by Dale Furse
The man opened one of the high doors and, eyeing Tanat, waited.
Tanat glanced at the officer. ‘One more thing, Worow,’ he said. ‘Am I not a member of the TWC?’
‘No,’ was all he said, before giving the officer another quick nod. ‘You are dismissed, Tanat.’
The officer cleared his throat.
Sam gave Tanat a push. ‘We may as well get out of here,’ he hissed.
‘Agreed,’ said Nadar, and throwing his grey cape over his shoulders, strode out of the chambers.
Sam, behind Tanat, Kale and Mekie, filed out after Nadar. He might have to rethink his opinion of the grey Corl.
Nadar led them to the café. Although Nadar had lost his business concerns for his part in not divulging the existence of the Book of Wexkia to the TWC, the staff seemed to think differently because they treated him and his guests to a near banquet in a private function room. Thankful Tanat didn’t question it, Sam dug into the food. He hadn’t had breakfast that morning.
As they ate, Sam tried to make small talk with Mekie but hardly spoke a word. Figuring she was just worried about everything, he let her be, and teased Kale about his choice of food instead.
‘I suppose we are not going to have the aid of the Council,’ Nadar said, putting his mug of gunk down. ‘I will begin contacting my people immediately.’ He got to his feet, bowed at his guests and left through a back door.
Throwing his napkin on the table, Tanat said, ‘You three go straight back to Dar-Seldra’s house and stay there until I contact you.’
‘And where are you going?’ Sam said.
Tanat’s expression said it was none of Sam’s business, but he said slowly, ‘If you must know, I will go to the restoration and see Dar-Seldra and then your parents and then I will come back here and wait for Nadar.’
‘Oh, ha, ha,’ Sam said, wagging his head. He grabbed Mekie’s hand and swept out without waiting for Kale.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
NELL WISHED MORE THAN ANYTHING THAT SHE HAD some aspirin or paracetamol. Her head throbbed so loudly, she couldn’t hear at times and with each throb, she thought her brain would explode from the pain.
She gazed over what was left of her patients: two Grarls, her father, Kandar, the little Grarl girl and Deesc. Having lost everyone else, she had to fight against sinking into despair. Although the battle raged within her, her mind drifted again to wondering if it would be easier if she just curled up in a bed and waited for the inevitable. She shook her head. Agony. Wishing she hadn’t done that, she massaged her forehead and skull.
It had been over a week since Nell spoke to Mekie and Sam. If they were so worried that Varlor was on Grarlon, why hadn’t they checked in to see if she had seen him again? Ugh. She hated not knowing what was happening on Corl.
But what could she do? She couldn’t ring Sam and Mekie and tell them what was really happening there. What would she say? ‘Yes, I have seen the murderous Varlor. In fact, I’m fighting a useless war with a deadly infection that he is responsible for. Everyone else has already fallen in the battle. Oh, and Dad is dying like all the rest. It’s taking longer for Kandar to sink into oblivion, but he will soon enough.
‘Deesc had tried to help me up until two days ago, but now he only wakes once or twice a day and the child we found alive with her dead parents is so close to death, I’m preparing her for removal to the morgue that in another life was a cold room.
‘How am I? I’m finding it harder and harder to get out of bed but with everyone relying on me for their survival, I have to find the strength to nurse them a little longer somehow before I fall back down, exhausted and as incurable as the others. I can’t keep going for much longer. I will soon die too.’
No. She sighed. What would be the use in scaring them? It would be nice to hear friendly voices again, though.
Leaning on the bench, Nell took in a few deep breaths of air. She had to make her rounds. Trudging around the six beds, she intended to collect the jugs, but none of them were empty. She rubbed her temples. Had she fed them earlier? Each feeding time blended with the next. She gazed across the room at the bench and groaned. Why hadn’t she checked her notes first? ‘No point in whining, Nell.’
She checked her notes. The last entry was just after midnight. Looking out the window, she gasped. ‘Oh, no. Late afternoon.’ That meant she had slept through four feeds. With aching muscles, she pushed herself to nurse her charges.
