Chapter 17: On the brink
Klaus and Egor were brought to some basement, but inside it was equipped like a decent clinic. White walls, sterile steel tables, one office and two improvised wards. In the small room they were met by two women, one middle-aged, the second a little older than Egor himself.
"Bring the wounded man here," the older woman ordered, pointing to one of the wards.
Egor was about to follow the stretcher, but the stern woman stopped him, closing the door with a small window in front of him, through which the young man saw how the prince was quickly transferred to a bed. Next to the bed stood a steel table with surgical instruments laid out. The door opened, and Yegor had to step aside to let two men pass with an empty stretcher. The last thing the fair-haired guy saw was a young girl injecting a syringe into a vein in the crook of Klaus's elbow and collecting some blood, of which there was already critically little.
"Let's go, boy. I'll buy you some coffee - the same man who was keeping the prince alive in the car put his hand on his shoulder."
"I don't...," Egor glanced nervously at the door where Klaus was lying.
"We did everything we could. Now everything depends on Margo and the boy's desire to live. Your standing here won't fix the situation," the man shook his head and pushed Egor in the back.
They sat in what looked like an office and silently drank strong black coffee. Egor was tired, but the tension gave him strength. No, he couldn't go to bed peacefully while Klaus was on the verge of death because of him.
"I don't think the boy will come to his senses before morning, if he comes to at all," the man said. "Go home. Get some sleep, and come back tomorrow."
"I can't leave him here alone."
"He's not alone, and believe me, he doesn't care at all whether you're here or not. I'll ask the driver to take you home."
"I'm not..."
"This is not an offer," the man said harshly. "You'll only get in the way. Here," he held out a folded piece of paper, "here's the address of this place and my personal number. Get some sleep and call."
Egor realized that arguing was useless and only nodded in agreement. The man called someone and a couple of minutes later the door opened. A huge hulk appeared on the threshold. For Egor, they all looked the same. The young man silently stood up and walked down the corridor behind the hulk, briefly glancing into the window, but saw only a screen around the bed.
"Wait," a voice was heard from behind. It turned out to be a young assistant. "You can take this," she held out a black bag, looking into which Egor found a phone, a sword sheath, a fat wallet and a decent wad of cash.
"Thank you." He said confusedly and threw the short sword, which he had been carrying with him all this time, into the bag.
Once home, he went straight to his room. Pouoka did not ask any questions. She could wait until tomorrow. Egor spent several hours without sleep, but fatigue got the better of him, and he fell into a restless sleep, in which he saw Klaus's bloody body over and over again. In the dream, he was dead. In the dream, the prince's last words were: "It's all because of you." From these very words, he woke up early in the morning screaming "Nooo."
Pouoka ran into the room and saw her grandson sitting on the bed where Klaus had been sleeping lately, hugging a pillow. Egor was silently crying, burying his face in it, and only his shaking shoulders told the old woman that the boy was completely broken. She quietly closed the door behind her. Pouoka didn't know how to calm Egor down now, just as she didn't know it then. Twelve years ago.
Egor took a shower and went into the kitchen, where Pouoka was already finishing up breakfast. The young man looked at the brand new and not yet lived-in kitchen, but he didn't care about it now.
"Egor," the grandmother carefully began the difficult conversation.
"I don't want to eat. I'll just have some coffee. Do you think it's too early to call?"
Pouoka looked at the round clock that leaned against the wall among the rest of the kitchen utensils. 7:21 am. She didn't ask who he was going to call. The woman understood what her grandson was afraid of.
"I think we should wait at least until nine in the morning. How are you?"
"Clearly better than Klaus," the young man answered in a colorless tone.
Egor understood what his grandmother was waiting for, but he didn't want to plunge into that horror again. No, he wasn't scared by the memories of the kidnapping or the possession. He was scared by the betrayal. He had betrayed Klaus, and he had followed him without question, and in the end he had found himself on the brink of death. Egor didn't even want to think that the prince could have crossed that line between life and death during that time.
Pouoka sat down opposite her grandson and silently began to eat breakfast, placing a plate in front of Egor as well, but he only cast an indifferent glance at her.
"It's all my fault," Egor began after a while. Pouoka was silent, but she put her fork down and looked up at her grandson. "He seemed so insensitive to me, you know? He didn't care that a complete stranger died because of our mistake. I got angry and blamed him. I acted like a child. I just shifted all the blame onto him and left."
The young man wet his throat with the cooling coffee, and then the words poured out of him. He told everything that had happened that day, and the old woman only listened silently.
"... and now I'm sitting here while Klaus is all alone there and again I can't help him. What should I do, Grandma? It hurts so much here," he hit himself in the chest with his fist. "I didn't think I was so attached to him."
Pouoka sighed. She didn't know how to comfort and didn't know what words would be right, but she knew a thing or two about life in Isorobia.
"Egor, you see, you and Klaus initially grew up in different conditions and it is difficult for you to understand each other. For you, the death of a stranger whom you saw once is a tragedy, but for Klaus...," she fell silent, trying to find the right words "for Klaus it is commonplace. In Isorobia, death is commonplace. There they kill in order to survive and those who do not grow up in the estate of the nobles face this from childhood. Imagine what would happen to the prince now if he mourned every fallen person? If he missed the death of anyone who was somehow connected to him through their heart? He would have gone crazy long ago."
