Page 49 of The Moon Blessed King
‘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 helpthemwhile 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 arejusta 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 aboutowingthem something, it’s about the fact that it’sright. I was going to go to Alerae to challenge Gillage for the throne. I was alreadyplanningon 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 toensureevery single person was healed, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Otherwise…quarantineiswhat 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 onfishing 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 becaught! Orworse!’
‘I won’t let that happen,’ Cat swears.
‘What are you going to do?Killthem? 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. Butmypeople…they needus. 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.
