Chapter 96: The Door They Closed

Leo caught Carrick’s wrist above the lashing.

"Leave the rope."

Carrick kept his hand against it. Behind them, the fisherman’s breath stopped stirring Severin’s sleeve.

"Doctor."

Carrick turned. Leo released his wrist, and the doctor came back to the board, dropping beside Elspeth. Severin supported the man’s head while Carrick cleared more blood from his mouth. A shallow breath came, followed by a long wait for another.

Carrick shifted the man slightly and listened at his chest. Elspeth kept pressure where he had put her hand. The dressing was still holding, but the fisherman’s lips had darkened.

Leo crouched on the other side. "Can you move him?"

"Not up that path." Carrick searched the neck again. "Give me a few minutes on the shelf. If I can get him breathing properly, we can carry him out."

"You can’t promise that."

"No." Carrick kept his fingers in place. "But he’s dying here."

The man’s mouth opened beneath Severin’s hand. His chest barely moved. Carrick bent close enough to hear what little air passed, then reached for a fresh cloth.

Leo watched him work. At last he stood and went to the crossed timbers.

"One patient. We keep him on the board. If anything starts attaching, he comes off."

"I still say leave it shut," Elspeth said.

Leo loosened the rope and laid the crossed timbers aside. Elspeth stayed beside the fisherman until Carrick took over the dressing, then went to the man with the split lip. Armin was kneeling there with a local helper, keeping the blankets beneath him as well as over him.

Carrick called instructions across. "Keep watching his breathing. Call me if he gets harder to rouse."

Elspeth answered without looking toward the entrance.

A helper hung two lamps from the carrying straps. Elspeth placed the recovered case and instrument roll beside the fisherman’s feet.

Rafael took the foot of the board with his left hand. Severin gripped the other end on his right, and Leo bent to support the side. Carrick steadied the head as they lifted.

The burn pulled beneath Severin’s sleeve. He held the load against his hip until they were through the opening, where Rafael’s lamp showed water crossing the pale drainage lip.

They eased the board onto the treatment supports. The canvas left there had bunched against one edge. Carrick drew it clear of the wound while Leo checked the passage behind them.

The surgical chest stood farther back on its boards. A corner still rested beside the broken projection that had caught Ruth’s glove. Severin stayed clear of it.

Carrick opened the recovered case. "Light here."

Rafael set one lamp where it shone across the torn side and left the other on the board. Severin braced the board while Carrick loosened the dressing enough to examine beneath it. The fisherman lay with his mouth open, making small wet sounds each time he tried to breathe.

A wave struck outside. Water rose over the drainage lip and ran beneath their boots.

Leo knelt at a dry part of the support. He unwrapped his marked hand and placed the intact heel of his palm against the mineral, keeping the split fingers raised.

"Stronger than before."

Carrick listened again. He moved the fisherman’s head a little, wiped his mouth and waited beside him.

The next breath lifted more of the chest. Another followed before Severin had finished watching the first. Blood still stained the man’s lips, but he swallowed and moved his tongue against them.

Carrick’s fingers settled at the neck. "There."

He kept counting while Severin held the board. The fisherman took several breaths without the long gaps. His shoulders eased against the blanket beneath him, and Carrick reached for the dressing instead of clearing his mouth again.

Leo took his hand from the support. Two fingers shook as he wrapped them.

"Rafael. Look at the cuts. Don’t go past them."

Rafael took the lamp. Severin brought the other light closer while Carrick lifted the bloodied pad.

Something pale held its lower edge.

Carrick drew it back a little farther. A strand stretched between the cloth and the wound, then parted, leaving a fine branch against the torn flesh. More lay deeper inside, where the uneven chest moved with each breath.

Severin lowered the light. The branches passed between strips of damaged muscle. One curved around the white end of a broken rib. Beside it, a translucent tube darkened and cleared in slow pulses.

Carrick put the dressing down on clean cloth. He touched one branch with the blunt end of his forceps. It held to the tissue beneath it.

"Where’s that coming from?" Leo asked.

Severin followed the pale material toward the board’s edge. The man’s torn coat hung over it, and a fold of canvas pressed between the wood and the low mineral rim. Fine strands crossed the wet cloth. They gathered into a thicker cord beneath the open wound.

"Here."

He lifted the coat clear with his gloved left fingers. The torn skin hurt even with so little weight.

Carrick leaned over the edge. While he watched, a new fork slid along the bloodied cloth and entered beneath the wound’s lower margin. The cord tightened. A strip of skin drew toward the shelf, though the fisherman was still breathing steadily.

"Get him off the shelf," Carrick said.

Leo moved to the side of the board. Severin set down the light and took his end, but Carrick stopped them before they lifted.

"Let me clear this first."

He cut the coat around the attachment and opened the canvas fold. Pale cords ran from a split in the rim into the fisherman’s side. Some were fine enough to lie across the forceps. A thicker one pressed around the jaws when Carrick closed them.

He eased it away from the wound. The tube inside the chest drew taut with it.

Carrick lowered the forceps. Severin remembered Ruth’s arm stopping when she stepped back from the chest. He stripped off his right glove.

