by Dale Furse
Deesc used some kind of laser light pen that spoke the name and instructions in Grarl on each medicine vial label.
Having made up her mind that the rebels had used germ warfare, she began to worry if they would make another assault.
The nights were at least three hours longer on Grarlon than Corl and by the time the sun rose, Deesc’s temperature had increased in spite of the medication he took; so had her father’s and everyone else’s. Nell finally convinced Deesc he would be of no use to her if he fell over, too sick to help. He agreed and stretched out on the bed she had made up for him during the night. He fell into an exhausted sleep within seconds.
She kept nursing the patients. Nausea washed over her about mid-morning. She groaned. She hadn’t thought about eating, but supposed her stomach needed something. She had to keep her strength up. Deesc would need something when he woke up too. She checked the bench. The glucose she was force-feeding the patients needed refilling so she made her way to the kitchen that shared a separate building at the back of the palace with the laundry.
She thought the Grarl kitchen staff had it pretty easy using spells and enchantments to collect and prepare foods from the produce. There were no ovens or cook tops, only wooden workbenches. A walk-in refrigerator housed pre-made platters of cold meats, salad and bowls of diced fruit. Another, larger, cold room held raw meats. Vegetables, fruit and pantry items, including the much-needed glucose, filled a separate room. She chose fruit and salads for her and Deesc as well as glucose for the patients.
Wheeling her load back to the hospital, Nell coughed. She stopped dead. ‘No,’ she gasped. ‘I can’t get sick.’ She picked an orange and munched through it, skin and all, wondering if any of the medications were vitamin c.
But by the time she walked into the hall, she was coughing regularly.
Deesc turned away from the child and went to her. ‘Nell,’ he cried, taking her into his arms. She tried to back away but he tightened his hold. ‘It doesn’t matter now, beautiful.’
She relaxed into his chest. Of course, it didn’t. ‘Habit I guess,’ she said.
He kissed the top of her head. ‘Oh, my love, I thought you might be the one and only who could fight the disease. I am so sorry I brought you here.’
‘Don’t be silly. If you didn’t bring me, I would have found some other way here and stop talking like we’re already dead. I haven’t given up and you had better not either.’
He let go and gazed down at her. ‘You are right, my love. We will survive this.’
‘That’s better.’ She giggled. ‘Like you said, it doesn’t matter now.’ Rising to her toes, she kissed him full on the mouth.
Deesc responded with a groan low in his throat. They took their time exploring each other’s mouths until Deesc broke off with a cough.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I tried to hold it back.’
She laughed. ‘You’re lucky it wasn’t me because I wouldn’t have stopped kissing you. I’d have coughed right in your mouth.’ She waved her hand over the food. ‘Come on, eat up; then we’ll start refilling the jugs with glucose.’
Although Nell found it increasingly hard to swallow, she forced herself to take in the sustenance. Deesc was in worse shape. He chose the softest of fruit, chewed it to a pulp and after swallowing the juice spat out the leftovers into the bucket of refuse.
‘I think you’d better start taking some glucose too,’ she said, trying not to show the fear that consumed her at that moment. Pull yourself together, Nell. He can’t die. He won’t die. Not him, not Dad, not anyone.
It took some time to collect and refill the jugs. Each patient had their own container and tube and all of those had the bed numbers on them. She also had two notebooks, one for each half of the patients that she entered bed numbers, times she had fed them and how much they took, their temperatures and pulse rates. Things she thought would help a doctor if one ever turned up. Nell was glad she had gone to the trouble of numbering everything. It made keeping track of the patients so much easier. The tubes stayed with the jugs on each bed’s side table with their patients.
With Deesc getting weaker and slower, Nell helped him feed his half of the room and after they were finished, she made Deesc lie down. She too was glad to fall into her bed.
When she woke from a fitful sleep, Mekie was on her mind. It wasn’t like her cousin to stay out of touch for so long. She plucked her communicator off the side table. Huh? A message. Sent the previous night from Corl. Why hadn’t it buzzed? She jabbed the talk button and listened.
