“Denise? Denise is that you? Say something so I can be sure,” Molly said, speaking to the tall African American girl with tears in her eyes.
Of course, she had never seen Denise before but this was the room number the nurse had given her and the girl was standing just outside the door crying. It must be Denise—she hoped.
“Molly, what are you doing here?” the girl demanded.
“Denise!” The moment Denise spoke again, Molly knew it was her. She rushed into the other woman’s arms and hugged her tightly. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered in Denise’s ear. “I came back as fast as I could.”
“You weren’t supposed to come back at all. I told Commander Sylvan to hold my message about…about Scott until the end of your mission. I just…wanted you to know before you came home. So I wouldn’t…wouldn’t have to tell you twice.”
Molly heard the terrible grief in her friend’s voice and hugged her tighter. “Tell me about it,” she murmured. “Is he…am I too late to say goodbye?”
“Almost.” Denise pulled back and swiped at her eyes with the crumpled tissue she was holding. “He hasn’t said a word since the accident. He’s been completely unconscious—completely unresponsive. And now he…he’s starting to lose brain function. The doctor came in earlier and asked…” She took a long, deep shuddering breath. “Asked his mom and dad to come talk about…about harvesting his organs to use…to use for other people.”
“Oh, no!” Molly’s eyes darted to the open door of the ICU room. She gripped Denise’s hand tightly. “Come on—I want to see him. If…if you want me to, that is,” she added.
“Of course I want you to but…” Denise shook her head. “But Molly, how are you seeing anything at all? Does it have something to do with that weird-ass jewel you have stuck between your eyes? Is it some kind of Kindred technology?”
“Not Kindred—Cha’llah,” Molly corrected her. “It’s from Tal’os Trenta. It’s a healing crystal and—oh!”
“What? What is it?” Denise asked urgently.
“Denise…” Molly gripped her hands tightly. “I just had an idea but I don’t know if it will work. Will you let me try it on Scott?”
“Try what?” Denise looked confused. “I don’t understand.”
“Just come on.” Molly dragged her friend into the room. “There’s no time to lose.”
Inside Scott was lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to all kinds of tubes and monitors. His dark blond hair lay lank against the white pillowcase and he seemed shrunken somehow. He was usually so tall and strong—tall enough that Denise, who was quite tall herself, had confided to Molly he almost made her feel small.
Molly had never seen him, of course, but she had felt his physical size and strength when he hugged her. But the wasted body in the bed looked nothing like the picture of Scott she had built in her mind from Denise’s description and her own observations. He looked like a boy, too young to die but dying anyway.
Taking in the blinking lights and humming machines, Molly wondered if she was too late. Denise had said that his brain function was going—was her idea going to do any good?
Never know unless I try it, she thought grimly, stepping to the head of the bed. She reached to her forehead, wondering if the crystal would come off if she pulled. But hadn’t someone—Llewith?—told her that it would come off if she wanted to take it off? Something like that, anyway.
As she pried at the jewel, another, more recent memory came back to her. The Wise One, warning her that the crystal could do one large healing but that once depleted it couldn’t be recharged.
I’ll be blind again. Blind for good this time. The thought flitted across her mind but Molly didn’t hesitate. If this was the only way she could spare her best friend the soul-crushing agony of losing someone before it was their time to go, she had to do it.
The moment she got the crystal off her forehead, her field of vision began to narrow as darkness crept in, obscuring the corners of her sight.
“Molly, what are you doing?” Denise had come up behind her and there was worry and uncertainty in her voice.
“Trying something—trying to help Scott the way I was helped.”
Quickly, before she could lose her sight completely, Molly pressed the tear-drop shaped crystal, which was glowing a bright, shimmering gold, to the space right between Scott’s eyes.
“Cha’llah,” she whispered earnestly. “Cha’llah, if you can hear me, please find this man, Scott, worthy of your healing. He’s a good man and Denise needs him—please!”
She didn’t know if the far-away source of the Cha’llah could hear her but she seemed to feel another presence in the room. Perhaps it was the Kindred Goddess everyone on the Mothership seemed to believe in so fervently. At any rate, the presence was definitely feminine in nature—Molly could sense that clearly.
Denise must have felt it too because her voice was awed when she whispered, “Molly, what’s going on in here? What’s happening?”
“Please,” Molly pleaded with the unseen presence. “Please let me use the power of my crystal to heal him. Just let him be all right. Please.”
The presence swelled and intensified for a moment, filling the small hospital room to overflowing. And then she heard a voice whisper in her ear.
“Daughter, your sacrifice will not be in vain.”
The voice and presence were gone as quickly as they had come but Molly barely had time to notice before Scott’s eyelids fluttered open and he spoke.
“Molly?” he asked, looking up at her, his brow wrinkling in confusion. “Denise? Sweetheart? What’s going on? Why are you crying?”
“Scott?” Denise’s tear-filled eyes widened in disbelief and hope. “Scott? Oh my God, baby—how do you feel?”
“I feel fine. A little stiff maybe but okay. So what am I doing…here?” He looked around himself and sat up easily, like a man just waking up from a nap. “Is this a hospital bed? Is this some kind of joke?”
“No joke.” Denise turned to Molly, half laughing-half crying. “Thank you! I don’t know what you did but thank you!”
Then she threw herself into Scott’s arms, hugging and kissing him. There were tears running down her cheeks but Molly could tell they were tears of joy.
The two of them embracing was the last thing she saw before the darkness, which had been slowly but steadily encroaching on the corners of her vision, came forward and swallowed the last dot of light completely.
Once more, she was completely blind.