Tiamat's Kittens: What Goes Around
Sep. 6th, 2006 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aithne[note that gaming's on hiatus for three weeks, so updates will resume in October.]
5/13/978
Palil:
Hey, starshine, Sondirra said, sliding in next to me. She set her shoulder against mine, comfortingly. You doing okay?
Fine, I think, I told her. I've got a weird feeling in my stomach, though. I should talk to Haven about it.
She chuckled. I've been meaning to talk to you about that, she said. Haven mentioned that he thinks you're ovulating. You're probably going to go into season in a week or three.
I pulled away from her, stared. "You're joking." Please be joking--
Sondirra shook her head. "Nope. You've gotten really big lately, and you've come into your adult color. Your wings have gone opaque, and the male dragons are starting to react to you differently."
"And I've had this weird feeling in my midsection, too," I said, remembering. I sighed. "What a time for this to happen."
She chuckled and poked me in the side. "Cheer up, Palil. Think of it this way. You have the perfect excuse to find someone and fuck them silly for weeks on end."
I ducked my head, my ears hot with a blush. "I suppose I should, shouldn't I? I mean...in the interest of keeping my wits about me, of course. I'd kind of wondered why every time I've seen Gannon lately I've had the urge to shove him up against the nearest wall and have my way with him. Now I know."
"Nah, I think that one's all you. You're attracted to him, you like him a lot, you're maybe falling in love with him," she said seriously. "I think maybe you ought to get things straight between the two of you. No pun intended. Okay, I intended it."
I laughed helplessly, throwing my head back. "All right, all right, I'll try to talk to him. I've been putting it off. I don't know if he'll agree, but it's worth a try."
"Just don't make it seem like all you want to do is use him, though," she said. "I'm serious. Palil. You and I both know how much you like him. It's not just about being in heat, between you. You two are good together."
I was still blushing. "I just don't know how he feels. I've been an ass lately."
"He invited you to the estate so you could have some time away after Garnet died," she said. "He spent most of the time you were there waiting nearby just in case something happened. Even when he snapped at you, he wasn't really angry at you, it sounds like. Just irritable." She smiled and leaned into me again. "I give him pretty good odds of feeling really strongly about you. He doesn't show much on the outside, but that doesn't mean he doesn't feel it. And you're going to have to be the one to make the first move with him."
"I know," I said, letting out a long breath. I rubbed my burning eyes. It had been a long day. "I'm...kind of scared. About the whole thing."
"Well, you know Paquita's been through it, and Haven mentioned that Elfrida has as well, so you can talk to her. The real question is," she said, "is whether you've forgiven Gannon for his role in how Jordan treated me when we were young."
The question made me catch my breath in my throat. "It was a long time ago," I said. "We were all babies. I'm not angry any more about it. I hadn't even thought of it in weeks."
"Good," she said, her voice warm. "Well, see what he says. If he turns you down, Lamont was looking your way earlier, I bet he'd be willing. Oh, and Haven said that if children aren't in your plans for the moment, there are some tablets you need to take every day. I've got some, for both of us." She put an arm around my shoulders, then pulled away, looking puzzled. "That's weird. You're warm. You feeling all right?"
"Just tired. If it lasts after I've slept, I'll talk to Haven, I promise." I smiled at her. "Come on. I wanted to talk to Paquita."
Sondirra nodded, and I went for our potion case. Paquita was easy to get ahold of. When I asked her about Reuben's troop strength, she said, "Well, that depends. You aren't going to like the answer, do you really want to know?"
"That bad? Ah, well, ignorance helps nothing. Let me have it."
I heard her take a breath. "He has somewhere between thirty and forty battalions of bonded pairs ready to field. Everyone in this damned country's in the military, pretty much, and he's called up everyone who was ever in the military here and made them serve."
I hissed in a breath. Five hundred pairs to a battalion put his strength at least at 15,000 bonded pairs, up to 20,000. I knew we fielded maybe five thousand pairs total, if that; Gada and Isla, from our intelligence, fielded about 10,000 each. All three territories together could take him, probably.
If all three territories allied. Fragmented, he would roll over all three of the other territories. Probably starting with Isla, as a matter of fact.
"Any idea where they all are?" I asked.
"Massing just off Isla's border. There's a huge concentration around Lake Bakul, for some reason." Bakul, Bakul, that was familiar, why?
"Odd. I'll see what we can find out. Thanks. Oh, and Paquita, if you have a chance tonight, could you message me? I have a couple of things to talk to you about."
"News, eh?" Her voice was slyly amused. "If I have a chance. Paquita out."
We discussed it for a little while, and then we got the idea to talk to the displacement cloak that we'd stolen. It was new, having been made six months or so ago. Evidently, the cloak's limit was that the wearer had to be within ten miles of the clone. It had been a red dragon, an old one, that had grown ill with a plague that had started out near Lake Bakul. He mentioned offhandedly that seventeen others had become offset cloaks, and the only dragon he knew of that had survived the plague had been...Jezik.
We looked at each other, and I picked up another potion and messaged Gada.
"Palil. Whatever you do, do not come here."
It was a strange and frightening greeting. "Why?" I asked.
"We have plague here. Started three days ago, right after Jezik got here. It's taken the whites the worst, they're starting to die. The only ones not affected are the black dragons--and Jezik. He says he's had it already. He came down with it, and then he was put in some sort of healing stasis in that prison you rescued him from three days ago."
I bit my lip. "What are the symptoms?" I asked.
"High fever first, then it starts to look like pneumonia in humanoids, heavy coughing. We have dragons more or less drowning in the fluid in their lungs. The white dragons were taken the first, and the hardest." Her voice was worried, and I guessed her bondmate was ill.
I rubbed my temples and said, "We're going to see if we can track down a cure. Good luck. Palil out."
Lake Bakul. It was just on the tip of my tongue. What was at Lake Bakul?
My eyes were burning, and I rubbed them. Why wasn't my mind working? Why couldn't I remember what we'd heard about Lake Bakul? I shook my head, and then covered my mouth as I coughed, wincing as I did so.
Sondirra:
Haven had been at the edge of the group that had been gathered around listening to the conversation. I caught his eye and jerked my head, and stepped back from the crowd.
Haven's face was worried. "Gannon complained that he was feeling off this morning before his group left. I thought he'd just caught something, he's taken enough hits lately that his body isn't fighting things off like it should. But Neda's feeling achy, as well."
"Check the rest," I said. "But if the dragons are all infected--"
"We just exposed two hundred bonded pairs, and sent them flying back to Petrozav the long way," he finished. Behind me, I heard Palil cough, a racking sound. Haven's eyes focused on her. "Gada said it took the whites first, and hardest. Let me go check Palil."
He sat her down and gave her a quick once-over. He came back over to me, afterwards. "She's got it, and badly. I'll check everyone else, but that fever--" He shook his head, and turned and left.
I went over to Palil, who was muttering to herself. "Love, do you remember what was at Lake Bakul? I can't," she said, raising her head.
"That plant mage, the one who made that fireball plant in Petrozav," I said. "Remember him? He was supposedly living on an island in the middle of Lake Bakul."
"That's it!" she said. "Why couldn't I think of it?"
I put an arm around her shoulders. No use sparing her this one. "Jezik exposed all of us to that plague," I said. "Haven said you've got it, and so do most of the rest of the dragons, likely. The humanoids seem to be immune."
"Oh," she said. She crossed her arms, putting one hand on each shoulder like she does when she's scared, hugging herself. "What are we going to do?" Her voice was uncertain, and I frowned. Palil had been sick only once in her life, and I'd forgotten how much it had undone her that time.
"Find the mage who can fix it," Bambi broke in. "I just went and asked Orion, and he did a divination for me. We have to find the guy and convince him to fix this."
"Deep in enemy territory, near a massive amount of Reuben's troops," I said. "And the nearest portal's probably guarded like hell."
Galen had joined us, Tchar at his shoulder. "Move a portal? We've got a spare one."
"Well, we can get there, the mother can take us there," Palil said. "But--I have to be at a portal to tell it to move. Has to be a cleric of Karop. I can consecrate some ground, no problem."
Bambi nodded. "We can get a good look at the island before we go. But Palil's right. She needs to be in two places at once. Palil, how many teleports have you done?"
Palil shook her head. "Two. The third, there's more chance of ending up in rock."
"And that screws us and doesn't even kiss us first," Bambi said. "Okay, no teleports. Do we have another Karop cleric stashed somewhere?"
"Chaim, but he's working," I said.
