Chapter Forty
ADRIAN
Adrian followed the amethyst path with a heavy heart, giving the name of his kingdom and what he sought to the mapman.
‘Had a lot of patients here with those symptoms,’ the mapman remarked when he’d finished describing what had happened to Annabel.
‘Really?’ Adrian asked, hope in his voice. ‘And have any been cured?’
The mapman gave a sympathetic wince. ‘Not yet. Though our healers are monitoring them and working as hard as possible to conjure a cure. Off to the water quarter you go.’
Santi sighed beside him, and Adrian patted him on the back. ‘We’ll find one,’ he said.
They followed the twisting path and the directions they’d been given until they stood outside a cobalt-blue shop.
‘We don’t leave until we find a remedy,’ Santi said, staring up at the building.
Adrian nodded. ‘Agreed.’ He rapped upon the door.
When it opened, a tall, willowy man with long hair the same shade of green as a lily pad opened the door. He pushed up the glasses perched on his nose as he examined them. ‘How can I help?’
‘We’ve come from Neptuna.’
‘Ah,’ the healer said. ‘I take it you’re here about the plague that seems to be sweeping those shores.’
Adrian nodded, making to step inside, but found his way barred.
‘I’m afraid I’ll need payment before you enter,’ the healer said, his expression apologetic.
Adrian nodded, pulling out the snakestone. ‘Will this be enough?’
The healer’s eyes widened. ‘Where in Celestia did you find a snakestone?’
Adrian didn’t answer that, instead saying, ‘I know how you Altalunians are. Procurers of only the most rare and sentimental of objects. Well, in this case, I had to fight tooth and claw to get my hands on it. I battled Queen Elara Bellereve herself.’
‘The Starkiller?’ the healer breathed.
Adrian nodded as he handed it over. The healer’s eyes closed, and he took a deep breath.
When he opened his eyes, his smile was bright. ‘My name’s Aeson. Please do come in.’
The healer began to fix some tea in his neat and cosy shop as Santi and Adrian took a seat.
‘Such a terrible thing, the Blackwater Blight.’
‘It has a name now?’ Santi asked.
‘Oh yes. It’s the busiest I’ve been in years. And no one can quite figure out where it came from, nor why.’
‘Trenches,’ Adrian replied. ‘There are trenches—dark, terrible openings in the sea’s bed.’
Aeson raised his brows. ‘Well, that would explain it. But how?’
Adrian hesitated.
‘It looks like you may know something, pirate,’ the healer said, handing him a cup of tea. Adrian sniffed at it. Lemon balm. He took a sip.
‘I believe that there are…beings in the world. Godly beings. Ancient beings. And they have awoken. The Sun—that fire you see in the sky—is one. And the Moon, as we have come to know her at night, is another. I’ve heard there’s a third in the sky…
the Dark. And I believe that’s where this is originating from. ’
He didn’t explain that he’d received this knowledge from a mermaid, for fear of being shipped straight to the madhouses in Kaos.
‘Interesting,’ Aeson murmured. ‘The last month, I have wondered. For the stars have bodies tied to them, so why wouldn’t these other celestial objects? But the Dark, you say? Not just an element but…an entity?’
Adrian nodded. ‘So I’ve been told. My sister—she has this blight. She’s very ill, and I’m begging you to tell me how to cure her.’
Aeson stood and went to a drawer, rifling through it until he found a blank sheet of parchment and a pen. ‘You came to me for a remedy of the water. But I don’t think that is what your sister needs.’
‘No?’ Santi asked. ‘But she’s been coughing up black water. It came from her swimming in the ocean.’
Aeson began sketching something. ‘Though I specialize in the element of water, like all healers I had to learn the basics before I could become a master of my craft. One of the first things they taught us was the science of opposing forces.’
He showed them what he had drawn: a chart with different elemental symbols.
‘If someone has an earth ailment, then air magick would aid them, lift their heaviness off the ground. If it is a water ailment, then it is recommended to sweat it out, and fire would help dry up the cause of it. And if an Asterian had come to me with an illness of the shadows, then…’
‘You would recommend the light,’ Santi breathed.
Aeson nodded. ‘This sounds like an ailment of the water, yes, but based on what you said, I believe also the Dark. The element. Regardless of whether there’s a celestial being tied to it or not.
’ He was becoming excited now as he continued to scrawl.
‘Moreover, it pieces together everything that I’ve been studying myself.
As I’ve convened with other water healers, the only common theme, save for the symptoms, that we noticed was their aversion to the light.
The sun, particularly, over these last few days. ’
‘They dislike the sun?’ Santi asked.
Adrian snorted. ‘Don’t we all,’ he muttered. Santi nudged him.
‘What I mean is, whatever the plague is, it is shunning the light. Trying to get away from it. Our patients don’t want to go outside, and they hiss when we open the curtains.’
Adrian paled. His mother had mentioned that Annabel lay in a dark room all hours of the day and night. That it was the only thing that seemed to help her rest.
‘Which, usually, in our line of work, is a good sign, and means the element is a worthy opponent.’ Aeson tapped his chart.
‘So what would you recommend?’ Adrian demanded. ‘I have travelled many miles to seek your aid. Please don’t let me leave empty-handed.’
The man nodded. ‘I’d recommend finding someone who possesses both the flame and the Light, to combat both the water and the Dark.
Rare, I know, among Helions, to be blessed with both.
We’re currently waiting for a boat of them to arrive from Helios, to test their magick ourselves.
Until we know more, they may be able to keep the malady at bay. ’
Adrian thanked him for his time and advice before they walked out.
‘Hm,’ Santi said once they were on the path back towards his ship. ‘I wonder just who possesses the Light, the flame and the sight? Who also might happen to be the very Sun?’
Adrian groaned. ‘Gods, I don’t want to ask him.’
Santi chuckled, before sobering. ‘But this is for Annabel.’
Adrian nodded. ‘For Annabel.’