Chapter Nine #3
Calli nibbles at her bottom lip, cheeks tight with hesitation. Her chest rises and a slow subsequent breath releases from her nose. She lowers herself to the ground, wrapping her arms around her knees as she brings them to meet her chest. Her gaze fixes to the wet grass.
‘My mother was always so dignified. All of Umbra saw in her a grace likened to those gods of yours, and I always hoped I would grow up to be half as beloved as she was. I’d even steal her shoes to try and perfect her walk, head raised and fingers swishing through the air in a regal wave.
’ A breathy laugh escapes her. ‘I never did get it right. I don’t think it was even possible to replicate the effect she had, the power in her poise.
Even when the fever set in, her soft charm remained. ’
My heart drops to my feet and my knees start to give way. I bring myself down to the floor before I lose control of my legs, my eyes wide on Calli desperate to see something other than the apologetic look she gives me.
‘No, you don’t mean to suggest that—’ The words die in my throat. Her head bobs softly. A confirmation of my worst fear.
‘Eliaz was in Reyhen after another case was reported near Straek and I do suppose he went from there to see you in Grange.’
I rub the gathering sweat from my forehead, unable to fully process what she’s insinuating here.
‘So, what you’re telling me here is that this has been happening since your parents died? Whatever this is.’
‘Yes,’ is all Calli says.
‘But what that doesn’t explain is why your brother is called out to these cases and not someone from Reyhen itself. We have our own physicians.’
‘They would be killed if he didn’t. Don’t ask me why.
’ Her voice is full of enough sorrow to convince me that she is speaking the truth.
I close my eyes, as if it would help me to imagine how an entire epidemic could go unnoticed, or how I as the heir to the throne, could be kept clueless to such a devastating blow to our people.
A realisation pings in my skull. Morven knew.
‘There are people in Reyhen sending information to Umbra, isn’t there? I mean unless your brother has some sort of omniscience that transcends regular capabilities. I wouldn’t know, no one will tell me the extent of his power.’
Calli rests her head on her knees and picks a blade of grass from the earth, sighing as she rolls it between her fingers. ‘There are few we can trust, but Eliaz has been doing this for a very long time. He knows who is genuine, and he has learned the hard way who is not.’
‘Why does he care so strongly about the people of my kingdom? He’s treated me like nothing but shit on his shoes for being Reyheni. Why help those he cannot stand?’
‘Because he has seen firsthand the agony of the transition from immortal to human, how it squeezes the power from you and leaves you worse than dead. He watched it happen to our parents, to our closest friends, to all our people. And he didn’t know how to save them.’
I battle with the thought of the Umbrian king doing something so altruistic, because even the notion of kindness within whatever pumps blood from his shadowy chest is borderline fantastical to me.
Tears brim in the red beads of Calli’s eyes, her chest rising and falling with heavy breaths.
‘They couldn’t be saved,’ she sobs, and instinct makes me shuffle over and wrap an arm around her shoulders.
‘Shhh.’ I try to comfort her, swaying too, as she gently rocks herself back and forth. ‘Just breathe, nice and slow.’ I demonstrate inhaling through my nose and exhaling from my mouth, and Calli makes a sad attempt to copy the act, with shallow hiccup-like breaths, her lungs quivering audibly.
I place the hand from my free arm on hers and squeeze. ‘Find comfort in their peace, Calli. Your parents are free of all the ailments of life and delighting in the serenity of the beyond.’
‘E-Eliaz is trying to make it better, but nothing will. Nothing can bring them back to us,’ she sobs.
As conflicting as it is to me, I know what will help comfort her. If I of all people can recognise the good in what her brother does, perhaps it will assist her in seeing that he is making up for all the helplessness of the past.
‘I understand,’ I say, a trembling whisper in her ear. ‘Your brother is pushing past all his feelings towards his kingdom’s sworn enemy in order to prevent innocent individuals from succumbing to the same grievance as your parents. And of that, I’m certain they would be immensely proud.’
Her upper lip trembles upwards a touch, droplets of tears beading in the dip of her cupid’s bow. ‘You really think so?’
I nod, a soft closed-lipped smile is all I can muster up for her. ‘And I am one-hundred-percent certain they will be so pleased to know that their daughter shows a relentless kindness towards others, that she is so strong-minded and relentlessly herself despite her hardship.’
A stray tear creates a river over the ball of my cheek. I can feel the loosening of Calli’s posture beneath my arm, and my smile widens, as genuine as it gets.
‘But your mother would be most proud of how her daughter carries herself with such grace.’
I only wish the same could be said about my own mother.