Uh oh. Varlor…and Grarls. What in the universe did he have to do with the Grarl’s revolution?
Varlor appeared in the threshold of the doorway. Had she conjured him up just by thinking about him? Forcing her aching muscles to work, she stood up. The strain put her into a spasm of coughing.
‘Ah, I see you are also ill.’ He laughed and looked around the room, resting his eyes on the still sleeping Deesc. ‘Good. He is well on the way to death.’
Nell frowned. The pig was gloating. ‘Why the hell did you do all this?’ She had wanted to yell, but spat the words at him instead.
Holding his head high, he said, ‘My forefathers worked diligently to be the mightiest power in the known universe and it has fallen on me to take up the mantle. I will not disappoint them. No other being of greater power will ever exist.’
As he spoke, a hundred forest fires blazed in Nell’s chest. ‘You, like the Corls of old, have committed genocide. You’re not mighty powers; you’re cold-blooded murderers, horrible, disgusting mass murderers.’ Instead of controlling the heat, Nell urged it to rise up, fill her whole mind and body. When she thought it could build no more, she let everything she had burst from her mind. The blast should have disintegrated the Corl, but instead, it smashed straight through him, forging explosion upon explosion through the palace and for all Nell knew, around the entire globe.
Deesc sprang out of bed to her side, coughing and gagging as he did so. She grabbed him to stop him from falling.
Varlor’s cruel laughter filled Nell’s empty chest above the fading blasts.
‘Your friend’s time is close,’ he said, glaring at her. ‘You think everyone is as stupid as you are, curse of Wexkia. I would not visit you in person.’ His body shimmered, before it vanished.
‘Are you all right?’ she asked Deesc.
Clearing his throat, he nodded. ‘Yes. What else did the Corl say to you?’
Before Nell could think clearly, soft, urgent shouts filled her ears. ‘Somebody else is here,’ she said to Deesc. ‘Stay here and watch the others.’
Not waiting for his response, she fled out the door and passing through the partly crumbled walls, headed toward the shouts. As she advanced the words became clear. She stopped, using what power she had left to listen. ‘Help. Help,’ a man said in a familiar voice.
‘Kandar,’ Nell shouted as loud as her swollen throat would let her.
‘Nell?’ Rasping tones that sounded like weak coughs.
Oh, no. She had to fight back the tears. He’s sick too. ‘Yes, it’s me. Where are you?’
‘Un…der.’
Looking down, Nell couldn’t believe she hadn’t looked there before. Palaces always had dungeons…at least all the one’s she had read about did. She began her search for the way down at the back of the palace, but by the time she’d traced the entire building, she still hadn’t found the stairs. If only she could stop her infernal coughing, she wouldn’t feel so weak. She staggered forward and made her way back to where she had heard Kandar’s voice. Halfway there she stopped suddenly. ‘Of course.’ Varlor was right. She was stupid. Half running, half limping, she moved to the spot on the floor above where she thought Kandar was. She changed into Eldorap and swept into the dungeon.
The central area was nothing like any dungeon Nell had imagined. It was bright with low sofas, rugs and tables. In direct contrast, dark barred cells circled around the area.
‘Kandar,’ Nell called.
‘Here,’ he said faintly, but as soon as she stood in front of him, resignation filled his face. He rasped, ‘You…not Nell.’
Oops. Nell had forgotten to change back into her form. Too bad. They didn’t have time now for explanations. She wrapped her arms around his chest, whisked him back to the foyer just outside the door to the great hall, and shifted. No point in scaring anyone else who might be awake enough to see her.
‘I’ll explain when you’re stronger,’ she whispered. He was so weak, she had to half-drag him into the room, which was hard, because she was flat out dragging herself.
Deesc bent down to Dar-tern, trying to make him take some glucose. Nell bumped Kandar’s thigh against a bed’s side table. He grunted. ‘Sorry,’ she said.
Deesc shook with the effort of straightening his back and turning. ‘Kandar?’
‘I found him in the dungeon.’ Guiding Kandar to her bed, she made him lie down. He was weary and he had lost weight, but he had no fever that Nell could tell. She brought a new glucose bottle and tube and made him sip slowly. He took about half and she was happy with that. ‘Sleep,’ she said, but his eyes were already closed.
