Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
DARBY
Aflash of lightning brightened the small office, followed by the deafening crash of thunder that rolled away into the distance.
Fat raindrops plinked against the glass, driven by the autumn winds that were rehearsing for the winter storms to come.
The ticking of the large clock in the corner joined the performance, supported by the scratching of Darby’s pen across the papers on her desk, the sound made all the louder by the relative silence of the hospital beyond.
A knock on the doorframe drew her attention, and Darby looked up to find Dr. Fransten standing in the open door, his tall narrow frame silhouetted by the hallway behind him. His eyebrows rose. “You’re still here?”
Darby shrugged one shoulder, smiling wryly as she gestured to the pile of notes in front of her. “We had a lot of patients today.”
As his intern, the task of taking notes and filing all of their patient records had been delegated to her.
Fransten claimed it was good practice for her, but Darby suspected it had more to do with his general dislike of paperwork more than anything else.
On a normal night, she might resent the fact that she was staying later than anyone but the night nurses, but tonight it played into her plans.
As long as her shaking hands and nervous breathing didn’t give her away.
“So we did.” Fransten tapped one long finger against the doorframe as he considered her. “Take the day off tomorrow.”
Darby blinked in surprise. “But sir, the patients—”
“All seem to be in a stable enough condition.” He smiled kindly at her. “You need rest as well, Shelton. You’ll be of no use to me if you’re falling asleep on your feet.”
She nearly slumped forward with the sudden weight that fell from her shoulders. “Thank you, Doctor.”
“No thanks necessary. Leave those reports on my desk when you finish.” Fransten gave the wood a final tap and then disappeared down the hallway.
A long sigh of relief escaped her as she dropped her pen and rubbed the heels of her hands into her tired eyes.
This means I don’t have to risk leaving the captain in the middle of everything.
The only question is, will a day be enough time?
I’ve never done this before—no one has ever done this before.
The clock read a quarter to midnight by the time Darby finally finished with all of the patient notes.
The storm still raged outside, with cracks of thunder punctuating the howling wind that seemed to be growing stronger every hour.
Darby pushed away from her desk and stretched her arms over her head, bending from side to side to loosen her stiff back.
She gathered up all of her notes into a neat pile and crossed the hallway to Dr. Fransten’s larger, much more comfortably furnished office, where she placed them in a neat pile on his desk.
The eerie silence of the halls pressed in around her as she made her way back to the surgery. The lamps flickered as a peal of thunder rattled the walls, and her steps seemed unnaturally loud against the hard floors. She shivered.
Don’t be silly. It’s no different than any other night we’ve had to stay late. It just seems that way because we’re planning to steal away a body. Granted, it’s not a dead body, but it’s a body just the same.
She offered a smile and a wave to the night nurses on staff as she passed the crowded recovery rooms. All of their patients had been moved there for the night; the surgery’s only occupants were the fallen soldiers waiting for the undertaker to remove their corpses.
And Captain Monstrego.
The surgery door swung inward with a tired creak that echoed in the deathly stillness of the room.
It was dark inside, with the only illumination coming from the occasional flashes of lightning through the windows.
Darby looked over her shoulder as she propped the door open.
There was no reason for any of the other nurses to come this way now that their patients had been relocated, but the gravity of what she was about to do kept her on edge.
With a deep, shuddering breath to try to steady her nerves, Darby stepped into the room.
She followed the thread of her magic to the captain’s form. His breaths were so shallow that his chest barely moved, and had she not had the advantage of her magic to sense the faint glow of life within him, Darby would have assumed him dead. As it was, he hovered right outside death’s door.
If I don’t do something now, it’s going to be too late.
The thought chased away the rest of her reservations.
Darby rolled her shoulders back and assessed her patient with a critical eye.
Her height and sturdy frame usually put her on equal footing with most of the men she met, but the captain looked to be taller than even Henry.
She would need to carry him on her back if she was to transport him on her own, but his missing limbs would be a challenge.
Her magic would be enough to keep him stable as he moved, but she still needed something to hold onto.
“It’s not like I can just sling him over my shoulders,” she muttered as she spun in a slow circle, looking around the dark room for inspiration. “Wait. That might just work.”
She pulled off the sheet that was covering Captain Monstrego’s lower half, ignoring the bloodstains as she bunched the ends and held it out in front of her, twisting it until it resembled a thick rope.
She lifted the captain’s uninjured right shoulder and slid it under at an angle, so that one end crossed behind his neck to where his left arm should have been and the other looped under his armpit.
“Alright, Captain,” Darby whispered. “It’s now or never.”
She closed her eyes and focused on her magic, releasing the dozens of strings that still connected her to the other patients.
She rerouted it all to the captain, forming a protective barrier that would keep him from bleeding out as he was jostled and moved, and strengthening his heart so that the sudden change in position didn’t cause his blood pressure to fall.
With a final whispered prayer, Darby turned his body so that he was sideways on the cot.
With the help of the sheet, she pulled his torso up into something resembling a seated position.
She twisted so that her back was to him and bent her knees, bracing herself as she hoisted him onto her back.
Her right hand held both ends of the sheet, which she pulled down over her left shoulder and across her chest to better secure the awkwardly weighted body against her shoulders.
The captain’s right arm hung down in front of her, and Darby gripped it with her left hand as she stood.
The first few steps were unsteady, but Darby soon found her stride.
Missing half his limbs made the captain much lighter than he would have been otherwise, and Darby discovered that once she regained her balance, she could deal with the weight easily.
She kicked the door shut behind her as she entered the hall and quickly made her way to one of the hospital’s side doors.
The deluge of rain as she stepped out into the dark alleyway was like walking into a waterfall.
Within seconds, she was soaked through, and streams of water ran down the sides of her face and dripped off her nose.
The walk back to Clerval’s was cold and treacherous, as keeping to the dark side streets meant that she had to pick her way over the wet cobblestone without the light of the streetlamps to help her.
At last, she reached the back door of the coffee shop.
The captain’s head lolled against her shoulders as she adjusted her hold, gripping both his wrist and the sling in one hand so she could use the other to open the kitchen door.
Henry likely went to bed hours ago. And if he didn’t, there’s no reason for him to be downstairs this late.
She pushed the door open and stepped in, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the warm light from the fire. She flicked the water from her eyes and froze as Henry entered the kitchen from the other side.
“Darby, is that you? What…”
Henry’s voice trailed off. His eyes widened to the size of saucers as he took in her bedraggled state, carrying what likely appeared to be a corpse on her back.
“Darby,” he tried again, his voice cracking. “What in Mavoria are you doing?”
“Hi, Henry!” She pulled her tired features into a bright smile. “I’m going to need some coffee. A lot of it.”