Chapter 98: No Safe Miracle

Carrick lowered the lamp onto native rock and followed the smallest of the thick conduits with his finger, keeping clear of its wet surface.

"We need a length out of that. See how far it pulls back."

Leo touched the dry crust above it with the heel of his marked palm. His damaged fingers trembled above the surface.

"It joins the others underneath."

Carrick went back for the bone saw. Severin followed him above the drainage lip. The surgical chest stood on its boards; Carrick opened it without moving it and lifted out the saw and larger clamps.

The woman from the clinic waited at the entrance, above the wash. Leo followed them back and sent the Grayhook worker for Carrick’s instrument roll.

"Tell Jonah we’ve found where to cut," Carrick told the woman. "It may kill him."

"You want him down here?"

"No. Ask him what he wants. Come straight back."

From the entrance, Severin watched Elspeth’s group lift the living fisherman’s board farther up the path. The fisherman from the higher rock held the foot; another local replaced the helper whose shoulder had failed. Elspeth climbed beside the patient with the compact case.

Carrick returned to the junction. The worker brought the roll and laid it beside the lamp. Severin placed his right palm against the exposed branch and drew heat until its contractions eased. His sleeve snagged against the crust, pulling across the burned forearm.

Leo sawed through twice. The worker caught the loose section in folded cloth, and clear fluid struck the rock beneath it.

The ends retracted. Carrick watched them while Severin released the pull.

Fine strands grew from the lower stump. They fastened to the opposite edge and drew it closer. A translucent sleeve thickened around them. Fluid darkened the new connection before Carrick had put down a clamp.

He cut the sleeve open. More fibres reached past his knife.

"Pull the ends apart," he said. "Farther. We have to take the joining branches too."

Leo looked beyond him. Two broad pathways entered beneath the rib; a thicker one continued into a wet fold at its base.

"All those?"

"Those we can see. I’ll keep this open while you cut."

"Stay back here."

Carrick leaned across the gap and caught a new strand with forceps. "I can’t reach it from there."

Armin sat against the native wall, his open coat hanging around him. He pointed along the lower channel.

"Keep the boards above that. Water needs somewhere to go."

The worker laid two loose boards on the native ledge above the runnel, bracing them against dark rock. Carrick stood at their inner ends beside the fold. Rafael knelt uphill to steady them with his left hand, lowering his head when he swayed.

Carrick clamped each cut stump. The worker threaded cloth through the handles and tied them to separate boards, drawing the ends apart. Carrick cut the fibres stretching between them.

The woman returned while Leo was opening the first broad branch.

"Jonah says don’t keep it for him. He said that twice." She stopped to breathe. "Sarah’s there. Elspeth’s got the fisherman into the clinic."

Carrick kept the forceps steady. "Is Jonah breathing properly?"

"He was when I left. His arm’s worse."

Leo sent her back to stay with them. Severin watched Carrick cut another strand.

"Here," Leo told him.

Severin held his palm just above the broad branch. Heat came out slowly; warmth returned through the folded underside. Leo cut through twice and lifted a span onto the board.

Carrick clamped the fresh stumps, and the worker drew them apart, tying the handles back to the boards. Fluid drained into the channel. Carrick cut two new strands before they reached the opposite stumps.

Leo moved to the other branch. His brief palm contact ended with a jerk through his shoulder.

"That next. Then the one underneath."

Leo began the first cut. A split opened along the rib. Wet layers bulged through its black crust, narrowing the place where Carrick stood. Severin tried to cool the deepest conduit from above. His fingers hardly moved when he lowered his hand.

The tissue continued folding around the saw’s approach.

He stepped onto the lower native ledge beside Carrick, put his bare palm against the conduit and pulled.

Gray surf broke around his boots.

A narrow path of broken planks crossed wet sand toward the water. Beyond it, a huge swollen white body dragged itself out of the sea beneath a low clouded sky. Its long upper shell rose like a bleached skull, narrowing toward the shore.

One thin purple arm planted a clawed hand in the shallows. Others hung from the pale mass, their elbows bending above fingers long enough to reach him. Tentacles curled through the mist behind it, rising higher than the shell. He followed one toward the water and lost it among the moving lengths.

The planted arm bent. The swollen body came farther ashore, forcing water up through the gaps in the planks.

Severin tried to step back.

A hand closed beneath his jaw. Its fingers pressed around his throat while another caught his shoulder. He gripped the wrist, but his hands slipped against the cold skin.

His heels dragged through sand. The surf approached with the next pull. Beneath the white body, farther out than its limbs should have reached, a vast dark curve displaced the water.

The fingers tightened. He opened his mouth against them.

Leo hauled him off the conduit.

Severin fell onto wet rock, choking. He tried to draw breath and got a thin whistle. Leo pulled his collar loose. Across the lamp, Carrick’s knife moved through strands that had crossed almost the whole gap.

Severin pressed his fingers to his throat. His next breath scraped through, followed by a cough that bent him over his knees.

"Stay there," Leo said.