"High Priest of Karop's in Seratov," Palil said. Her eyes were bright, and it was hard to tell with the skin of her small form, but I thought she looked flushed. "Too far from a portal. My parents' village, though. There are a couple there. My mom's a follower, but I don't think she's a cleric."
"They're three hours' flight or so away. We can use the mother to bounce there and fly back."
"And we can go consecrate a spot. Whoever you get can move a portal, and we don't have to waste time flying through enemy territory."
"But what do we do when we get there?" Galen asked.
I chuckled. "Improvise." I glanced at Palil, and the smile on my face died. "Quickly. All right. Bambi, we know you're not carrying the plague. I'll go with you, I know Palil's folks better than you do. Once we get someone, Palil, Beamer, Galen, Tchar, you use the mother to bounce to that lake, after you've gotten a good look at it. Jordan--"
"I'll go with her. Haven and Neda, too," he replied. "You might need a sword or two once you get there."
"Good enough. All right. Bambi, let's go." She changed and got harnessed.
While she was doing so, Jordan came up to me. I gave him a quick, hard hug. "Take care of her," I said. "She doesn't deal real well with being sick."
"She gets angry?" he asked.
I shook my head. "The opposite. It takes all of the starch out of her. Honestly, I prefer her fighting like hell. Just--keep an eye on her, okay?"
"She's tough, she'll make it through," he said. He hugged me again and said, "Looks like Bambi's ready."
"See you on the flip side, love!" I stepped over to Bambi. I swung up and settled into her unfamiliar saddle. With a prayer to Gorld for luck, we passed through the portal on our way to the mother.
Gorld, be with me, and let the dice fall well for Palil...
Palil:
Once they were gone, we gathered around Orion, who used a major scry spell to show us the island. It was a mile long by a half mile wide, surrounded by the warm waters of Lake Bakul. At the north end was a compound of sorts, what appeared to be new construction appended to a crumbling stone building.
The south end of the island was swamp, changing to coniferous forest as it went north. "Somewhere in there," I said, pointing. "If we can find a good spot." As we watched, we saw that there was a pattern of bonded pairs flying in, appearing to be inoculated, and then flying out again. There appeared to be about sixteen bonded pairs on patrol on the island. It looked like the mage we were looking for was outside, muttering over people--but he was wearing a cloak that looked exactly like the one we'd gotten off of Purvis, only green. An offset cloak. The real mage was somewhere on the island.
We discussed and waited, until Sondirra said, We've got a volunteer. Blima, remember her?
Blima was an older, unbonded white, a good cleric, and related somehow to my mother. Third cousin twice removed, if I remembered correctly. You've told her what's happening?
She's keen on coming. I think she's pissed about losing all of those villages up here, Sondirra said. We'll be there in three hours.
We're off, then. I need to talk to the mother. I paused, coughing, then shook my head. I had to keep my mind on my work. See you in a bit.
Let me know when you have the ground consecrated, she said. Warmth and love flowed down our bond, and I felt a little better. Love love. See you soon.
I picked myself up and stretched. I grabbed the abbreviated pack I'd put together for myself earlier and said, "We ready to go?"
There were affirmatives all around. We stepped through the portal to the main temple, and then to the mother.
"Hold up, I need to ask her a couple of things," I said to the rest. I smiled at the portal, who I was starting to become almost fond of. "Hello, again. I had a couple of questions for you."
"Of course," the mother's mellow voice replied.
It turned out that the mother could reabsorb the child portals. It wasn't permanent, but it did take five years to calve the child portal once again. I was relieved that Karop guarded her very closely, but I wasn't that relieved. I still thought I was going to have to destroy the system. Reuben would eventually get the bright idea to try to figure out what was going on with a Karop cleric in tow. I hated the idea, but--
How do I balance the murder of a sentient race with the chance that we will not be overrun?
I cleared the thought from my mind. "Thank you," I said to the mother. "I need to go to this place--" I laid a hand on her surface, and visualized it.
"I have it," she replied.
"As usual, don't tell anyone. Invis tablets and clear your thoughts, everyone, let's go."
I took a deep breath and was rewarded by a brief coughing fit. Feeling thoroughly humiliated by my traitorous body, I stepped through.
We arrived and wasted no time looking around. "Tracks," Galen said. "Dragon and bond, probably dwarven, they were just here."
"Black dragon," Beamer said, sniffing.
"Galen, can you see what the pattern is?" He nodded and took off. He found out that the guards were more or less cross-quartering the island once every four hours. There were very few places on the island that were safe.
Beamer took off to the shoreline, to try to find a good spot. There was a cave in the coastline, mostly hidden, the opening small enough that only a humanoid could fit through. Inside, the cave was large enough for one humanoid and the gate, and that was all.
It wasn't comfortable, but it was much closer to safe. I started in on the consecration, my boots squelching in the mud.
Meanwhile, Galen was out scouting. He came back, grinning. "Most of the guards are good at what they do. One, though, comes out and takes a nap with his bondmate for a couple of hours when he's supposed to be patrolling. He'd be easy to take. And his bondmate's a blue male. Not as big as any of us, even."
I grinned, slowly. "You guys want to go play soldier for Reuben for a bit? Beamer, Tchar, that would be you, I think." It could work. Beamer could disguise himself, Tchar could take a potion that would make him look smaller than he was. They could get in.
We discussed a bit further, and then Jordan, Galen, and Tchar went to fetch the pair. They came back, Jordan with the blue dragon draped over his shoulders. We stripped them and tied them up, and after a few minutes the human came round. Jordan had hit the blue kind of hard, but Haven said he'd be all right.
The human's name was Volker, the blue's name was Joab, both JG lieutenants. They were assigned here as guards for the plant page Halsey, reporting to Captains Thaddea and Kurt. Thaddea was a tall elf, short haircut, and Kurt was a black dragon.
Volker showed us no resistance whatsoever, apparently believing us when we said he wouldn't be harmed if he cooperated. He described his daily routine and the people he was around--he was pulling three patrol shifts a day, which meant that he worked about sixteen hours a day. They were going to burn out their people, if they were working them like that.
I blindfolded and stuffed bits of rags in Volker's ears. Haven bound Joab's eyes and put a pad across what little external ears blue dragons have, patting him almost fondly on his horn. "I remember when you guys were this size," he said to me. "Wasn't all that long ago."
"Used to have fewer scars, too," I said. Beamer was dressing in Volker's uniform. They were due back at the compound in twenty minutes. "Good luck, guys."
They nodded and left. We settled in to wait.
The problem with waiting was that without something to do, I was free to concentrate on just how miserable I was feeling. We'd found a relatively hidden patch of coastline near the cave. I wrapped myself in a blanket--somewhere along the way. I'd started shivering--and sat with my back to a tree.
Jordan dropped to his heels in front of me. "How are you doing, Palil?" he asked.
"Wretched," I said, and was caught by a sudden coughing fit. I closed my eyes. "I don't think I'm good conversation material right now."
"I'll leave you alone, if you want," he said, and rose.
I opened my eyes and looked at him, uncertainly. "Um--actually, you can stay. If you want. Not up for much talking, but--" What was it I wanted? Confused, I pulled my knees to my chest. "I don't think I much want to be alone right now," I mumbled. Oh Karop, what am I saying? This is Jordan. I don't like Jordan. Why would I want him to stick around? Maybe I should ask him to go get Neda to sit with me.
It seemed somehow unnecessary. Somehow, whatever impulse I was feeling wanted someone close to Sondirra, since my bondmate couldn't be here. Slowly, Jordan nodded. "I'll sit with you, if you want."
I coughed, then gritted my teeth. My chest was starting to hurt. "I think I do."
Jordan sat down under a tree near me. "All right, Palil. You need anything?"
I shook my head. "Just--I need something to distract me. You know any stories?"
He chuckled. "I'm no bard, Palil."
"Doesn't have to be a made-up story. Tell me a story about Gannon, maybe?"
"What kind of story?"
"I don't know, anything really. I know we were in school with you guys, but I wasn't paying much attention to what you guys were up to."
Jordan smiled, appearing to be thinking. "Hey, you remember that old red who lives on the estate, one of the great wyrms, named Nimri? Well, Gannon and I went home one time, and Nimri took it into his head to lecture Gannon on all sorts of things..."
The story was long and rambling, mostly concerned with Gannon's attempts to evade his nosy ancestor, and Nimri's foiling of every attempt. I listened, and even laughed a few times. I reached out to touch Sondirra's mind often--we didn't talk much, but I needed the reassurance of feeling her, even if she couldn't be here. Towards the end of the story, my eyes were closed and I was curled up on the ground. Next thing I knew, I had gentle hands on my head.
