Inheritance: Scales of Change

Chapter Twenty Three - Fighting

"Dad..." you managed to choke out as you were led away from the open deck.
"Come on..." Raxe pulled you, his voice desperate.
    You found your sense of urgency and hurried after your father and Caspian into your quarters. One of the men aggressively cleared everything off the table as your father's body was placed carefully on it. Caspian was leaning over him, saying something to him when you ran in.
"What happened?" You panted, as if it wasn't obvious from the shaft protruding upward from your father's chest.
"One of Vorsud's men shot at you when you had him pinned, your father pushed you out of the way and took the arrow." Caspian looked up at you, his eyes swimming with fear.
You stepped up to your father's side, and Caspain moved back to allow you to get closer.
"Dad...why?" Your voice shook.
Your father slowly turned his head towards you, his breaths shuddering, and his eyes distant. "Couldn't... let you... get hurt..."
You shook your head, tears now welling in your eyes. "I'm going to fix this."
    You ran to your bedside table, where you kept your mother's journal and frantically flipped through the pages. She didn't have a specific entry for "being shot in the heart with an arrow" but she had to have something. You brought the journal back to the table, Caspian, Raxe and a few other men were swarming around.
"Leave us." You commanded your crew without looking up, and they obeyed.
"The arrow has to come out." Caspian said darkly. "But once we do, he is going to start bleeding out."
"Get something we can use to apply pressure." You told Raxe, and without thinking he tore the shirt off his back.
    "This is going to hurt, I'm sorry." Caspian looked down over your father, who had closed his eyes. His hand gripped the shaft as close as he could to the arrowhead, and took a deep breath. "You might want to look away." He turned to you.
You shook your head and took your father's hand. "Do it."
Caspian pulled, and you heard a sickening wet, sucking sound as the arrowhead pulled against the tissue. Your father groaned and squeezed your hand.
    "Looks like the head didn't go in all the way." Caspian said as he continued to slide the rest of the arrow out, throwing it on the floor. "Ok, it's out. Press down hard Raxe, we need to staunch the blood flow."
Raxe's shirt instantly changed colors as your father's blood soaked through the entire shirt. "It's too much, I need more material." He turned to say.
Caspian dragged the sheets off the bed and handed them to Raxe.
"How bad was it?" You asked him as he came to stand next to you.
"It didn't go in all the way. Hopefully that means it didn't pierce all the way into his heart. The first danger is him losing too much blood."
"I...think I know of a way to stop it." Raxe looked back over his shoulder at you both. "But it's going to hurt."
"What?" You asked.
"I can cartarize it."
You looked up at your father's face, which was quickly draining of color. "Dad? Can you hear us?"
No response.
You felt his pulse, it was barely there.
You nodded at Raxe.
"Cas, take over, I have to run to my forge."
Caspian nodded as he placed his hand over the bloodstained sheets. "Hold on, Dad." He whispered.

    It felt like hours that you and Caspian sat in silence, the white sheets now dripping red. You father hadn't stirred since the arrow was removed, and his skin was beginning to feel cold. You were beginning to panic when Raxe finally burst back into the room, a long metal bar in his hands, the tip of which was glowing red with heat.
"Hold him down." Raxe demeaned as he rushed to the table.
You and Caspian each stood on one side if your father, holding his arms in place.
"Brace yourself old man." Raxe sucked in a breath and pressed the hot metal to his open wound.
    You felt your father tense and twitch under your touch, his expression contorted slightly as the wound began to cartarize. The smell of smoke and burning flesh stung at your eyes and nostrils, and made your stomach lurch.
"Almost done." Raxe murmured as a bead of sweat fell down his forehead.
Though the pain your father never opened his eyes, but you could tell he could feel it, which to you was a cause of relief because it meant he was still alive.
"There." Raxe moved away from him, leaving an ugly scar in place of the open gash.
"Dad?" You choked out, only half expecting a reaction. His chest rose and fell very slightly.
"He's a fighter." Caspain moved to your side once more. "All we can do is make him comfortable."
"Can we get him into the bed then?" You asked.
"We better not chance moving him. I'll grab the pillow and blanket though." Caspian moved away from you and Raxe took his place.
"I'm happy to do you too." Raxe joked half-heartedly as he motioned down to your leg with the hot metal.
"No thanks. I'd rather bleed out." You forced a smile up at him.
"Seriously though, we have to clean and wrap that."
"I'll be fine." You grunted.
"No you won't." Caspian interjected as he gently lifted your father's head and slid the pillow under it. "Raxe, how bad is it?"
Raxe reached for your leg as you pushed him off. "It's not."
"Seriously? Don't be stubborn, if it's not bad we'll leave you alone." He scolded you.
You rolled your eyes and for the first time allowed yourself to look down at your own injury. Shit, there was a lot of blood.
"I can't tell under all that bloodstained material." Raxe looked up at Caspian. "She's going to have to take it off."
Caspian had draped the blanket over your father, and returned to your side. "I'll take care of her. You go get all those Calormen assholes off my ship."
"Yes, Sire." Raxe nodded and left the room.