"I did not think about the situation in such a way," Egor said thoughtfully. "I simply could not imagine such a life. So you want to say that he became heartless in order to survive?"
"Can you really say that he is heartless?" the grandmother raised an eyebrow in surprise. - As for me, he is too soft for the heir of a barbaric country. If it were up to me, I would not send him back, but leave him in our world. He suits him better.
Egor was at the underground clinic at exactly eleven o'clock in the morning. He did not call ahead, so now, standing at the closed iron door of the apartment building, the young man took out his phone and dialed the number.
"Hello. I would like to..."
"Oh, the boy from yesterday?"
"Yes. Tell me how it is..."
"You can come and visit him. It won't do much good, though."
"He..."
"He is alive, but hasn't regained consciousness yet. When should we expect you?"
'Well, I... I'm already here."
"I see. You're lucky I'm here. They'll open soon. Wait." The man hung up.
Egor never found out his name, and now it was somehow impossible to ask... He was met by a young nurse (as he assumed), who had given him Klaus's things yesterday. She silently walked him to the ward where the prince lay, connected to devices and with an oxygen mask on his face.
Egor carefully sat down on the edge of the bed and touched Klaus's cool, but no longer icy hand. For the first time in the prince's entire stay in this world, he saw him so defenseless. Even when he lost consciousness in their kitchen from magical exhaustion, Klaus looked as if he could repel any attack at any moment, but now... Now he lay peacefully among all these tubes and IVs. His face was relaxed. His chest slowly rose and fell. He was alive. That was the main thing now.
The woman who had operated on Klaus the day before entered the room. Egor tore his gaze away from the handsome face with black hair strewn across the pillow and turned at the sound of footsteps.
"He's holding up well. I didn't think we'd be able to pull him out, but he's he's holding up well." She said, walking up to the IV and checking something there.
"Tell me, when will he come to?"
"I don't know. Let's hope that he comes to at all. I don't think there's any point in keeping him for more than a week. If he doesn't come to during that time, you can take him and transfer him to the hospital, where they'll keep the guy alive. But I doubt it's worth it."
"So he might not wake up?"
"That's exactly what I just told you. The chances are high."
She left the room, leaving Egor alone with the man who had sacrificed himself to save such a worthless person as he.
Three days passed, two of which Egor had to spend at work. His time off was over, and he could not think of a reason to ask for a few more days off without telling Klara about the difficulties of the situation. Egor came to the patient every day. He read books out loud, talked about work, not knowing if the prince could hear him, but he hoped that he could.
On the fourth day, in the middle of his work shift, Klara called Egor to her. Of course, he told her that Klaus had urgently left the city on some important business, without taking his phone with him, but the woman still pressed him for information every day, as if she knew that Egor was lying to her. And now he thought that his boss would again press him for Klaus's location.
When he entered the office, there was not only Klara, but also a vaguely familiar man.
"Hello," the fair-haired young man greeted. "Did you call me?"
"Yes, sit down," she lazily gestured to the second chair near her desk. Egor slowly sat down and glanced sideways at the stranger.
"Egor, I have already heard your version of my employee's disappearance, but I will still ask again. Where is Klaus?"
Both looked at the young man, waiting for an answer. Egor felt uneasy.
"I already told you that he left and did not let me in on the details. You know his character," Egor laughed nervously. "I think he may not come back. At least to work."
- I see - Clara said thoughtfully and turned her gaze to the man - You heard him, Sasha. This arsehole decided to leave without saying goodbye. No matter how good he was at his job, his wayward character and antics... Oh, you can't even imagine how much blood he sucked out of me!
"Clara," Alexander turned to the bar owner. "Can you do me one favor?"
"You know my answer. If it's within my power, then I'm always at your service."
"Then leave me with this young man for ten minutes. I have something to talk to him about."
Clara's expression changed for a second. Now she was asked to leave her own office. This hurt the woman's pride, but she could not refuse the one who helped her become who she is. Without Sasha's help, the woman would still be selling her body in a backwater strip club, or perhaps would have been lying in a gutter long ago, dying from some kind of venereal disease.
"Of course," she smiled and stood up from her chair. - I just wanted to check how things were up there. Take your time.
The woman quietly closed the door behind her. Egor looked warily at the man who watched Clara leave, sat silently, staring at the door, for a few minutes, and then turned to Egor and spoke slowly:
"Do you think I would have been able to reach such heights if I couldn't tell the difference between obvious lies?"
"Sorry, but I don't understand what you're talking about," Egor answered, pale.
"You're Klaus's brother, aren't you?? Egor nodded slowly. "I saw him a couple of days ago. We were having a great time outside the city when his brother called. Klaus left in a hurry, saying that your life was in danger. No one has seen him since then."
Egor was feverishly thinking about what to come up with, but he couldn't. Only new questions were forming in his head. Was Klaus out of town with the man? Or maybe this was the man Egor saw with the prince at the stadium? And also these strange conversations of Klaus about sex.
"Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter. What's important is that I know for sure that Klaus didn't leave the city. Before he left me, he borrowed one thing. I would like to return it, so tell me where Klaus is. I promise, this will stay between us. If he doesn't want to be found, no one will find him."
"It's not that he doesn't want to," Egor began slowly. "What thing did he take from you? Maybe I can return it?"
Egor remembered the contents of the black bag. Klaus had ordinary things with him, except for the short sword. Surely this is what the man wants to return.
"Do you want to return the sword?" Egor asked.
"Yes, but I also want to see Klaus himself. He promised to return it to me personally."
"I'm afraid he can't fulfill his promise now. He left the sword at home, and then left and ..."
"Don't lie!" Sasha interrupted the young man, slightly raising his tone. "I didn't come to listen to your fairy tales. Either you tell me where it is now, or I will stop being so kind."
"He really won't be able to meet with you." Egor realized that there was no point in lying. Judging by how meekly Klara left her office, this man was not simple. What else could the fair-haired young man do. "He's in the hospital now" Egor finished with a broken voice.
"He's not in any hospital. I've already checked that."
"Well, it's not exactly a hospital," Egor hesitated "more like a private clinic," seeing Sasha's look, Egor decided to add "An underground private clinic."
"What is he doing there? What's wrong with him?"
"He really did go to my rescue that day, but he was seriously wounded with a knife. Klaus lost a lot of blood before they could give him first aid. Now he's been in a coma for four days."
Egor folded his hands on his knees and stubbornly examined his fingers. The picture before his eyes became cloudy, and moisture treacherously rolled down his cheeks.
"In a coma?" the man asked in a detached voice. "All this time? Where is he? Where is this clinic?"
"Sorry, I can't tell you. It's dangerous. I'll give you back the sword."
"To hell with this junk! I ask, where is he being kept?"
"But I can't bring a complete stranger there," Egor whispered pleadingly.
"I don't care. I'll take him and put him in a good clinic. Or don't you want him to wake up?"
Egor wanted this more than anything in the world, so after forty minutes he and Sasha, the man told Clara that the young man's work was finished for today, and she did not object, were already standing near a residential building, on the other side of which there was an iron door.
Egor hesitantly rang the unsightly doorbell. He was nervous. The door opened and the same nurse who greeted him every day stood on the threshold. She looked at Sasha suspiciously, then turned her uncomprehending gaze to Egor.
"Everything is fine. He is with me."
The girl did not open the door all the way, but took out her phone and dialed someone's number.
"Doctor, there is an uninvited guest here."
Hurried steps were heard behind her. The door swung open and a huge security guard, or bodyguard, stared at Egor and Sasha.
"Kid, what's going on?" He addressed Egor, who only managed to open his mouth, but Sasha spoke up.
"Good evening. I came to pick up Klaus. Is there a problem with that?"
The big guy exchanged glances with the nurse, and she quickly left. The guard silently studied Sasha until he heard footsteps behind him again and the same doctor who had kept the prince alive in the van appeared on the threshold.
"Can I help you with something?" he asked Alexander, casting a quick glance at Egor.
"As I already told your...," the man looked at the big guy "the guard?"
"Yes, Vitya is our guard."
"So, I came to take Klaus and put him in another hospital. Could there be problems with that?"
The doctor looked at Sasha again appraisingly, and then invited them both to come in with a wave of his hand.
"Let's talk in my office. The thing is, Klaus hasn't paid for some services yet and..."
"You don't have to worry about that. I'll pay for the services and cover all medical expenses. Just let's resolve the issue quickly."
"I like business people," the doctor answered with a slight smile.
The men closed the office door. No one had invited Egor, and he wasn't eager to. Instead, he went into the painfully familiar room and sat down on a chair next to the bed, which someone had kindly placed for him on his third visit.
"Hello," Egor spoke, taking Klaus's hand as usual. "Today has been a strange day. It turns out that you've made a very influential acquaintance. It's a pity you didn't tell me. You'll be transferred to the hospital today. I hope this will help you. Klaus, please come back to me. Come back to us. Grandma is also very worried, but she wasn't allowed here. I think I'll have problems too, because I brought a stranger. He promised that he would help you, and I can't miss such an opportunity."
The men resolved their issues surprisingly quickly, and the door to the ward opened. Sasha stood on the threshold and stared intently at Klaus's motionless body, and then slowly approached. Egor wanted to get up to give the man the only chair, but he stopped him with a wave of his hand and sat down on the edge of the bed.
"My God, how disgustingly they look after you here," slowly, Egor even thought that it was too gentle, Sasha ran his hand over Klaus's head, and then over the prince's disheveled hair. "You're just a little git!"
Alexander's phone rang. Three people entered the ward. Klaus was transferred to a stretcher and carried out. Egor followed them, but Sasha stopped him.
"It's too late now. There's no point in you going with him. Here's the address, you can visit him anytime."
"But I want to go with him," Egor tried to object, but seeing the man's look, he gave in "Okay. Can I come tomorrow morning?"
"Of course! Thank you for your help. You did everything right," the man patted the young man on the shoulder and quickly left the empty ward.