"Thank the Maker you're still alive, Sir Caiphus!" a young man's voice exclaimed as several pairs of hands took hold of Mordecai to ease him back into the cot. "We all thought that Vestrun's blow had been mortal!"
Before he could think to form the words, they were tumbling out of his mouth, once more alien and unknown to him. As they had been when he found himself in the body of Dr. Hollis, the terraformer from the future.
"As did I, good Felix. But, considering the damage that I've been given, I doubt I'll live out the hour!"
A young face, looking odd with a circular crown having been shaved out of the thick, blonde hair that topped it, appeared from the periphery of his vision. It quickly slid to its center to take his attention from the three or four other ones that hovered on the edges of his awareness. A worried expression dominated the handsome and trusting features.
"If you can hang on for a few moments more, Sir Caiphus, the order's healer is on her way!" The young man pasted a reassuring smile on his face. But Mordecai could see the truth of the situation in his eyes. Whoever this Caiphus was, Mordecai was now inhabiting his body and that body was well on its way to dying!
"I ... I'm afraid I won't be able to do that," Caiphus' voice rasped faintly as Mordecai could feel his strength ebb. "I haven't the strength ..." The young voice began to fade as the young man leaned forward, the reassuring expression gone in the face of pure panic. He roughly shook Mordecai, trying to keep him awake.
"No, Caiphus, you mustn't go!" Felix pleaded in desperation, giving Mordecai another shake. "You are the order's last hope! All the others are dead or wounded mortally. You are the only one that can keep the order from being destroyed by Vestrun and his lackeys!"
But Caiphus, and Mordecai, for that matter, were already past being able to speak as his vision began to darken. Desperately the man in black cast about inside Caiphus' head for something, anything that would stem the flow of blood gushing from the brutal wound that had cut its way through three rips, shredded a lung and nicked his aorta, flooding his body cavity with life's blood.
And he staggered to an amazed halt when he found himself gazing with his inner eye at what could only be a psionic cortex, large and unused by the young man, Caiphus. 'Holy shit!' Mordecai thought as he quickly ran a diagnostic through the cortex and found it online but untapped. 'This kid is a fuckin' hardwire!'
Instantly Mordecai knew what he had to do. He had to take over Caiphus completely, like he had Dr. Hollis, and literally charge up the psionic cortex to use it to heal Caiphus' broken body before he lost too much blood. Unlike Hollis and the other future situation, he wasn't already in control and that was a problem! He would have to exert himself over whatever futuristic probability he now found his consciousness in to claim Caiphus' mind. The further from the present his consciousness had moved, the greater risk and energy it would take to do that.
Still, the big man knew that he didn't have much of a choice. It was that, or both he and Caiphus were dead! Gathering himself, he reached out with his mind, his very consciousness and took hold of Caiphus' failing mind.
He must've jumped incredibly far up the probability stream because Mordecai almost immediately felt massive resistance to his mental probe. Mentally gritting his teeth, he threw the entire weight of his considerable will behind the probe, subconsciously screaming in impotent frustration as he knew if he had his own abilities online, this would have been easier. But, then again, if he had his abilities online, would he be experiencing this oddly interactive jump into the future for the second time?
Then the resistance was collapsing and Mordecai felt himself take full possession of Caiphus. Nearly exhausted from the effort, Mordecai consolidated his hold, knowing that he had to work fast or both he and this kid were dead.
Feeling his consciousness claim Caiphus' brain, he energized the psionic cortex and felt the familiar surge of energies rippling through his body. Focusing his fading will, he turned those energies to the massive wound that now fought to claim the dying Caiphus from him. Carefully, Mordecai began to weave the young body back together, moving with desperate, yet experienced speed.
Felix's voice faded into the background, along with every other sound and sensation as Mordecai worked. Caiphus' body no longer had the strength to maintain his senses. Mordecai was actually glad for the loss: he didn't need the distraction.
Tissue by tissue, he wove Caiphus back together. First the torn tissues of his aorta, halting the flood of blood into the body cavity. Then the transposition of that same spilled fluid back into his vessels to speed life-giving oxygen and resources to his organs. Next came his lung, Mordecai using tight flows of psyken to heal and renew.
As soon as the lung was repaired, it filled with air in a rush, and Mordecai sensed the elevating levels of oxygen in his blood stream, speeding even more strength to his failing systems. That done, he turned the last of his strengths to repair the rib cage and torn muscle that had been shredded by whatever weapon this Vestrun had used on him.
By the time the healer, a young, earnest-looking woman in a simple, blood-covered monk's habit arrived, Mordecai had repaired the rest of the damage, including the surface trauma that had been soaking his own clothing with his blood. The healer gently pulled Felix and the others out of the way with an apologetic smile to step to the side of the cot. There, she knelt to draw Mordecai's bloody blankets back, intent on extending her own healing powers into his body.
"Has Sir Caiphus experienced the ascension yet, Brother Felix?" she asked in a low, exhaustion-riddled voice. She had been busy that day, tending to the order's wounded and dying.
The young blonde man shook his head tightly.
"The fathers on the council thought that this tournament would trigger it in him. But the ascension never came even at the height of battle! Vestrun handled him easily without the god fire in his mind."
"Maker preserve us," the woman muttered softly as she took measure of Mordecai's blood-soaked clothing. "Vestrun made a mess of him, didn't he?"
"We thought he was dead as we carried him from off the field," Felix admitted in a hoarse whisper. "We were preparing to wrap him in his final garments in preparation to send him to the next plane when he abruptly sat up, gasping for air. I immediately sent an acolyte to find you, Sephra."
"A wise decision." The healer named Sephra nodded as she reached out to take hold of Mordecai's bloody tunic. "From what I've seen, he may be the only one left ..."
Abruptly Sephra's voice trailed off as, lifting the soaked shirt, she found herself gazing on unmarked flesh. And by virtue of its pale color in comparison to the skin around it, she knew that it was newly-minted flesh at that.
"Maker preserve us," she husked again, eyes wide. "He's already been healed!"
"What?" Felix stammered in disbelief, falling onto his knees beside Sephra. Only to have his eyes also fly wide at seeing the obviously newfound skin, the grievous wound that he had seen himself, completely healed.
"But ... but how?"
Sephra slowly let the shirt drop back onto Mordecai's belly, a thoughtful expression replacing the one of surprise on her face.
"The only thing I can think of, Brother Felix, is that Caiphus has experienced the ascension in the midst of the crisis that threatened his very life. And that the god fire has enabled him to heal himself.
"Maker bless us, it's a miracle!" Felix breathed, making the sign of the star on his breast.
"Perhaps," Sephra admitted as she looked at Felix and the others now grouped closely around Mordecai's cot. "But it's only delayed our eventual destruction at the hand of the Reavers. Even if Caiphus is found to hold the god fire, he is one knight against all of Vestrun's mightiest warriors. He may defeat one, or perhaps even two, but he can't defeat them all!"
Without warning the exhausted healer felt a big hand knot in the rough fabric of her habit and, before she could react, she was jerked downward. Until she found her nose almost touching Caiphus', her eyes staring into his hot blue ones.
"Wanna bet?" he growled softly, his eyes burning with an intensity she had never seen before.