His memories were much clearer after he gained all his magical powers. Stole them, actually. He remembered that day like it was yesterday, the most important day of his centuries-long life. Thankfully, the only witness was still an incomprehensible specter trapped in the trashed and abandoned Archimage Palace. No one could stop him now.
“My lord,” a voice called from down the hallway.
Rhydin’s pale hands tightened so hard on the balcony railing that his tendons stuck out. He responded scathingly, “What is it, Robert?”
The older Allyen came trotting along, his face withered and gaunt. “You will be pleased to know that we have found Prince Xavier and Princess Mira.”
“And their child?” Rhydin quirked his eyebrow. Upon hesitation from Robert, Rhydin glared at him. “If we do not find their child, then Mineraltir still has a ruler aside from me!”
“I understand, my lord,” Robert answered, quivering. “We will find him, I swear it. A helpless, blind toddler should be easy to discover.”
“Good.” Rhydin straightened and released the railing. “Put them with the Lunakan Royals in the dungeon. They will await their fates together.”
“Yes, sire.” Robert dipped his head, his shoulders scrunched upward.
Rhydin looked at him pitifully. How things had changed after the incident. Fear. Respect of his power was one thing. Sniveling was yet another. “What of our search for Dathian’s pesky daughter? We must have all the former Royals if we are to succeed.”
Linaria and Evanarion’s father twitched. “No sign of her, my lord. She lost us in Rondeau.”
Anger boiled within Rhydin, but he turned back to the scenery. He answered coolly, “No matter. She cannot escape forever. She will be executed privately if need be.”
Robert continued to stand in the middle of the hallway quietly, the silence making their ears ring.
Rhydin peered at him out of the corner of his eye. “Is there something else?”
“Master, I-…” Robert stammered, “I do not understand your plan. You’ve won! Why subject your loyalists to economical failure, plague, and now this?”
“I…”
Something in Rhydin’s mind wouldn’t click. The gears wouldn’t thread together. The failed crops in Lunaka, the disappearance of game in Mineraltir, the lack of fish in Auklia…the resurrection of the Epidemic… He had done all these things. He had done them for a reason. That reason…?
He had to do it. He just had to. He needed the people to need him to survive. He was the one doling out provisions to those who were losing their livelihoods. The one handing out cures to those who deserved it. Otherwise, they could turn against him at any moment. That made sense, didn’t it? There was no other option.
“Don’t question my plan, Robert, or you’ll find yourself in the dungeon with the Royals,” Rhydin snapped. “Everything I do is for the good of Nerahdis. You will see, someday.”
Robert immediately bowed low. “I understand, Master. I’m sorry, Master!”
Rhydin spun around and marched in the opposite direction, trying to calm his fury as he announced, “Move up the execution. I want this done whether we have the Mineraltin brat and the Auklian witch or not!”
Chapter Thirteen
“W hat do you mean their cottage was empty?” I blurted.
It was early morning. The sun was just beginning to burn off the dew and crank up the heat for another Lunakan summer day. Luke had already transported Sam to Stellan for the day, and I had been taking my time getting ready. Weariness sapped my bones, no doubt from the days on end that we had spent caring for Kelsi and Nikolas. But when James abruptly burst into the camp from his shift to keep Bartholomiiu company while he hid from Anne, my senses were suddenly on high alert.
“I don’t know! One of our people would check on the Lunakan Royals once a week, and when she arrived for the weekly check this morning, the cottage was empty!” James exclaimed, his eyes wide. “She said there were signs of a scuffle. The door was blown open and the window in the back was shattered, but there’s nothing to suggest what happened!”
“They all three had feather necklaces, right? Could it have been Rhydin?” I asked anxiously, beginning to pace back and forth in front of the campfire. “They should have been impossible to find!”
“I know, Lina, but apparently they were,” James responded, flabbergasted. “Maybe somebody saw them, I don’t know. Our people are looking for them as we speak. We’ve even got a few watching Rhydin to see if he knows anything. So far, his activity appears normal.”
