Page 60 of The Moon Blessed King
‘But if we don’t stem the flow of potential infections we risk too many people getting infected at once, which will overwhelm the very few Givers and Reapers wedohave.’
‘But anyone caught outside the cities will almost certainly die as no Giver and Reaper pair would be able to track them down. No, I won’t sacrifice them. The cities stay open, restricted zones for assessment at each gate but travelnotrestricted. The answer isn’t isolation, it’s supply chains. We need more physicians that can prolong the lives of the sick so they can last long enough to receive their cure…and we need more Reapers.’
‘We don’thavemore Reapers,’ Fen reminds her. ‘And Elena is the only physician I know of.’
‘We do have more Reapers,’ Cieli says. ‘In Altas.’
‘We already went over this – Cat said they couldn’t be trusted.’
‘Stello Alest,’ Cieli stresses, ‘did not ask if they would be inclined to help. I did.’
‘How many Reapers are in Altas right now?’ Adalei asks her.
‘Just over a hundred,’ Cieli replies. ‘And all of them will agree to help their stello.’
‘Will agree orhaveagreed?’ Fen spits out. But Adalei isn’t listening to Fen’s protestations, she’s looking at the map.
‘Once someone contracts this plague, are they able to become reinfected?’
Cieli answers before Fen can: ‘Marina didn’t seem to think so.’
‘Is there a way to prophylactically keep someone from catching this illness in the first place?’
At that, neither can respond. It isn’t even a question they have considered. ‘Elician wanted you in Crowen to work with Elena, did he not? Then the matter is simple. Anyone in Altas who is willing to train under Elena and learn any methodology for caring for the ill should go. Alelunen Reapers willing to serve will similarly be sent through Crowen to be assessed by you both. If they seem trustworthy and competent, excellent – train them, then send them on toanother city that requires them more. As soon as someone is healed, they must be given the option to assist in helping others by taking their own knowledge of their experience and passing it along. So far, there have been no reported fatalities, correct?’
‘It’s only a matter of time,’ Cieli says.
‘Then it is a matter of triage. Healing those that are worst off, stabilizing those we can and instituting quarantine zones that arrange the cities in levels of need.’
Fen shakes her head. Tries one final time: ‘The cities will still be overrun. If you just close the gates like Elician said—’
‘I’m not willing to risk it,’ Adalei rebukes.
‘You can’t just ignore what he said – he’s theKing!’
‘And when he is not here, it falls on me to use my judgement on how to rule this country. It seems,’ she drawls, ‘he is not here. He is in Alelune. And before he left, he dictated I would take command. And so I am. Cieli, are yousurethe Alelunen Reapers will help?’ Adalei presses. ‘We don’t have Alest here to confirm the order. They’d need to trust it came from him, that it would help him.’
‘I’m sure,’ Cieli confirms.
‘We wouldn’t be able to protect them if they split up across the country,’ Adalei says. ‘They’d be in danger.’
‘They could also run away and be completely belligerent,’ Fen reminds them, then, raising her voice, she insists: ‘You bothknowthis isn’t what Catwants. He wants them safe, out of harm’s way. Not forced into service. He didn’t ask them himself for a reason.’ He said those words almost exactly. He held those Reapers to him, listened to the shocked awe and desperation that clung to each member of their community after they were forced to fight and kill for Gillage, and he promised them safety. Kindness. Freedom to choose. ‘It does not matter if they have theabilityto help others. If we force them to use it then we’re no better than his brother.’
‘I wouldn’t force them,’ Adalei says. ‘But asking is not forcing.’
‘Itisforcing when they think they need to pay Cat back.’ Shepoints a finger at Cieli, accusing and hateful. ‘You said it yourself. They’d do it just because he is theirstello.’
Cieli shrugs. ‘If they say yes, then that’s on them. They made that choice. And it’s not your place to take that choice away.’
‘Is that what King Aliamon told you when he sent you to spy for him?’ she asks. Cieli doesn’t even flinch. She looks at Fen blandly.
‘Yes. And I don’t regret it. Neither will they if they choose.’ Fen opens her mouth to argue again, but Cieli talks over her. ‘You’re a Giver. You’re from Soleb. You do not understand what it means to be a Reaper. Less than that, you don’t know what it means to be a Reaper of Alelune. We will always be loathed and feared. We alwayswere. But those people we helped on the roadthanked mefor the first time in my life on our way here becauseImade a difference. Because sometimes an endneedsto happen for a life to begin. All us Reapers deserve the chance to be thanked. And those ones? Those who have so recently done great harm? They deserve a chance to be a part of this. Stello Alest will understand.’ Her eyes flick towards Adalei. ‘And your King Elician will too.’
Fen grinds her teeth. She looks down at the map and all the black marks that showcase cities throughout the country. ‘Those Reapers also helped murder nearly forty thousand people.’
‘So, let them save forty thousand more.’
‘It isn’t what Elician commanded before we left,’ she repeats. ‘It’s not what Cat told me time and again.’
