~*~Chapter Two~*~

~*~Phoenix~*~

Starlet and two other students were the only ones in the healers' house when two men came in carrying a third, who was bleeding profusely. "He needs a healer," one of the men gasped. "I've got coin, but if something isn't done soon..."

"Nina, go find Delaz! Starlet, help me!" Lance, the new student, sprinted for the healing table.

"Lance!" Starlet hissed at him as she followed him. "We're apprentices!"

"We're the only ones here," he hissed back. "We can at least stop the bleeding till Delaz gets back!"

"If Nina can even find her!"

"Look Star, you're a healer, dammit. You're sworn to ease pain. Now stand by your oath!" Lance snarled as he snapped a fresh cover over the healing table. Starlet opened her mouth, stared at him, and closed it again as the two men set their friend on the table.

"I'm sorry but you'll have to leave the room," she said automatically. Lance was already stripping away the makeshift bandages. Starlet's stomach heaved at the sight of the vicious wounds. Healing is not for the faint of heart. She couldn't remember where she'd heard it, but whoever it was had definitely known what they were talking about.

The two men looked uneasy at leaving their friend in the care of two teenagers. Starlet pulled herself up to her full height of four feet eleven inches and put her hands on her hips. "If you want him healed, then get out!"

They left, reluctantly. Starlet turned and saw Lance carefully examining the wounds. "Lance...?"

He looked up, his face grim. "He's almost gone."

Starlet brushed the tips of her fingers over the man's forehead and knew Lance was right. "What do we do?" she murmured, feeling defeated.

"Just...try to back me up," Lance said brusquely.

"What?"

Instead of answering, he rested his fingertips lightly against the man's temples. Starlet laid her fingertips on his wrist, "listening" carefully to his heartbeat with her power. It was slowing down. There wasn't enough blood left for his heart to pump through his body, and the shock of his wounds was causing it to falter.

She could sense Lance's power starting to flow through the man's veins. Unlike Delaz's light, which was cool blue, or her own softly pearlescent light, Lance's power was brilliant, glittering gold, like powerful sunlight. Right now he was reaching for the heart, bolstering it with his power. She felt the heartbeat stop.

That was it, then.

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than a brilliant sunburst of power flooded into the man's body, dazzling her senses and physically unbalancing her. She grabbed for the edge of the table with her free hand, "watching" in shock as Lance forced the heart to start beating again, poured more power and still more into it until it again beat regularly, if far too slowly. Gradually the onslaught of power eased.

She knew Lance hadn't spoken--no healer did when they were in the healing trance--but somehow she sensed what he wanted her to do. She substituted her power for his, holding most of it in reserve and using just enough to keep his heart beating.

Starlet lost all sense of self. Her body might be standing beside the healing table, but she was inside the man's body. She had become that concentrated white glow. She willed his heart to echo the steady beat of her own.

The other power, the bright gold light, had begun to divide itself, ministering to the most devastating wounds first. The others were merely scratches and could be dealt with after the worst damage was repaired. Collapsed veins and lungs were restructured. Muscles were knit back together. Shattered bones were carefully reshaped. The heartbeat became stronger, and her power wasn't needed to ensure it anymore. She turned her attention to the lesser wounds, her healing light flowing around them and melding torn flesh back into a solid whole.

When they were sure that they'd finished the healing, they pulled themselves out of the trance, only to find Delaz standing at the foot of the table, glaring at them both.

"Bed. Now," she snapped.

Lance was swaying on his feet. Starlet was exhausted, and so dizzy she didn't know if she could walk that far. Delaz looked at them, sighed, and called to Nina.

"Get cots set up in here, before we have to heal them." For all her obvious irritation, Delaz's hands were gentle when she framed Starlet's face with her fingertips. "You did well. Now sleep," she said quietly, gently pushing Starlet toward the cot Nina had just set up.

Starlet had barely lain down before she fell fast asleep.

~*~

It was full dark when she awoke. The first thing she was aware of was a definite emptiness in her stomach.

The second was the fact that Lance was sitting on the edge of his cot, watching her.

She sat up slowly, still feeling a little dizzy. He kept staring at her as though she were a patient with some curious condition he'd never encountered before.

"How did you know what I needed you to do?" he asked at last, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"I--I don't know. I was monitoring him...and then..." She shrugged helplessly.

"You were both touching the patient at the same time, both using your healer's skills," Delaz said from the doorway. "It's not common, but it's possible." She walked in and handed each of them a full bowl of stew. "Don't ask questions, eat," she ordered when Lance opened his mouth.

"Yes ma'am," he murmured.

Starlet was too hungry to bother asking questions until she'd devoured the contents of her bowl. Lance ate hungrily, but he kept starting to ask questions. Every time Delaz saw his mouth open without food heading toward it, she glared at him until he started eating again.

When they were done, Delaz perched on the edge of the healing table and stared at them both expressionlessly. "By rights, I ought to kick you two out for attempting a full-out healing when you're still only apprentices," she remarked quietly. "But I won't. Which of you restarted that man's heart?"

Silently Starlet pointed at Lance. Lance pulled his shoulders straight, looking like he expected a reprimand and was determined to endure it with his head up and an expressionless face.

Delaz stared at him for a long moment. "This afternoon, you two saved the life of the Mage Crown Prince."

"What?!" they yelped simultaneously.

"I didn't know it was possible to make a person's heart start beating after it had stopped," Delaz said absently. "How did you...?"

"I..." Lance spread his hands helplessly. "I just...kept putting more power into it..."

Delaz regarded him unblinkingly for another seemingly endless minute, then spread her hands and muttered something about teenagers thinking they knew everything.

"We had to do something," Lance growled, his face drawing into a scowl. "We could at least try!" His defiance faded under the continuing icy grey stare. With a sigh, he stared at the floor, and didn't see the older healer's face relax into a smile.

"I think you need a new name," Delaz said as she stood up. "I think we're going to have to start calling you Phoenix, because you bring people back from death."

"Phoenix," Starlet repeated, studying him with bright green eyes. "It suits you."

"Named after a damn bird," he muttered as he stood up and started to take his bowl to the kitchen.

Starlet could only giggle.

Delaz shook her head and smiled. It was nice to know that Starlet could act like any other thirteen-year-old girl once in a while.