Keeper: First Ordinance, Book 2 (15 page)

Eventually, however, it was time to visit the prisoner. Rather
than clumping down many steps to the Queen's dungeons, we were transported
there by someone with the talent for such.

Instead of a dark, rat-infested place, I found a clean,
well-lit row of cells with adequate bedding and climate control. "This
way," the Queen led us to a cell near the end. The man they all called a
Sirenali was inside, his head in his hands as he sat, hunched over, on a cot.

Without prompting, I read everything I could about him. He had
no information on the spheres—Marid the wizard had given him no information as
to their location.

I knew what Marid had known and cursed about in this one's
presence, however. "The wizard's containment spheres weren't completely
effective," I announced. "The poison leached out of them somehow and
now the world of Shaaliveer is also contaminated. Marid had the wasting
disease," I added. "This one believes it made the wizard's spells too
fragile to hold back the poison."

The last thing I read in him troubled me greatly, but I had no
real knowledge of what it meant. "What does tapping the core mean?" I
turned to Queen Lissa.

* * *

"Did you see where he came from—the Sirenali?" Lissa
thought to ask. She'd asked me, Kaldill, Daragar and a handful of others to
come to her private study, where we could discuss what the Sirenali knew. I
could tell my question concerning the tapping of the core disturbed her, but
she ignored that subject for the moment.

"He only knows his mother moved about after he was born.
He has no idea who his father was or what happened to his mother—she sold him to
a wealthy criminal when he was very young. He hates her for that, and the fact
that she had no objections when his tongue was removed prior to the sale."

"Does he remember her name?"

"Erithia. He curses her daily."

"Is he evil?" I could see that the mother's name
meant something to the Queen, but as I couldn't read her, I had no idea what it
could be.

"He bears no malice against you or most others—I only saw
anger against those who've harmed him in the past. That included Marid and the
criminals who owned him before he fell into Marid's hands."

"I don't know what to do," Lissa flung out a hand in
a gesture of confusion. "We let him go, he could end up with another
Marid. We keep him here and it's similar to imprisoning the innocent."

"What about Avendor?" Reah suggested. Yes, she was
one of the few inside the Queen's study.

"Interesting idea. Do you think they'd mind?"

"Probably not. Can he use fingerspeech?" Reah turned
to me.

"He knows it," I nodded. "He learned when he
was young."

"Had to, I suppose," Lissa grumbled. "What's
his name? Did you see that?" she asked me.

"His name is Terrett," I replied, "Although the
ones who bought him called him Geng. Nobody has called him by his proper name
in a very long time. It is my hope," I began, working to keep my trembling
at bay, "that you treat him kindly. He has never known such his whole
life."

* * *

"Of course she'd ask that," Kaldill sighed later,
after Quin and Berel were transported to a local shop to buy treats to take
back to Siriaa. "She hasn't been treated well, either. I've seen it from
Amlis and his man-at-arms Rodrik—those of the higher class believe the only way
to show their displeasure to those they consider beneath them is by beating
them. Quin suffered at their hands, and then at the hands of a few Avii before
she became useful to them. Word is she can heal almost anything; the Avii King
and his now-deceased Red-Wing Princess demanded millions from the Kondari High
President to heal Berel from a rare and deadly form of cancer. Of course, Quin received
nothing for her efforts."

"This is preposterous, and I'd pull her away from there
immediately if I didn't feel she had some role to play in all this. Nobody else
can read the Sirenali—apart from my sister. That alone makes Quin more than
valuable and I only want to see her protected in all this." Lissa
grumbled.

"What progress has been made on the poison?" she
continued. "If Siriaa's core has been tapped as Terrett believes, it'll
only die faster."

"The Kondari have already done some research and have
determined it is a living organism that produces the radioactive poison by
excreting it."

"Can we kill the organism? We have to do that first or
repairing the core will be useless. Reah won't attempt it unless the world can
be saved, somehow."

