10. Kian

10

KIAN

K ian let out a relieved breath. The Prince had woken up, even if only for a split second.

"Is that normal?" he asked Bridget. "Wasn't he supposed to revive?"

"Dalhu did," Anandur said. "And so did Wonder. As soon as water touched her body, she was awake and didn't lose consciousness since. Well, except for fainting when she saw the Clan Mother."

"Maybe it's his clothing," Jasmine said. "What if it's preventing the water from touching his body?"

Kian opened his mouth to reprimand her for butting in about something she had no clue about, but Bridget's frown stopped him.

"You might be onto something." The doctor put the bottle of water aside, leaned over the prince, and gently peeled back the sleeve of his uniform. "His skin is completely dry underneath." She chuckled. "I'm so embarrassed." She looked up at Jasmine. "It didn't occur to me that his clothing was water resistant because it shouldn't be. Not for a god and not for an immortal. But for a Kra-ell, it didn't matter because the Kra-ell relied on stasis chambers to sustain them."

Julian nodded. "We need to cut it off him, and that scares the crap out of me."

His mother smiled indulgently. "I'll do that. During my residency, I had to remove clothing from burn victims. They were in a much worse state than our prince." She straightened to her full five feet and two inches. "I need everyone to leave while I do this. First, to preserve the prince's dignity, we shouldn't expose him in front of an audience. And secondly, this is going to be a delicate operation, and I want to be able to concentrate on my patient."

Kian nodded. "We can wait in the waiting room."

Bridget shook her head. "This is going to take a long time, and I don't expect him to wake up even after we've soaked his naked body." She let out a breath. "I'll call you if there is any change in his state."

"I need to stay," Jade said. "If he wakes up and can't understand what you are saying, he might freak out. You need someone who speaks Kra-ell."

Bridget hesitated. "I wish the translating earpieces came with a speaker. That would solve the language barrier problem."

"William is working on a device," Kian said. "He told me it should be ready in a day or two."

Jade shook her head. "A translating device is not good enough. The prince will wake up in a different world than the one he left and not the one he expected to arrive at. He is going to be confused and frightened. Seeing a familiar face and hearing his mother tongue will go a long way to make his awakening smoother."

"True." Bridget waved Jasmine and Jade out. "You can stay in the waiting room. I'll call you if he wakes up."

"Should I also stay in the waiting room?" Jasmine asked.

"You should go up to the penthouse, shower, and get something to eat."

Jasmine put a hand on her stomach. "I'm too anxious to eat. I want to make sure that he's okay first."

The exasperated look on Bridget's face had Kian moving toward Jasmine and taking her elbow. "Come. Let's give the doctors room to breathe. They don't function well when people are hovering over them."

Behind Jasmine, Bridget mouthed, "Thank you."

The three gods followed as he led the woman out of the clinic and toward the elevators.

He stopped outside the clinic door and waited for the hybrid Kra-ell, Anandur, and Brundar to join them.

"I'm going to escort Jasmine to the penthouse," he told his bodyguards. "Can you take these men to the kitchen for a bite to eat? You can order a delivery from one of the local restaurants."

Brundar grimaced, but Anandur spoke up. "We are not supposed to leave your side. We should accompany you to the penthouse."

Kian let out a long sigh. "I'm only going to be gone a minute, and then I'll join you in the kitchen."

Anandur still didn't look happy, but he nodded. "If you are not back in five minutes, we are coming up."

As the two groups continued in opposite directions, Aru fell in step with Jasmine. "Good call about the clothing," he said. "I should have thought about that."

She seemed embarrassed by the compliment. "Did you wear the same uniform during your interstellar travels?"

He nodded, pushing his hands into his pockets. "Very similar, but not the same. The gods supplied the settler ship, the pods, the stasis chambers, and everything else. The Kra-ell were not technologically advanced back then and are still not today. It's just not in their culture. They are what humans would call naturalists. They prefer a nomadic lifestyle and keeping things simple. The ship that brought me here was much more advanced, and our uniforms were made from a material different from what the prince was wearing. I wonder if everyone wore that back then or if it was chosen specifically for the Kra-ell."

As the elevator doors opened and they all stepped inside, Jasmine leaned against the mirrored wall. "Why don't the Kra-ell embrace technology?"

Aru shrugged. "There are many reasons, but the most important is cultural."

Kian knew that the explanation was more complex than that, but Aru probably reasoned that this wasn't a good time for Jasmine to get a lesson about Anumati politics and the class system.