Nell and Deesc talked in hushed tones about what they should do about Varlor. They had to agree that they couldn’t do anything about anything until they fought and somehow overcame the infection.
***
Over the next three nights, they worked day and night, tending the sick. As someone died, Nell or Deesc removed the bed and placed the body in an expansive cold room they had found off the kitchen. There were already bodies there when they opened it. Deesc surmised they had been dead from four or five days to weeks. That signified how fast the disease progressed. Whoever was still alive and well enough to put the victims there two days ago was either one of the sick or dead now.
That realisation drove Nell to do her utmost but the weight of that knowledge wearied her at the same time.
She tried again to make Kandar drink all of the glucose. He took it but before he could ingest it all, her gagged and it came straight back up. ‘Oh, Kandar,’ Nell moaned and went about cleaning the mess. Deesc helped change the bed clothes and Nell disinfected Kandar’s suit.
Deesc said, ‘The kitchen might have some varmpa root.’ Nell gave him a quizzical look. ‘The green muck Corls like so much.’
‘Yuk, but I’ll have a look,’ Nell said.
She found some green gunk that smelled like the drink Corls loved. She hadn’t realised it was a little chunky before and worried whether Kandar could swallow it.
Back at his bed, he took it hungrily. She relaxed her shoulders, hoping he hadn’t been infected for as long as everyone else. Maybe he wasn’t slipping in and out of consciousness, maybe he was just sleeping. Tears stung her eyes. She wished she had time to build up his strength before that all changed.
***
Sam was the first up in the morning but he was the last one to bathe. If the women hadn’t made him, he wouldn’t have bothered. What was the point? They had no clean clothes to change into anyway and while they still didn’t smell too bad after three days, he had no way of knowing how long they were all stuck there. Weeks? Months?
He glanced at Mekie and let out a grunt. She insisted on snuggling up to him during the night. He supposed he could handle that, but why she couldn’t keep her dress on to sleep, he didn’t know. How was he going to go if he had to sleep beside her half-naked, hot as all hell body for another night? He was too young to be a father.
Varlor and a Grarl arrived, halting the images of Sam’s imagination. He wondered if the Grarl was one of the same ones the blue Corl had with him before or a different one.
‘We have no need to hold you any longer,’ Varlor said. ‘Remove the spell.’
The Grarl raised his arms and muttered a short phrase.
Guessing it was the same one who cast the spell, Sam pushed Mekie behind him. He didn’t know what Varlor was up to but knowing the Corl, he decided it wasn’t going to be good. Carl, Tanat and Nadar must have thought so too, because they once again formed a front line between Varlor and the other prisoners.
Varlor let out one of his growling laughs. ‘No need for that, friends.’ He faced the Grarl. ‘Return to Grarlon immediately.’
Sam wished he’d said the Grarl’s name. They needed names when they went to the UC and if he really was letting them go, they were the first people they needed to see.
Raising his wrist, Varlor said, ‘I wouldn’t bother seeking the UC’s help.’ Then he was gone.
‘What did he mean by that?’ Sam said to no one in particular.
‘We’d better go and find out,’ Tanat said.
‘I think we had better discuss a course of action first,’ said Nadar.
Tanat frowned. ‘Why?’
Nadar smiled; at least it looked like a smile. ‘I didn’t like the way he spoke. The members of the UC are just as vulnerable as we are against Grarls. After all they are only flesh and blood, and trust me; Varlor has no affection for any not belonging to the Elder line of Corls.’
‘Nadar is right,’ Tish said. ‘Please listen to him.’
Sam gaped at Kale, expecting him to disagree, but he nodded at Sam. Great. Nadar had him fooled too.
‘What do you suggest, Nadar?’ Dar-Seldra asked.
‘If the UC has lost its teeth, I will take Kale to someone who can supply him with the equipment to track Varlor’s movements.’
Thinking Tish wouldn’t be happy with that suggestion, Sam nearly choked when she said to Kale, ‘Can you do that?’