"The Kondari scientists say early samples taken from sea
waters rendered dead organisms, but the poison, like any other nuclear waste,
has a life of centuries at best."

"Do they still have these dead organisms?"

"I believe they do. Should I ask to borrow them?"

"If you could. I'd like Karzac and a few others to take a
look at them. I also want more information on Liron—the god the Fyrians and
Avii worship. Did he have a hand in the creation of these creatures, or did
someone else do it?"

"A question for one of the Three, perhaps?"

"It would be, if we could find any of them," Lissa
frowned.

"Their time is different from ours," Kaldill
observed.

"I'll make sure to point that out the next time I see any
of them."

"Do you believe it will do any good?"

"Probably not."

* * *

Quin

I'd never seen so many cakes, pies and cold or frozen treats
in my life, and all of them sat proudly on shelves inside the same treat shop.
A sign outside the shop, lit in bright colors against the constant night of the
Le-Ath Veronis city, read
Niff's
.

I'm sure there was a story behind the name, I merely couldn't
decipher it at the moment. Regardless, Berel had no trouble pointing out what
he wished to take back to Siriaa, so all of it was carefully packaged for the
trip.

I chose several things, thinking of Dena and the others we'd
left behind in Lironis. Before long, we had a rather large crate filled to the top,
which Reah promised to transport without any of it melting.

Daragar and Kaldill arrived when everything was ready, so we
were transported back to Lironis with barely a thought.

Chapter 8
 

"I brought these back for you," I placed the small,
white box in Justis' hands after I walked into our suite. "The berries are
covered in what they called dark chocolate, and when I saw it, I thought of
your wings."

"They look good," Justis opened the box and lifted
out a red berry dipped in the dark, cold chocolate. He closed his eyes in
pleasure the moment he bit into it.

"Did you have one?" he asked, holding the box out to
me.

"I was still too full after tea and cake, but I'll try
one now," I lifted one of the three remaining berries from the box. They
were quite large and one would have filled the palm of my hand had I chosen to
squeeze it.

After my first bite, I considered that it was just as good as
Justis thought it was—cold but not overly so—to keep the chocolate crisp until
it melted on my tongue.

"Thank you for this," Justis lifted a second berry
from the box and devoured it.

"You're welcome," I smiled and shrugged at him. "You
should have seen the Queen's palace on Le-Ath Veronis. It was incredible. When
are you flying out tomorrow?"

"At first light. If all goes well, we'll only be gone
three days."

"All right. Please be careful. I don't want anything to
happen to you or the others."

"Do you see something?" Justis had the last berry in
his hand.

"No, I merely desire your safe return, that's all.
Good-night," I said and walked toward my tiny bedroom.

* * *

"Marid knew he had the wasting disease, else he'd never
have taken his own life," I told Dena over breakfast. Justis and the black-winged
guards had left early at first light, after a quick meal. They wouldn't eat
again until their arrival at Avii Castle, which concerned me.

"I wish I knew how to do that—to know things," Dena
shook her head at me.

"At times it seems a terrible curse," I responded.
Berel sat beside me then, setting his tab-vid and his plate of food on the
table.

We'd chosen the balcony to eat while the others had breakfast
inside. I knew they were discussing recent events, which included Marid's
death. Gurnil and Ordin chose to join Reah and the others in that discussion,
but after another troubling night of fitful sleep, I avoided a meeting and more
disturbing news.

"I left a second tab-vid with Tory—he said he'd make sure
the meeting was recorded for my father," Berel informed us before spearing
scrambled eggs with a fork.

"Your father's shoulders must bear a terrible burden,"
I sighed. I knew from reading Berel that Sector Two was demanding an inquiry
after the arrest of their President. I wanted to laugh—they'd demanded an
inquiry into his actions and practices shortly before he'd traveled to Sector Five
to make an assassination attempt.

"You know there's a saying in Kondar—that someone is as
fickle as Sector Two," Berel grinned before shoving eggs into his mouth
and chewing.