"Palil, turn this way a little. Good." It was Haven. I couldn't figure out why he was touching me, but his hands were cool, and they felt good. There was a cool dampness on my forehead, a cloth with water in it being wiped across my forehead and cheeks. That felt good, too, in this universe where everything was so hot. I muttered and shifted.
"That's all right, Palil. Go back to sleep." I felt him get up and move away from me, taking the marvelous coolness with him. I took a breath to whimper and just coughed, folding in half with the force of it. There was a heavy taste in my mouth, hot and metallic.
"Her fever's getting worse," I heard Haven say. "Sleep's helping, but not enough. Sondirra will be here soon?"
"Half an hour." That was Jordan. "They're bringing the portal with them."
"Good," Haven said. "Palil's got twelve hours before she starts getting delirious with that fever. Maybe less. If she's not in her right mind, she won't be able to order the portal to do anything, and even if she does it won't do what she intends. I'm hoping Sondirra being physically near will stabilize her a bit."
They kept talking, but I drifted off. The next thing I knew, Sondirra was there. She had one of my hands in hers. You came, I murmured silently.
"I'm here for my girl," she told me. "Brought a portal with me. Hang in there, Palil. I'm here."
Mmmm, I said. Jordan told me a funny story. You should get him to tell you it. It was about Gannon...
If she said anything in response, I didn't hear it as I sank back into fever-dream.
Sondirra:
Seeing Palil so sick was one of the scarier things I've had to watch recently. She was sweating and tossing, her mind speaking in dream fragments that made little sense. I blotted sweat from her forehead, then curled up next to her. I needed sleep--Gorld, did I ever need sleep!--but I needed to be close to Palil. Spending the night away from her wasn't even an option.
The night was way too short, and I woke when false dawn was creeping across the sky. Next to me, Palil was sleeping, quietly. She was still burning with fever, but for the moment she wasn't coughing.
I had an idea, and went to dig in her pack. I found Garnet's sock puppet at the bottom of it, where I knew she'd stashed it. I tucked it into her arms, pulled the blanket up around her shoulders, and tiptoed away.
"What's up?" I asked Jordan. He was chewing on a ration bar, making a face at the taste, and he tossed me one as I sat down.
"Beamer just talked to me. Said they were at breakfast, and the food's pretty good. Better than anything we usually see, anyway. Seems Reuben's army's pretty well supplied. I asked them to bring a couple of things back for Haven to test, I think there may be something weird in them."
"Good idea," I said. I reached out and touched Beamer's mind. What's the good word, Songbird?
We've got a password to get in to the inner compound, but there's a shield on the door that will heat up any metal you bring in pretty good. We go in, we have to leave all our metal behind. Volker and Joab aren't high enough level to get in there, anyway. Weird thing. Everyone here's huge. Well, bigger than normal. The halflings are like four feet tall, the elves are all taller than you, the humans are seven feet tall, all of them. They could field one hell of a ball team, he said. Food's really good, and everyone eats a hell of a lot of it. Nobody seems really unhappy with their lot, either, and they think Isla's the one who attacked Yafa. We'll be out there in a bit. How's Palil?
I shook my head. Not so good. Get out here as soon as you can. Time's short.
Will do. He was as good as his word; within a half hour, he and Tchar were back out. Palil was awake by that time, and I got her to eat something. She was shivering violently the whole time.
Beamer handed Haven what appeared to be a pair of blueberry muffins. "Well, what are we up to?"
I thought about it. Palil was pretty much out of it, and I missed her input something fierce. "We go in. Haven and Neda--wait, where's Neda?"
"I sent her back to the rest. She wasn't feeling well," Haven said.
"Oh. All right, Haven, stay here with Palil, work on those muffins. I'll message Addison and get him in, he'll be able to tell Haven better what's going on in there than any of us. The rest of us, we need to lose all of the metal on us, and I think that includes lockpicks, Beamer. We go in quiet, and don't kill anyone unless we have to. Tchar, how are you feeling?"
He shrugged. "Have a headache, but otherwise okay."
"Good." I took a breath. "Let's get going."
Haven caught me by the elbow before I left. "Palil's probably got six hours or so before she slides into delirium," he said.
I pressed my lips together. "Thanks," I said shortly. "I'll do what I can."
Off we went, to see what we could see.
We passed through the crowd around the compound invisibly, negotiating the line of people who were seeing the green-cloaked mage. There was a steady stream of clerics coming out of the temple, giving handfuls of glass vials to the mage's clone and taking the empty ones away. The clone would take a vial and drink the contents, then lay a hand on the next person in line and mutter. There seemed to be enough for ten inoculations per vial. Then he'd take another vial and start over.
We slipped past the line, following our ant trail of clerics inside. We saw the Captains who Volker had mentioned. she was a big woman for an elf, with her hair cut pretty brutally short, lots shorter than mine, even. She was taller than me and probably had thirty or forty pounds on me--and very little of that fat. Not a soft woman, this one.
Once inside, we came into an antechamber with two doors to either side and an archway leading onward. The clerics were going through the archway. One of the doors, the one on the left, was magically fortified against invisible people going through, with spells that would defeat even our invisibility tablets, as well as an alarm and some fire damage. Beamer leaned his head against the door. Kitchen, he said to us. Definitely.
So why lock the door to the kitchen...unless they were doing something they didn't really want revealed?
A quick jaunt down the way the clerics were going revealed that there was a corridor leading back into the back of the compound that was enchanted pretty much like the door had been. Funny thing, though. All of the clerics going through held up their holy symbol. With a start, I realized that all of these people were clerics of Bahomet.
Bahumet clerics had always been some of the most blamelessly nice people I'd ever met. Their religion pretty much forbade protelyzing, and they tended to spend their lives trying to make the lives of the people around them better. I was sure there were some bad ones, but Bahomet himself was a pretty nice guy for a god, and didn't tend to tolerate much bad behavior.
I could kill one of them pretty easy, Jordan said. Take the symbol and get through that way.
I considered it. Last resort. Let's not get everyone riled up.
We retraced our steps. The door to the right led to the quarters of the clerics and the staff, and there were only a few people there this time of day. We came back out into the antechamber, regarding the door to the kitchen. I wanted to go have a look before we went to go have a chat with the mage. But how?
Salvation came in the form of a butler coming out of the door behind us. He was carrying a tray in his hands, and as he stopped in front if the door and lifted it I saw that it had a symbol of Bahomet on the bottom. The butler stepped through and disappeared.
I looked at Jordan. Him.
Quick and quiet, no problem, once he comes back. Break his neck, shove an invis tablet down his throat, and stash him somewhere. If he comes back out this way. Grab his tray for me.
We waited, tense, for a few minutes. We got lucky. The butler stepped out of the door and it swung shut behind him. We were in a brief lull between clerics, and I held onto the try as Jordan stepped up behind him and swiftly broke his neck and shoved an invisibility tablet into his mouth.
We dragged the guy into the closet, and Beamer took his place and his uniform. We got through the door into the kitchen while Beamer loaded some more food onto the tray. I'd snagged some of the more portable baked goods off of the tray, just in case they turned out to be okay to eat. It had been a really long time since I'd had a good muffin.
It was a bustling kitchen, filled with people rushing around. We had to do some fancy footwork to keep out of everyone's way. The most interesting part was the three mages who moved among the food preparation areas, adding what seemed to be potions to the good before it was cooked. For instance, in the case of the muffins, they'd add some potion to the batter before it was baked, making the batter look magical. Once it was baked, the final product wasn't magic at all--until one of the mages tested one of them by spitting on it, causing the place where his saliva had touched it to go magic.
Clever. Now, what were they doing?
After a bit, we figured out that it was all benign stuff--at least if you weren't an army opposing Reuben's. Growth potions, strength potions, things to make people tougher. Well, we had an answer as to why everyone was so damned tall here. I pulled a muffin out of the bag I'd stuck it in and started munching. Sneaking around always makes me hungry, and as long as it wasn't going to poison me, I was happy.
We stepped back out of the kitchen, passed a quick message to Haven about the muffins, and looked down the long corridor. Ready? I asked Beamer. I'll go in right on your tail, you drop the food off and come back and go invisible again, we'll get everyone in there.
He nodded. Good enough. Stay really close. I put my hands on his shoulders and twinned him down the corridor, stepping close behind his heels.
