Hanan pushes the rest of them out of the way, with more force than I thought possible. She’s at my side, hands on my chest. I start to prise her hands away, and then I realise she’s feeling under the flesh for the bones. Feeling for the breaks in my ribcage.
‘Breathe slowly, look at me,’ she instructs, and I stare at her, trying to stop her image from swimming. ‘Biba, would you come here please?’
Biba looks surprised to be addressed and makes her way to my side.
‘You can help,’ Hanan insists.
I still can’t speak but I reach out a hand to touch Biba’s cheek, to let her know it’s all right.
‘Think of a tree branch split in the middle,’ Hanan instructs. ‘Do you see the crack, Biba?’
Biba focuses on Hanan and then nods, placing her hands with Hanan’s guidance on my ribs as well.
‘Imagine the tree is clay. Can you do that?’ Hanan continues.
Biba scrunches her face and nods again.
‘Now you are patching the split, smoothing the clay so it fits back together.’
Biba and Hanan move their hands, fingers pinching and moulding the invisible branch.
‘It’s not completely the same. It will be closer in time. But for now, it will hold. The sharp edges are smoothed, and the branch is strong enough.’
‘Grow, grow,’ Biba wishes quietly, almost to herself.
There’s something in Hanan’s voice, like a spell that guides us all. We relax, our bodies unclenching, limbs going limp. All in a rush, I feel so weak.
I can breathe then, the pain lingering but the sharpness is dulled. While my body becomes mush, there’s nothing to do but take in our surroundings at last. We’re in a cave, full dark, little light save the otherworldly glow that still emanates from Hanan, Biba, and Raina. The golden threads of this glowing reach out, like tendrils of a plant towards the rest of us. Only Sinigang is not sprawled on the floor. He sits upright, staring at the healing, tail swishing back and forth, keeping time.
I lie on my back and rest my head on the rock bed. At first I mistake it for the night’s sky, stars above me. Then I recognise them as spiky stalactites threatening to drop on our heads, with glow-wormslike pinpricks of stars on the cave’s ceiling.
‘Thank you,’ I croak out.
‘You’re welcome. But it wasn’t me. There’s a power down here. I helped Biba and Raina channel it to fix your ribs.’
‘A power? What kind of power?’
‘I don’t know exactly, but it’s stronger than anything I’ve felt before.’
‘What in Paranish was that?’ I hear Finlyr ask, his voice barely recognisable in the echo.
A shuddering in the distance, and the rock begins to shake beneath our feet. Overhead, the stalactites wobble and crack.
‘Move!’ I shout, grabbing Biba. I shield her with my body, making us as small as possible against a rock. Silt in our lungs. There’s grit in my eyes. A cloud of dust. A fearsome splash as the rocks hit the water. Desperate, incoherent screaming and imploring. When we stir, the air is thick and indistinct. A pile of rocks has fallen in on itself, an immovable solid wall in the narrowing of the cave.
I get up tentatively, my body tender. It takes a moment for my limbs to come together, like grasping for boots under my bed.
The cave hums around us. Hanan stills, standing slowly, like she’s trying not to disturb a slumbering creature.
Once the dust settles, I realise what’s happened. We assess the damage, speaking in close quiet whispers, reaching for each other through the filth. The cave seems to hum, strange echoes and our voices ricocheting off the walls. The air is rotten and close, clinging to the sides of my throat. I kneel to a gap in the rockfall and try to see through to the other side. It’s incoherent gloom.
‘Ris?’ Finlyr’s voice is distant, like when you’re both underwater. It’s indistinct, muffled, strange.
‘Are you hurt?’ It’s Isagani, their voice reedy and wavering.
‘We’re here,’ I shout back and then cringe as the stones shake again with fury. Biba clutches at my arm. ‘Is Sini with you?’
‘One life down perhaps, but I’m here.’
