Chapter 87

Chapter 87

“Someone down there?” Luke called out.

“Gedin? Nenda?” Avlir added. “You two alive down there?”

Silence stretched on, broken only by the sound of debris shifting as it settled into its new position. Luke scanned the basement, even looked through a few of the other holes, but he didn’t see anyone down there.

“We never found their bodies when we were digging,” Avlir said quietly. “I figured they were crushed under the machine itself, but… maybe they just fell through the floor.”

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” Luke told him. “That thing has got to weigh more than a ton. A lot more. If they were underneath it when it fell through the floor, they’ve probably spent the last few days wishing they were dead.”

He dropped down through one of the holes and looked around. The only light was what came through the holes, of course, and even that was poor quality. It almost made it harder to see since his eyes kept trying to switch between light and dark, not that there was much to see. There was less debris piled upon the basement floor, if only because there were joists overhead that were close to a foot thick.

Why they were needed was beyond Luke, but he assumed they were the only reason that machine had stopped when it hit the first floor instead of crashing all the way to the basement. Most of them were cracked or even broken completely, though a few had brick pillars supporting them. Those pillars broke up his line of sight in the basement, but unless someone was actively hiding behind them, he felt like he had enough coverage to see anyone who might have been down there.

“Hello?” Luke said. “If someone’s alive down here, now would be a good time to make some noise for me. I’m not going to go digging through every random pile of crap looking for you.”

Another low groan came from nearby. Luke walked over to a pile of debris and grabbed the chunk of floor that had collapsed in more or less one piece and tossed it aside to reveal two children, one ten or eleven, and the other one five. “Aw, fuck. This… this is bullshit,” he said softly.

The older one was dead, his body stiff with rigor mortis. He’d sheltered the younger one, a little girl dressed in a ragged dress. She wasn’t really conscious, as far as Luke could tell. Her eyes flickered, but she didn’t respond to anything. Luke lifted the boy’s body out of the way and set him aside, then cradled the girl close to his chest.

Without even needing to check, he could see lacerations all over her arms and legs. Her breathing was shallow, barely even there, and she whimpered when he moved her. If he had to guess, his money was on broken ribs, probably from the fall. Somehow the other boy had sheltered her enough that she didn’t look like she’d been hurt when the machine had broken through the floor.

Luke jumped back up to the ground floor and looked over at Avlir. “The other one was dead already,” he said softly.

“Oh, Gods. Fuck those assholes for doing this. I’ll kill every last one of them.”

“Hey, focus. This girl is still alive. What can you do to help her?”

“Help?” Avlir gave a short, bitter laugh. “We don’t have any money. We can’t hire a healer. The only thing I can do to help is put her out of her misery.”

The weight of that neck pouch full of gold and silver had never felt heavier to Luke. Without some sort of magical assistance, he didn’t see a way the girl lived. If they found a healer willing to work on her, maybe he had enough money to pay those fees. “How much does it cost to go to a healer?”

“How the fuck would I know? Do I look like some nobleman’s brat?”

There was one other option. He still had 34 AP. He could pick up the skills and learn the spell himself. Zea had told him that [Mana Manipulation] was an absolute necessity, and [Mana Sight] was considered mandatory by people who actually learned magic, if not by the system itself. Those would let him see and move mana into the desired spell form. [Minor Heal] was inside his budget with the points he had left.

The problem was that those were the minimum requirements, and if he wanted to do better than heal bruises and flesh wounds, he needed to upgrade that spell, and skills like [Anatomy: Humanoid] were also important. [First Aid] might cover some of those holes, but it wasn’t going to be enough, not for someone that injured.

That was 25 of his 34 AP just to get [Minor Heal] at rank 1, another 3 AP for the anatomy skill, and he technically couldn’t even upgrade it unless he bought [Herb Lore] first. For all of that, he could maybe set the broken ribs and heal the scrapes and bruises. If she had any sort of damage to her internal organs, he would be able to do fuck all for that.

“Shit,” he said. The AP was honestly easier to replace than the money, but he just didn’t have enough right now. Sure, it was a good start to more powerful healing spells, and he probably should look into that anyway, but what he had wasn’t going to save this little girl right now. “Okay, we’re going to a healer. You lead, I’m right behind you. Go as fast as you can. I don’t give a fuck if we have to knock some people out of the way.”

“But-”

“No, shut up. Just go.”

Avlir was smart enough to do what he was told. He left the bags behind and darted out the door, with Luke following right behind him. It was a tight fit holding the girl close to his chest, but he managed it without jarring her. The two raced down the streets, ignoring anyone who wasn’t in their way and moving around the ones who were or shoving through them if they couldn’t.

A few minutes later, they stopped in front of an open gate in an eight-foot brick fence. “Here,” Avlir said, panting. “She’s expensive, but powerful. If anyone can save Nenda, it’s her. How will you… you know…?”