We got to the end, and I was still invisible. One more hurdle down.
Beamer started in towards the lab, and we walked through a couple of rooms that looked like a library. There were books on lots of different things here, and a shelf label caught my eye as I walked from one room into another. It was a whole shelf of books about the various leaders of the countries, and some of the important people in each.
Including a whole book about Coulter, and another one about Majesta.
What I wouldn't give for a sit-down with those! Later, if we lived, and if I figured out why a mage working in the middle of nowhere would have books on political figures. Right now, I ghosted through the rooms behind Beamer. The archway at the end opened up into a large lab area, busy with clerics coming and going. "Oh, good, you're here," the green-robed half-elf who appeared to be in charge said. "Set it down there, I have about twenty minutes before this batch is done, I'm going to eat first."
Beamer did, and then headed out, leaving me alone. I found a place where nobody would trip over me, and watched.
The green-robed mage, Halsey, was a half-elf with long silver hair and a deeply lined face, probably the result of being outdoors a lot when he was young. He had eyes that were an odd blue-green color. He was likely about a century and a half old, if I didn't miss my guess. Wonder if Reuben sleeps with humans? Never thought about him having half-elven kids. Might explain those books, if Reuben comes to visit. The clerics around him worked quietly, coming in and out of the room. There were usually no less than three clerics in the room, and sometimes as many as half a dozen.
I touched Palil's mind, then drew back, appalled. Even her mind's touch was hot as blazes, and she seemed to be concentrating her whole will on combating the disease. If the next few minutes went badly, or even if it went slowly, she was going to lapse into delirium.
Maybe even die.
Not on my watch.
I thought hard. Palil would probably do something different than what I was about to do. My way might get us all killed, but it also might save Palil, so I was willing to chance it. The others were filtering into the room. Galen and Tchar were the last to arrive. I looked over at them all. I don't think we can take this guy by force, even if we wanted to. I think we're going to have to talk to him.
Now?
Not much choice. Beamer, be visible with me. The rest of you, stay still.
Halsey had finished eating and was pushing back from the table when Beamer and I took the invisibility tablets out of our mouths. The mage blinked. "Sondirra. Must be...Major Sondirra, now?"
I nodded, though I was a little weirded out that he recognized me. "Yes, as much as that means at the moment."
"So this is Captain Beamer. Invisibility tablets?" We nodded. "Thought as much. Nice. So, why are you here?"
The clerics around us were continuing to work, ignoring us. I took a deep breath. "We have something of an offer of employment for you. We want you to do what you're doing here for the rest of the world. We're about to have an epidemic on our hands."
Halsey frowned, the expression in his eyes almost disappointed. "How did it get out?"
"Jezik," I said.
"He's a carrier, then. I wondered how Reuben was going to get it out. I've had the same thought myself, about spreading the inoculation to the world, but I'm afraid I can't help you. If I leave here and go with you, Reuben will tear the world apart down to the stones to find me, just like you would for your own mage. Kane, if I recall correctly."
I nodded. "If we brought Kane to you--"
"I could teach him how to cure it. I could also inoculate people you brought to me."
I chewed on the inside of my cheek briefly. "Honestly? I hate the idea. I also think we don't have much choice. We can work out the details in a bit. We have a member of our team very ill. Can we bring her here?" He nodded, and I reached out to Palil. Love, can you manage to make two portal transits? If you come here, you can be cured.
Her mental touch was feverish, but she didn't seem to be about to pass out. A minute, she said. I held my breath until she appeared. Haven was supporting her, stooped with her arm over his shoulder. Her head was hung low, her long white hair loose and matted with sweat. She took a shaky step, and then another.
Halsey took one look at her and said, "She's in the end stage. You, bring a basin." The indicated cleric turned smoothly and grabbed a metal basin, and Halsey took it from him and shoved it into Palil's hands. "Hold this, you'll want it in a second." Almost reflexively, she clutched it, and as soon as she let go he swigged from a potion and the laid a hand on her, muttering a phrase.
For a second, nothing happened. Then I could feel her temperature drop. She took a deep breath--or tried to. She ended up coughing, and I realized why Halsey had put a basin into her hands. She bent over the basin as she coughed up a pair of lungfuls of mucus. It wasn't pleasant to listen to, but when she was done she took a deep, cool breath, and looked much happier.
"Thank you," she said--well, croaked, her voice was rough from coughing. Halsey nodded, and I silently caught her up with what was going on.
"All right," I said. "We can bring Kane to you, but it'll take us a few days."
"I have another day of work here, but then I can start teaching him."
"Haven, too," I said. "If clerics can learn it."
He eyed Haven doubtfully, and said, "If he's good enough."
I kind of resented that one. "He's good," I said shortly. "I don't like bringing everyone into enemy territory, but we're going to have a serious problem on our hands very quickly if we don't. We can bring people who need to be cured here--Palil was the only one that badly off, but we have a number of people who've been exposed."
"Good," he said. We kept talking as he busied himself about his tasks, and eventually we uncovered the fact that Reuben was his father, and that his personality change seemed to be connected to a staff he'd found in a giant cache, a staff with a crystal on the end and rays of metal coming off of it. Each of the seven rays was a different color.
It was also revealed that Reuben had been the one who'd created the plague, and he was the one who'd shown Halsey how to cure and inoculate against it. "I wish I could figure that staff out," he said. "My father converted to the worship of Tiamat soon after he got his hands on it.
I had an idea. "Just a moment," I said, stepping away. I took a message potion and contacted the Peacekeeper. "Have you ever heard of an artifact, a staff with a crystal on the end and metal rays coming off of it?"
"Likely the Staff of Tiamat," she said. "We buried it with our leader, in hopes it would never be found. If it's been found--" She broke off, then continued. "It contains Tiamat. Her entire personality and her soul is in that staff. She will take over anyone who uses the staff."
I brought the news back to Halsey. "You can double-check that, but that's what my source says," I told him.
He shook his head. "Not the news I wanted to hear. All right. You, make a door in the back wall here with a stoneshaping spell. I'll make a hole in the shield at the back here. Give me twenty-four hours to finish up here, and then start bringing your people through."
Palil had been quiet this entire time. Now, she raised her head. "Halsey, how long after exposure do dragons become contagious?"
He looked at her. "Two days, tops."
Palil looked at me. We saw Chaim and the white dragon army two days after we parted company with Jezik. We have two days before they're all as sick as I was.
She was right, and it was something I hadn't even thought of. Let's go. We need to go talk to Chaim. Gods be good, he's within a day of a portal--
If Chaim died, so would my hope of keeping Jordan with me for longer than his normal lifespan. And if the white dragon army died, so would our hope of keeping peace within Yafa's former territory...as well as the largest part of the white dragons left in the world.
We'd have to save them, was all.
It was only going to be a minor miracle...so I hoped.
Palil:
Once we got back to the gate, I contacted Gada. "We've found a cure. I can give you a portal location--"
"There's no need."
I felt like I'd just been hit in the gut. "What happened?"
Her voice was calm, but there was a tension in it that spoke of a wild sorrow. "All of the dragons in the capital are dead. We closed the borders of the city as soon as we realized what was happening, so we think it's been contained here. The only dragons that live are the black dragons, and Jezik."
Jalena, her bondmate, had been a green.
"I'm so sorry," I said. "Let us know if it looks like it escaped."
"I will," she said, and ended the spell.
I contacted Coulter and gave him the rundown, with Sondirra's help. "You know, you mentioned that dragons and humanoids can re-bond. Orion is still with you?"
"He is. You mean to try to get her to bond with him?"
"It's the only way she's going to survive the next few weeks," he said. "Without a dragon to rule, she will go down."
"I'll talk to Orion," I said. "It's chancy, but it might work."
"Good. Coulter out."
Sondirra brought it up with Orion, and he agreed to at least go meet Gada to see if they might be compatible. And then I sat down with my back to the wall and closed my eyes, listening to the sounds of my command all around me--chatter, laughter, coughing from those who were ill.
I had lived. It was likely the rest of us would, as well, and if I were lucky I'd find the courage to bring up a certain topic with Gannon after he was feeling better.
There were others who had not been so lucky, and might still not be so lucky. And we had unleashed this, without knowing it. Reuben had used us. He'd known someone would come, and I assumed he'd thought it was us.
Not Reuben, though. I imagined there wasn't much of Reuben left in there.
We knew the name of our true foe, now.
Tiamat.
How does one fight a goddess?
