by Willa Hart
Careful, Sarkany. While you mean everything to me, and out of respect for our relationship, I will care for your fated-mate as is required by law, but do not ask me to end my life, your life, and Lady Alanna’s life when there is nothing we can do for Huali without all of us, including her, dying, Leo thinks. Leo’s energy shifts and his thoughts turn toward entering Huali’s mind.
Huali goes still. Her twitching stops. Her body goes soft. Her eyes close.
Oh my Goddess, have we allowed Meela’s sister to die? I think.
Not yet, thinks Leo. But I’m certain that should Uncle get his way, we all will be dead quite soon.
Chapter Seven
Taraz
My bone is set and cast, but Meela remains unconscious. A fire crackles in the hearth beside her bed. She hasn’t opened her eyes for days. I sit in a chair beside her, and for what feels like the millionth time, I reach out my mind to her.
Meela? Meela, can you hear me?
Nothing.
Then to my brothers in turn, Sarkany? Sarkany, can you hear me?
Nothing.
Leo, are you there? Are you alive?
Nothing.
There is no response. Are my brothers in limbo? Hurt? Bound? Mind-tied? Catatonic? I don’t know what fate has befallen them. I don’t know where they are, if they are ill. Are they with Uncle who wishes to see us all dead, or are they alive and hurt? Or mind-frozen?
The color of Meela’s skin is that of dirty snow. Grey. Ashen. She doesn’t stir and she barely breathes. The Wolveskin provide her with everything that she needs to heal her body and hopefully her mind. Rex and his pack are kind and have provided me and Meela with all that we could want and need.
We’re lucky we got away, and even if it is just the two of us, we will and can survive. And while I am merely a scientist and not a warrior, somehow I will find a way to make my uncle pay for this uncertainty, this pain and the death of the people that I love.
“Prince Taraz, how is your arm?” Doctor Atta enters Meela’s room. She walks to me and examines my fingers. I move them for her. “No pain?”
“None. I can feel the bones healing.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Really?”
“An Eliterrati gift.”
“Does it hurt? When they heal?”
I shake my head. “Bone growth feels similar to stretching muscles.”
“So interesting.” Her eyes glance over me. “What I wouldn’t do to examine you and three more Dregs.”
A shiver runs through me. While as a scientist I can appreciate what Dr. Atta means, I suddenly also understand why Sharalla was so offended when I mentioned examining her. Specimens that doctors examine are rarely kept alive.
Satisfied that my arm is healing, Doctor Atta turns to Meela. “Still unconscious.” She gently lifts Meela’s eyelid and shines a doctor’s light into Meela’s eye. “Still responsive.” She uncovers Meela’s leg and carefully unbandages the wound. Doctor Atta’s lips press into a grim line. I stand and join her beside Meela.
“The wound is festering,” she says. Black lines trace up and down from the gash and through the veins in Meela’s legs. “We’ve tried every antidote I have,” she says.
Doctor Atta’s face tells me all I need to know: without an antidote and soon, Meela will die. “Have you linked with her? Through her mind?”
I shake my head slowly. “Do dreams count?”
“I don’t know,” Dr. Atta says. “Do they?”
“No,” I sigh. “She’s been in my mind when I sleep, but I’m unable to link and communicate with her.” Has the infection reached her brain? If it does, we may not get Meela back from this infection. My heart hurts not just for Sarkany but for me as well. “How much time?” I ask.
“It’s difficult to determine,” Dr. Atta says. “I’m not certain what the pathogen is that has infected her bloodstream. If she were a Wolveskin, based on the wound I’d estimate twenty-four to thirty-six hours. With a normal human or Eliterrati I’d estimate less time than that, perhaps twelve hours?”
“Meela is an enigma,” I say.
“So I’ve heard,” Dr. Atta says. She places a clean bandage on the wound. “I’ve never heard or read about a human that can mind-link and communicate with animals.” Dr. Atta’s eyebrows knit together. “Is that a common trait with Eliterrati?”
“No,” I say. I reach out and squeeze Meela’s hand. “But Meela is anything but common.” I send a tendril to her mind, Please, Meela, please open your eyes.
