Page 47 of The Moon Blessed King
He does. He always has. But it is a bittersweet ache. He leans hishead towards her, clinging to her as he never could before. ‘Alest!’ Elician calls one more time. ‘Lio, can you get him—’
‘Why are you here?’ Cat asks furtively. ‘Do you need to hide—’
‘No. I came to speak to you. It’s Alelune, Stello. There’s a plague in Alelune. And it’s killing everyone.’
‘Your Grace?’ Lio asks, standing just behind him. Cat can’t bring himself to let go of Cieli’s hand. He steps to the side though, and reveals her before his husband’s closest friend. Lio’s lips part. His brows furrow in confusion. He squints, shaking his head as if not understanding what he is seeing. ‘I know you…’
‘I was in the cell across from yours,’ she replies. Then, she hisses.Fondness. Joy.Lio echoes it back, the same emotion, then amplified, muddled with confusion. She returns the volley.
‘You’re the one who taught him how we speak?’ Cat asks.
‘One of many,’ she replies.
‘They took you,’ Lio says. ‘They took youweeksbefore the end and then – where did you go? How did you get here?’
‘I’ll explain. But…not here.’
Lio nods. He touches her shoulder lightly, then gestures back towards Elician.
‘Come. Please. Our king will want to see you too.’ She thanks him, and Cat guides her to where Elician is waiting, still surrounded by Marina and Fen and half a dozen guards and a few straggling Altasians. Elician doesn’t have the same flash of recognition for Cieli that Lio did, but Fen does. She gasps, breathing out Cieli’s name and glancing at Cat with something akin to shame crossing her features.
‘You never told me what you did,’ he says.
‘I wasn’t supposed to,’ she replies.
Elician cuts in. ‘What’s going on?’
‘We should go back to the inn,’ Lio says. ‘All of us.’
And, bless him, Elician does not argue. He merely holds one hand out as a sign for them to lead the way.
Cieli is different from how Cat remembers her. She stands with such easy confidence in a private room the innkeeper set aside for them all to use for their conferencing. She does not hunch like he did when he first left the cells. She does not murmur or keep her voice low. She told him, once, that she used to play politics in court. She had been a noblewoman, never directly in line for the throne but still someone who had power and influence. Her Soleben was flawless. He had always wondered what she would look like in his mother’s halls. Now, he can see it. After years in the dark, she has shed those horrors as a snake does its skin. And she will never again return to those cells.
They are all here: Cat, Elician, Lio, Fen and Marina, and they listen as Cieli explains.
‘After the attempt I made on King Aliamon’s life,’ she says, ‘he offered me an opportunity.’ Elician’s father had sworn he would ensure no harm came to Cieli, but, ‘He said Alelune would soon experience a transition, and if you were to earn your place on the throne…you would need support. I’ve been in Alelune ever since, telling everyone I could…you are alive.’
‘That’s a very dangerous task he assigned you,’ Elician says slowly. The wrong word to the wrong person at the wrong time could have earned her the attention of any number of people who would have wished her ill. Then, all it would have taken is a slight touch of the skin – and her secret would have been revealed. She would have been sent back to the Reaper cells.
‘We’re all in the process of doing dangerous tasks,’ Cieli responds coolly. ‘But it became far easier once Gillage ascended. No one has ever wanted that boy on Queen Alenée’s throne…and when given an alternative?’
‘People are receptive?’ Fen asks.
‘Some are. More by the day. I was in the Blue Lands when weheard word of a Reaper army being sent out of Sinestra. It came in just after I arrived.’
At the mention of the Blue Lands, Elician meets Cat’s eyes. Then, slowly, he tells Cieli: ‘We wrote to Captain Partho – to see if he’d join Alest’s cause.’
‘I never spoke to him directly. But his men were furious at the thought of Reapers on a battlefield. I thought following in the Reapers’ wake may be a better opportunity. If people were already angry…more could potentially be persuaded. It took me time to catch up to them, but when I did, it wasn’t just anger I found…but sickness.’
‘How bad is it?’ Cat asks.
‘Every town that the Reaper army went through fell ill. The symptoms were always the same: a kind of euphoric strength that quickly turned to debilitating weakness. Bruises on the skin, heart rate and breathing erratic. Eventually the infirmdodie, but it’s an elongated process, usually coming down to a lack of food or water rather than anything else. If they receive around-the-clock care, they survive. But theyrequirearound-the-clock care. With the amount of exertion their bodies are going through, they aren’t capable of managing such things on their own.’
Cat presses a hand to his face. Pinches his eyes. It’s been weeks.Weeks.The symptoms in Altas emerged after just a few days. No one died; they hadn’t let it get that bad. But he knew the moment he felt it that it could be fatal…and now, the confirmation – ‘How many people have died so far?’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t stayed anywhere long enough to find out. But panic is setting in.’
‘And only towns that the army visited got sick?’ Elician asks.