Quotes:
"Beamer thinks the swamp is getting nicer and nicer. He doesn't know why. It just seems like home."
--Derek
5/13/978
Palil:
Hey, starshine, Sondirra said, sliding in next to me. She set her shoulder against mine, comfortingly. You doing okay?
Fine, I think, I told her. I've got a weird feeling in my stomach, though. I should talk to Haven about it.
She chuckled. I've been meaning to talk to you about that, she said. Haven mentioned that he thinks you're ovulating. You're probably going to go into season in a week or three.
I pulled away from her, stared. "You're joking." Please be joking--
Sondirra shook her head. "Nope. You've gotten really big lately, and you've come into your adult color. Your wings have gone opaque, and the male dragons are starting to react to you differently."
"And I've had this weird feeling in my midsection, too," I said, remembering. I sighed. "What a time for this to happen."
She chuckled and poked me in the side. "Cheer up, Palil. Think of it this way. You have the perfect excuse to find someone and fuck them silly for weeks on end."
I ducked my head, my ears hot with a blush. "I suppose I should, shouldn't I? I mean...in the interest of keeping my wits about me, of course. I'd kind of wondered why every time I've seen Gannon lately I've had the urge to shove him up against the nearest wall and have my way with him. Now I know."
"Nah, I think that one's all you. You're attracted to him, you like him a lot, you're maybe falling in love with him," she said seriously. "I think maybe you ought to get things straight between the two of you. No pun intended. Okay, I intended it."
I laughed helplessly, throwing my head back. "All right, all right, I'll try to talk to him. I've been putting it off. I don't know if he'll agree, but it's worth a try."
"Just don't make it seem like all you want to do is use him, though," she said. "I'm serious. Palil. You and I both know how much you like him. It's not just about being in heat, between you. You two are good together."
I was still blushing. "I just don't know how he feels. I've been an ass lately."
"He invited you to the estate so you could have some time away after Garnet died," she said. "He spent most of the time you were there waiting nearby just in case something happened. Even when he snapped at you, he wasn't really angry at you, it sounds like. Just irritable." She smiled and leaned into me again. "I give him pretty good odds of feeling really strongly about you. He doesn't show much on the outside, but that doesn't mean he doesn't feel it. And you're going to have to be the one to make the first move with him."
"I know," I said, letting out a long breath. I rubbed my burning eyes. It had been a long day. "I'm...kind of scared. About the whole thing."
"Well, you know Paquita's been through it, and Haven mentioned that Elfrida has as well, so you can talk to her. The real question is," she said, "is whether you've forgiven Gannon for his role in how Jordan treated me when we were young."
The question made me catch my breath in my throat. "It was a long time ago," I said. "We were all babies. I'm not angry any more about it. I hadn't even thought of it in weeks."
"Good," she said, her voice warm. "Well, see what he says. If he turns you down, Lamont was looking your way earlier, I bet he'd be willing. Oh, and Haven said that if children aren't in your plans for the moment, there are some tablets you need to take every day. I've got some, for both of us." She put an arm around my shoulders, then pulled away, looking puzzled. "That's weird. You're warm. You feeling all right?"
"Just tired. If it lasts after I've slept, I'll talk to Haven, I promise." I smiled at her. "Come on. I wanted to talk to Paquita."
Sondirra nodded, and I went for our potion case. Paquita was easy to get ahold of. When I asked her about Reuben's troop strength, she said, "Well, that depends. You aren't going to like the answer, do you really want to know?"
"That bad? Ah, well, ignorance helps nothing. Let me have it."
I heard her take a breath. "He has somewhere between thirty and forty battalions of bonded pairs ready to field. Everyone in this damned country's in the military, pretty much, and he's called up everyone who was ever in the military here and made them serve."
I hissed in a breath. Five hundred pairs to a battalion put his strength at least at 15,000 bonded pairs, up to 20,000. I knew we fielded maybe five thousand pairs total, if that; Gada and Isla, from our intelligence, fielded about 10,000 each. All three territories together could take him, probably.
If all three territories allied. Fragmented, he would roll over all three of the other territories. Probably starting with Isla, as a matter of fact.
"Any idea where they all are?" I asked.
"Massing just off Isla's border. There's a huge concentration around Lake Bakul, for some reason." Bakul, Bakul, that was familiar, why?
"Odd. I'll see what we can find out. Thanks. Oh, and Paquita, if you have a chance tonight, could you message me? I have a couple of things to talk to you about."
"News, eh?" Her voice was slyly amused. "If I have a chance. Paquita out."
We discussed it for a little while, and then we got the idea to talk to the displacement cloak that we'd stolen. It was new, having been made six months or so ago. Evidently, the cloak's limit was that the wearer had to be within ten miles of the clone. It had been a red dragon, an old one, that had grown ill with a plague that had started out near Lake Bakul. He mentioned offhandedly that seventeen others had become offset cloaks, and the only dragon he knew of that had survived the plague had been...Jezik.
We looked at each other, and I picked up another potion and messaged Gada.
"Palil. Whatever you do, do not come here."
It was a strange and frightening greeting. "Why?" I asked.
"We have plague here. Started three days ago, right after Jezik got here. It's taken the whites the worst, they're starting to die. The only ones not affected are the black dragons--and Jezik. He says he's had it already. He came down with it, and then he was put in some sort of healing stasis in that prison you rescued him from three days ago."
I bit my lip. "What are the symptoms?" I asked.
"High fever first, then it starts to look like pneumonia in humanoids, heavy coughing. We have dragons more or less drowning in the fluid in their lungs. The white dragons were taken the first, and the hardest." Her voice was worried, and I guessed her bondmate was ill.
I rubbed my temples and said, "We're going to see if we can track down a cure. Good luck. Palil out."
Lake Bakul. It was just on the tip of my tongue. What was at Lake Bakul?
My eyes were burning, and I rubbed them. Why wasn't my mind working? Why couldn't I remember what we'd heard about Lake Bakul? I shook my head, and then covered my mouth as I coughed, wincing as I did so.
Sondirra:
Haven had been at the edge of the group that had been gathered around listening to the conversation. I caught his eye and jerked my head, and stepped back from the crowd.
Haven's face was worried. "Gannon complained that he was feeling off this morning before his group left. I thought he'd just caught something, he's taken enough hits lately that his body isn't fighting things off like it should. But Neda's feeling achy, as well."
"Check the rest," I said. "But if the dragons are all infected--"
"We just exposed two hundred bonded pairs, and sent them flying back to Petrozav the long way," he finished. Behind me, I heard Palil cough, a racking sound. Haven's eyes focused on her. "Gada said it took the whites first, and hardest. Let me go check Palil."
He sat her down and gave her a quick once-over. He came back over to me, afterwards. "She's got it, and badly. I'll check everyone else, but that fever--" He shook his head, and turned and left.
I went over to Palil, who was muttering to herself. "Love, do you remember what was at Lake Bakul? I can't," she said, raising her head.
"That plant mage, the one who made that fireball plant in Petrozav," I said. "Remember him? He was supposedly living on an island in the middle of Lake Bakul."
"That's it!" she said. "Why couldn't I think of it?"
I put an arm around her shoulders. No use sparing her this one. "Jezik exposed all of us to that plague," I said. "Haven said you've got it, and so do most of the rest of the dragons, likely. The humanoids seem to be immune."
"Oh," she said. She crossed her arms, putting one hand on each shoulder like she does when she's scared, hugging herself. "What are we going to do?" Her voice was uncertain, and I frowned. Palil had been sick only once in her life, and I'd forgotten how much it had undone her that time.
"Find the mage who can fix it," Bambi broke in. "I just went and asked Orion, and he did a divination for me. We have to find the guy and convince him to fix this."
"Deep in enemy territory, near a massive amount of Reuben's troops," I said. "And the nearest portal's probably guarded like hell."
Galen had joined us, Tchar at his shoulder. "Move a portal? We've got a spare one."
"Well, we can get there, the mother can take us there," Palil said. "But--I have to be at a portal to tell it to move. Has to be a cleric of Karop. I can consecrate some ground, no problem."
Bambi nodded. "We can get a good look at the island before we go. But Palil's right. She needs to be in two places at once. Palil, how many teleports have you done?"
Palil shook her head. "Two. The third, there's more chance of ending up in rock."
"And that screws us and doesn't even kiss us first," Bambi said. "Okay, no teleports. Do we have another Karop cleric stashed somewhere?"
"Chaim, but he's working," I said.
