Great Chief

by Lindsay Buroker

  As they headed toward the base of the mountains to make a large loop around the camp, Lakeo muttered a lot about how she would be studying at the beautiful disease-free Kyattese university now, if not for their exorbitant tuition fees.

  Yanko looked back, not at her but at the lake, wondering if he should kill that plant in case it was the culprit. Just to be safe. But the idea of annihilating something, even a plant, did not appeal to him. He also wondered if it might, in death, release even more of its toxic substance.

  He tugged at his topknot, wishing he knew more about sea life. More about everything.

  A shout up ahead made Yanko jump and remember the general’s admonition that he not explore the mountains. They hadn’t climbed far yet, and he’d only intended to circle the camp, but the soldiers might feel he’d gone too close.

  The two men who had been following them peered curiously toward the commotion. More shouts sounded, and Yanko sensed two soldiers running down a mountain slope toward the camp, their boots stirring up clouds of silt that were visible before they were.

  “They found another dead soldier,” Dak said grimly, picking words out of the shouts.

  Several men from the camp ran out to meet the pair. Aldercrest strode after them.

  “Up in the mountains?” Yanko looked back toward the lake, but it was no longer in sight.

  “In one of the mining tunnels about five hundred feet uphill.”

  “Any chance he strolled along the lakefront last night before heading up to work?” Yanko asked.

  “I doubt it,” Dak said.

  Yanko sat at Lakeo’s side, back in the tent with the ore samples, watching as Dak stood with his arms folded across his chest and Aldercrest stalked back and forth in front of him, gesticulating with anger and frustration.

  From what Yanko could read of his thoughts, he didn’t think the general was angry at Dak, but more that Dak might be the recipient of the current rant because… Yanko wasn’t sure. It almost seemed like the general wanted help, but would he ask Dak? When he was suspicious of Dak for showing up out of nowhere with Nurians?

  The general stopped, stabbed a finger at Dak’s chest, then strode out, muttering imprecations. He barked a quick order at the two soldiers who’d been following Yanko’s group. The men looked at each other in surprise, then shrugged and followed their commander outside. That left Yanko, Lakeo, and Dak alone in the tent.

  Dak faced Yanko and gave him a very familiar exasperated expression.

  “What did I do this time?” Yanko touched his chest. He’d just been sitting there.

  “You told him you have training as a healer,” Dak said.

  “Does he want me to look at the new body?” Yanko had gathered from the few words Dak had translated earlier that the latest dead soldier was still up in a mine.

  “He wants you and me—” Dak prodded his own chest with his thumb, “—to solve his problem. You because you’re a healer and clearly have vast knowledge of diseases.” His expression turned scathing. “And me because I am my uncle’s nephew and must, therefore, be a genius.”

  “Ah.”

  Yanko had a feeling the latter was the cause for Dak’s exasperation, since he’d admitted to not being able to live up to President Rias Starcrest’s brilliance before. And disappointing people because of it.

  But Yanko reluctantly admitted that he hadn’t helped anything by claiming to be a healer. A real healer would have more insight into this. His only hope was that the problem would have something to do with the land and that his experience with earth magic would assist him. Somehow.

  “Am I supposed to do anything?” Lakeo asked.

  “No,” Dak said. “He doesn’t remember your name or know what you’re good at.”

  “Normally, I’d be insulted, but I don’t think I want any responsibility here.”

  “You’re not the only one,” Dak growled.

  “What’s at stake if we fail?” Yanko asked. “Will he hold us responsible?”

  “Death, most likely.”

  Yanko raised his eyebrows. “By firing squad death or…?”

  “Aldercrest didn’t answer you honestly this morning. There are people sick in camp with symptoms of fever and respiratory distress. Which apparently at least one of the dead soldiers displayed before pitching over from something more acute.”

  “So we might eventually die from the disease or toxins if we stay here,” Yanko said.

  Lakeo elbowed him. “Time for you to raise a barrier against rifle fire and protect us until we can get back to the yacht.”

