Fractured Earth Saga 1: Apocalypse Orphan (34 page)

“A vast army,” said the old king with a scowl. “We have prepared for this attack. We will withstand this army as we have all the others. The surgery you offered to perform must wait. I can’t risk being stuck in bed while Jonar threatens my gates.”

“My lord, I can do several things to help you. We need to get that piece of metal out of your left thigh, and at the same time, I will fix the cracked bone and broken ribs that have not healed properly. I can also fix your right arm. It will be sore for a few days, but you’ll be able to use it. You’ll need to wear a patch on your left eye for up to five days. I can fix the sore knee and reduce the swelling. Then, I will examine the fractures in your back to see can be done quickly to stop the pain.”

Waylan turned to his brother and said, “You are in command, Onel. I will go with Wolf to his tent for the ministrations he has offered. Defend the castle at all costs.”

“Aye, my brother, it will be as you say.”

Wolf and Waylan walked to the tent. The aging monarch was ecstatic at the prospect of suffering less pain. Once inside, Waylan looked around. Nala was sitting next to Haakon’s bed, which had been moved to the other side of the medical bay. Syn was standing near an operating table, dressed in her candy striper outfit. When Waylan caught sight of her, his jaw dropped, and with a lusty gleam in his eyes, he said, “If I die today, may I wake up in this woman’s arms.”

Syn walked to the king and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. “I see you’re a feisty old man,” she said with a smile. “Come, you need to wash before I can work on what ails you.”

“Woman, I washed last month. I do not need to bathe again until next month.”

“Wrong, old man. You will wash, or I will have Wolf hold you down while I wash you.”

“Ha! I might let you, lass! Show me to the bath.”

Wolf led the king to the shower. As Waylan removed his clothes, Wolf was amazed by the muscle mass the elderly monarch retained. When the warm water hit Waylan’s skin, he stared at the shower spigot as if it were magic. Wolf explained the principle to him, and the king asked if it could be built into his castle. Wolf assured him it was possible.

“With water feeling like this and making it so easy, I might bathe every week,” Waylan laughed.

When they returned to the med bay, Syn had moved Haakon to the lab area, away from the operating room. She directed the king to lie on the table and started an IV with anesthesia. Soon, he was snoring peacefully. Syn inserted an airway in his mouth and put him on oxygen. Operating on the thigh with the metal shard was the first challenge. Soon, she discovered Waylan’s limp was caused by a two-inch piece of a broken sword tip. She made the necessary repairs with the precision of a world-renowned surgeon, using a laser to stimulate bone growth, and then moved to the ribs. Opening Waylan’s stomach with a scalpel, she repaired two damaged ribs and replaced two others with titanium bars.

Wolf helped turn Waylan on his stomach, and Syn worked on his fractured vertebrae and compressed disc, using a special polymer to repair the fractures. Wolf turned the king over again, and Syn worked on the torn bicep. The damage was worse than she had expected, and it required more time than she had planned, but the result was satisfactory. She then drained Waylan’s bad knee and, using dissolvable stitches, she fixed the tear in the meniscus. Finally, she repaired his detached retina and gave him an infusion of antibiotics to complete the operation. The surgery had taken sixteen hours.

“Amazing work, Syn. When will you wake him?”

“I will keep him under sedation until after Jonar’s army arrives. We should be able to repel one or two attacks before we will need his sword.”

“I will lead the battle while he is incapacitated,” Wolf said. “If necessary, I will destroy the siege engines myself.”

“Commander, again, do not underestimate Jonar. He is exceptionally intelligent. By now, he knows you are vulnerable to something he has created. He may have a nasty surprise for you.”

“Regardless, Syn, I will prevail. This world is all that is left of my time. We can’t allow them to repeat our senseless wars. I might only stun Jonar’s men. I don’t want to kill any more of these drug-crazed fools. We need to run some tests. The drug Jonar uses must have an antidote.”

“I agree. We will need blood samples from several of the men. I can place a mobile emitter up here to keep the tent in place. That will allow me to take the ship into battle and end this war with no loss of life for Waylan’s people.”