"High Priest of Karop's in Seratov," Palil said. Her eyes were bright, and it was hard to tell with the skin of her small form, but I thought she looked flushed. "Too far from a portal. My parents' village, though. There are a couple there. My mom's a follower, but I don't think she's a cleric."
"They're three hours' flight or so away. We can use the mother to bounce there and fly back."
"And we can go consecrate a spot. Whoever you get can move a portal, and we don't have to waste time flying through enemy territory."
"But what do we do when we get there?" Galen asked.
I chuckled. "Improvise." I glanced at Palil, and the smile on my face died. "Quickly. All right. Bambi, we know you're not carrying the plague. I'll go with you, I know Palil's folks better than you do. Once we get someone, Palil, Beamer, Galen, Tchar, you use the mother to bounce to that lake, after you've gotten a good look at it. Jordan--"
"I'll go with her. Haven and Neda, too," he replied. "You might need a sword or two once you get there."
"Good enough. All right. Bambi, let's go." She changed and got harnessed.
While she was doing so, Jordan came up to me. I gave him a quick, hard hug. "Take care of her," I said. "She doesn't deal real well with being sick."
"She gets angry?" he asked.
I shook my head. "The opposite. It takes all of the starch out of her. Honestly, I prefer her fighting like hell. Just--keep an eye on her, okay?"
"She's tough, she'll make it through," he said. He hugged me again and said, "Looks like Bambi's ready."
"See you on the flip side, love!" I stepped over to Bambi. I swung up and settled into her unfamiliar saddle. With a prayer to Gorld for luck, we passed through the portal on our way to the mother.
Gorld, be with me, and let the dice fall well for Palil...
Palil:
Once they were gone, we gathered around Orion, who used a major scry spell to show us the island. It was a mile long by a half mile wide, surrounded by the warm waters of Lake Bakul. At the north end was a compound of sorts, what appeared to be new construction appended to a crumbling stone building.
The south end of the island was swamp, changing to coniferous forest as it went north. "Somewhere in there," I said, pointing. "If we can find a good spot." As we watched, we saw that there was a pattern of bonded pairs flying in, appearing to be inoculated, and then flying out again. There appeared to be about sixteen bonded pairs on patrol on the island. It looked like the mage we were looking for was outside, muttering over people--but he was wearing a cloak that looked exactly like the one we'd gotten off of Purvis, only green. An offset cloak. The real mage was somewhere on the island.
We discussed and waited, until Sondirra said, We've got a volunteer. Blima, remember her?
Blima was an older, unbonded white, a good cleric, and related somehow to my mother. Third cousin twice removed, if I remembered correctly. You've told her what's happening?
She's keen on coming. I think she's pissed about losing all of those villages up here, Sondirra said. We'll be there in three hours.
We're off, then. I need to talk to the mother. I paused, coughing, then shook my head. I had to keep my mind on my work. See you in a bit.
Let me know when you have the ground consecrated, she said. Warmth and love flowed down our bond, and I felt a little better. Love love. See you soon.
I picked myself up and stretched. I grabbed the abbreviated pack I'd put together for myself earlier and said, "We ready to go?"
There were affirmatives all around. We stepped through the portal to the main temple, and then to the mother.
"Hold up, I need to ask her a couple of things," I said to the rest. I smiled at the portal, who I was starting to become almost fond of. "Hello, again. I had a couple of questions for you."
"Of course," the mother's mellow voice replied.
It turned out that the mother could reabsorb the child portals. It wasn't permanent, but it did take five years to calve the child portal once again. I was relieved that Karop guarded her very closely, but I wasn't that relieved. I still thought I was going to have to destroy the system. Reuben would eventually get the bright idea to try to figure out what was going on with a Karop cleric in tow. I hated the idea, but--
How do I balance the murder of a sentient race with the chance that we will not be overrun?
I cleared the thought from my mind. "Thank you," I said to the mother. "I need to go to this place--" I laid a hand on her surface, and visualized it.
"I have it," she replied.
"As usual, don't tell anyone. Invis tablets and clear your thoughts, everyone, let's go."
I took a deep breath and was rewarded by a brief coughing fit. Feeling thoroughly humiliated by my traitorous body, I stepped through.
We arrived and wasted no time looking around. "Tracks," Galen said. "Dragon and bond, probably dwarven, they were just here."
"Black dragon," Beamer said, sniffing.
"Galen, can you see what the pattern is?" He nodded and took off. He found out that the guards were more or less cross-quartering the island once every four hours. There were very few places on the island that were safe.
Beamer took off to the shoreline, to try to find a good spot. There was a cave in the coastline, mostly hidden, the opening small enough that only a humanoid could fit through. Inside, the cave was large enough for one humanoid and the gate, and that was all.
It wasn't comfortable, but it was much closer to safe. I started in on the consecration, my boots squelching in the mud.
Meanwhile, Galen was out scouting. He came back, grinning. "Most of the guards are good at what they do. One, though, comes out and takes a nap with his bondmate for a couple of hours when he's supposed to be patrolling. He'd be easy to take. And his bondmate's a blue male. Not as big as any of us, even."
I grinned, slowly. "You guys want to go play soldier for Reuben for a bit? Beamer, Tchar, that would be you, I think." It could work. Beamer could disguise himself, Tchar could take a potion that would make him look smaller than he was. They could get in.
We discussed a bit further, and then Jordan, Galen, and Tchar went to fetch the pair. They came back, Jordan with the blue dragon draped over his shoulders. We stripped them and tied them up, and after a few minutes the human came round. Jordan had hit the blue kind of hard, but Haven said he'd be all right.
The human's name was Volker, the blue's name was Joab, both JG lieutenants. They were assigned here as guards for the plant page Halsey, reporting to Captains Thaddea and Kurt. Thaddea was a tall elf, short haircut, and Kurt was a black dragon.
Volker showed us no resistance whatsoever, apparently believing us when we said he wouldn't be harmed if he cooperated. He described his daily routine and the people he was around--he was pulling three patrol shifts a day, which meant that he worked about sixteen hours a day. They were going to burn out their people, if they were working them like that.
I blindfolded and stuffed bits of rags in Volker's ears. Haven bound Joab's eyes and put a pad across what little external ears blue dragons have, patting him almost fondly on his horn. "I remember when you guys were this size," he said to me. "Wasn't all that long ago."
"Used to have fewer scars, too," I said. Beamer was dressing in Volker's uniform. They were due back at the compound in twenty minutes. "Good luck, guys."
They nodded and left. We settled in to wait.
The problem with waiting was that without something to do, I was free to concentrate on just how miserable I was feeling. We'd found a relatively hidden patch of coastline near the cave. I wrapped myself in a blanket--somewhere along the way. I'd started shivering--and sat with my back to a tree.
Jordan dropped to his heels in front of me. "How are you doing, Palil?" he asked.
"Wretched," I said, and was caught by a sudden coughing fit. I closed my eyes. "I don't think I'm good conversation material right now."
"I'll leave you alone, if you want," he said, and rose.
I opened my eyes and looked at him, uncertainly. "Um--actually, you can stay. If you want. Not up for much talking, but--" What was it I wanted? Confused, I pulled my knees to my chest. "I don't think I much want to be alone right now," I mumbled. Oh Karop, what am I saying? This is Jordan. I don't like Jordan. Why would I want him to stick around? Maybe I should ask him to go get Neda to sit with me.
It seemed somehow unnecessary. Somehow, whatever impulse I was feeling wanted someone close to Sondirra, since my bondmate couldn't be here. Slowly, Jordan nodded. "I'll sit with you, if you want."
I coughed, then gritted my teeth. My chest was starting to hurt. "I think I do."
Jordan sat down under a tree near me. "All right, Palil. You need anything?"
I shook my head. "Just--I need something to distract me. You know any stories?"
He chuckled. "I'm no bard, Palil."
"Doesn't have to be a made-up story. Tell me a story about Gannon, maybe?"
"What kind of story?"
"I don't know, anything really. I know we were in school with you guys, but I wasn't paying much attention to what you guys were up to."
Jordan smiled, appearing to be thinking. "Hey, you remember that old red who lives on the estate, one of the great wyrms, named Nimri? Well, Gannon and I went home one time, and Nimri took it into his head to lecture Gannon on all sorts of things..."
The story was long and rambling, mostly concerned with Gannon's attempts to evade his nosy ancestor, and Nimri's foiling of every attempt. I listened, and even laughed a few times. I reached out to touch Sondirra's mind often--we didn't talk much, but I needed the reassurance of feeling her, even if she couldn't be here. Towards the end of the story, my eyes were closed and I was curled up on the ground. Next thing I knew, I had gentle hands on my head.
