Chapter Fifteen #2
I held up a hand. “I know he lies, Taio, but it’s because he loves his people. He wants to keep everyone calm and protected.”
“He wants to protect himself and his power.”
I inhaled sharply and had the urge to look over my shoulder to see if anyone had heard.
Ridiculous considering where we were. Taio’s words were so completely treasonous.
..and so completely true. I’d already worked this out for myself.
Taio took my hands in his. “Mara, can you hear one more hard truth?”
I began to shiver. “I don’t know.” My world was crumbling. Brick after brick had been stripped away, and I had almost nothing left to stand on. I felt unsteady and frightened. Taio nodded and held my hands, not speaking for a long, long time.
Was it possible there was a cure for the red vein disease?
I thought about the conversation I’d had with Lord Ashe and my parents after they’d informed me I was the chosen heir.
My father revealed he knew about people living in Zulen and had not told his subjects or tried to initiate contact with them.
When I’d argued that we might learn something from the Zulenii, he dismissed the idea.
Was it truly because he was protecting his people or was he protecting himself?
After all, what better way to retain absolute control over a people than to control the information they are given and make them think you are the only one with the answers?
But controlling knowledge was one thing.
Keeping to himself a cure that would save our people was not just dishonorable.
It was evil.
“Tell me,” I said, setting my teeth so they would not chatter. “I need to know.”
“The last king of Earsleh—”
“My grandfather.”
“Yes. He unleashed what you call the red vein virus.”
I stopped myself from shaking my head and clenched Taio’s hands tighter. “How?”
“I do not know exactly, but Leed said your healers were attempting to help a woman who had been bitten by a sick wolf. He said the wolf was rabid. The woman developed a taste for flesh, and when she bit one of the healers, that person developed the taste as well.”
I closed my eyes and tried to push down the rising nausea.
“Through more experiments and tests, they were able to infect others. The king was at war with Toledev, a dispute about trade. He unleashed the virus, hoping it would turn the tide of the war. But a virus that was meant to ensure victory in one battle soon spread throughout the world, bringing destruction upon us all.”
I pressed a hand to my mouth and opened my eyes. “Taio, he couldn’t have known what the effect of those actions would be. The virus has killed many of our own people and caused us to change almost everything about the way we used to live.”
“It is terrible, yes.”
If what Taio said was true—and I was not certain this Leed was being honest with the Zulenii—but if what he said was true, I understood why my father had so many secrets.
What would my people do if they knew my grandfather was responsible for the scourge of the Hollows?
Chaos truly would erupt in the kingdom. This was an evil that could not be borne.
“But there is something more terrible,” Taio said.
I jerked and cut my gaze to him. How much more could I stand? How many secrets did Taio hold? “What could be more terrible than unleashing the red vein virus?”
Taio took a deep breath. “Keeping the cure a secret.”
I jumped off the bed, holding my blanket against me like a shield. “There’s no cure,” I hissed, still mindful of the danger outside—a danger apparently my family had wrought. “Do you think my father would risk his people?”
Taio looked away.
“Very well, would he risk his own children, sending us out on patrol if he didn’t need to?”
“I do not know what your father would do,” Taio said, sliding off the bed. “But Leed says there is a cure.”
“He’s lying.”
Taio went to his pack and rummaged among the contents he’d placed on the floor.
He lifted a pouch, opened it, and drew out a piece of parchment.
I took a step back as I recognized the parchment as the same one he’d shown me in the wolves’ den.
“You said you found it. I thought one of my siblings had given it to you, though I couldn’t figure out why. ”
“Leed gave it to me. He copied it from a scroll he brought to Zulen with him.”
“He stole a scroll written in the royal language?”
“I believe it was a copy of a scroll, if that makes a difference.”
I held out my hand and Taio gave me the parchment.
I should have realized it wasn’t from Earsleh before.
Our parchment was darker and thicker. This was light and had pieces of flowers in it.
I read the words again, clearly a recipe.
A recipe for a cure? My head was reeling, and one word beat like a drum.
