Chapter Twenty-Two Yeeran
Chapter Twenty-Two
Yeeran
‘Is the tincture ready?’ Yeeran had asked Jay the question repeatedly, knowing full well that it wasn’t helping. But what else could she do while Furi lay dying beside her?
It had been two days since the locust invasion, and two days since the hister flower had been steeping in owen tree sap.
The world had dimmed since that day. Fifty percent of Mosima’s crops were eaten in a matter of hours. While Yeeran had returned to the quarantined district, Rayan had taken charge of sealing the opening to Mosima, watching as obeah lugged trunks of felled trees up the steps to seal them in.
The only problem was, they were trapping the locusts in too.
‘Yeeran?’ Furi’s eyelashes fluttered open.
‘I’m here.’ She grabbed Furi’s stiffened hands. Every single one of her limbs had seized up, turning blue before they would eventually blacken.
‘Did you get it?’
‘Yes, we got the cure, Jay’s brewing it now.’
‘Is there enough?’
‘Yes, there will be.’ Amnan lay on the ground beside Furi’s bed. It didn’t take them long to discover the disease could not be caught by obeah. Yeeran had wondered whether it was something to do with them being Afa’s creation.
She still marvelled over Afa’s tale. Power had corrupted him, but so too had love. She pressed a kiss to Furi’s forehead, not knowing if she would have done anything different in Afa’s place.
‘It’s ready,’ Jay said, brandishing the bright yellow liquid.
Yeeran reached for the vial, ready to bring it to Furi’s lips, but the queen turned away.
‘Give it to my citizens first.’
‘No, Furi.’
‘This is a command,’ she said weakly, though her eyes still sparked with annoyance. ‘Give it to my citizens first.’
Yeeran shook her head. ‘You cannot command me, for I am not one of your subjects. I will not do this, Furi.’
Furi looked past Yeeran until her gaze locked with Jay’s. ‘Do it.’
Jay hesitated, but only for a second, then they took the vial from Yeeran before she could protest.
The conversation had exhausted Furi and she lay back, her eyes closing.
‘I’ll have my healers distribute the medicine as quickly as I can,’ Jay said, a practical coldness to their tone.
They strode to the door, but before they left, Jay turned back to Yeeran and she could see their face was wet with tears.
‘Call for me if anything changes. She might not survive much longer.’
Yeeran let out an anguished scream as Jay left.
‘I refuse to cry for you, Furi. Tears are for people dead and gone. But you are here still, and I am not letting you leave to the beyond. You hear me?’
But Furi did not hear her. She had fallen back into a fitful sleep.
Yeeran strode to the window. The air was thick with smoke. Rayan had set a controlled fire in the agricultural fields, sacrificing acres of harvest in the hopes that the locusts could be destroyed.
But from the specks still circling above, it had not worked.
‘It’s all burning, Furi,’ she whispered. ‘I will not let our love turn to ash too.’
—
‘How goes the distribution of the cure?’ Rayan asked Yeeran, later that day. His face was streaked with dirt and sweat.
‘We have enough, but for some it has been too late already. We lost four more today.’
‘Furi?’
‘She’s hanging on. But she’s refused the tincture until everyone else has had it first.’
Rayan swore and slammed his hand down on the fence that separated them.
‘Are the fires helping?’ she asked.
‘No, I’ve been told that the swarm will have likely laid eggs by now. We could be plagued with them for many months yet.’
‘We won’t survive much longer. We don’t have enough food.’
‘I know,’ Rayan bit back. Then he rubbed a hand over his face. ‘I’m sorry, it’s been a long day. Made more complicated by this.’ He reached into his pocket and removed a letter.
Yeeran started to read.
Grandson,
I have pleaded for many hours for this slip of paper, I hope it reaches you safe.
Though I have not seen them with my own eyes, we have heard that locusts swarm the city. There is a plant, the knellsheen mushroom, whose spores emit a pesticide. It is labelled in my shop though you would be better growing the plant to maturity with your gift. It will rid the fields of locusts.
Hopefully this information can go some of the way to healing your trust in me. I realise now that I have never told you how much I regret my actions against Lettle. Know I do, greatly.
I have sent this letter with Cori who would be more than willing to carry a message back to me should you have more questions. I appreciate you do not wish to see me again.
Sahar
‘You think it a trick?’ Yeeran asked.
‘No, I don’t know. But why would he lie?’
Yeeran wasn’t sure, but she didn’t understand the motives of murderers.
‘It is worth a try. Grow them in the furthest field from the city. Give it a day, see what happens,’ she said.
Rayan nodded. ‘Yes, I suppose you’re right. If we light any more fires, we’re at risk of setting all the forests in Mosima alight.’
‘Yeeran?’ a voice called behind her. It was Jay, and they sounded urgent.
Furi’s dead. The thought held so much conviction that Yeeran felt her heart stutter in her chest.
Pila whimpered somewhere in the Royal Woodland.
‘We’re going to treat Furi now, I thought you’d want to be there,’ Jay continued quickly. ‘She’s the last.’
‘The rest have been dosed?’ Rayan asked.
‘Yes, my king.’
He let out a sigh of relief. ‘Well, that is something at least. Go, Yeeran, and send word when Furi awakes. I will do what I can with the knellsheen.’
Yeeran all but ran to Furi’s side. She was even paler than she had been when Yeeran had left.
‘Her skin is yellow,’ Yeeran whispered.
‘Yes, her liver is failing,’ Jay said. ‘She has done well to survive this long in the condition she is in.’
‘The cure will work, won’t it?’
‘It has for the others, but we won’t know for a few hours yet. Prepare yourself, Yeeran, it may not reverse all the effects.’
Yeeran watched as Jay began to tip the vial of yellow liquid into Furi’s mouth. She gagged, coughing and spluttering.
‘Go away,’ she slurred.
Jay tried again, but Furi began to froth at the mouth.
‘I don’t want any mead.’
‘It’s not mead, Furi, it’s the cure,’ Yeeran said gently.
‘The disease has addled her brain. Yeeran, pass me the needle. We’ll have to do this intravenously.’
Yeeran pulled out a needle from a sterile jar.
Jay held out their hand for it but Yeeran shook her head. ‘Let me,’ she said.
Yeeran hadn’t been idle in her time in the quarantine district. She had taken quickly to Jay’s tutelage, and administering injections had been one of the first things the healer had taught her.
She inserted the needle into Furi’s vein with confidence.
Furi tried to protest against the pain, but it was clear she was no longer in control of her limbs. Her eyelashes fluttered once more and she slipped into a comatose state.
‘What now?’ Yeeran asked.
‘We wait,’ Jay said.
Seconds felt like hours, and minutes felt like days. Sometimes Furi’s breath would rasp in her throat and Yeeran would look up, half hopeful, half fearful. Was this a seizure that could end her life? Or was she coming round?
But then she would settle back to stillness. Two hours after she had been given the cure Yeeran thought that her limbs looked less blue than they had, the colour in her cheeks less sallow.
Or am I imagining things?
You are not, she has improved; she smells less sick than she did, Pila said. She lay with her back against Amnan, giving him comfort.
An hour later, Furi began to mumble.
‘I’m here,’ Yeeran said, leaning close.
The queen still couldn’t open her eyes, but her lips could form the faintest of words. ‘Our love will never be ash,’ she whispered.
Then Furi’s voice rang out clearer: ‘Our fire is endless. It is a star, burning in the sky.’
For the first time that day, Yeeran sobbed.
Furi was going to live.