“With gold,” Luke muttered, stepping past Avlir. “Come on.”

The two of them walked through the gate, thankfully unlocked, and followed a stone-lined path up towards the house. Avlir sped ahead and started pounding on the door while Luke followed more slowly. By the time he got there, a teenaged boy had answered the door and was busy arguing with the orphan.

“Mistress Omaril doesn’t do charity cases, you little scab,” the teenager snapped. “Now piss off before I give you a beating.”

“Excuse me,” Luke cut in. The teenager jumped in surprise, then turned to focus on Luke and the little girl in his arms. “I would like to talk to the healer now, if that’s okay.”

“She’s… uh…”

A woman appeared behind the teenager, probably fifty years old and with a head full of iron-gray hair. She was dressed in a thick, padded dress with a shawl wrapped around her shoulder. “Felt you coming up the walk,” she said. “Strong enough to be a Guardian. But my assistant is correct. I am not a charity worker.”

“I can pay,” Luke told her. “Can we come in now?”

“If you’re sure,” the woman said. “Don’t know why you’d bother, but as long as your coin is good. Come on then.”

They followed the healer to her clinic and Luke set Nenda down on a table. The healer held out a hand. “Three silver to look her over and tell you what’s wrong. Depending on what I find, it’ll be gold to fix it.”

Luke fished the money out of his pocket and handed it to her. Then he dragged Avlir away from the table where he was hovering over Nenda and said, “Come on, let’s get out of her way and let her work. In fact, you think you can bring my stuff here?”

“I’ll have one of the boys do it,” Avlir said, his eyes still locked on Nenda. “Be right back.”

The healer had already started working, though so far she’d done little but look the little girl over. “Broken ribs, malnourished, lacerations on the face and shoulders. I hope you don’t mind this dress getting ruined. I’ll be cutting it off her,” she said to Luke.

“Do what you have to.”

“I’m already up to two and a half gold. You better have the money.”

Luke pulled it out of his neck pouch and held it up. A little jiggle was enough to make the coins inside clink.

The healer huffed and nodded. Then, before Luke’s eyes, the wounds on her skin started to close. The healer produced a pair of scissors and slit the dress open, then pulled it back. She ignored Luke while she worked, but put her body between him and the patient. That was just fine by him, and in fact he turned and walked to the doorway to intercept Avlir coming back in.

“Give Nenda some privacy,” he told the orphan boy. “She’s not dressed now.”

“Is she going to be alright?” Avlir asked.

“I fucking hope so.”

They waited in silence, with Avlir ducking back out again twenty minutes later and returning with Luke’s backpack and the two knapsacks full of food. “The guys managed to get most of our stuff out. We’re not going to starve to death now, not this week at least. Those fuckers still killed two of us, and Nenda would be as good as dead without your help.”

“She’s not out of it yet,” Luke said. Mistress Omaril had been working non-stop, and he hadn’t heard so much as a peep from Nenda. If it was taking a professional healer that long, Luke knew he’d made the right call. Dumping his AP to get access to [Minor Heal] wouldn’t have been close to enough.

It was an hour before the healer stood up straight and walked away from the table. “Four gold,” she told Luke. He pulled out the last gold coin he had left in there and started digging for silver to make up the difference while the old woman watched him. By the time he was done, there was nothing left in the neck pouch but a few silver and a handful of copper.

“Very well. The child is asleep now. When she wakes, she will need food and water, but in small portions. She’s extremely malnourished, even with my help. She’s going to be sore for about a week, and tender for another week after that.”

“You get all that?” Luke asked Avlir.

“Yes, sir. I understand. We’ll take care of her.”

Nenda’s dress was wrapped around her, with a few stitches every five or six inches down the line of the slit the healer had made. It didn’t do much to preserve her modesty and Luke was sure it would break open, but the stitches held when he picked her up.

“Thank you,” he said.

“Don’t thank me. I wouldn’t have done it without the money. Simple business transaction.” The woman nodded at the girl. “And you’re a fool for wasting it on her.”

“Thank you,” Luke said again. Then he turned and walked away. Avlir hustled after him, the three packs held in his arms.

When they were back on the street, he asked, “Where do you want to take her?”

“Follow me,” Avlir said. “We found a new place to stay for now. It’s probably not the best for her, but it’s what we’ve got.”

While they were walking, the little girl stirred and reached out a hand. Avlir caught it immediately and held it tight. “Hey, you’re okay. It’s alright now,” he whispered.

“Where’s Gedin?” she said. “He pushed me down. Then there was a big noise, and I couldn’t see anymore.”

“I know. I know. Gedin… didn’t make it. I’m sorry.”

Nenda started to cry and tried to get out of Luke’s arms. He stopped and let her down, so that she could grab onto Avlir. “Come on,” the boy said. “Let’s get you home.”