CHAPTER NINE
Gale, DG, Cain, Az, a fully tame Spikey and Glitch were all gathered in the pavillion by the lake a week later. The sunshine was warm and everyone was relaxed and content. All of them, with the exception of Gale, Cain and Spikey sat on the floor. Spikey stood in the centre of the circle with a cushion strapped to him, and Cain was supporting Gale on his back. Every time he moved she burst out laughing – a laugh that was dangerously contagious. DG held a dictionary of signs on her knee. Cain, Glitch, Az and DG had all agreed to attend the signing sessions too. Ahamo and Queen were also willing to learn, but given their duties at the palace, Az had offered to learn on their behalf so that she could pass the signs on to them. Gale was proving slow to catch on. Despite several short signing sessions a day she had made very little progress with her first sign – 'more'. Her attention seemed to wander easily, and it was very difficult to make her look directly at people for any length of time.
"Look at you up on your steed…look at you up on your steed…up on your steed," Glitch said with exaggerated enthusiasm. Gale beamed and rocked back and forth. Cain lifted her down. She started whinging and wriggling immediately in protest. "Want to go up again? Yeah? Then you'll have to ask for more," said Cain, emphasising the last word whilst moving Gale's hands into the sign for 'More'. Everyone copied them. "Er…" Glitch was looking confused. DG took his hands and moved them into the correct position and he smiled self-consciously. Once Gale had made the sign for 'more' with Cain moving her hands for her, he lifted her back onto Spikey with understated but generous praise. Spikey craned his neck round to look at her, and the fun began again. DG wasn't sure what the reason was and hadn't liked to ask, but since they had come back from the hospital Cain had expressed a wish to be actively involved in Gale's therapy.
After a few minutes DG suggested another break to practice the 'more' sign again. Cain was about to lift Gale off Spikey, when her eyes began to flicker and she started to slump to the left. Instantly and instinctively Glitch – who was sitting on that side – sprang up with a muttered "Uh-oh", and caught her before she fell. He laid her on her side on his knee as the left side of her body began flexing rhythmically. Cain looked on with an expression of pure horror – this was the first time he had ever witnessed one of Gale's fits.
"This shouldn't be happening!" protested DG, "She's been taking her medicine!" She glanced around hectically, before taking one of the fast acting vapour capsules they had been given just in case, and thrusting it into Glitch's hand. He broke it open and cupped his hand loosely over Gale's nose and mouth as they had been shown at the hospital. Meanwhile, DG was scribbling a note on a scrap of paper using a pencil stub Cain had found in his pocket. A crow's call would take too long. "Gale Cain fitting – please send help". She folded the paper into the shape of a paper aeroplane and prepared for some of the most powerful magic she had ever performed. Once again she tried to recall the feeling of effortless, infinite skies that had stretched above and around her during her childhood, but she simply couldn't.
DG suddenly felt centuries old and unbearably careworn…and then she realised this was the key. She loved her daughter more than anything in the worlds and her inability to distract herself from the fact that Gale was hurting was as good and righteous a feeling as the innocence she remembered from when she was little. No parent wants life to be hard for their child. She wanted Gale to experience the same feeling of boundless possibilities that she had done. Then came the understanding that because she lived for Gale, the light was Gale's more than her own and could thus be channelled by her hopes and fears for her. This chain of logic took only a few seconds to complete, so fast was DG's mind racing. Now instead of pushing her worries to the back of her mind she leant into them, and felt a discharge of magic, the magnitude of which she had never before experienced. With a flash of light the paper aeroplane shot out of the pavilion and streaked away towards the hospital. Ten minutes later Gale had not responded to the medication. Glitch was holding her close, though the shaking on her left side was causing her to slip down, and he had to keep re-gathering her up. DG stroked her hair and whispered soothing words in her ear. Cain, having taken Spikey back to his enclosure, had informed Ahamo and the Queen of what had happened and what was being done. He was now standing, watching in a semi-catatonia of anxiety. Finally the hospital balloon arrived and Glitch and DG automatically stepped in.
Once at the hospital DG and Glitch weren't allowed in the room at first because of the amount of people working on Gale. When she was finally stabilised – medicated into a semi-comatose state, Glitch and DG met with the doctor who had become 'Gale's doctor'. He suggested upping the dose of the medication to control her fits and continuing with the medicine for the inflammation, to which they agreed.