  “We’re not going back to the yacht,” Dak said, “until we know this is something we can’t spread to others. Aldercrest has given the same order to his men. Nobody goes back to their ships now.”

  Lakeo scowled.

  “But isn’t it too late for that?” Yanko asked. “I saw people walking out here as recently as yesterday evening, and didn’t you say he sent a messenger to talk to Ravencrest about us?”

  “Maybe with orders to yell the message from shore.” Dak shrugged. “But he just told me that nobody else from this point forward will go back to the ships. He’s got a team out looking for Jhali, more because he doesn’t want her going to the bay than because he’s worried about a mage hunter. Right now, he’s far more worried about his people dying.”

  “I’ll try to warn her,” Yanko said. “To either join us or not go back to the yacht.”

  “Can you do that? With telepathy?” Dak waved at his head.

  “I’ve spoken to her before when we’ve been close. She can block me if she wants but can apparently let me through too.” Yanko tilted his head. “I’ve tried to communicate telepathically with you before. Did you ever hear me?”

  “No.”

  “Maybe your skull is thicker than hers.”

  “That’s a given, isn’t it?” Lakeo asked.

  “Caveman-like.” Dak smiled without humor. “Can you reach Tynlee from here? I know it’s a ways.”

  “You want me to ask her to come out? Having a real healer could be very helpful. I know it’s not as much her specialty as mind manipulation, but she—”

  “No,” Dak said. “I mean, yes, if you can communicate with her from here and get her advice, it would be helpful, but don’t ask her to come out here. In fact, if you could forbid her from leaving the yacht, that would be ideal.”

  “I don’t think I can forbid her from doing anything. I seem to recall you also had trouble forbidding her.”

  “Just… let her know that people are dying and that it could happen to anyone who comes out here.”

  “All right. I’ll try to reach her.”

  Yanko paused before attempting to send a telepathic message farther than he ever had and considered if getting Tynlee involved was a good idea. She might insist on coming out here and putting herself at risk.

  What if Yanko disobeyed the general and simply took his team and left? And let the soldiers deal with their problem by themselves? It was a callous thought, but maybe the Turgonians would leave this land alone forever if their entire research team died from some horrible disease.

  But it might be too late for Yanko and his friends. If they were already infected, they had the same problem that the Turgonians had.

  Besides, even if they weren’t infected, could he truly walk away and leave people to die? That would be the kind of thing his mother would do, and she was the last person he wanted to turn into.

  He would rather help the Turgonians and have them think kindly of Nurians. Maybe it would later prove useful if they entered into negotiations over this continent.

  If only he knew how to help the Turgonians.

  “Problem?” Dak asked.

  Maybe he’d noticed Yanko didn’t wear the glazed expression he often did when speaking telepathically to someone.

  Yanko sighed. “No more than usual.”

  “That bad, eh?”

  Yanko couldn’t manage a laugh.

  “I’m going to assume th
at I’m now allowed to go into the mountains,” Yanko said, as he, Lakeo, and Dak left the tent without opposition.

  Yanko had managed to get in touch with Tynlee and summarize events for her. She’d said she had medical books in the yacht’s library, and might also have a text on marine vegetation, and she was interested in coming out to help. He’d done his best to forbid her from leaving the yacht while requesting she check the books for pertinent information. He doubted he had succeeded with the forbidding—her response to that had been to tartly inform him that she did as she wished, young man—but he thought she would at least read the books before coming out.

  “Not alone, I’m sure.” Dak veered toward the dormant steam vehicles at the edge of the camp instead of heading straight into the mountains.

  Two soldiers, a different pair from the morning, followed them. Yanko didn’t see Aldercrest anywhere. He heard someone coughing as they passed a tent, and a chill went through him at the thought of this disease spreading. What if it was the plague? How long would it take until he felt the effects?

  “Do you know how long this research team has been here?” Yanko asked Dak.

