to stop Ximon. “No. You know that would never work.”

Amaris stamped her feet in the cold, eyes darting from me to Richard and back again.
“Well, no. But if you need to go . . .”

I turned to Richard. “I’ll be right there.”

“What do I tell Lazar?” Amaris asked in a very low tone. “Maybe he can try to call
us back later?”

I glanced over at Caleb, still far enough away not to hear me, dark eyes staring out
at the snow-dusted forest. I made sure to keep my voice very low. “Tell Lazar where
I’m going, and why. Tell him to meet me there, if he can.”

“Oh!” Amaris’s eyes popped wide and shot over toward Caleb before she tamped down
her expression. “Just Lazar?”

“Yes,” I said. “No one else. If he can’t get there, we’ll have to find a way to text
him or e-mail him when I’m available to talk.”

“Dez!” Richard stamped his feet to stay warm. “Get in the car!” Then he opened the
passenger door and climbed in.

“I have to go.” I squeezed Amaris’s arm. “Tell him I’m sorry.”

“He’ll understand,” she said.

I tried to smile and moved to the car. Caleb stepped over unexpectedly and opened
the back door for me. “Thanks,” I said.

He leaned in, helping to arrange my sleeping mother so that I could get in the car
and settle her head on my lap. “Let me come with you,” he said, his velvet voice like
a steady, supportive wall.

I jerked my gaze up to his face in surprise. His brow was furrowed, his black eyes
warm and worried. “No,” I said. “It’s okay. But thanks.”

“I can huddle in the very back,” he said. “I promise not to get in the way. You know
how fond I am of your mother, and if I can be of any help . . .”

“That would mean so much to her,” I said, putting my hand on the black wool covering
his arm.
I wish you could come with me. I need you now
.

But if Lazar managed to find me at the hospital, having Caleb there would probably
lead to a fistfight, or worse. I wanted him there more than anyone, but getting the
information from Lazar about the collider was more important. “And it means the world
to me that you offered. Really. But we’ll be okay.”

He looked thoughtful, but obediently stepped back and shut my car door. I rolled down
the window. “I’ll use Richard’s phone to call and let you know once we’re settled
down there,” I said. “You make sure everyone here stays safe.”

He nodded. Behind him, Amaris was already running back toward the school to tell Lazar
what was happening. Would my going to the hospital with my mother jeopardize all my
plans to stop Ximon’s mysterious plot? Maybe. But I couldn’t bear to do anything else.

As Raynard backed the SUV up and turned around, I took one last look back to see Morfael
standing there looking as alien and expressive as a Giacometti statue.
But then he really is an alien.
Caleb had his arms crossed, and his black eyes were skeptical.

 

It took nearly as long to check Mom into a room at the hospital as it had to get there,
even though Richard had called ahead. By early morning, the neurologist was once again
recommending antiseizure medication, and couldn’t understand our reluctance to agree.
Otherwise, he said her brain function looked normal, and that once she was better
hydrated, there was no reason to think she wouldn’t wake up. But time would tell.

Sitting in a hard chair in our half of the puke-tan hospital room, I glanced over
at Richard, not saying those words, but seeing the same thought in his tired eyes.
Mom was breathing steadily and quietly, the IV in her left arm dripping in the silence.
I kept having to fight the urge to crawl into the bed and hold her close, as if somehow
the life in my body could pass into hers. Richard, sitting opposite me holding Mom’s
small right hand, probably felt the same.

“Why don’t you go get us both some coffee, and maybe get yourself a sandwich,” he
said, reaching into his pocket and pulling twenty dollars out of his wallet. “Don’t
worry, I won’t leave her.”

I really wanted to be there when Mom woke up, but I was starving. And Richard looked
like he could use the caffeine. “Okay.” I took the money and headed for the door.
“I won’t be long.”

My footsteps bounced off the long walls of the hallway outside. The nurses and aides
all wore scrubs in happy colors like pink or cheerful prints of tiny roses or baby
toys. But under the fluorescent lights and set against drab beige walls and even drabber
beige floors, all the bright colors were incongruous and jarring.

In the clatter of the cafeteria, I ignored the damp tuna sandwiches and wilting salads,
and found a decent-looking bowl of hummus and side of pita bread, shoved them in a
bag, grabbed two bottles of water and two large coffees, and headed back toward Mom’s
room. As I passed our nurse’s station, the reed-thin aide named Mauricio, who’d helped
us settle Mom in, looked up from his computer screen as I passed by and said, “Did
he find you?”

I halted and turned, and he must have seen puzzlement on my face, because he explained,
“A tall young man was looking for you.” His gaze drifted past me, focusing on something
down the hall. “Oh, there he is.”

Heart leaping, I whirled to see a long lean form with tousled blond hair and a brown
leather jacket thrown over his white pants walking toward me. Our eyes met, and relief
washed over me.

“Thanks,” I said to Mauricio.

He winked at me and shot a look back at Lazar. “Cute. And considerate.”

Lazar had reached me, and I saw he was holding a small bouquet of pink and white cosmos
down by his side.

“You made it,” I said.

A smile broke over his face like dawn over a winter lake. “Thank God,” he said, and
his voice made it sound like an actual prayer. “It wasn’t easy, but I made sure to
check my clothes for tracking devices this time.” His wide brown eyes and butter-gold
hair were shining, but the bruises on his jaw and cheekbone had darkened into black
and purple, standing out like splotches of dark paint on a pale canvas.

“Thanks for coming,” I said over the too-loud patter of my heart. My eyes drifted
down to the flowers.

“For your mom,” he said, his voice tentative, his long fingers around the flower stems
curling and uncurling. “A guy was selling them outside the hospital parking lot.”

“Smart location for a florist,” I said. “That’s very nice of you.”

His brown eyes studied me. “How is she?”

“The doctors think she’ll be fine. Let me just check on her and give this to Richard.”
I held up the coffee, and he followed me as I moved down the hall to our room. When
I walked in, he hung back. I gestured to him. “It’s okay. Come in for a second.”

Richard looked up, eyes going gratefully first to the cup of coffee in my hand, and
then darting over warily to Lazar in the doorway.

“This is Lazar,” I said, handing Richard the Styrofoam cup. “Lazar, this is my stepfather,
Richard.”

Lazar’s eyes moved from my mother’s tiny form huddled under the blankets on the bed
to Richard’s solid bulk in the chair beside her. Recognition sparked in his face before
he smoothed it away, and I remembered with sudden dismay that Lazar had led the group
of objurers who’d tried to kidnap my mother and Richard not that long ago. But Lazar
had been wearing a face mask, and Richard had been quickly sedated. So Richard showed
only signs of curiosity as he stood up.

Lazar shook Richard’s hand. “Nice to meet you, sir. These are for your wife.” He held
out the flowers. “Oh, and here’s something to put them in.” His other hand drew out
a small vase from his jacket pocket.

“Thank you,” said Richard. “That’s very thoughtful.”

Lazar walked over to the sink in the room, running water into the vase and adding
the flowers, while I handed creamer and a sugar packet to Richard and kissed Mom on
the forehead. I could hear how steady and strong her heartbeat was, and smell the
warmth of her skin. She was getting better. But the room still held the uneasy quiet
that comes with waiting.

“Her color looks good,” I said. My words felt awkward and weighty, when I had meant
them to be light.