I shook my head impatiently, frustrated.
“I’m sure Rhydin knows something,” Anne remarked bitterly from where she sat with her two boys. “I’ve heard that he’s after the Royals something fierce.”
“But why?” I asked. “He’s already kicked them all out of power and into hiding, what else could he want?”
Anne shrugged nonchalantly as she adjusted her turban. “Just tellin’ what I know, Miss Allyen. Nothing Rhydin ever does is good, no matter what he talks himself and the people around him into.”
All of a sudden, Luke walked into the camp. Another flurry of activity and arguing ensued as James relayed the report to his elder brother. Luke ripped his fingers through his hair, turning around so that Anne couldn’t see the rainbow of colors through which his eyes flashed. Then, he composed himself the best he could and faced us with the best political smile he could muster as I thought to myself how much he must miss his sister, the usual leader, right now.
He cleared his throat and said, “We carry on until we hear what’s happened. There’s no use running off all over Nerahdis in search of them, our people can do that.”
“And who are your people, exactly?” Anne asked skeptically, crossing her arms tightly. “You and your brother keep mentioning these ‘people,’ and while you two appear Gornish, I highly doubt any regular Gornish people would spend so much effort searching for Royals.”
A cold feeling stretched down my neck. I thought we had been so careful. Obviously, not careful enough.
“We just mean our friends,” Luke responded coolly, his voice eerily monotone to keep his eyes in check. “Friends like us who want to help the Allyens succeed. That’s all.”
“Not sure I believe you,” Anne harrumphed. “Too fishy in my opinion.”
I spoke up before Luke could betray himself, “Anne, you joined our group to see if you could trust us. We’re still learning whether we can trust you too. Please be patient with us and know that we’ll tell you more of our secrets in time.”
Anne didn’t reply. She tossed her shoulders, jingling the glass baubles along her Auklian silk sleeves, and returned to packing her bag for her and Evan’s daily search for a rebellion location. Her two boys watched her absentmindedly for a couple minutes before racing into the trees with mischief on their minds.
I released a breath I hadn’t known I was holding and faced Luke, who had calmed himself again. He looked at me sadly, his eyes turning a bit more blue than normal. I asked, “What’s wrong? I thought you handled that really well.”
“It’s not that,” Luke answered, scratching the back of his neck. “When I took Sam to Stellan this morning, Kelsi’s husband had passed. Kelsi’s marks have spread as well. He’s really upset.”
Nodding slowly, it felt like there was a deflating balloon in my chest. “It’s time for me to head in, then.”
“Lina,” Luke sighed and touched my elbow to stop me from walking away, “you don’t have to do this. Kelsi’s probably not going to make it. You hated her. Why continue to expose yourself?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do, and nobody deserves to die alone,” I answered, swallowing slowly. “Now, please transport me to Stellan so I can help my husband.”
Rachel’s brother muttered something unintelligible, likely something to do with his disagreement, but he followed me away from our campsite nonetheless. After we were a safe distance away, where Anne wouldn’t be able to see Luke use h
is transportation magic, he took my elbow in a tight grip and hummed a couple notes to summon his magic wings. They cocooned us, and as the world flashed white, the empty prairie and small gathering of trees were replaced by an even emptier, gray town.
Luke remained silent and trailed after me as I immediately headed for the schoolhouse. He had stopped caring about where we transported since the town was as good as abandoned, so he usually dropped us in the square where the schoolhouse was located. I bounded up the steps two at a time, my short legs screaming, and pushed through the door where my nose was harassed by the stench of stale air, sweat, and death.
A few cots that had been filled yesterday were now empty. The schoolhouse only contained about half the people as it had when we arrived, although maybe three of those people had miraculously recovered. Those people were now up on their feet and doing everything they could to tend to the others since there was now no risk of infection for them. They always looked at me with wide eyes like windows when I entered. I constantly wondered what they were thinking.