  “About a week.”

  “Long enough to find some valuable ore,” Lakeo said wistfully. She had eyed that trunk intently when the geologist opened it. “I wonder if there’s any gold up there.”

  “I’d worry more about surviving the next week than funding your purse right now.” Dak stopped in front of the water tank Aldercrest had pointed out earlier. “Yanko, do you have any way to tell if the water in here might be contaminated? They’re all sharing it, and I’d like to rule out things like that before assuming we’re dealing with…” He spread his hand, trailing off.

  It wasn’t like Dak to mince words. Yanko suspected he was more worried than he let on. Maybe Yanko should be more worried. He didn’t feel any sickness or respiratory distress yet, and it sounded like they would have a few days before they had to worry about that. Maybe he was being naive—again—but he believed they could find a solution by then.

  “Toxic killer plants?” Lakeo suggested.

  “I doubt the plants are a possibility if people are dying in the mountains without any contact with that lake,” Dak said.

  “Oh,” she said, thoughts of plague perhaps sinking in.

  “I’m not sure if I could detect a poison.” Yanko rested a hand on the cool steel tank. “But I’ll check.”

  “Good. I told the general about the pirates, and he’s going to send some scouts farther afield to see if there’s evidence that anyone else has been in the area.” Dak shook his head. “Had I known about all this, I would have had Tynlee’s captain turn around to fetch a couple of those shark-hounded pirates out of the water for questioning.”

  “Can sharks hound people?” Lakeo asked. “Wouldn’t they be sharking people?”

  Dak ignored her, focusing instead on the tank.

  Yanko closed his eyes and examined the water inside at the molecular level, as he would if he were going to splice the hydrogen off to combust for a fireball. Was there anything inside that shouldn’t be there? It was painstakingly slow to sweep his senses through the water and try to spot anomalies at the microscopic level, but he didn’t want to say everything was fine only to learn later that this had been the problem.

  Someone asked a suspicious question in Turgonian. Dak barked back a terse answer. It must have satisfied the speaker, because nobody came over to drag Yanko away from the tank.

  “I don’t see anything.” Yanko lowered his hand and wiped sweat from his brow, the fine mental work as exhausting as running sprints.

  Dak sighed. “I keep hoping this will turn out to be something simple. Let’s head up into the mountains.”

  Yanko? Tynlee spoke into his mind, her voice softer and more distant than usual.

  Yes?

  I’m reading this book on marine vegetation and may have an answer to your plants that were growing in the aphotic zone.

  Oh? Yanko assumed aphotic was the Nurian word for the third zone Dak had given him earlier.

  The Kyattese believe life may be able to grow around thermal vents on the ocean floor, using heat as energy in the way surface plants use sunlight.

  Interesting. And it was, but Yanko didn’t know how that helped with their problem unless— Are any examples of plants listed in there? And their traits?

  Such as if they were toxic.

  Yanko knew the death of a man in the mountains suggested the lake wasn’t the source of their problems, but it was the only scenario that he knew how to research. If it was the plague, it would take a team of medical experts to study it and find a cure, if that was possible. He knew science had progressed a great deal in the seven hundred years since the Kyattese had fled their diseased continent, but had it progressed enough to conquer that?

  No, Tynlee replied after a pause. They’re only hypothetical for us at this point. Nobody has been able to go down deep enough, even in an underwater boat, to examine possible life thousands of feet below the surface. The book says the scientists interviewed were hypothesizing based on life found hunkered around deep sea vents in areas they have been able to reach with underwater boats. But those areas were also affected by sunlight.

  All right. Thank you for looking. Oh, can you see if there’s anything in there about Turgonian algae that has toxins in it that will kill animals and humans? Dak knew a little, but I’m not sure he told me everything he knows. I’m curious about how that works and also if any other sea plants are known to hold such toxins.

  I wouldn’t have guessed Dak would know anything about such subjects. He’s quite remarkable, isn’t he?

