Chapter 36Desperately, Nertha bent close to Antyr, first listening for his breathing, then offering her cheek. But she could feel nothing. She checked his pulse. It was still there, more distant than weak. She had never felt anything like it before.
A bizarre mixture of fear and professional pride wrapped about one another and became a deep anger.
She swore. ‘I will not lose you to this — whatever it is. I will not lose you!’
Her face grim with determination, she quickly checked the others. Lying on their sides like sleeping children, as she had placed them, they were unchanged. She lingered briefly, running a loving hand down her husband’s cheek, then she rolled Antyr on to his back and, holding his nose and arching his neck, placed her mouth over his.
His chest rose as she blew, then