Luke took up his usual post at the door as I strode to the back of the room. Sure enough, Nikolas’s cot was empty, folded up, and resting against the back wall. Sam was hunkered down over Kelsi’s wilting frame dabbing at her forehead with a moist cloth soaked in an herbal concoction that had seemed to help those who had recovered. My eyes grazed new spills of ink etched into the skin of Kelsi’s neck as I rolled up my sleeves, covered my nose and mouth with a handkerchief, and moved to drag another blanket on top of her.
The instant the blanket left my hands, Sam jumped like he hadn’t known I was there and threw a hand in my direction. He didn’t meet my eyes, and his voice rasped as he said, “Please go away.”
My brow furrowed. I asked, thinking I hadn’t heard him properly, “What?”
“I need to do this on my own,” Sam responded, his voice at a very strange pitch. He continued to blot at Kelsi’s forehead, not looking at me, and she moaned unconsciously.
I opened my mouth to object, but I knew there was no point. Death was a fickle thing, and every person tended to handle it differently. Sam was shutting down before my very eyes, but he apparently had to walk through this on his own terms. As I walked away to see if any others needed tending to, I tried to convince myself that I was okay with his pushing even me away. Luke was eyeballing me, wondering what was going on. I ignored him.
I wandered over to a teenage boy several cots over, one who was thin with a wild crop of blond hair and couldn’t have been too far away from coming of age. His marks had actually started retreating a little bit, leaving purple, healing bruises in the territory they abandoned. I began to focus on him, remaining in my own little world to keep from thinking too much, before I realized that he was trying to talk to me.
“Yer the Allyen…ain’t ya?” he asked hoarsely, his hazel eyes foggy with illness.
As I opened my mouth to respond, I realized that the atmosphere of the room had shifted. It was like I could physically feel every conscious person’s ears on me. I replied slowly, “Yes, I am.”
The boy blinked at me a few times, absorbing what he’d heard. “Why’re ya here?” he groaned.
Again, the entire schoolhouse went still. I willed my voice to be louder as I realized an opportunity was at hand. “I’m here to help. You can trust me. Someone evil has done this to you all.”
“Who?” the boy asked. He weakly touched his wrist without thinking, which I noticed was bandaged similarly to the way Sam used to bandage his wrist with the Rounan mark.
“Emperor Rhydin,” I said firmly as I stood to face the rest of the room. “He’s a sorcerer who designed this Epidemic the first time to kill me. He’s the one who has unleashed it upon us all again.”
One of the ladies acting as a nurse gasped loudly and turned on me angrily. “How could you say such a thing about the man who freed us from the Royals and ended the war? He’s done so much for us!”
“He’s lying! He’s tricking you all into being oppressed under something far worse than the Royals ever were!” I argued, “Someday, you’ll all see! I’m the one who saved you all from Duunzer, which was also sent by Rhydin. We’re forming a rebellion against him, and I hope that someday you’ll all be a part of it.”
While the lady and a couple others shook their heads, most of the conscious faces staring at me seemed to actually be considering what I was saying.
The boy on the cot whispered, “I believe ya.”
“Thank you,” I replied, feeling drained from putting myself on the spot.
“If yer really here ta help,” the boy said again, his voice gruff and hesitant, “I know someone who needs it.”
I looked down at him in surprise. “Who’s that?”
“Some of mah neighbors. In the…ya know” – he squeezed his wrist tighter which confirmed he was a Rounan – “They got sick before I did, an’ they sent their lil daughter Nathia to mah ma until they got better. As ya can see, none of us did.”
“So, what happened to her?” I asked anxiously. “Where is she?”
“I dunno,” the boy shrugged. “Pro’bly still in the compound. Ya gotta go find ‘er.”
“I will,” I promised, my head bobbing up and down before I really comprehended what I’d agreed to.
“Thank ya. Ya better go!” the boy cried, “She’s been alone an awful long time.”