Dr. Atta turns to me. “I’ll keep looking for an antidote. She isn’t important to just you and your Kingdom…” She drops her gaze to Meela. “There are stories in our lore as well…that a low-born shall come and mend the fracture of the Wolveskin.”
“I’m interested to hear about this tale, but—” I look at Meela.
“Someday,” Dr. Atta says, “perhaps when your mate isn’t so ill.”
I shake my head. “She’s not my mate she’s—”
“I understand,” she says with a knowing look. “It’s the same in our culture as well—the male is often the last to know. And with scientists?” She gives me a wry little smile. “Well, the affairs of the heart are often ignored by the logic portion of our brains until we simply can’t ignore our feelings any longer.” With that, Dr. Atta leaves the room.
I sit in the chair beside Meela’s bed. Is the logic portion of my brain overriding feelings in my heart? I stare into her face. She’s beautiful. I know her to be funny. She is brave and she is smart. One of the greatest gifts is that she loves my brother with a love so fierce I could feel it in my body and in my mind. I lean forward and press the flat of her hand to my cheek. I close my eyes. A spark of pain…melancholy…fear that I might never get the opportunity to know whether this is the woman that I am meant to love.
“Meela,” I say, frustration in my voice. I am the smartest brother with regards to science and medicine and math, and there is nothing I can do. I lean back in the chair and wrap Meela’s fingers through mine and pray to the Goddess to find a way to save Meela.
I stand in a cave. Light beams in through cracks in the rocks above me. I walk through the light, and it shimmers and sparkles and dances over my skin. Darkness is on either side. Ahead of me is a staircase made of silver stone. I walk up the wide steps. At the top, on a throne made of emerald glass, sits a Queen. My Queen. I kneel before her. She reaches out her hand and I take it. I press my lips to her palm. On five fingers there are five rings. I tilt my head up and look into her face.
Her black hair streams out behind her as though a wind whispers through the cavern. A wind that is only for her. Her eyes are black as the night with a silver circle around her pupils. She is beautiful. Radiant. Her gown is deep Roya-Purple with the ochre seal of the Dreg above her heart. She wears the Queen’s broach. And her face…on her face is a smile.
Taraz, do not kneel before me. I am your Queen as I am Queen of all, but I also have the pleasure of being your fated-mate as well as your Queen. I do not require you to kneel.
I stand and step forward, up to the Queen on the throne. There are three thrones to her left and two to her right. All empty. She stands before me, and I look into her eyes. Her face…hers is the face that I fell in love with. The second Roya brother to love her and call her my fated-mate.
Meela, I’ve missed you.
Why did you stay away so long? she thinks. A smile plays around her lips as though she is teasing me about my absence.
Somehow, I know that I’ve been gone a very short while, but any time away from Meela is like being away from the sun.
A moment without you is a lifetime, I think
That is as it will always be between fated-mates, she thinks. No matter the actual time we are apart, it feels as though it is a lifetime.
I hear the yip of wolf pups bounce across the chamber walls. Here they come! She thinks, the puppies!
I turn; running and tumbling, three little balls of fluff romp across the throne room floor, n
ipping at each other and growling and teasing. They can be no more than six weeks old.
A warmth fills me with the sight of the puppies; it’s as though they’re mine. An older Wolveskin in wolf form and an Eliterrati follow behind the three pups.
It’s time for their classes, Meela thinks. I certainly hope that they listen today. I’m quite finished with scolding them.
I wonder who they belong to?
Meela looks at me and smiles. Oh my darling, I was so very surprised when I discovered your humor, and even now, I am never certain if you tell the truth or if you joke.
Joke?
The puppies, they are ours.
I wake with a start. My eyes jerk open and I bolt upright. “Meela!”
Dr. Atta has returned and she stands beside me with her hand on my shoulder. “Prince Roya, she…Meela is still unconscious.”
I look at Meela and my heart aches. The dream. My dream. There were five thrones beside my…my Queen. Meela? Meela were you there with me? Can you come to me in my thoughts?
There is no response, but Meela moves in the bed. Her hand flails as though she fights an unseen assailant.