"Palil, turn this way a little. Good." It was Haven. I couldn't figure out why he was touching me, but his hands were cool, and they felt good. There was a cool dampness on my forehead, a cloth with water in it being wiped across my forehead and cheeks. That felt good, too, in this universe where everything was so hot. I muttered and shifted.
"That's all right, Palil. Go back to sleep." I felt him get up and move away from me, taking the marvelous coolness with him. I took a breath to whimper and just coughed, folding in half with the force of it. There was a heavy taste in my mouth, hot and metallic.
"Her fever's getting worse," I heard Haven say. "Sleep's helping, but not enough. Sondirra will be here soon?"
"Half an hour." That was Jordan. "They're bringing the portal with them."
"Good," Haven said. "Palil's got twelve hours before she starts getting delirious with that fever. Maybe less. If she's not in her right mind, she won't be able to order the portal to do anything, and even if she does it won't do what she intends. I'm hoping Sondirra being physically near will stabilize her a bit."
They kept talking, but I drifted off. The next thing I knew, Sondirra was there. She had one of my hands in hers. You came, I murmured silently.
"I'm here for my girl," she told me. "Brought a portal with me. Hang in there, Palil. I'm here."
Mmmm, I said. Jordan told me a funny story. You should get him to tell you it. It was about Gannon...
If she said anything in response, I didn't hear it as I sank back into fever-dream.
Sondirra:
Seeing Palil so sick was one of the scarier things I've had to watch recently. She was sweating and tossing, her mind speaking in dream fragments that made little sense. I blotted sweat from her forehead, then curled up next to her. I needed sleep--Gorld, did I ever need sleep!--but I needed to be close to Palil. Spending the night away from her wasn't even an option.
The night was way too short, and I woke when false dawn was creeping across the sky. Next to me, Palil was sleeping, quietly. She was still burning with fever, but for the moment she wasn't coughing.
I had an idea, and went to dig in her pack. I found Garnet's sock puppet at the bottom of it, where I knew she'd stashed it. I tucked it into her arms, pulled the blanket up around her shoulders, and tiptoed away.
"What's up?" I asked Jordan. He was chewing on a ration bar, making a face at the taste, and he tossed me one as I sat down.
"Beamer just talked to me. Said they were at breakfast, and the food's pretty good. Better than anything we usually see, anyway. Seems Reuben's army's pretty well supplied. I asked them to bring a couple of things back for Haven to test, I think there may be something weird in them."
"Good idea," I said. I reached out and touched Beamer's mind. What's the good word, Songbird?
We've got a password to get in to the inner compound, but there's a shield on the door that will heat up any metal you bring in pretty good. We go in, we have to leave all our metal behind. Volker and Joab aren't high enough level to get in there, anyway. Weird thing. Everyone here's huge. Well, bigger than normal. The halflings are like four feet tall, the elves are all taller than you, the humans are seven feet tall, all of them. They could field one hell of a ball team, he said. Food's really good, and everyone eats a hell of a lot of it. Nobody seems really unhappy with their lot, either, and they think Isla's the one who attacked Yafa. We'll be out there in a bit. How's Palil?
I shook my head. Not so good. Get out here as soon as you can. Time's short.
Will do. He was as good as his word; within a half hour, he and Tchar were back out. Palil was awake by that time, and I got her to eat something. She was shivering violently the whole time.
Beamer handed Haven what appeared to be a pair of blueberry muffins. "Well, what are we up to?"
I thought about it. Palil was pretty much out of it, and I missed her input something fierce. "We go in. Haven and Neda--wait, where's Neda?"
"I sent her back to the rest. She wasn't feeling well," Haven said.
"Oh. All right, Haven, stay here with Palil, work on those muffins. I'll message Addison and get him in, he'll be able to tell Haven better what's going on in there than any of us. The rest of us, we need to lose all of the metal on us, and I think that includes lockpicks, Beamer. We go in quiet, and don't kill anyone unless we have to. Tchar, how are you feeling?"
He shrugged. "Have a headache, but otherwise okay."
"Good." I took a breath. "Let's get going."
Haven caught me by the elbow before I left. "Palil's probably got six hours or so before she slides into delirium," he said.
I pressed my lips together. "Thanks," I said shortly. "I'll do what I can."
Off we went, to see what we could see.
We passed through the crowd around the compound invisibly, negotiating the line of people who were seeing the green-cloaked mage. There was a steady stream of clerics coming out of the temple, giving handfuls of glass vials to the mage's clone and taking the empty ones away. The clone would take a vial and drink the contents, then lay a hand on the next person in line and mutter. There seemed to be enough for ten inoculations per vial. Then he'd take another vial and start over.
We slipped past the line, following our ant trail of clerics inside. We saw the Captains who Volker had mentioned. she was a big woman for an elf, with her hair cut pretty brutally short, lots shorter than mine, even. She was taller than me and probably had thirty or forty pounds on me--and very little of that fat. Not a soft woman, this one.
Once inside, we came into an antechamber with two doors to either side and an archway leading onward. The clerics were going through the archway. One of the doors, the one on the left, was magically fortified against invisible people going through, with spells that would defeat even our invisibility tablets, as well as an alarm and some fire damage. Beamer leaned his head against the door. Kitchen, he said to us. Definitely.
So why lock the door to the kitchen...unless they were doing something they didn't really want revealed?
A quick jaunt down the way the clerics were going revealed that there was a corridor leading back into the back of the compound that was enchanted pretty much like the door had been. Funny thing, though. All of the clerics going through held up their holy symbol. With a start, I realized that all of these people were clerics of Bahomet.
Bahumet clerics had always been some of the most blamelessly nice people I'd ever met. Their religion pretty much forbade protelyzing, and they tended to spend their lives trying to make the lives of the people around them better. I was sure there were some bad ones, but Bahomet himself was a pretty nice guy for a god, and didn't tend to tolerate much bad behavior.
I could kill one of them pretty easy, Jordan said. Take the symbol and get through that way.
I considered it. Last resort. Let's not get everyone riled up.
We retraced our steps. The door to the right led to the quarters of the clerics and the staff, and there were only a few people there this time of day. We came back out into the antechamber, regarding the door to the kitchen. I wanted to go have a look before we went to go have a chat with the mage. But how?
Salvation came in the form of a butler coming out of the door behind us. He was carrying a tray in his hands, and as he stopped in front if the door and lifted it I saw that it had a symbol of Bahomet on the bottom. The butler stepped through and disappeared.
I looked at Jordan. Him.
Quick and quiet, no problem, once he comes back. Break his neck, shove an invis tablet down his throat, and stash him somewhere. If he comes back out this way. Grab his tray for me.
We waited, tense, for a few minutes. We got lucky. The butler stepped out of the door and it swung shut behind him. We were in a brief lull between clerics, and I held onto the try as Jordan stepped up behind him and swiftly broke his neck and shoved an invisibility tablet into his mouth.
We dragged the guy into the closet, and Beamer took his place and his uniform. We got through the door into the kitchen while Beamer loaded some more food onto the tray. I'd snagged some of the more portable baked goods off of the tray, just in case they turned out to be okay to eat. It had been a really long time since I'd had a good muffin.
It was a bustling kitchen, filled with people rushing around. We had to do some fancy footwork to keep out of everyone's way. The most interesting part was the three mages who moved among the food preparation areas, adding what seemed to be potions to the good before it was cooked. For instance, in the case of the muffins, they'd add some potion to the batter before it was baked, making the batter look magical. Once it was baked, the final product wasn't magic at all--until one of the mages tested one of them by spitting on it, causing the place where his saliva had touched it to go magic.
Clever. Now, what were they doing?
After a bit, we figured out that it was all benign stuff--at least if you weren't an army opposing Reuben's. Growth potions, strength potions, things to make people tougher. Well, we had an answer as to why everyone was so damned tall here. I pulled a muffin out of the bag I'd stuck it in and started munching. Sneaking around always makes me hungry, and as long as it wasn't going to poison me, I was happy.
We stepped back out of the kitchen, passed a quick message to Haven about the muffins, and looked down the long corridor. Ready? I asked Beamer. I'll go in right on your tail, you drop the food off and come back and go invisible again, we'll get everyone in there.
He nodded. Good enough. Stay really close. I put my hands on his shoulders and twinned him down the corridor, stepping close behind his heels.
We got to the end, and I was still invisible. One more hurdle down.