Nell wanted to start with her father but the Grarls were closer. She hesitated, looking from one to the others. No. Them first. She had no choice; she had to conserve her energy as much as possible. Again, tears stung her eyes but they didn’t fall. She couldn’t remember the last time she had cried. She wanted to but had guessed days ago that she had no fluids to waste on tears and her body wasn’t going to allow her to squander what little she had. Her throat was now too sore to eat real food so she too had to resort to glucose out of a tube.
A soft moan was the only signal to show they were hungry. Next was her father. He wouldn’t swallow a drop of the glucose. Nell pushed the tube so far she expected him to gag, but he didn’t appear to feel it. She hoped his automatic body reflexes would stop the thick liquid going into his lungs. He instinctively swallowed. After she had emptied the tube, she waited.
Kandar seemed to be the only one other than her still fighting the infection.
She kissed her father’s raging forehead and moved on to the little Grarl girl. Nell smoothed her hair away from her tiny rat face with a damp cloth. The girl gave no reaction to Nell’s touch, not even the usual twitch of her small ears. Once Nell had filled the tube, she placed it gently in the girl’s mouth. The little thing just lay there. Nell groaned, ‘Here we go again.’
Like her father, Nell poked the tube down as far as it would go and squeezed the life giving fluid empty. She pleaded to the heavens above, ‘Please, please give us a miracle. Please don’t let anyone else die.’
Finally, stubborn tears ran down her cheeks. She sniffed and coughed, letting them flow freely. Her chest ached more than ever. Straightening her back, she moaned as her bones cracked in pain. ‘I need a good back massage, that’s all.’
Of course, she knew that wouldn’t help. Her lungs were so congested, she would soon find it difficult to breathe. If only she could cough the gunk up. Huh. She didn’t need a massage, she needed someone to tip her upside down and wack her on the back to loosen the stuff. Maybe she should keep her chest warm. She gazed at Deesc then Kandar. They weren’t in a coma the others, they were only sleeping. For the time being at least.
Feeding Kandar, she was glad he took it willingly. She bent and gave him a kiss. He smiled and fell back to sleep.
Moving to Deesc, she sat on his bed and gazed down at his open eyes. ‘You’re awake.’
‘Can I have a kiss too?’ he said.
Nell could tell by his frowned expression, he had to concentrate to make his words clear. She placed her head on his shoulder, placing her lips on his neck. He didn’t feel as hot. She kissed him on the mouth, before she took his temperature. Still much too high, of course. She took her own. Not much lower. No wonder he didn’t feel as hot as before.
He didn’t fall asleep after she fed him; instead, he said in a laboured voice, ‘My beautiful Nell. Will you be my life partner?’
She pushed her hands under his neck and head. Kissing him all over the face, she said. ‘Oh, yes. Yes. Yes.’
Realising she was mauling him, she gave him one last kiss on his mouth and pulled her arms out from under him as gently as she could. ‘Sleep now, my love. When you get better, we’ll plan our wedding.’
Deesc was fast asleep before she finished her last sentence.
She pulled her revived body off his bed and decided to look for a jacket. ‘We have to get better. We will get better.’
She decided climbing the stairs would tire her worn muscles too much, so she searched behind every downstairs door until she found a deep closet of sorts. There were no
hangers, only shelves. She pulled heavy coats out and, unable to carry so much weight, she discarded them on the floor. Underneath one of the coats was a lightweight jacket of a material unknown. Hoping it was warm enough, she put it on. Ugh. A heavy menthol stench permeated the fabric and it was a bit big, but she decided to put up with both defects. ‘Now for some fresh air.’ She let out a croaky laugh and spluttered, ‘I’ve got to stop talking to myself.’
Once outside, she forced air into her painful lungs. As she turned to go back in, she spotted something on a carved metal bench. Veering to the spot she picked up two short, thin cylinders. Injections. She had seen Dar-Seldra use them at the restoration in Kafir. ‘Where or who did these come from?’
