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“You knohat Little Pete needs?” Astrid de?”
Lana fell silent She looked at the child she’d been touching With her free hand she felt his neck, searching for a pulse Then she laid her head on his chest, ear to his heart Finally, she sat back “I didn’t realize how daedI should have started sooner”
It took Astrid a moment to realize what she had just seen She stuaze
“Yeah That’s er to touch her own temple “And noith it With it back in my head Extra fun”
Lana stood up, nearly lost her balance, stretched to crack her back “Well, now I have tilass of water from Peace and dropped down beside Sam
“See those scissors?” Lana pointed to a pair of heavy shears on a table “Bring them here and cut away his shirt We have to start with his back”
Astrid did as she was asked She gasped seeing the bone protruding stark and white through Sam’s shoulder But when they rolled him tenderly onto his side she saw the twisted jumble of his spine and almost lost hope
“Yeah, that’s not good,” Lana said “You’re going to have to help et the spine lined up It goes a whole lot quicker if you at least get all the pieces back in place first Where is Dahra? I could really use” Then she remembered “Tn, both hurt on lonely roads,” she said softly “One dies One lives, at least for now The God you don’t believe in anymore rolls the dice”
Saroaned in his sleep when Astrid cut the last of the fabric away
“She was a good person, Dahra,” Lana said Her lip treirl” She looked around the roo for water “Bunch of good dead people” Then, shaking her head as if trying to throw so off, she yelled, “Sanjit! Send Peace to find some kind of a board Like a shelf would do”
Lana lit a cigarette, sucked in deep, and blew it out in Astrid’s direction “You ever notice so, Astrid? No two moofs have the same power There’s not two kids with super-speed, just one Not two or three or five or ten with Sa, just him One Jack, one Dekka”
“Yes,” Astrid acknowledged cautiously
“One healer”
“Yeah, we all noticed that,” Astrid said,no secret of the fact that she wished someone less volatile was that one healer
“But this Gaia ht bea, isn’t it? Kids have been telling ic hands on theoing to be really bad”