Beamer started in towards the lab, and we walked through a couple of rooms that looked like a library. There were books on lots of different things here, and a shelf label caught my eye as I walked from one room into another. It was a whole shelf of books about the various leaders of the countries, and some of the important people in each.
Including a whole book about Coulter, and another one about Majesta.
What I wouldn't give for a sit-down with those! Later, if we lived, and if I figured out why a mage working in the middle of nowhere would have books on political figures. Right now, I ghosted through the rooms behind Beamer. The archway at the end opened up into a large lab area, busy with clerics coming and going. "Oh, good, you're here," the green-robed half-elf who appeared to be in charge said. "Set it down there, I have about twenty minutes before this batch is done, I'm going to eat first."
Beamer did, and then headed out, leaving me alone. I found a place where nobody would trip over me, and watched.
The green-robed mage, Halsey, was a half-elf with long silver hair and a deeply lined face, probably the result of being outdoors a lot when he was young. He had eyes that were an odd blue-green color. He was likely about a century and a half old, if I didn't miss my guess. Wonder if Reuben sleeps with humans? Never thought about him having half-elven kids. Might explain those books, if Reuben comes to visit. The clerics around him worked quietly, coming in and out of the room. There were usually no less than three clerics in the room, and sometimes as many as half a dozen.
I touched Palil's mind, then drew back, appalled. Even her mind's touch was hot as blazes, and she seemed to be concentrating her whole will on combating the disease. If the next few minutes went badly, or even if it went slowly, she was going to lapse into delirium.
Maybe even die.
Not on my watch.
I thought hard. Palil would probably do something different than what I was about to do. My way might get us all killed, but it also might save Palil, so I was willing to chance it. The others were filtering into the room. Galen and Tchar were the last to arrive. I looked over at them all. I don't think we can take this guy by force, even if we wanted to. I think we're going to have to talk to him.
Now?
Not much choice. Beamer, be visible with me. The rest of you, stay still.
Halsey had finished eating and was pushing back from the table when Beamer and I took the invisibility tablets out of our mouths. The mage blinked. "Sondirra. Must be...Major Sondirra, now?"
I nodded, though I was a little weirded out that he recognized me. "Yes, as much as that means at the moment."
"So this is Captain Beamer. Invisibility tablets?" We nodded. "Thought as much. Nice. So, why are you here?"
The clerics around us were continuing to work, ignoring us. I took a deep breath. "We have something of an offer of employment for you. We want you to do what you're doing here for the rest of the world. We're about to have an epidemic on our hands."
Halsey frowned, the expression in his eyes almost disappointed. "How did it get out?"
"Jezik," I said.
"He's a carrier, then. I wondered how Reuben was going to get it out. I've had the same thought myself, about spreading the inoculation to the world, but I'm afraid I can't help you. If I leave here and go with you, Reuben will tear the world apart down to the stones to find me, just like you would for your own mage. Kane, if I recall correctly."
I nodded. "If we brought Kane to you--"
"I could teach him how to cure it. I could also inoculate people you brought to me."
I chewed on the inside of my cheek briefly. "Honestly? I hate the idea. I also think we don't have much choice. We can work out the details in a bit. We have a member of our team very ill. Can we bring her here?" He nodded, and I reached out to Palil. Love, can you manage to make two portal transits? If you come here, you can be cured.
Her mental touch was feverish, but she didn't seem to be about to pass out. A minute, she said. I held my breath until she appeared. Haven was supporting her, stooped with her arm over his shoulder. Her head was hung low, her long white hair loose and matted with sweat. She took a shaky step, and then another.
Halsey took one look at her and said, "She's in the end stage. You, bring a basin." The indicated cleric turned smoothly and grabbed a metal basin, and Halsey took it from him and shoved it into Palil's hands. "Hold this, you'll want it in a second." Almost reflexively, she clutched it, and as soon as she let go he swigged from a potion and the laid a hand on her, muttering a phrase.
For a second, nothing happened. Then I could feel her temperature drop. She took a deep breath--or tried to. She ended up coughing, and I realized why Halsey had put a basin into her hands. She bent over the basin as she coughed up a pair of lungfuls of mucus. It wasn't pleasant to listen to, but when she was done she took a deep, cool breath, and looked much happier.
"Thank you," she said--well, croaked, her voice was rough from coughing. Halsey nodded, and I silently caught her up with what was going on.
"All right," I said. "We can bring Kane to you, but it'll take us a few days."
"I have another day of work here, but then I can start teaching him."
"Haven, too," I said. "If clerics can learn it."
He eyed Haven doubtfully, and said, "If he's good enough."
I kind of resented that one. "He's good," I said shortly. "I don't like bringing everyone into enemy territory, but we're going to have a serious problem on our hands very quickly if we don't. We can bring people who need to be cured here--Palil was the only one that badly off, but we have a number of people who've been exposed."
"Good," he said. We kept talking as he busied himself about his tasks, and eventually we uncovered the fact that Reuben was his father, and that his personality change seemed to be connected to a staff he'd found in a giant cache, a staff with a crystal on the end and rays of metal coming off of it. Each of the seven rays was a different color.
It was also revealed that Reuben had been the one who'd created the plague, and he was the one who'd shown Halsey how to cure and inoculate against it. "I wish I could figure that staff out," he said. "My father converted to the worship of Tiamat soon after he got his hands on it.
I had an idea. "Just a moment," I said, stepping away. I took a message potion and contacted the Peacekeeper. "Have you ever heard of an artifact, a staff with a crystal on the end and metal rays coming off of it?"
"Likely the Staff of Tiamat," she said. "We buried it with our leader, in hopes it would never be found. If it's been found--" She broke off, then continued. "It contains Tiamat. Her entire personality and her soul is in that staff. She will take over anyone who uses the staff."
I brought the news back to Halsey. "You can double-check that, but that's what my source says," I told him.
He shook his head. "Not the news I wanted to hear. All right. You, make a door in the back wall here with a stoneshaping spell. I'll make a hole in the shield at the back here. Give me twenty-four hours to finish up here, and then start bringing your people through."
Palil had been quiet this entire time. Now, she raised her head. "Halsey, how long after exposure do dragons become contagious?"
He looked at her. "Two days, tops."
Palil looked at me. We saw Chaim and the white dragon army two days after we parted company with Jezik. We have two days before they're all as sick as I was.
She was right, and it was something I hadn't even thought of. Let's go. We need to go talk to Chaim. Gods be good, he's within a day of a portal--
If Chaim died, so would my hope of keeping Jordan with me for longer than his normal lifespan. And if the white dragon army died, so would our hope of keeping peace within Yafa's former territory...as well as the largest part of the white dragons left in the world.
We'd have to save them, was all.
It was only going to be a minor miracle...so I hoped.
Palil:
Once we got back to the gate, I contacted Gada. "We've found a cure. I can give you a portal location--"
"There's no need."
I felt like I'd just been hit in the gut. "What happened?"
Her voice was calm, but there was a tension in it that spoke of a wild sorrow. "All of the dragons in the capital are dead. We closed the borders of the city as soon as we realized what was happening, so we think it's been contained here. The only dragons that live are the black dragons, and Jezik."
Jalena, her bondmate, had been a green.
"I'm so sorry," I said. "Let us know if it looks like it escaped."
"I will," she said, and ended the spell.
I contacted Coulter and gave him the rundown, with Sondirra's help. "You know, you mentioned that dragons and humanoids can re-bond. Orion is still with you?"
"He is. You mean to try to get her to bond with him?"
"It's the only way she's going to survive the next few weeks," he said. "Without a dragon to rule, she will go down."
"I'll talk to Orion," I said. "It's chancy, but it might work."
"Good. Coulter out."
Sondirra brought it up with Orion, and he agreed to at least go meet Gada to see if they might be compatible. And then I sat down with my back to the wall and closed my eyes, listening to the sounds of my command all around me--chatter, laughter, coughing from those who were ill.
I had lived. It was likely the rest of us would, as well, and if I were lucky I'd find the courage to bring up a certain topic with Gannon after he was feeling better.
There were others who had not been so lucky, and might still not be so lucky. And we had unleashed this, without knowing it. Reuben had used us. He'd known someone would come, and I assumed he'd thought it was us.
Not Reuben, though. I imagined there wasn't much of Reuben left in there.
We knew the name of our true foe, now.
Tiamat.
How does one fight a goddess?
Quotes:
"Beamer thinks the swamp is getting nicer and nicer. He doesn't know why. It just seems like home."
--Derek
