Keeper (First Ordinance #2)(26)

"I've had to place a shield about me—I can feel the land groaning with the disease if I don't," Reah said. I jerked my head in her direction—it was exactly what I felt daily.

"I feel the same," I ducked my head. "There will be no more harvests in Fyris and the people will die." I didn't tell her that in the last two days, the disease affecting the land had gotten worse. I couldn't explain it, so I kept the knowledge to myself.

"Yet Tamblin thinks to start a war with the Prince and me," Omina sighed. "He focuses on the wrong things and has since he took the throne."

"I worry that innocent men will die in a war, when we should concentrate our efforts on defeating the poison. If we don't, all of Siriaa faces extinction," I said.

"Has the poison passed the boundaries of Fyris, then?" Rath asked.

"It has," Berel confirmed. "My father's best scientists are at a loss as to what it is and how it might be neutralized."

"Elabeth knew," Justis snapped.

He was right—Elabeth had somehow kept it at bay in the past. Now she was dead and the poison threatened everything.

Again, I wished for the book Jurris kept from all. Perhaps it could tell us what we needed to know.





Chapter 6

Lironis

Quin

Perhaps I should have expected it—with the Larentii and the Elf King involved. That evening, when I walked out of the old physician's quarters after a long day of cleaning, I could see the top of it past the castle walls. Gleaming in the late afternoon sun, it was constructed of metal and glass, much like some of the buildings I'd seen in Kondar.

To me it looked pristine—a clear surface upon which a study of the poison could be performed. Berel, walking down the stone path leading to the healer's quarters, offered a smile as he watched me gaze at the new research facility. I knew I was covered in filth, but couldn't help smiling back at him. "Daragar says there are showers in the new building, if you'd like to make use of them," Berel said.

"Really?" Dena stopped beside me and gave Berel a hopeful glance.

"Yes—there are several," Berel laughed. "Come. I think clothing can be found for you while you bathe."

"There are tales that Avii Castle was constructed in a day, but I never really believed it," Dena shook her head as we followed Berel toward the castle gate. "I believe it now."

"I watched it appear from nothing. Daragar says the Larentii and the powerful can manipulate atoms, so construction presents few problems to them."

"Atoms?" Dena failed to understand.

"I'll explain it later," Berel grinned. "Come on, I'm hungry. You must be, too."

*

"It will take Tamblin fourteen days to arrive with his troops—they cannot travel without rest," Rodrik said over dinner. This time, we'd gathered in the dining area of the new research building, which was equipped with a solar-powered kitchen.

Kaldill asked Reah to design it, and it was better than anything I'd seen—in Kondar or Avii Castle.

"I fear he'll take what he wants from the people along the way, and kill them if they refuse," Rath mused. "Whether it be food, beds or grain for the horses."

"Do you know the origin of your name?" Torevik asked Rath. "My last name is the same, and I wonder if there is a common root word in our pasts."

"I know little of our past," Rath shook his head.

Berel ducked his head—he knew something. I merely had to wait until later to find out what it was.

*

"The people of Fyris have no connection to either Kondar or Yokaru. They do have some connection to the Avii, although you can see the vast differences between the Avii and the Fyrians easily enough," Berel explained while pulling up a private file on his tab-vid. "Father received this information from his science staff."

Within the information given to Berel was a void, where other information had been removed. That worried me—why was it necessary to remove any information from the report?

"Did you see what the missing information was?" I turned to Berel.

"No. Father said it didn't have a bearing in their findings concerning the Avii and the Fyrians."

Still, I wanted to know what it was but didn't say it. Berel had already given me everything he had, and that was a very kind act of faith. Did Rath and Omina know that they might not be native to Siriaa? After all, that's what Berel thought, and I agreed with his assessment.

Where had the Avii and the people of Fyris originated?

How did they arrive, and why?

With the arrival of a Larentii, an elf and half and whole High Demons, I had no idea how many other worlds there might be, or what the Avii and Fyrians might have been before they were brought to Siriaa.

I had little information with which to comprehend any of those things.

*

I began cleaning the old physician's bedroom on the third day, while Dena worked in his library and Ordin began seeing patients in the outer rooms—those who were brave enough to approach a winged healer and his volunteer staff from the large ships anchored near Lironis. That meant he was seeing those who were worst off or in the most pain.

The old physician had died in his bed, which left a smelly mess behind. Rolling up covers first, I dragged them to the window and shoved them through and outside—I doubted Ordin wanted the bedding dragged past those who waited to see him at the door.