“That’s too much technology, too fast,” Wolf cautioned. “Maybe a few stun grenades or something.”

“I will see what I can come up with, Commander.” Syn paused for a moment and then said, “It is time to wake Haakon. He is well enough to put him off the ship. I can rig the holo-emitters to look innocuous in the tent area for his care. Let’s go to Nala.”

Wolf followed Syn to Haakon’s cot and saw that Nala had fallen asleep holding his hand. He reached down to touch her shoulder, and the moment his fingers made contact, she sprang awake, holding a knife to his throat. She stared at Wolf with a crazed, disoriented look for a few seconds, and then recognition came into her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I was having a nightmare.”

Wolf frowned at the once gentle woman, deeply troubled by her reversion to the violent, bloody past she had lived. With sadness, he realized Nala might never again be the smiling beauty he once knew.

“It is time to awaken Haakon and move him out into the larger area,” Wolf said.

“Let us wake him immediately. I long to hear his voice,” Nala said with a happy smile.

Preparing Nala for what was about to happen, Syn explained, “He will awaken slowly. He will open his eyes and then go right back to sleep. His body is healing, and it will take time. When we wake him, I want you and your children to talk to him, call his name calmly, and tell him to wake up. It may be days before he recognizes you. I don’t want you to be alarmed at the slow progress. Are we clear on this?”

“Yes, Syn, I understand.”

“Good. Now move away from him, please, so I can disconnect this equipment and give him an injection to wake him up slowly.”

Nala stepped away from the bed, giving Syn room to maneuver. Syn began removing the IVs and sticky EKG patches from Haakon’s body. She left two IVs mounted on mobile poles connected. With Wolf’s help, she lifted Haakon onto a rolling cot and pushed it out to the other side of the tent. A cabinet materialized on one wall, and Nala pretended she didn’t see it happen, but her face paled anyway. The cabinet had all the medical equipment that would be needed for Haakon’s recovery, and Syn began hooking him up. Wolf brought in chairs so they could sit while they waited for Haakon to regain consciousness.

Nala sat by the head of the bed, and Syn instructed, “Ask him to wake up, Nala. Talk to him as you would if he were awake.” Nala called Haakon’s name. His eyes fluttered open for a few seconds and then closed again.

“Is he all right?” Nala asked in a worried voice.

“Yes, that’s normal, Nala. This will go on for several hours. You must be patient.”

Wolf whispered to Syn that he needed to discuss the king’s surgery with Onel, and he quietly exited the tent, making his way down the stairs to the throne room. As he entered, Onel was talking to a group of advisers, and he glanced up asking, “How is my brother?”

“The king is doing quite well. We will let him sleep for seventy-two hours and then awaken him.”

“That is good. He should rest. We are reviewing the castle defenses for the hundredth time,” Onel explained.

“Have the new acquisitions been deployed yet?”

“Yes, they are positioned throughout the city. Skylla’s warriors will range outdoors to harry the supply lines.” Looking across the table at Skylla, Onel warned, “It will be dangerous out there. We will not be able to send reinforcements if you become trapped.”

“Is that wise?” Wolf asked in concern.

Skylla gave Wolf a condescending smile and snapped, “We are Nanna. We will be fine whether Jonar sends five hundred or five thousand of his pathetic troops. The numbers won’t matter. We will strike like the wind and disappear. My only concern is that we will encounter other Nanna who are not sworn to you. That will pit sister against sister and mother against daughter. If only you could meet my mother, she would pledge to you and switch her allegiance. But alas, we will be at war before you can meet her.”

“How many Nanna warriors are there?” Wolf asked, leaning forward.

“Including my warriors, two thousand, and another four thousand Fenrir.”

“What are Fenrir?” Wolf frowned at the unfamiliar word.

“It’s the name we give our animals—you call them wolves. They are life mates to us. When they are weaned, we raise them as family and treat them as members of our tribe. When they are killed, we mourn them as brothers and sisters of the hunt,” Skylla said.

“Fenrir, huh?” Wolf said, recalling the details of a legend from his own distant past. “The story of a mighty wolf named Fenris was told in my land among my people.”

