“I don’t know for sure. A few days.” Rick laid Viv’s hand down and flicked the glittering diamond IV bag with his fingernail. “But we have a solution.”
I sucked in a breath. “Why didn’t you start with that?”
“Because it’s impossible,” Jeremiah said. “They’d have to give Viv an aegis.”
24
My mouth fell open. “An aegis?”
“In a magus, the aegis acts as a secondary control system,” Rick said. “It regulates magic production and distribution, which is how it lets the magus tap into his or her own magic. If the aegis is damaged or destroyed, the person’s own system picks up the slack. But that means the opposite must be true—if the natural mechanism regulating magic is damaged, an aegis should be able to take its place.”
“Must be?” I said. “Should be? Those sound like it’s never been tried before.”
“It hasn’t,” Jeremiah said. “And it’s impossible. She’s unconscious, damn it, there’s no way she can consent to the Damerel rites.”
He sounded so angry I was taken aback. “But—it would be to save her life. Do they need consent under these circumstances?”
“Not that kind of consent,” Malcolm said. “You remember when I received my new aegis I had to make the conscious decision to accept it. A person must be awake and clear-headed to undergo Damerel.”
“And nobody knows if she’s even a viable candidate,” Jeremiah said. He glared at Rick, who was unmoved by his hostility. “It’d just be another kind of death sentence.”
“With this, she has a chance,” Rick said. “It’s certain death if we do nothing.”
I put my hand on Jeremiah’s arm, which tensed. “He’s right,” I said. “You know Viv wouldn’t hesitate to take the chance.”
“Viv’s reckless.” Jeremiah closed his eyes. “But it doesn’t matter. If they can’t get her to wake up, she can’t have the aegis implanted.”
“I’m working on that,” Rick said. “But we won’t do anything unless you give us permission.”
“I can’t do that. I don’t own her.”
“You know her better than anyone. And giving permission is the wrong word. More like…confirming that it’s what Viv would want.” Rick glanced my way. “But you need to make the decision soon.”
Jeremiah let out a deep breath. “All right,” he said, looking at me. “If she were conscious, she wouldn’t think twice about it.” He smiled, a little half-twist of his lips. “She’d probably be excited.”
“Then think about what aegis would suit her best,” Rick said, “and I’ll work on rousing her and putting a team together for the Damerel rites. Helena, why don’t you come with me and we’ll take care of your hand first.”
I’d forgotten the other reason I’d come to the Gunther Node that evening. I squeezed Jeremiah’s arm lightly and then followed Rick to another room down the hall, holding Malcolm’s hand. Rick had me sit on the unmade bed and took my bandaged hand gently in his.
“It may look a little strange,” he warned me. When I stiffened, he laughed and said, “Not deformed. I mean the skin may be slightly discolored or mottled and your fingernails will be rather long. A side effect of the regeneration field.” He unwrapped the bandaging to reveal a hard white plastic ball around which my fingers curled, just as if I were preparing to pitch a softball. When he removed it, the stiffness I’d felt the last few days disappeared, and my fingers felt light and untethered to my hand. I held still, afraid to move them.
Each finger had been individually bandaged, and once the outer wrappings and the ball were gone, I looked like a mummy, though one the years had been kind to. Rick carefully removed the rest of the bandages. He was right, my skin looked yellow and dry in the fluorescent lights of the hospital room, and my nails were at least half an inch long.
“Okay, Helena, I want you to close your hand,” Rick said.
I tried, and my fingers quivered but didn’t move. “It’s all right,” Rick said, seeing my distress, “you’re just stiff from not moving that hand for a few days. Pretend you’re closing your hand on a doorknob.”
I closed my eyes and pretended I was reaching for the door. Slowly, my fingers contracted—not much, but enough that I could feel it. It didn’t hurt, just felt tight like I was squeezing a rubber ball. I opened my eyes. I thought I’d closed it more than that.
“I’ll give you some exercises to work on your mobility,” Rick said. “Your skin color should return to normal eventually—I’m sorry I can’t tell you how long. You can use ordinary lotion to treat the dryness. Keep it out of direct sunlight for a week, wear gloves if you can, and call me if you feel any pain or numbness. But it looks perfect.”
I brought my hand close to my eyes. It looked exactly as it always did, except the scar in the web of my palm where I’d cut myself in tenth grade art class was gone. In fact, my skin, aside from being yellow, was free from the few dark brown beauty marks I’d always had and looked…perfect. I felt along the bones of my fingers and the center of my palm. “I can’t believe it,” I said. “It’s completely restored.”
“You can thank Dr. Morris for that,” Rick said. “He’s a craftsman. Ruby and I just healed the surgical incisions so you wouldn’t scar and created the regenerative field.”
“Even that’s more than enough. Thank you, Rick.”
“It was my pleasure. We’re all putting it on our CVs. Makes us look impressive.” Rick grinned, and I smiled back.
Malcolm put his arm around my shoulders and hugged me. “I’m so relieved,” he said.
“Were you worried?” Rick said.
“Yes. Reconstruction on the level you described…I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t want to worry Helena, but I knew how difficult it would be.”
“Thank you for not saying that,” I said. “I would have freaked out.”
“I have to go,” Rick said. “I have a theory I want to test, a technique that will wake Viv long enough for us to perform the Damerel rites. I’ll send Ruby to talk to you and Jeremiah about Viv’s aegis.”
“Me? Why me?”
“You’re her closest friend. Once I wake her, we’ll only have a short time before her magic drains permanently. There won’t be time for her to make a decision on what aegis she feels drawn to. So you and Jeremiah will have to figure that out.” Rick ran a hand through his hair, messing it up further. “Ruby will supervise the creation of the aegis. All we have to do is get Viv conscious, and…really, I think this will work.”
I didn’t feel nearly so confident, but I nodded.
When Malcolm and I returned to Viv’s room, Jeremiah was sitting in the room’s lone chair with his head in his hands. “I can’t do this,” he said.
“Jeremiah, it will save her life,” I said.
He looked up at me, his gaze as bleak and hopeless as I’d ever seen. “We’re talking about a procedure that has a ten percent failure rate even in a healthy, prepared candidate. How prepared can she be, if she wakes up to a bunch of people gabbling at her about what happened and what they want her to do? There’s no way this can work.”