REMEMBER MORE
CHAPTER 28
Water crashed down all around her. It rushed in at Yan and engulfed her, enveloping her completely in its power and icy coldness.
Even in the dark and she couldn't see a thing, she could tell that without the key in its place, the entire chamber, the room and everything in it was collapsing, folding in upon itself, being reduced to just so much water again now that the power had been turned off and nothing was sustaining it any longer. In her mind, she also knew that if this should happen inside the room, then everything outside the room, the maze, the tunnels, the walls and the cavern and all that it held must suffer the same watery fate as well.
Someone's face drew near. Lips were planted down on hers.
John!
He blew a huge breath into her mouth and forced it down and deep into her lungs.
Her eyes widened. She saw stars.
Hey, wait a minute! That wasn't air he blew into her mouth, it was…qi…! But qi wasn't air, how…?
He swept her up in his arms.
Water rushed by her. That's all she could tell. Without light and only the noise of a collapsing cavern in her ears, all Yan could sense was that she was moving through the water and moving through it quickly. It hit her in the head and her face in torrents and with pressure. She scrunched her eyes up against it. She turned her face into the chest of her protector and hid herself away from the onslaught.
Yan felt herself slipping away. Things began to go foggy. John's mouth seemed to be on hers all the time, blowing qi into it, and then again, and then again after that.
She couldn't tell how long it took, or did she pass out completely? But the next thing she knew, they were back above the water, having sliced through its surface amid splashing and spray, launched into the sky like missiles from a submarine.
Yan drew in real oxygen into her lungs in what seemed like a million years and she smiled at the release of the pressure in her chest. Her brain came back on line and she blinked her eyes. She coughed. She scanned about her.
They were zipping through the air, a hundred feet above the ocean and racing atop the waves, shooting for the beach back on the main island and the harbour from which they had started their journey earlier this afternoon.
There were people on the beach, milling about and also others in boats, in the water, but John didn't care. With Yan in his arms, he made land in just a few heartbeats, soaring over the top of their heads, carving out a graceful arc near the end and then alighting gently on the sand. The people on the shore there gawked at them as they touched ground. A crowd was gathering, but it kept back at a distance, making room, forming a circle around the two that had come dropping out of the clear evening sky like angels.
John eased her down so Yan could lie down on her back, but she shook her head and came to sit up instead. She held out her wrists, still swollen and black and blue beyond recognition. She winced for the pain whenever anything touched them.
John reached out for her forearms. "I'm so sorry, Yan."
She nodded, but her brows were still tied up in a knot.
John took up her left wrist, now swollen to the size of a baguette. He began feeding his qi into it.
"Ow!" Yan drew her arm away. She shook her head. "No, not like that…"
Yan grit her teeth together and shut her eyes. She took a moment to steady herself. She breathed out.
Turning to John, she instructed him to sit down behind her and gather himself into a sitting, lotus position. She had him place his hands on her back, palms on her shoulder blades. She closed her eyes and breathed out again. "Now."
John breathed out. He began releasing his qi into her body.
Reaching back with her mind, Yan guided it in. She moved the energy past her back and willed it down both arms and into her wrists. With her superior knowledge of medicine and human anatomy, she channelled John's power first into the blood vessels in the area surrounding the trauma, constricting them, slowing down the bleeding. She brushed up some of the extra fluid that had built up around the breaks and moved it into the local capillaries and lymphatics so the operating theatre might be clear. But the fluid that had built up was just too much. It could not all be channelled back to where it belonged via the vessels alone. She had to get rid of the rest in another way.
She held out her hands so they were half lifted beside her. She extended her fingers. She forced the excess fluid and the bruises, which were just dead red cells and useless to her anyway, down her hands, into her fingertips, and then out of her body entirely from beneath her nails. Drip, drip, drip. The liquid trickled out onto the sand beside her body and stained it black.
Some of the kids in the audience went squeamish and turned away.
Now to the bones.
Yan turned her attention to the breaks. All the loose bony fragments and splinters were rounded up. She knew what the bones should look like when they were not in pieces and healthy and not all bent up. She re-arranged the broken pieces now of her radius and ulna on both sides and set them back up in the configuration that they ought to be in. She applied John's qi and cemented them in place. Last of all, she strung the muscle bands and the tendons back into their proper slots.
All in all, it took about fifteen minutes. The job was now mostly done and Yan's wrists were back to normal except for some itchiness and pain.
John peeped over her shoulder and saw that she was better. He smiled.
Yan urged his qi down the back of her foot and fixed the fracture there in the same fashion. After that, she healed up her lip.
Just as Yan was finishing up, John let out a moan and then plopped down onto the sand behind her.
Yan spun around. She huddled over him.
"Yan…" He was blinking quickly but his eyes were not focused.
"Oh, man…" She checked his pulse and felt his forehead. "…you must be exhausted." She brushed her hand along his cheek.
Still lying on the ground, John smiled up at her. "Just a little…tired." He sighed.
Yan nodded her head. "Well, I suppose you have used up a lot of your qi…"
He frowned. "You mean it can be used up?"
She chuckled. "There's a limit to everything, you know?"
He reached up and wiped his forehead. He was drenched in sweat. "Is it me or is it getting really hot?"
John took a minute and rested. When he felt ready, he sat up again and Yan helped him.
He looked over her wrists and saw they were as good as new. He clasped her by the arms. He ran his gaze over her. Nodding, he blinked a few times.
Yan leaned in closer to stare at him. She frowned. "Sir…" She touched his face. "…you're crying."
"No, no!" He shook his head, hard. He straightened up. He wiped away at his eyes.
"You're thinking of Jonas."
He shrugged. "No…" He turned his face out to the horizon, where the sun was just beginning its descent into the water. "…I was…I was just thinking…I mean…the man, the man back in the chamber…I almost…almost…" He held his hands up and stared into them. They were taken up with the finest tremor. He shut them up into fists.
Yan reached over and held one of them in her hands. "But you didn't."
He turned and gazed into her eyes. He shook his head. "What is this power? It is so terrible…terrifying…"
She smiled at him. "Not always."
"But it…it changes you…"
"Yes." She reached up to touch his cheek. "But not always for the worse." She held up her wrists to remind him.
John dropped his gaze. It looked like he was welling up again.
Yan shook her head. She let on a wry smile. "Now you're thinking of Jonas."
He looked up. "We've really done it now, haven't we?" Sighing, he turned his body so it faced the sunset squarely. He pulled his knees up in front of him and leaning forward, he hugged them tight. He rested his chin on top of them.
"Now that we've lost the man…that…" He rolled his eyes. "…we don't even know his name." He shook his head. "And now we'll never find them. We have no clues. No key. No idea. No idea at all as to where to go next."
The crowd was beginning to thin out. The wind came up off the water and the surf and made John blink against it.
Yan smiled. She laughed.
John tilted his head to look over at her, with puzzlement scribbled all over his brows.
"No idea?" She tossed her head back and laughed again. She released her ponytail and began to fluff out her hair in the breeze. "And what on earth makes you say that?"