“Meela, you’re safe,” I say.
Her feet start to shift under her blanket. Running, she is running, and her arms are moving.
Dr. Atta moves toward Meela and takes her arm, feeling for her pulse.
“Meela, please, you’re okay,” I say. I place my hand on her shoulder. Softly, gently as if trying to reassure her. I think of sunshine and safety and try to transmit my feelings of being in a safe and secure place through my touch to her. She takes a deep breath, lets out a long sigh, and relaxes with my touch. Her running stops, and her arms still.
Meela? Meela, do you know that I’m here?
Nothing comes to me. No thoughts. No images. I can’t reach her, and yet with my touch she relaxes.
Please Goddess, let her come back to me. To lose Sarkany and Leo and Meela too?
Feeling floods through me. A deep feeling that I am surprised by and unsure of, and it’s not just caring for my brother’s fated-mate. This feeling is deeper than simply caring for another. I stare at Meela’s face and when I consider never seeing her brown eyes again…never seeing her smile…never hearing her laugh? I wonder how I would survive this world.
“Prince Taraz?” My gaze springs from Meela’s face to Dr. Atta. In the doorway stands Sharalla.
She glances from me to Meela. “Would you come with me, please? We’ve…our Alpha…Rex needs to speak with you.”
“I do not wish to leave her,” I say.
“I understand, as does our Alpha. If it weren’t important to the safety of the pack, he would not summon you.”
Summon? The word needles me.
“I’ll stay with her,” Dr. Atta says. “If anything changes I’ll send a runner for you.”
I am comforted by Dr. Atta’s words, and logically I realize the likelihood of Meela’s condition changing in the next thirty minutes while I speak with Rex is unlikely.
“Please, Prince Taraz, our Alpha needs to see you now.”
I pull my hand from Meela’s. Sharalla joins me by Meela’s side.
“I promise I’ll watch her closely while you’re gone,” Dr. Atta says.
I believe her. I trust her words, and yet, I can barely stand to leave Meela alone. She’s so vulnerable and weak and the only thing that I want to do is sit by her side. Slowly, I turn away from Meela and toward the door.
“Do you know this human?” Rex’s voice thunders through the throne room.
In front of Rex, hanging from the ceiling like a side of beef on a hook is—
“Jix!” I say. I rush to my assistant’s side. “He works with me in my lab. He is…he is brilliant. Can you untie him?”
“Prince Taraz.” Jix wiggles like a worm on a hook; he whips around as though trying to see me. “Praise the Goddess, I’m happy to see you.”
I glance to the wolf guards who stand by Jix’s side.
“He wounded one of my warriors,” King Rex says. “If he weren’t your human and part of your pack, I’d gut him and have his hide.”
The guard to Jix’s left has a black eye. He’s easily double my size. How could Jix have hurt that Wolveskin and survived?
“He…uh…he is part of my pack. Please, can you untie him?”
Rex nods toward the guards, and one of them slices the leather binding around Jix’s ankles. He falls to the ground.
Thud.
“Jix, where were you? How did they find you?”
“He wandered in the woods for the last six days,” Rex says.
“Amazing,” I say. “And you survived?”
“I did, sir,” Jix says. “Between the snow and the hares, I was able to live.”
“So you managed to escape when we were ambushed at the hunting lodge?”
Jix’s eyes fill with shame and he glances at the ground. “Yes, sir,” he mumbles. “I’m sorry, Prince Taraz, but I was unable to fight off the guards. I’ve not been trained. I did manage to send one to the Goddess, but it was all I could do. When I saw that you’d run after Meela I followed you, but I lost you in the Dark Forest. I was afraid to call out for fear that the guards would hear me and find us all.”
“You were wise to stay silent, Jix,” I say. I glance at Rex, now standing beside his throne. “Can we feed him?” I ask.
Rex nods. “Anything that you might need while you are my guests is yours. You know this.”
“I do and I thank you for your kindness and continued hospitality. I know that we’ve overstayed, but while I am unable to contact my brothers…” I shake my head and glance from Jix to Rex. “I don’t know how long we’ll have to stay.”