  Yanko decided not to mention the boredom-reading of the technical manual. He is.

  I’ll check on the algae. And Yanko?

  Yes?

  I’ve skimmed the medical books, and I have some knowledge in that area myself. If I could come out and examine the bodies, it may be useful. I’m not delusional enough to believe I could create a cure to a plague, but I could tell if a virus or a poison had been responsible.

  Er, as I said before, Dak wants me to encourage you to stay on the yacht.

  He didn’t use the word forbid again, did he? Tynlee asked, her tartness coming through the telepathic link.

  He may have used it, but I gathered he was skeptical it would be well-received.

  That’s correct. Maybe he’s learning.

  Does that mean you’re coming out? Yanko scratched his cheek, wondering what General Aldercrest would think about another suspicious Nurian showing up.

  I am contemplating it, Tynlee replied. I admit, I’m loath to fling myself into an infectious situation just for the adventure, and Dak is right that someone should stay out of the area to go get help—a medical team—if needed, but I should hate to leave you two alone to deal with something that is, quite frankly, over your heads.

  Yanko couldn’t object to that, not when he had no idea how to look at a dead body and determine whether a virus or a poison had been responsible.

  The pirates didn’t show any sign of being sick, did they? Tynlee asked.

  The ones we fought? Not that I noticed. They were vigorously shooting at us.

  They seemed certain that they and their peers wanted the land. One would think they’d have gone ashore and explored at some point. They must not have gotten sick.

  It’s possible that whatever this is only affects this area around the mountains, Yanko said. It’s also possible the pirates were infected but weren’t showing symptoms yet.

  Hm. Tynlee did the mental equivalent of drumming her fingers and then said, Yes, I will come. First, I will go speak with the Turgonians in the bay. I believe some of those research ships have laboratories that may have useful equipment.

  You’re going to sail over and talk to them? I’ve met the leader, Fleet Admiral Ravencrest. He finds Dak suspicious and had him in the brig for several days.

  Of course he did, she replied, not as put off as Yanko
expected by the news. Dak is running around with Nurians.

  Yes, and you’re a Nurian. Won’t he consider that worse?

  Of course not. I’m a Nurian diplomat stationed in Turgonia. I know exactly what to say to Turgonian military officers to convince them to cooperate with me. All of them except for Dak. He always was stubborn.

  Ravencrest was susceptible to mind manipulation, Yanko advised, though she would likely find that out for herself.

  You used magic on him?

  Not me. Sun Dragon was clearly controlling him though.

  Why didn’t you break the control?

  I don’t know how to do that. My studies, uhm. Yanko thought of how he’d paged through Senshoth’s book. They’re not that advanced.

  I must give you some lessons before we part ways.

  Yes, Honored Consul.

  Tell Dak I look forward to working with him on solving this problem. If we’re successful in helping the Turgonians, well, it never hurts to have the opposite side owing you a favor when you enter into negotiations.

  That thought occurred to me, Yanko said.

  Did it? There may be hope for you yet, to be something other than a brute-force mage.

  Yanko might have replied, but he noticed Dak was leaning one hand against the water tank, waiting.

  “Are you done?” Dak asked.

  Yanko’s eyes must have grown less glassy. “Yes.”

  “How did your discussion with Tynlee go?”

  “How did you know I was talking to her instead of Jhali?” Yanko stalled because he dreaded telling Dak that Tynlee intended to come out here.

  “Because your conversation lasted ten minutes. You couldn’t add up all the things Jhali has ever said to you and get ten minutes’ worth of material.”

  “That’s not true. We had a long chat at the shrine in Yellow Delta.”

  “Long?”

  “It was at least three minutes.”

  Dak lowered his hand. “She’s coming out here, isn’t she?”

  “Tynlee? Yes.” Yanko supposed his stalling had been transparent. “She has some medical textbooks,” he hurried to say as Dak’s face darkened, “and is going to try to get some medical equipment from the Turgonian ships.”