Crossing the threshold to her small hospital, she stopped dead. ‘Varlor,’ she hissed.
He turned to her with a wide smile, exposing his numerous pointy teeth. The gesture was meaningless without any other part of his face joining in.
‘Ah, there you are and I see you have already found my gift,’ he said.
Nell glared at the injections. ‘What are these?’
‘They, my dear little curse, will save your lives. There is one for you and one for your Wexkian friend over there.’ He regarded Deesc with cunning eyes. ‘By the look of him, you should not waste any time.’
‘Why would you give us these? What’s in it for you?’
‘Ah, there you have it. These injections will save your lives, but they will also save ours. You, like your Wexkian ancestors will lose half of your…ah…powers, for want of a better word.’ He nodded to Deesc. ‘Go on. You really don’t have a choice.’
‘What about everyone else?’
‘Once you have used the medication, I will send remedies for Dar-tern and Kandar.’
‘And the Grarls?’
‘No. They will die.’
‘Why?’
‘I cannot find an alternative as I have with you. Grarl magic cannot be removed and neither my Elder cousins, nor I will allow any other species to remain who are more mighty than we are. Corl will return to the Elders rule. All will bow down to us once again. That has forever been ordained.’
Nell didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The maniac believed what he said. He sounded like a insane cult leader.
‘Once you are cured I will return with transport,’ he said and disappeared.
Nell rushed to Deesc and shook his arm gently. ‘Did you hear that? Deesc?’ Grabbing both of his shoulders she shook harder. ‘Oh, Deesc,’ she cried.
But he couldn’t hear her. He had fallen into a coma like the others.
She eyed the injections still in her hand. No. They weren’t finished yet. ‘Come on Deesc. Fight.’
Refusing to give up herself, Nell kept her ministrations going overnight but still another Grarl died and her father stopped breathing. Nell screamed, ‘Dad!’ She forced her panic back down. She tilted his head back gently and lifted his chin. Pinching his nose, she lifted his chin a little more, and placed her mouth over his. She breathed air into his lungs. His chest rose. The airway was clear. She counted to five then continued mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Blow—one, two three, four, five—blow—count. With each set of counts, her heart beat faster and her body trembled more. Tears trailed down her face.
During about the tenth count, he drew in a noisy but weak breath. His chest gurgled. There was too much congestion, no room for air. Throwing her head back, she pleaded to whatever god was out there, ‘Please help him.’ She kissed him gently on the cheek. ‘Please don’t die.’ The only thing that helped his frail breaths was Grarlon’s high oxygen content in its atmosphere.
Nell cried silent tears as she shuffled away and collapsed on her bed. She gazed at the injections on her side table. They were all running out of time. Why did she have to choose whether she and Deesc lived or died? Deesc should have been stronger than she was. Why was she the one still going. They were infected at the same time.
Propping her upper body up on her elbows, she concentrated on Deesc’s chest. It still rose and fell. She sighed. She couldn’t wait any longer if she wanted to spend her life with him. Better to be half of what they were now than dead. She had to save her father and Kandar. She closed her eyes. Later. Just a little sleep first. She wanted to dream about her and Deesc’s wedding day, but blackness filled her mind and she slept.
***
Sam plonked the communicator back down on the sideboard. Although it was the first time that day he had called Tish to find out if she had heard from Kale, he had called two or three times a day for well over a week. ‘Nope,’ he said to Mekie who was hovering beside him.
‘I didn’t expect Nadar too, but I thought Kale would keep in touch with us,’ she said.
‘Yeah, me too. Blast it. If we don’t hear from him today, I’m going there.’
‘How are you going to do that? We don’t even know where this house of Nadar’s is. Do you know what it’s like on The North Continent? There are blizzards nearly all the time.’ She sat on the sofa. ‘Everything up there would be covered in snow and ice and from what Nell told us, it’s underground. You’d never see it.’
Pacing the room, Sam thought about it. She was right. If Kale was with him at that moment, he could take Sam. He frowned. Bloody drongo. If he was there, Sam wouldn’t need to go and find him.
