Part 31 (1/2)

Dutifully, the hummingbird zipped to Collins and seized the offering in a beak that seemed too small and slender to hold it. Ialin sank almost to the ground, then ponderously, inch by inch, managed to regain alt.i.tude. He sailed away.

The trapdoor thumped back open.

Collins dumped the bit of broken gold chain over the parapets, watching it twist through the air. It seemed to take forever to reach the ground. Below him, two goats struggled with a small hay cart. It was over. The rebels had won, but Benton Collins had lost. If he surrendered now, maybe they would not kill him. He thought of what he had done: double-crossed the king, burned royals, including Carrie Quinton, and delivered an artifact into the hands of a gang of thugs who planned to use it to destroy the king. Oh, yeah. He'll let me live all right.

The man who looked like the king's brother appeared first, guarding his head and throat as he charged through the opening. Then, Zylas' rat-head emerged over the battlements, panting around the translation stone. From the direction of his abrupt arrival, he had clearly waited on the roof ramparts, between the two towers, and had climbed the final floor of the tower from the outside. ”Jump,” he managed to gasp around the quartz.

Collins looked down. He could never survive a seven-story fall. The goats labored hurriedly beneath him.

”Jump,” Zylas repeated, his voice a harsh wheeze. He clambered wearily onto Collins' hand, across his wrist, and into a tunic pocket. ”It's our only chance.”

A guard appeared beside the royal, and Collins could hear more clambering behind them. They approached him with slow caution, swords drawn. He had only two choices, and they knew it: leap to his death or surrender.

”Trust me,” Zylas said.

Famous last words. Collins realized that, whatever his fate, at least Zylas was brave enough to share it. Closing his eyes, he jumped.

”Hey!” the guard yelled. ”Hey!”

Air whooshed past Collins. His hair and clothing whipped around him in a savage tangle, and sheer terror scattered his wits. He screamed, utterly helpless, incapable of opening his eyes. Then, stems jabbed and shattered beneath him, slivering into his flesh like a thousand needles. The hay wagon, he realized before velocity carried him through the piled hay to the wooden slats of the wagon. Agony beyond thought thundered through him, and he knew no more.

Benton Collins awakened to a rush of pain that drove an involuntary groan through his lips. He opened his eyes to a whitewashed ceiling and a repet.i.tive beeping sound that perfectly matched the rhythm of his heart. He tried to speak, but only a croak emerged from his parched lips.

A woman in a white dress with a pink stethoscope around her neck and scissors poking from her breast pocket peered at him. ”Are you awake, Benton?”

Collins licked his lips and nodded weakly. ”What happened?” He mouthed more than spoke the words, but apparently the nurse understood. ”You tell me.”

Collins shook his head, wondering if his experiences in Barakhai were all some sort of hallucination induced by the pain drugs they had obviously given him. ”Last thing I remember, I was taking care of rat experiments in Daubert Labs.”

”That's where they found you this morning.” The nurse turned, clattering some objects on a metal tray.

”In an old storage room. Your mom's on her way. Couldn't locate your dad.” ”He's in Europe with his girlfriend.” Collins glanced around, still trying to sort real from imagined. ”Am I going to be okay?” The nurse returned to his bedside, smoothed his pillow, and rearranged the covers. ”You broke your pelvis, your left leg, both arms, some ribs, and you've got a small skull fracture.” The list sounded terrible.

”Gosh.”

The nurse apparently was not finished. She picked up a spiral-bound chart from a bedside table.

”Ruptured spleen, which seems to be healing on its own. Kidney contusion-you'll have some blood inthe urine for a while, but that should heal. Pneumothorax.”

The last word eluded Collins. Pneumo, he knew, meant air. ”What?”

The nurse set the chart aside. ”Lung deflated. They put a tube in your chest to reexpand it.”