I cringed slightly, hopped up, and rapidly strode back toward the entrance of the schoolhouse. Luke gave me a questioning look before I glanced over my shoulder at Sam, wondering if I should tell him where I was going. He was still huddled over his sister, oblivious that anything had happened in the room.
I realized then that he wouldn’t be missing me.
“What’s going on?” Luke asked, his eyes darting back and forth between me and Sam.
“There’s a little Rounan girl still in the compound who needs our help,” I answered quietly. “Let’s go.”
“No, I meant between you and Sam,” Luke clarified sheepishly, but there was nothing but genuine concern in his eyes.
I sighed, “Doesn’t matter right now. We’ve got to get moving.”
Luke stopped asking questions, and we walked outside. I removed the cover from my face and took deep breaths of air, which while still smelling off was far fresher than it was inside the building. It was mere minutes until Luke transported us once again, this time to the small, Rounan settlement just over a couple hills from Stellan. I could even see the tower of the schoolhouse on the horizon, and I felt amazed that they could live so close to a mainly Gornish town without trouble. Our compound had been a good twenty miles from Lun.
This little gathering of houses was significantly smaller than the compound Sam and I had called home for nearly three years, which was now nothing more than ash strewn along the prairie. I had also always wondered how Sam and James were able to tell that the Rounan settlement was where the Epidemic had restarted. Now that I was here, there was no question about it.
While Stellan had possessed a decent number of buildings that were boarded up with plenty of people still living in isolation within them, there was no such life within this compound. It was like every house had staggered around like a drunkard, leaning its doors and windows this way and that, and regurgitated anything inside.
People’s belongings were sprinkled along the yards and road like clusters of wildflowers. They’d either been dropped by the people who ran from the disease or pillaged by those who came after it. It was hard to look at. It was all too similar to images I had long blocked out from the first time the Epidemic struck. Ultimately, the settlement was utterly empty. Not a soul left. How would we ever find this young girl?
“Lina, how do you expect to find this child?” Luke mumbled out of the corner of his mouth. “If she’s been left alone for close to two weeks, she might be dead.”
“I don’t know,” I groaned, threading my fingers through my hair. “We have to at least try, okay? I promised that boy. Please?”<
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“Alright, if you say so,” Luke grumbled, but then a smile played at the edges of his lips. “You have a good heart.”
I dropped my hands and stared at him. “Thanks. It’s just the right thing to do, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Let’s get started. It shouldn’t take us more than a few hours to search, and this place freaks me out.”
We didn’t split up. Luke was too on edge for that. So, we started walking toward the closest house and went from there. Each one of them appeared to hold a different story, and stepping inside each one was like stepping inside another person’s life. While all of the buildings had been ransacked to some extent, a few of them appeared like the people had simply gone out to work for the day and were planning on coming back later. There were dishes on the table, food that had long turned rancid in a cold pot over a dead fire, gloves and tools neatly tucked away ready for a day’s work.
Some of the homes belonged to young families, judging by the children’s toys and certain placements that suggested a woman’s touch. These things were lacking in the smaller shacks that I could only assume were the former homes of single men where order wasn’t as much of a priority. Still others, seemingly the ones with the most material possessions, seemed to belong to older folk who had been living out their golden years. The absolute only similarity between them all was the splash of ink somewhere along the frame of their doors. The settlement looked to have once housed around forty people. I couldn’t bear to think they had all succumbed to the Epidemic.
Although, knowing Rhydin, he probably started the Epidemic in the Rounan settlement on purpose. The town of Stellan could have simply been an innocent bystander with its close proximity. I wondered which of these homes had once been Sam’s sister’s.
A couple hours went by before we reached the last outcropping of houses. The sun was beginning to sink toward the horizon, and the wind was shifting. Luke continued to eye our surroundings more and more, and I knew the clock was ticking on our time here. Every tick was palpable, and every tick lowered my hopes of finding this little girl.
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