"I find that humorous," I smiled at him.

"You're supposed to," he swallowed and grinned. "I
heard the army is on its way back, but as they're riding instead of
skipping—that's what Tory says he can do—skip somewhere, it'll take them more
than a week to get here."

"What are they doing for supplies?" Dena asked.

"I heard that Vhrist was cleaned out before they left,
but that didn't stop Tamblin from stealing anything he could along the way."

"How are the people of Vhrist faring, then?" I
asked.

"Orik was at breakfast with the others—Fen too. They say
that the news they have is that Vhrist has been forced to ration everything,
because the army took their surplus."

"You've learned a lot about Fyris in a very short time,"
I said.

"It's fascinating, and I have to present good information
to my father," he shrugged modestly. "Gurnil found maps for me—I can't
tell you how happy I am that the Larentii gave me the ability to read as well
as speak the language. Everything is so much easier because of it. I've
interviewed a few castle servants, too. Father was appalled by the descriptions
of their treatment at the hands of the nobles."

"I believe Tamblin and Yevil saw to that," I said,
toying with my fork. "I can't say how things were when Tandelis had the
throne, but it had to be better, didn't it?"

"Books on the old laws are in Gurnil's private library,"
Dena said. "I dusted his shelves and saw them there."

"Gurnil can probably tell you if you want to know, then,"
I nodded at Berel.

"I'll ask after breakfast." Berel went back to his
food.

If Siriaa weren't in so severe a crisis and its people in such
peril as a result, I would think that having breakfast with two whom I'd come
to love was joy incarnate. As it was, I felt as if the weight of the planet had
settled onto my shoulders, much as it had for Berel's father.

"Quin, are you ready to start the day?" Ordin walked
onto the balcony and nodded to my companions.

"I am." I rose and allowed my wings to pull away
from my back.

"I'll join you there after I speak with Master Gurnil,"
Berel promised. "Father is asking after the health of the people."

* * *

The physician's staff from one of the ships followed Master
Ordin and me into the physician's quarters. Already there was a line waiting to
get inside. Two medics from the ship began their trek down the line, making a
swift evaluation as to which ones needed to see us first—a process they
referred to as vital assessment.

The large, examination room at the front had been divided into
five cubicles—the one at the back equipped for dental surgery, as the ships'
staff named it.

Ordin had one of the first cubicles, I had the one behind his.
Two ships' surgeons had the two opposite ours.

It was no secret that the worst of the patients were brought
to me. Many more were asking to see me than I could comfortably handle; those
were directed to Ordin and the others.

My first patient was a young woman with the wasting disease. I
felt a great deal of pity for her and after a brief consultation with Ordin,
healed her of the sickness. She was the first whom I considered for such—all my
other patients had been elderly up to that point and only wished for respite
from the pain.

When the young woman was helped from the room by her mother, I
worried that I'd only see her again. I wondered that the people couldn't feel
the disease of the land beneath our feet—it bled through the stone floors of
the healer's quarters and disturbed me as I worked.

Ordin said I'd work for four hours, as Kondar measured time. I
ended up working the full nine, with only a sandwich brought by Dena at midday.

Berel had come as promised, recording images of patients
waiting outside the quarters while we worked as swiftly as we could inside it.
Word came that people were either riding in from outlying villages or were
carried inside wagons pulled by horses or oxen.

Even the animals appeared sickly to me when the carts were
parked outside and the horses and such led away for water and what grain could
be found for them.

"I can get supplies," Reah arrived with Torevik
behind her to survey the increasing crowd.

"I fear we need another building, just to house those who
are too ill to return to their homes," I pointed out. "If we had
that, we could also dispense food and supplies there, if we had such."

"A good idea. Let me see what we can do about it."

I'd been covered in blood, filth and vomit when Reah came to
visit—I'd have been ashamed if I weren't so near exhaustion by that point. I
knew Ordin was in the same shape—he merely snapped at a castle servant to bring
a clean smock and went back to work.