A cloth knot pulled loose. One stump swung inward. A plate broke from the shifting rib and slid across the board beneath Rafael. He pulled the wet strip from his marked palm and caught the moving mineral face with it bare.

Green light showed against the crust. The slab struck sideways into the channel instead of Carrick’s legs.

Rafael retched and fell against the worker, who held him until his left hand found the wall. Water backed behind the fallen slab.

Armin raised his left hand. The trapped wash bent around its edge and found the lower channel. He dropped his arm before the pool had emptied, breathing through his open mouth. The remaining water followed the slope.

While the worker retied the loose loop, Leo resumed the second branch. Severin crawled closer, watching his right hand settle before reaching for the cut. His small pull let Leo finish the first cut and shift the saw farther along. The second freed another span. The worker clamped its stumps and tied them apart.

Carrick slashed through fibres stretching from both opened branches. The thick conduit beneath him still contracted.

Leo cut it above a clamp the worker had set, leaving the lower end attached. He pointed to the clear rock behind Severin. "Carrick. Come out. We’ll finish this."

Carrick stepped back far enough to place one boot on it. A pale loop rose between the separated ends and caught around the lower clamp.

He went forward again and cut it.

"It’s still joining."

"Doctor, move."

Carrick kept the knife under the clamp. Severin reached for his sleeve, but his arm answered too slowly.

A thick growth pushed through the broken rib beside Carrick’s hip. It drove through his side below the ribs and pinned him against the opposite crust. Blood spread across his shirt. The knife struck the clamp, and he caught its handle again.

Leo seized his upper arm. Carrick cried out as the growth tightened through him. The tissue beneath the knife stretched toward the far stump.

"Cut below," Carrick said.

Leo released his arm and set the saw below the clamp, across the remaining attachment.

Severin planted his palm beside the teeth. Heat came through it in a brief pull that left his wrist sagging. He stopped, holding his arm with his wounded left hand while Leo worked.

Carrick’s knife scraped along the clamp. A strand caught against its blade. He drew the edge through once, opened his mouth and tried again. Blood ran from beneath his coat into the clear fluid at his boots.

The strand parted on his second stroke.

Leo’s saw broke through. The worker dragged out the loose join with the clamp. The thick ends collapsed, spilling into the runnel; the growth pinning Carrick sagged with them.

Carrick’s head fell forward. Severin tried to stand and reached him on his knees instead.

Leo supported Carrick against the crust and felt his neck while the worker cut the slack tissue away with a knife from the roll. Blood kept coming through the opened shirt. Carrick’s knife slipped from his fingers.

"He’s gone."

The cut ends lay apart. Thin fibres drooped from them into the wash, where the severed join turned against the stone. Leo checked the dry face above the gap once. "Quiet here." He withdrew his trembling hand and wrapped it.

Leo and the worker lowered Carrick onto the boards. Leo told the worker to send men back. The worker took the lamp and helped Rafael along the upper strip. Armin followed against the wall.

At the shelf, the strands that had bridged the old cuts hung loose. Water passed through the cracked drainage lip toward the entrance.

Severin climbed the ridge behind Leo. He stopped twice with his forearm against the rock while his legs caught up. Rain still blew across the path, though the gusts held to one direction now. Above the cove, the cutter remained beyond the reef.

Jonah turned his head when they entered the clinic.

"Done?"

Leo nodded. Sarah sat beside the table, her bandaged wrist in her lap. Jonah’s right hand held her uninjured one. His left lay open on a towel, the pale lines visible almost to the elbow.

"I was afraid you’d leave it," he said.

Severin came beside him. Jonah looked down at Severin’s wet clothes.

"Carrick?"

"He died down there."

Jonah looked toward Sarah. She moved closer, and he pulled her hand against his chest.

His left fingers curled and opened once. When he tried to raise the arm, it stayed on the towel, the fingertips darkening around their nails.

Leo felt his wrist. Too long passed before Jonah took another breath.

"Get me up a bit."

Severin helped lift his shoulders while Sarah moved the folded bedding behind him. Across the room, Elspeth checked the fisherman they had brought from the shore.

Jonah tried to swallow. Sarah held a cup to his mouth, but he turned away after a little water touched his lips.

"Children home?"

"Yes."

"Keep them there."

She set down the cup. He gripped her hand harder.

"Stay, Sarah."

"I’m here."

"Help me," Jonah said to Leo. "I can’t get air."

Severin supported him while Leo listened close to his mouth. Jonah’s chest lifted against Severin’s forearm. He tried to breathe again, his right hand drawing Sarah forward.

She said his name. His fingers loosened around hers, and his chest stayed still beneath Severin’s forearm. Leo kept checking his neck until Sarah asked him to stop.

Severin lowered Jonah onto the bedding. Sarah kept his right hand in hers as Severin withdrew his arm. He left them together and went to the doorway, holding the frame until his legs steadied.

Elspeth came beside him. Outside, the woman who had carried Jonah’s answer was bringing another rescuer up the path.

"How many did we lose?" Elspeth asked.