Chapter Sixteen Cat #2
Consequences.
Over and over again in Kreuzfurt, Zinnitzia warned them of consequences.
It is forbidden to bring anyone back from the dead.
Healing is carefully regulated. Access to those with the power to give life, always controlled.
Marina and Zinnitzia both spoke of the plague.
Of the Giver king, Shawshank, who swore no one in Soleb would ever fear Death again.
And yet how, despite this, a goddess’s will always overcomes humanity’s hubris.
A plague devastated Soleb as a result of Shawshank’s decree, one no Giver could heal.
‘All things die,’ Marina says. ‘Death comes for all, and she is not a patient mistress. Those pendants used your abilities to stave off Death. And she has brought her plague back to these lands to remind everyone what happens when you deny the natural order of things. It was not your fault, Elician,’ Marina insists, ‘but it was your power that allowed it to happen in the first place.’
The words are spoken with great care, but they seem to land like a dagger in Elician’s heart.
His face drains of colour. He nods, more out of a vague need to do something with his body than any real awareness that he is moving in the first place.
He sits in one of the room’s many chairs, sinking his head into his hands.
Fen goes to him immediately, whispering fierce words of encouragement and support.
‘How do we stop it?’ Cat asks. The cause is immaterial, only the result.
‘Just as you did before, my king,’ Marina replies. ‘Life and Death must work together. It is how Zinnitzia and I first met, in truth. We worked together to end the plague when it came. We’ve stayed together ever since, watching and waiting…hoping it would never again return.’
They’re the oldest, Cat thinks. The oldest Reaper and Giver he knows, and their lives together began with a plague.
‘I’m sorry to have failed you in that regard,’ Elician says to the floor.
‘It does not matter now,’ Cat says. ‘How is the plague contracted?’
‘Think of it like a presence,’ Marina replies. ‘The Exalted are immune, and we do not transmit it to others. But anyone else who has come into contact with this has the potential to pass it along.’
‘Hundreds of people have already left the city,’ Lio reminds them. ‘Anyone who didn’t want to stay and fix this place fled as soon as they could.’
Elician curses again. He pulls at his too-short hair, then stands abruptly. ‘Fen, I need you to ride back to Himmelsheim,’ he tells her.
His sister blinks, mouth parting. ‘What?’
Then he looks to Marina. ‘And I need you to travel to find Zinnitzia on the road and explain to the people of Kreuzfurt what is happening. She’s already bringing both Reapers and Givers here to Altas – have them scatter through the country in pairs instead.’
Cat imagines the contours of Elician’s plan.
Understands its measure, but there’s a problem.
A big one. ‘There aren’t enough Reapers in Kreuzfurt,’ he reminds Elician.
‘Even if Zinnitzia brought them all, it isn’t enough to pair them off with all the Givers.
If healing this needs both a Reaper and Giver together… ’
‘What about the ones we’re holding in the school?’ Lio asks. ‘They’re already here in Altas.’
‘The ones that killed everyone?’ Fen snaps back.
‘I don’t know,’ Cat replies. ‘They…they have no reason to stay or help. I don’t know if they could be trusted to help even if given the opportunity.’
‘We’ll make do with what we have,’ Elician says.
Then, to Fen: ‘I need you to ride to Himmelsheim and tell Adalei what’s happening.
Tell her to put a quarantine into place, close down all cities from travel – keep this thing from spreading any farther than it already has and keep it that way.
Then, get yourself to Crowen as fast as you can.
Cieli? You know where that is? Yes? Great – Fen, you’ll meet her there.
You two can take over the healing of Crowen. ’
‘Why Crowen?’ Fen asks. It’s a border city, and a large one, but hardly the most prominent place to be located.
‘Elena’s there. She’s one of the only physicians Soleb has,’ Elician explains. ‘You’ve already worked with her before, and maybe she can figure out some way to help.’ He doesn’t sound like he believes it. Cat isn’t sure he does either. But sometimes, bad choices are all anyone has left.
‘It’ll take weeks to go back and forth from Altas to Himmelsheim then Crowen,’ Fen says slowly.