"I can slow this end."

"Keep the cold away from him," Carrick said.

Severin found a dry patch of mineral beside the split, below the board and clear of the blood. He set his bare right palm against it, keeping the burned forearm off the rim, and drew heat from the short span under his hand.

The mineral cooled. Movement in the nearest cord slackened, though the material inside the wound still shifted with the fisherman’s breathing.

Carrick lifted the outer cord with forceps and cut across it. Dark fluid ran down the mineral face. Another attachment tightened beside it.

Severin drew a little more. Dampness whitened at the split. His fingers began to feel slow, and he released the pull as Carrick cut the second connection.

"That’s enough," Severin said.

He took his hand away and worked the glove back on. Carrick cut the remaining fine strands outside the wound, leaving pale ends among the torn tissue. Leo supported the board when one of the cords drew it sideways.

Rafael returned with the lamp. "Tissue’s growing through the packing and across the first gap. There’s movement at the other two."

Leo pointed to the foot of the board. "Help lift."

Rafael set the lamp beside the case before taking the carrying strap with his left hand.

They raised it only a few inches. Carrick watched beneath the edge, cut one last strand drawn across the canvas and guided the head while they carried the man toward the entrance.

The fisherman’s breath caught before they reached the dark native rock.

Carrick had them lower the board there. He knelt at once. Blood returned to the mouth, running into the wet beard and onto the blanket beneath the head.

Severin crouched to hold the light. The cut below his knee pulled sharply, and he shifted his weight onto the other leg.

Carrick cleared the mouth again. He put fresh cloth over the side wound, where blood was welling around the severed pale tubes. His forceps lay beside his knee. He reached for them, then stopped to search for the pulse.

The fisherman struggled for another breath.

"Back?" Rafael asked, looking toward the shelf.

"No," Carrick said. "Severin, lower the light."

Carrick took up the forceps and worked at the bleeding edge of the wound while Leo steadied the man’s head. When another weak breath came, Carrick put down the instrument and listened at the chest.

Outside, Elspeth called for someone to bring dry blankets from the boat.

Severin held the lamp over Carrick’s shoulder. Blood soaked through the fresh cloth, around the pale ends left inside the wound. The fisherman’s chest rose once and sank.

Water reached the foot of the board. Rafael drew it back from the wash while Carrick bent close to the mouth. He listened at the chest, then searched for a pulse on the other side of the neck.

Severin’s forearm ached from holding the light. Carrick kept checking until Leo touched his sleeve.

"He’s dead." Carrick sat back, his hand still on the dressing.

A crack came from the treatment shelf.

The low rim had split farther along. Mineral fragments lifted from its wet face, pushed outward by a pale cord thicker than the attachments Carrick had cut. It bent over the edge and struck the floor.

Leo stepped to the rim and put the intact heel of his marked palm against the support above it. He drew away almost at once, shaking the hand.

"Out. Take him with us."

Severin set the lamp back on the board and got his right hand beneath the carrying end. Rafael took the foot, with Leo supporting the side again. Carrick gathered the loose instruments into the roll and tucked it beside the dead man’s legs.

They lifted, but the board jerked sideways as they passed the drainage lip. A carrying strap had fallen beneath it. Pale tissue curled through the loop and drew it tight against the mineral, pulling Rafael’s end toward the rim.

Rafael braced his end against his thigh. "Lower it."

They brought the board down onto the dark rock before it could tip. Leo held the side while Rafael kept the foot clear of the lip. The strap stretched hard enough to creak.

Severin drew his dagger. His right fingers closed late around the grip. He reset them and crouched beside the board, keeping his wounded left hand against his thigh.

He slid the blade under the taut strap on the clear side of the loop. The first cut opened only its outer layers. He pulled the edge through again, bracing his wrist against the wood.

The strap parted. Its loose end whipped into the pale coil, which contracted against the lip and tore another chip from it. Severin sheathed the dagger before taking his end of the board again.

Carrick looked into the opened fracture. "Those tubes. The same as in his side."

Leo caught his arm above the elbow. "Keep moving."

They took the board through the entrance. Severin stepped over the fallen lashing, his leg dragging on the rise. The man with the split lip lay on his blankets. He lifted his head when Elspeth spoke, then let it fall back. Armin and the local helper gathered the blankets beneath him, ready to carry him.

The fisherman from the higher rock stood beside them, wrapped in a blanket. He looked at the board and reached to uncover the dead man’s face. Carrick stopped beside him while Leo called for more hands.

Severin lowered his end onto the waiting boards. His burned arm shook as he let go.

"There," the boatman said, pointing beyond the cove.

A cold blue-green light showed through the rain, low over the water. Severin wiped spray from his good eye. Farther out, another glow cleared the dark shoulder of a wave. A third moved nearer the outer rocks.

Foam streamed seaward between the rocks. The lights came against it on separate courses, closing on the cove.

Severin drew his dagger again. He had seen that color beneath the Drifter’s wet mineral plates.

Stone cracked at his heel. He turned as a thick strand pushed through a pale seam at the cavern mouth and bent toward the boards.