Page 46 of The Moon Blessed King
Cat is not killing these prisoners. He is stopping the signals in their bodies that are ruthlessly insisting on makingmoreagain and again. More cells, more life out of control. And as he stops those signals, Fen heals just like she did when she healed the scars on those Reapers’ faces. She gasps for a moment, recentres herself, and works on smoothing out Death’s jagged edges, gently binding each vein, organ and fibre into the webbing of their normality. She finds that which is wrong and then eases each ailment back into a homeostasis ofright.
The bruising on the soldiers’ bodies starts to fade. Their breathing grows lighter. Their organs become less engorged, and finally – a balance.
It’s just as Elician said before: she needs only to think about healing one person and he can cast her thoughts to them all. She can feel it, the way the room sighs in relief as the wills of Life and Death rebalance within the bodies of people who do not deserve this second, third,fourthchance at living. Each body pieces itself back together again the way it was meant to be. Cat drops his hand. Elician lets her go. She does not even feel tired.
‘We were ready todiefor our country!’ someone shouts, blaming Cat for their ability to shout at all.
Cat meets their eyes. ‘And I’m asking you tolivefor it.’
There is nothing else that truly needs to be said, so he leaves them to their grief and Fen watches him go. Elician murmurs, ‘Well done,’ as he passes her by, following after Cat. For the second time today, Fen has healed Alelunens who came to her homeland toslaughter her people. For the second time, she has been praised for it. The captive soldiers in the room sit horrified in their now-perfect bodies.
‘Stello Alest is a better man than all of you,’ she tells them. ‘And you’ll all be going back to Alelune because of him.’
‘He’s a Reaper!’
‘Yes. And he saved your life. When’s the last time you could say that about any of your monarchs before him?’ She does not care to hear the answer. She leaves and lets the door close and lock behind her.
Cat, Elician and Lio have not got far; they are just outside the school’s main door. ‘What do you think that was?’ she asks as she draws near. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it before.’ But they don’t answer her. Their attention is on a child across the street, scratching at a black pustule that is peeking out along the edge of their collar. The child sneezes, and the breath is torn from Fen’s lungs. ‘It’s not just about the pendants?’ she asks. ‘It’scontagious?’
And another person coughs down the road.
‘Lio…I think you should close those gates again,’ Elician says.
It seems their good luck has ended.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Cat
Marina leaves her post outside the room where the Reapers are being held. She examines the patients that start forming outside the school looking for answers, and grimaces when she sees the pustules. She joins their efforts, telling Cat and Fen to work together so she can walk Elician through exactly how Fen is managing to balance life at the edge of death. She takes hold of a patient’s arm after Elician touches them first, her ability to narrowly target specific parts of that patient’s body freed by his protection. She does it so naturally that Cat guesses: ‘You’ve seen this before,donethis before.’
And she nods. ‘Yes, my king, but now is not the time. Help Fen.’ He does, but all the while he waits for when itistime to talk.
There are not a lot of victims at first. A couple of dozen at most. But the word quickly spreads, and a call goes out to inform everyone who is ill to meet at the city hall for an easier time of managing new cases as they arrive.
All day has been a matter of reaction rather than action. Lio has been running about town trying to get information while the only two Givers in the whole of the city have been attempting to take care of everyone all over again.
And Elician has just woken up. He isn’t at full capacity. Aroundmidday he asked for a chair and hasn’t stood from that seat since. He needs rest, but he doesn’t have time. None of them do.
Cat steps towards him, only to be stopped by the sound of a hiss. He whirls in the opposite direction. A woman is there, body almost entirely covered, dark hair draping the sides of her face. ‘Cieli,’ he breathes out, going to her without question.
He has not seen her since she tried to murder King Aliamon and Queen Calissia in their beds. Since he told her to stand down even though she had every reason to ignore his call. He had looked for her. But there had never been any sign as to where she had gone. Now, he stands before her, reaching out with trembling fingers. She takes his hand. Her cell was across from his in Alerae. For years he tried to take her hand, for years he was always too small. He could never make the difference. Their fingers thread together. ‘Stello,’ she greets.
‘You’re here – have you always been here?’ Then his eyes fall to her cheek. ‘Your face—’
‘It was healed before I left Himmelsheim. The princess did it. Her father made her promise not to tell.’
‘But –why?’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps to see if she would.’
‘Where have youbeen?’ Questions pile upon themselves. Elician calls his name, but he cannot answer. He cannot bring himself to look away from her. ‘Death came for Brielle,’ he says. ‘Gillage sent me her head.’
Cieli’s lips part, then she smiles. Her other hand comes and clasps around their joined palms. ‘Beheading does not kill us,’ she says. ‘Not for good. If Brielle is truly gone, then it was her time. And she has been truly freed.’
‘I wanted to see her again.’
‘You will. In another form. On another day. Until then, know that if Death took her: it is what was best. You know that.’
