Free First Watch: A Watcher Bay Adventure by Auburn Seal Page A

sorry. We can’t. Horizon had to take off in a hurry because of the storm.”
    “Call them back. It’s an emergency,” Levra said.
    Gunnar shook his head and spoke quietly to Levra. She heard despair and desolation in his words.
    “The lightning took out all of our communications systems. We can’t reach the ship.”
    The doctor spoke again. “I’m afraid it will be too late for Enric. He has only minutes to live. I’m so sorry, Levra. Commander Shield.”
    The doctor averted his eyes from Levra and Gunnar and turned his attention back to Enric.
    “I suspect he might be able to hear you if you’d like to comfort him. Say your goodbyes.”
    She glanced at the scanner’s display. Twenty-five minutes.
    This cannot be happening.
    Levra heard the doctor’s words and felt like she was in a bad dream. A bad dream that was turning into a nightmare. Poor little sweet Enric. What kind of mother was she to bring her son into the wilderness? She stood there, staring at Enric’s dying form and felt her grief turn into a white-hot fury at her husband.
    “What can we do? Do something, Gunnar. Please do something. There must be some way to save him.”
    Ana spoke, pulling Levra sharply from her spiraling hatred of Gunnar. She redirected her emotions at the tramp who was entirely to comfortable interacting with Levra’s husband.
    Levra heard a commotion on the outskirts of the crowd of crew members who had gathered around her family. A little girl spoke in the familiar Ddaeran tongue.
    “Let me through. I can help him..”
    The crew member she was talking with clearly didn’t understand what she was saying, but Levra did. She stood. “Let her through. She can help us.”
    The crew parted, and Levra watched her as she approached. “You can understand me?” the girl asked.
    Levra nodded. “Yes, a little.” She understood more than she could actually speak. But it would be enough. “My son,” she said awkwardly in the Ddaeran tongue. “Can you help? A tree fell on him. His head is bleeding.”
    Alena, who had been standing nearby with her mother, stepped forward and placed her hand on the girl’s arm then touched Levra gently.
    “She understands,” Alena thought, “and she can help.”
    Levra watched the small-framed brunette girl, with ragged braids to her knees, kneel down beside Enric’s pale, broken body and extend her arms. Her hands hovered over him, passing from head to toe and back up to his head again. The girl kept her hands above Enric’s head and closed her eyes, humming a strange cadence as she rotated her hands around in a circle above Enric’s head. Levra gasped in astonishment when she saw a small ball of light form between the girl’s hands. As she chanted, the light grew brighter. The brighter the light, the healthier Enric looked.
    Then she was silent and opened her eyes. “All is well,” the girl said in her Ddaeran language. Levra let out a sigh of relief.
    “What is she saying?” Gunnar interjected, sounding irritated.
    Alena translated. “She said Enric will be fine.”
    The doctor rescanned Enric. Levra held her breath while the numbers on the display started to climb. Dr. Sanchez looked up from his device and smiled.
    “He is fully healed.”
    Levra collapsed in a heap with ragged relief.
    “Oh, thank you, thank you so much.” Only then did Levra allow herself to cry.
    “Remarkable,” said Dr. Sanchez.
    Then the young Ddaeran girl spoke again as she pointed to herself.
    “Vildana.”
    Levra stood up, leaving her son for the briefest moment, and embraced Vildana. “Thank you,” she said in her native tongue. “Thank you.”
    Tears of gratitude mixed with fear ran down Levra’s face. Without this young girl’s intervention, her Enric would be dying right now instead of healing.
    Vildana smiled, and then Vildana turned and spoke to Alena rapidly.
    Alena turned to Levra and translated. “She said her village, Glanmorr, is nearby, and they can offer us shelter.”
    Gunnar