“Please, Wolf, tell me the legend!” Skylla’s face broke into a delighted smile.

Wolf looked at Onel, who nodded for him to continue. “I will give you the short version. A long time ago, people known as the Norse believed in many gods. One god named Loki was evil and mated with a giantess. They had three children. One was the wolf Fenris, who was forever hungry. Its jaws were immense and its teeth were as sharp as swords. Odin, the father of these gods, knew he had made a mistake by letting Loki’s children live. He split the children up, sending them to different places. One he put in charge of hell, another he put in the ocean, and the third child, Fenris, he kept in his home, called Asgard. Because Odin did not want to fight it, Fenris was kept as a pet. He was allowed to roam about Asgard because everyone, including Odin, was terrified of the wolf. Odin had foreseen in the Last Battle between good and evil his own destiny was to be destroyed by Fenris. The great wolf snapped his powerful jaws at the doorway to the council chamber daily, and the other gods were afraid to attend the meetings. Something had to be done.

“Odin told the other gods: ‘We have made a mistake feeding and coddling this wolf that is destined to destroy us. Every day, it grows stronger. We can’t kill him in heaven, so what shall we do?’ One god said, ’Chain him up.’ Another said ‘Banish him.’ Odin answered, ‘Where will we find a chain strong enough to hold such a creature?’

“One of the gods vowed, ‘I will make these chains,’ and he forged mighty chains that even his godly strength couldn’t break. He brought them to Odin, who examined the chains and said they looked strong. Even Odin couldn’t break them. He then summoned Fenris and asked him to prove his tremendous strength by breaking the chain. The wolf was confident of his strength and allowed himself to be bound. The gods were ecstatic the wolf was in chains, but Fenris flexed and snapped the chains, freeing himself with little trouble.

“Looking at the broken chains on the ground, Odin proclaimed, ‘He has grown too strong.’ So they forged an even stronger chain, which the wolf broke easily. Then, Odin said, ‘We must have the dwarves make a magic chain. Something must be done.’ An emissary was sent to the dwarves to request the special chain. The master dwarf agreed, saying, ‘We will make you an enchanted chain.’ They toiled through the night, and when they presented the finished chain, it looked no bigger than a single satin thread, but it was stronger than anything ever made.

“They summoned Fenris and challenged him to show his strength again. The wolf saw in the gods’ eyes that they feared him, and he listened to Odin say, ‘We know how strong you are. You have shown your great strength before, but now we have a further test. It is this,’ he said, holding out the twisted strand to Fenris.

“The wolf looked at the silken string. He was not stupid. The thread was small and reeked of dwarf magic. He asked, ‘Why should I do this? If I succeed, you will be amazed, and if I fail, I will remain bound in that accursed string.’

“Odin smiled and said, ‘How could you fail with your strength?’ But the wolf snarled and replied, ‘I fear a foul trick. If it is a trick, you will leave me bound—but I will not let you call me a coward. You may tie me if one of your gods will place his right hand in my mouth.’ Fenris smiled at the thought of biting off a god’s hand. The assembled gods looked fearful, but the bravest of the gods stepped forward with his right hand raised. Fenris opened his great jaws, exposing his razor sharp fangs, and the courageous god put his hand in the wolf’s mouth. The gods bound the whole length of the silken strand around Fenris and tied the ends together with knots that wouldn’t loosen. They worried that the small strand would break, and if it didn’t, the brave god would lose his hand. This thought occurred to Fenris too, and he struggled to break free, but the harder he tried, the tighter the strands became. The wolf exerted all of his incredible strength but could not break free of the slender strand. Enraged, he bit off the brave god’s hand. After eons of struggle, the wolf broke loose and killed Odin.”

“What a beautiful story,” Skylla said with an amused chuckle. “Rightful vengeance for foul trickery.”

“Well, yes, I suppose,” Wolf said without humor.

Onel smiled at Wolf’s story and said, “Getting back to the meeting. I fear even with the new warriors, we may need more. It’s a shame we cannot sway your mother and her army of Nannas to our cause, Skylla.”