‘Please stop pacing. Tanat is bad enough when he’s here. Mother will need new rugs by the time this is all over.’ She patted the seat beside her. ‘Come and sit down.’
Sam did and Mekie rested her head against his shoulder. ‘I’m frustrated too,’ she said. ‘And we haven’t heard from Nell for ages. She should be back here by now. I know Mother and Tanat are worried about her but they would never say anything to us.’
‘Yeah. Mum and Dad are too. Come here.’
He twisted her around to face him and held her. Kissing her lightly at first, he pressed his upper body against hers, his mouth urgent as she responded. Moving his lips to her neck, he breathed in her perfume, flowery and as light as day. He moaned.
The sound of his desire had him pulling back. Mekie moved forward, trying to keep contact with him. He pushed her away with firm hands on her shoulders. ‘No, Mekie,’ he said in a hoarse voice and jumped onto his feet.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked without looking up from her lap where she was lacing her fingers together.
‘Nothing’s wrong, cutie.’ He propped her chin up with his fingers. ‘Nothing wrong with you, that is. It’s me. I just can’t trust myself with you. Ugh. Why the hell do they keep leaving us alone? No. Don’t answer that. They know Dar-Seldra will know if we’ve gone too far and she bloody trusts you.’
‘I don’t understand. We were only kissing.’
Sam laughed. ‘Yeah, I know, but…’ He gave her a peck on the top of her head. ‘Don’t worry about it. You said you were going to call Nell, remember?’
‘I’ll try, but she won’t answer anyway.’ She felt around for her pocket and pulled out the communicator.
Kale appeared on the other side of the room, and said, ‘Hello.’
Jumping up, Mekie said, ‘Kale, you’re back.’
‘It’s about time,’ Sam said.
‘I had to see Mother first. Nadar’s with her now. Where is everybody?’
‘Who knows,’ Sam said. ‘So? Tell us what you’ve found.’
‘Can I sit first?’ He sat in the armchair with a sigh. ‘I’m tired. Nadar and I have worked around the planet’s rotation and up until early this morning, we could not get anything.’
‘So what changed this morning?’ Sam asked.
‘Nadar left for awhile and when he came back he had the code we were missing. I don’t know where he got it, but it worked. With it, I was able to penetrate Varlor’s bracelet and track his movements.’ Kale took the drink Mekie offered.
‘And?’ Sam pushed.
‘He has been visiting Grarlon regularly. I could only go back so far, but the first trace I received was long before the r
evolution. He’s also gone to Gramlax and Linque often.’
‘What does it mean?’ asked Mekie.
‘It means, Nell is in trouble,’ Sam said, rubbing his face.
‘And Father,’ Kale said. ‘Nadar thinks Varlor has somehow started the war on Grarlon and that he’s been campaigning for Corl supporters to his new dynasty, or as he sees it, the old Elder dynasty. He wants to talk to everyone about it.’
‘Yeah, well, they can talk all they want to,’ Sam said, returning to his pacing. ‘Nell went there to get Kandar and Dar-tern back. Something must have happened to them. We have to figure out a way we can help her do it.’
‘Deesc is with her,’ Mekie said.
‘Yeah, and Deesc took her right into a trap.’
‘He didn’t know about Varlor.’
‘How do we know it wasn’t Deesc who helped set the trap?’ Sam hissed.
Mekie sat back as if he had slapped her.
Sam sat beside her. ‘I’m sorry, Mek. I’m just worried, that’s all.’ He grimaced. That was a stupid thing to say. She was pale. ‘I know you are too.’ Trying to sound cheerful, he said, ‘How about giving her a call?’
She pouted and stared at him, and he couldn’t resist giving her a quick kiss.
Mashing her lips together Mekie tried not to smile. She jabbed a button on the tiny communicator.
***
‘Mekie,’ Nell whispered, turning off her communicator. Although she wanted nothing more than to hear a friendly voice, Nell decided she had to wait until after she had given the injections to her and Deesc. She had to make sure they worked first.