Page 87 of The Moon Blessed King
Elician helps Cat into his saddle while a boy attaches a flag-boot to his stirrup. When they leave Ines, fifty villagers come with them. They travel west to Alerae one slow and careful step at a time.
Why?Cat asks each of them individually throughout their journey north to the capital.Why come with me?
To see if it’s possible to change, they tell him.To see if a Reaper truly is our king.
And the answer he likes best of all:To believe.
They march through the country, stopping at each city, town and village, one right after another. There are scores dead from the plague, but still communities are doing their very best to hold on – physicians tending to every person in the only way they can. Treating symptoms, providing relief and hoping they can keep their patients alive as long as possible. When the army and its followers approach these villages, Madame Leonde takes it upon herself to speak to the townspeople first. A herald, old and wise, and one of the people first and foremost.
Stories, Cat learns, are the currency of Alelune, not gold or coin or material goods. Cieli whetted the people’s appetite in the months before their march. Pamphlets have eased their way too. All have heard of their Reaper prince, it seems, of the boy cast into the cells and forgotten about until now. And when combined with the mythic status of the Blue Guard and the stone that marks him as heir, when backed by an army that speaks of genocide and murder and betrayal by those in power, when the faces and voices of a clamouring crowd of civilians rise up to say they march only because they believe they must: the stories gain weight. Now they are too weighty to ignore.
The physicians ask if he can really help. They step aside when they realize he and Elician can.
From place to place, people to people, the stories become bolder. Stronger. Dozens saved, then hundreds, thousands. They speak of Cat’s eloquence as he passed his initiation test against General Leferge herself, wilfully accepting her battle prowess and setting aside his pride for the sake of his people. They speak of his efforts, of the whole cities saved by him and the Soleben king he has sworn to his service, who bows and bends and accepts that their people too deserve to live.
The stories grow, and Elician and Cat continue to work, exhausting themselves past the point of consciousness at times. Midway through purifying one city or another, Cat realizes he cannot tell where his power ends and Elician’s begins. Death and Life spiral between them, a helix of twisting possibility, a coin spinning endlessly and never stopping. ‘What happens if you cut the coin in half?’ Cat mumbles to Elician when they have saved the last dregs of a beleaguered city by their will alone, their minds blurring from the possibility of it all, their energy flagging. They curl against each other the moment they find a place to sleep, and Elician holds him like he is the only thing in the world worth cherishing.
‘Hrm?’ Elician grunts against Cat’s neck.
‘Life and Death are two sides of a coin,’ Cat says. ‘What if…we cut right down the thin edge, make the back the front. Is the back still Death? Is it Life now?’
‘Go to sleep,’ Elician grumbles. He kisses Cat’s neck. Cat’s eyes flutter. He lets himself lie boneless and still in Elician’s arms, feels how Elician’s lips just linger there, unintentionally alluring as Elician dozes against his skin.
There is a potted plant in their room for the evening. Cat reaches for it and watches it die instantly, just with a thought. It shrivels, water seeping from it. All it would need to do is go back to where itbelongs…water serving as a vehicle for giving all things life. ‘You’re thinking too loud,’ Elician grumbles.
‘Sorry.’ Cat closes his eyes. He yawns. He goes to sleep, and dreams of making flowers bloom.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Fenlia
Elena’s inoculation works. There are a few days of illness: coughing, sweating, a rush of energy, then stabilization. Nothing worse. She tests it on fifteen healthy individuals, volunteers desperate for some kind of sign. Then she tests it on twenty. Then, the whole of Crowen begins receiving the treatment, and as it shows continued efficacy – so too do her lessons on patient management. On offering food and water to those struggling to swallow, on giving palliative care, and dignity, to those suffering while waiting for a Reaper and Giver to work together and provide a proper cure.
Lio arrives in the city only a few weeks later with a handful of Alelunen Reapers willing to help their cause, as well as a large group of soldiers from the army willing to submit to the inoculation and enter into whichever tasks public service demands of them. Rodans comes with him. He offers Fen a fond smile over Lio’s shoulder, and she nods in his direction before addressing her brother’s closest friend. He smiles when he sees her. Like he used to, before things became bitter and tense between them. ‘Finally,’ he says, spreading his arms for a hug she would have gone to at any other moment without hesitation. ‘Some good news.’ She swallows hard and steps into his embrace, stomach churning from guilt.
‘All ready to get your dose?’ Fen asks, voice trembling.
‘All ready to figure out exactly what needs to be done so we can get the recipe out to every city in the country,’ he replies. ‘The death toll is getting high in the Crownlands. They need more help.’
‘How are things in Altas?’ she asks.
‘Safe, secure. There haven’t been any resurgences. If we can just getaheadof this thing…we could do this.’ If only Cat and Elician hadn’t left. They could have healed all of Soleb and stopped the plague entirely. Instead…they went to Alelune. She hopes it was worth it. She hopes they will not regret their choices in the end.
‘Have you heard anything from Elician or Cat?’
‘No. There’s been nothing from Alelune, no movement, no refugees, no sign of life. It’ll be all right,’ he tells her. ‘Just believe in them.’
Belief. It’s a hard thing to feel right now. Especiallyrightnow. ‘I don’t think Adalei’s plan is working.’
‘The farms have stayed active. Transportation too. The food is not good, it’s not quality, but we haven’t completely slipped into famine and there have been no major shortages. People are dying, but it isn’t from starvation at the very least. This situation was always going to be shit no matter what she did.’
‘Then these deaths are inevitable?’
‘It’s the best we can do, Fen. It’s the best any of us can do, given the situation at hand.’ She swallows. Nods. ‘Show me what’s been happening here.’
She does. She leads him through the quarantine zone. Shows him their organization system, the sick, the terrified families. The streets of misery and the butcher shop where the worst off are strewn across the floor aching for relief. She shows him the pain and the agony. She says: ‘We can’t revive them.’ And he looks at them all. He, who has been brought back so many times by someone whose love for him was greater than his concern for the consequences that would follow. He who lives when he should not. None of this would havehappened if he had died a long, long time ago. Tears prick at her eyes. She forces them back. ‘Would you have stopped him?’ Fen asks as quietly as she can. ‘If you had known what it would cost?’
‘You know I would have,’ Lio replies.