Evil. Evil. Evil.
“I was sent to Earsleh to claim a princess who could read your royal language,” Taio said. “Because that is the only way we could read the cure. I chose you, Mara, because you could read the language. You will save the world.”
***
I SAT DOWN HARD, AND Taio knelt before me. “Hearing this is difficult.”
“It’s impossible,” I whispered. How could there be a cure? How could my father know of the cure and not have employed it? I couldn’t believe it.
But I could, oh, I could believe it. I’d already seen the illusion for what it was, hadn’t I? This was just one more step, one more puzzle piece to fit into the rest.
And as much as Taio’s words were a revelation, they were also a confirmation.
Signs had been right in front of me all my life.
My father sought to hide knowledge from us—we learned little in school and focused on training, we were kept away from maps and those we saw were altered, anyone who returned from the Barrier and told stories that countered what the king said were sent back or called paranoid.
My father was using the Hollows to increase his power.
With all of us focused on the threat of attack and survival, my father had unlimited power.
He was safe in his castle, sitting on a secret cure to our problems all along.
And unbeknownst to any of us, he gave his children the key to that cure.
I’d never understood why my siblings and I had to learn the royal language.
Now it made sense. Someone needed to know how to read the secret language.
The language was the key to the cure and who knew what other secrets.
I could read the language. Taio had been testing me that night of the banquet, and I’d passed his test.
“I am sorry,” Taio said. “I wish I did not have to tell you these things.”
“I’m glad you did,” I said, my throat feeling raw and tight. He offered his hand, and I dropped the parchment and took it. Climbing back on the bed, I sat in dazed silence for a long, long time.
There was a cure. The Zulenii had the cure.
I should be thrilled at this news, and yet I was torn.
I could almost understand why my father hadn’t employed the cure.
What would our world be like without the Hollows?
Such a world was difficult to imagine, but it didn’t scare me.
It filled me with hope. I rose to my knees.
“I understand why you chose me now,” I said.
“I had to be certain whichever princess I chose could read the royal language. The others would not speak to me, but when I showed them the parchment, some showed they knew what it was. Only you read it.”
My heart tightened. “You chose me out of necessity.” Taio had made a cold, calculated decision, based purely on my ability to understand the royal language.
“I was glad it was you, Mara. I did not lie when I said I wanted you because you were beautiful and fierce.”
“But you would have chosen another if I hadn’t read the parchment.” I felt cold all over, as though I’d been doused in freezing water repeatedly.
He sighed. “I hope I would have chosen another if you had not been able to read the parchment. To do otherwise would risk not only the lives of all in my kingdom, but the entire world. You have no idea how relieved I was when you read the parchment. There is no one else who has ever made me feel as though I would die if I didn’t do this.
” Taio rose to his knees now, making the bed squeak and cupped my chin.
Then his lips brushed mine so lightly I shivered.
Heat began to infuse me once again. “Only you, Mara, make me feel this way.”
My head was spinning, my thoughts completely scattered. My world was inside out, and I understood now that my whole life and everything in it had been a lie.
But I knew one true thing—I wanted him. Taio was not a lie.
He looked into my eyes, and then we came together again, this time all mouths and tongues, and passion.
I wrapped my arms about him and pulled him closer, loving the way his mouth claimed mine even as he allowed me to take what I wanted as well.
The world seemed to shrink—the deceits of my father, the Hollows outside, the cabin surrounding us, and the flickering lamplight all disappeared.
Nothing but Taio’s mouth and Taio’s touch mattered.
His hands seemed to be everywhere, gliding over my back to grip my buttocks over the blanket.
I wanted to be closer to him, feel his skin on mine.
I reached up and pushed my blanket off my shoulders and let it slide down.
Taio caught it and pulled back, looking into my eyes. “You should keep this on.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I want to feel your skin on mine.”
He made a low, quiet groan then released the blanket. His hand touched the small of my back, his warm skin sending spirals of pleasure through me as he slid down to curve over my hip and bottom. “So soft,” he murmured.