“My lair is your home until such time as you no longer need it. I see that you are honorable for an Eliterrati and I…I’m familiar with your Meela.”
I help Jix to his feet.
Familiar? I wonder what Rex means. I look to Jix. “Let’s get you cleaned up and fed.”
“Meela? Prince Taraz, has Meela survived?”
Jix’s thoughts and feelings and emotions toward Meela are on his face. He loves her. He loves Meela as a man loves a woman. I can tell from his mind that Jix has loved Meela for a very long time.
“She is…” I shake my head. “She is not well,” I say.
“It was poison, wasn’t it sir? Poison upon the blades?”
“How do you know?”
“I smelled it, sir. It had the scent of the dung ants of Ninaku. They are deadly, sir, their bite can kill a Dreg within hours.”
“Dung ants? Hmmm…I wonder… Do we know what the basis of the poison is?” I glance toward Rex and he lifts an eyebrow.
“Go! Go now,” Rex says. “Doctor Atta is an excellent chemist as well as a doctor. There isn’t much time for your Meela. This may be the clue that Atta needs to save her.”
“Come on, Jix,” I say and dash toward the door. Jix is right behind me. “We haven’t much time. You may have just given us the clue that could save Meela’s life.”
“Hmm.” Dr. Atta picks up a specimen jar and holds it to the light. “You say that the poison on the blade smelled of dung ants? From the Ninaku district?”
“You have them? A specimen?” Jix asks, his voice hopeful.
“No,” Dr. Atta says. “We don’t have dung ants in the Dark Forest nor have I been to Ninaku, but I may have a similar type of ant that has a different name. If we find one that is similar enough, then I can perhaps create an antidote.”
Perhaps isn’t the word I want to hear where Meela’s life and health are concerned, but then again we have no other options. Necessity is the mother of invention, and I hope to the Goddess that my and Dr. Atta’s scientific minds can find a way to create an antidote and save Meela.
“And what color are these dung ants?” Dr. Atta asks Jix.
Jix is beside me; we are both trailing Dr. Atta as she walks between the giant shelves of her specimen storage room. I’ve spent many hours
in here with her over the last few days, but Jix rubbernecks at the multitude of specimen bottles and different creatures in formaldehyde jars. Dr. Atta’s lab is a treasure trove of biology. Some of these creatures I’ve seen and actually have in my own lab at the Palace, while other creatures—like the two-headed wombatton—are completely new to me.
“Over here, please,” she calls.
“This is quite a repository of specimens,” I say. “I’m incredibly impressed.”
“Our pack has maintained this biological laboratory for over two hundred years,” Dr. Atta says. “Ever since my familial line determined that having this collection could help in the medicinal approach to curing our pack.” She pulls open a drawer in one of her specimen cabinets. “Jix, you mentioned that you believe this dung ant is specific to Ninaku?”
Jix nods. “I’ve never seen one in the Palace, but I haven’t lived in the Palace very long.”
“Understood.” Dr. Atta opens a drawer that is filled with beetles. “How large?
“The size of my thumb,” Jix says.
“Pincers?”
“Yes,” Jix says. “The pincers are where the poison comes from.”
“Interesting!” Dr. Atta looks up from the drawer which contains rows and rows of bottles with dead bugs inside them. “And very helpful. I only have four specimens of insect that actually have hollow pincers, and only two of those four convey their toxins through their pincers.” She rushes down an aisle and both Jix and I follow. She stops in front of a big glass case and pulls open the front doors. Inside are drawers upon drawers, each labeled in the Wolveskin language.
“Aw, Wolveskin,” Dr. Atta smiles. “I’m guessing the two of you don’t know it?”
“Until I got thumped in the woods by a Wolveskin and brought back here, I thought there was no such thing,” Jix says. “Just fairytales told in Ninaku to keep Dreg children from wandering out into the woods.” Jix shakes his head. “Simply thought I was going to be lunch for a wolf.”
Dr. Atta grimaces at Jix’s words but returns to her placid smile. “A common mistake by your kind. And proof that our disinformation campaign has been a success.”