‘I can’t trust anyone else to do this – Adalei needs to know what’s going on, and if only Reapers and Givers are unaffected by this plague, you’re the only one I can trust to get the message to her properly. It’s going to take time, but I won’t risk her life in this.’
‘And what are you going to be doing?’ Lio asks.
At this Elician takes a deep breath. He turns to Cat. They can help the most people at one time: together. They can heal the most of anyone: but only together. And those that need their help the most are not in Soleb. ‘We will go to Alelune,’ Elician says.
‘What, now?’ Fen blurts. ‘To get the crown?’
‘No,’ Cat replies. ‘To help them.’
‘You’re going to help them while your people are suffering here?’ Fen asks sharply.
‘Yes,’ Elician replies. ‘Because it’s only by helping them that our people here will be safe as well.’
‘They won’t let you. Cat, you aren’t their king yet, and you heard what those soldiers think of you – you are just a Reaper to them. They hate you! You’re going to just go and heal those people anyway?’
‘Yes.’
‘You don’t owe them anything.’
‘It’s not about owing them something, it’s about the fact that it’s right. I was going to go to Alerae to challenge Gillage for the throne. I was already planning on making that trip. If I have to do it now, after making sure everyone is safe and well – then that’s what I’ll do.’
‘It won’t make you popular amongst your people, Elician,’ Lio interjects. ‘Especially since if you leave, and Fen leaves – there is no other Giver in Altas. If people start falling sick…we’ll have no help at all until the aid comes from Kreuzfurt.’
‘If we heal this city entirely, will that be enough? Will the plague resurge behind us?’ Cat asks Marina.
‘Once someone is ill the first time, they will not contract it a second. But you would have to ensure every single person was healed, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Otherwise…quarantine is what you would need. Each door closed with no one in or out to ensure that there is no interaction with any who are potentially ill.’
‘We don’t have the food to last for long like that,’ Lio replies. ‘Most of the storages were damaged during the attack. We rely on fishing and imports. With the whales out there too – we can’t go fishing.’ The only time anything bad can ever be said about the whales.
‘You’d starve to appease a whale?’ Cieli asks.
‘They’re eating all the fish.’
‘You could eat a whale,’ she points out.
Elician cuts in – ‘Can you hold out a month?’ And Lio hesitates, uncertain. Cat, who was with him when all those calculations were made by the mayor and the townspeople as Elician rested, is only slightly more sure.
‘It would mean strict rationing,’ Cat says. ‘It will not be comfortable. But yes…I think it could be done.’
‘Then we heal the city as best we can first…and close the doors just to be safe. And by the time a relief force comes – then food and additional aid can come with it.’ It’s messy and convoluted.
Dangerous. But they can’t risk spreading the disease any more than it already has.
And Cat and Elician must go. ‘Lio…can you take charge of the city?’
It would mean leaving Lio behind. It would mean Cat and Elician travelling to Alelune utterly alone. But if they truly can eradicate the plague before they go, Lio will be safe in Altas. And Lio grudgingly says ‘Yes’ as he accepts his charge.
‘You’re just going to let them leave?’ Fen asks him. ‘Let them just offer themselves up? They’ll be caught! Or worse!’
‘I won’t let that happen,’ Cat swears.
‘What are you going to do? Kill them? I thought you wanted to do this peacefully.’
‘And I will. I don’t need to kill anyone. If they try to imprison us…I just need to stop them long enough to ensure we escape.’
Fen shakes her head, disbelieving, ready to argue. Cat places his hand on his heart and recites words he memorized long ago. ‘I swear on my life and the lives of my people that I will allow no harm to come to my husband, King Elician of Soleb, while he is in Alelune.
I will bring him back to you. We’re going alone, because your people need as much help as they can get. But my people…they need us. And so it is us who must go.’
Fen is clearly scared. Terrified. He is too. This is not what they envisioned when they planned to win him back his crown. This is not the path he would have wanted to take. But this is the way the gods want it.
‘Just come back,’ she cries.
‘This time,’ he swears to her, ‘we will.’
Cat and Elician will travel into Alelune together, and they will save the people of his country from a horror not of their making. And in their wake: they will need to trust that all the people they love and have depended on in Soleb will be able to manage a crisis on their own.