‘Perhaps…yes, yes I could with the right equipment.’ He gave Nadar a toothy grin. ‘I could see if I could track his movements before now too. It might help us to know his plans.’
‘Ah, you think like your father,’ Nadar said. ‘He always had a gift for seeing the big picture.’
Tanat had been silent up to that point, but he said, ‘How are you going to supply what Kale needs?’
‘I understand why you don’t trust me, Tanat, but I am intent on changing that view. Oh, and I also have re-connected with some of my most influential trading partners.’
‘Are you certain you trust him with your son?’ Dar-Seldra asked Tish.
‘Yes.’ Tish moved beside Nadar to make her point clear. ‘He is not only family, but I believe in my heart that he is sorry for the mayhem he caused.’
Taking her hand in his, Nadar said, ‘Thank you, Tishamenta. I am humbled.’
Either he could act or he was really being straight. Sam decided to reserve his judgment. If Tish had any reservations about him, she would never allow Kale anywhere near him. That was for sure.
It was decided Tanat, Nadar, Kale and Sam would meet with the UC. With her hand on her hips, Mekie argued, ‘I’m not staying behind.’
Dar-Seldra, seemingly too tired to argue, gave in before Mekie could argue anymore. ‘You can go with them then.’
Sam’s parents wanted to contact Ray-veris while Dar-Seldra and Tish would check in with their resistance friends. Everyone parted to their separate bathrooms to freshen up and change into clean clothes.
As soon as they were alone, Sam pulled Mekie in to him and kissed her full on her lips. He figured it as a reasonably safe thing for him to do now. Finally coming up for air, he said, ‘Call Nell and see if she’s all right.’
‘I was going to,’ she said, pulling her communicator out of her pocket. She waited and spoke into the speaker, telling her all about Varlor and what he had said about the UC. ‘She wants to speak to you,’ Mekie said, holding out the communicator.
‘Hey, Nell. You okay?’
‘We’re all fine here. Dad and Kandar aren’t feeling too good, but they should be up on their feet soon.’
Sam had a feeling Nell wouldn’t be looking him in the eyes when she spoke. ‘You sure?’
‘I said so, didn’t I? Just watch out for Mekie and I’ll see you as soon as I can. Bye.’
‘Wait,’ Sam shouted. ‘Have you seen Varlor th
ere?’
‘Not in person, no. Bye.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Sam huffed and handed the communicator back to Mekie. ‘She hung up on me.’
‘She sounded strange. There’s something she’s not telling us.’
‘Yeah. I got that impression too. I just hope Nadar’s telling the truth and Kale can tell us if Varlor had gone to Grarlon. I bet he has and I bet he’s talked to Nell.’
‘I hope we find out soon,’ Mekie said. ‘You go and change. Did you even bathe this morning?’
‘Of course I did.’
‘Well, you don’t smell as if you did.’
Giving under his arm a whiff, Sam said, ‘I’m not so bad.’
‘Ugh,’ Mekie groaned, and slipped into her bedroom.
***
Once they stood before the UC, it didn’t take long for Sam to realise they were too late. Varlor had been there and whatever he said to them not only changed their outlook on the Grarlon problem, but also changed the whole make up of the council. Only three sat in their high chairs listening to the citizens’ requests and grievances. Worow, the Wintar UC leader, one Corl and one Phib. The chambers were empty without the giant Bants sitting along the side wall.
‘Where are the other council members?’ Tanat asked, still displaying respect for the councillors.
Worow stood. Instead of his usual confidence, he refused to look Tanat in the eye and his shoulders slumped; actually, his entire body seemed to sag like a man beaten…broken might be a better word.
‘After discussing the situation with their world councils, they have chosen to resign,’ Worow said, gazing above the group before him with glazed eyes. ‘There is no longer a United Council; only the Three World Council remains in office and of that only two per planet are installed.’ He sighed and, looking down, he shuffled some papers. ‘We have a long list of appointments today so we will bid you goodbye and call the next one.’ He gave a nod to the Phib at the door, and simply said, ‘Officer.’