I kneel hesitantly, not wanting to scare the little bird, but it barely responds to my presence. I carefully reach out with my gift, the soft green light enveloping the gyrpuff and brushing against its energy. Gyrpuff life sparks are small, of course, given their size, but they’re usually vibrant, since they’re such magical creatures. But this gyrpuff’s spark is feeble, flickering softly. I’m tempted to give it more energy immediately, to share my gift with it, but I shouldn’t do that until I’ve figured out what’s wrong. The cure will be much more effective once I know exactly what I’m curing.
“Do you see any injuries?” I ask Ari, who’s kneeling on the other side of the bird. His gift shimmers in the darkness. Upon closer examination, this gyrpuff is slightly larger than the one we saw in the nest, which means it’s probably male.
“No,” Ari replies. “And I don’t feel any, either. It’s not like he’s in pain, exactly. It’s an illness.”
Unlike my nature gift, Ari’s empathy allows him to sense different things than I do—emotions, namely. He’s as quick to detect illness as any healer, so I’m sure he’s right.
I try to remember the protocol the Seekers shared with us for finding sick creatures. We’ve never actually encountered one during our first month as Seekers. “Well, we can’t touch him, then,” I say. “Might be something contagious that we could spread to other creatures.”
“Right,” Ari says. “Let’s see if we can figure out his symptoms and identify the illness, and then we’ll know whether we can heal him ourselves, or whether we need to get Seeker Larus or Seeker Freyr.”
We probably should contact one of the other Seekers, since they have healing gifts and way more experience than we do. But this is the first serious challenge Ari and I have faced since officially becoming Seekers, and we have to prove that we can handle ourselves. Otherwise they’ll never let us out here on our own again.
“His pulse is steady but weak,” I say, feeling it with my gift. “His breathing isn’t labored. He’s low on energy, but I’m not sensing a source.”
“Me neither,” Ari agrees, closing his eyes to concentrate. “Nothing wrong with him physically, oddly enough, other than the fact that he’s so lethargic. I can’t really pinpoint anything.”
I examine the little gyrpuff again. “Something’s wrong with his feathers. They’re not shiny like they should be, and it looks like he’s got some bald patches. They’re falling out.”
“That could be a symptom of a lot of things,” Ari says.
“True.” I move a little closer to his head. “His beak looks normal.”
As I shine my gift over him, his eyes twitch open, and I gasp. Ari flinches.
“Is he…? Are they…?” I start, but I can’t finish.
Gyrpuffs naturally have big, bright-orange irises that take up most of their eye. It’s one of their most distinguishable features.
But this bird’s eyes are entirely black. Like his pupil has swallowed up his whole eye.
“Have you ever heard of anything like this?” I ask. “Black eyes?”
Ari shakes his head. “Gyrpuffs can go blind, but that usually makes their pupils look white.”
“Well, I guess we should ask the other Seekers,” I say reluctantly. “It’s such an unusual symptom that they should be able to identify what it is.”
Ari nods. “I’m trying to soothe him a little. I’m giving him some happier emotions to make him feel better. But I don’t want to overdo it. If we give him too much energy, he won’t be aware that his body is sick and needs to rest.”
“Good thinking. Maybe you can just get him into a peaceful sleep while we ask the other Seekers about it?”
Ari nods, his eyes closed as he works with his gift. The gyrpuff’s life spark brightens a little, so whatever Ari’s doing must be working.
After a moment, Ari opens his eyes again. “All right,” he says. “That’s all I can do for now.”
“Do you think one of us should stay with him?” I ask. “I hate to just leave him here all alone.”
“The Seekers are already going to be furious with us for coming out here together. Imagine how much worse it will be if one of us stays out here alone.”
“Will they really care about those rules in an emergency?” I ask.
“I’m pretty sure emergencies are when the rules are most important,” Ari says, and I sigh.
“Fine. We’ll go together for help. Do you think we can find this nest again? We need to remember exactly where it is.”
“We’ve got the ribbons,” Ari reminds me, reaching for his satchel.
“Oh. Right.” The Seekers gave us a small bag of supplies, but I keep forgetting everything we have, since they’ve never actually given us any opportunities to use it. They did say something about using ribbons to mark locations we need to return to, now that I think about it.
We climb down from the nest carefully, reentering the slightly bigger one, where the mama gyrpuff we scared away still hasn’t returned. Ari digs a bright-blue ribbon from his satchel and looks around for a place to tie it. Finally, we spot a large enough branch on a cliffside bush, and Ari makes quick work of knotting the ribbon around the end of it.
“Um, Ari…,” I say, glancing up the side of the cliff, “how were we planning to get back up?”
Ari’s eyes widen. “Um…”
“You think Lilja could…?”
We try attracting Lilja’s attention with our gifts, but our dragon is apparently uninterested in helping out. Which leaves us stuck in a gyrpuff’s nest on the side of a cliff, trying to figure out what to do.
Eventually, we manage to identify a couple of spots that will serve as handholds and footholds to get us up to the next ledge over. We climb the whole painstaking way up like this. At the top, Lilja is taking a nap. She cracks one eye open when we approach and gives us a look as if to ask what took so long.
“You are the laziest dragon in history,” Ari says to her.
Lilja closes her eye again.
It takes several minutes of nudging her with our gifts before Lilja reluctantly wakes up, spreads her wings, and lets us climb onto her back. A minute later, we’re in the air.
As we soar away from the cliffs, I glance back over my shoulder, as if I could somehow see the blue ribbon fluttering in the air, beckoning us to the poor creature who needs our help.
Hang on, little gyrpuff, I think. We’re going to save you.
FOUR
It’s midafternoon by the time Ari and I reach Dragon’s Point, where Lilja drops us off. It’s too early for the other Seekers to have left the Realm yet. “Who’s off duty today?” I ask Ari as we land.
“Seeker Freyr, I think.”
I groan. Out of the current Council, Seeker Freyr is my least favorite. Ari and I beat his son Tomas during the Seeker competition, and he definitely still holds a grudge. But at the moment, he’ll be the only Seeker not currently busy in the Realm. We could go back to the Valley of Ash to see if Seeker Ludvik is still there, but he’s probably moved on by now.
“Guess we’d better find Freyr,” Ari says, sounding as reluctant as I feel. “At least he’s one of the healers,” he adds. “I’m sure he’ll know what to do for the gyrpuff.”
He’s probably right, but I still wish we could speak to Seeker Larus instead. He’s the head of the Council, since he’s the most experienced Seeker, and he’s a healer, so he’d be an even bigger help. Plus, he doesn’t hate us, unlike Seeker Freyr.
Ari and I wave goodbye to Lilja as she flies back into the Realm—probably going to resume her nap—before making our way down the side of the rocky slope and following the path back to the center of the village. Seeker Freyr’s hut is located just off the main square, so it doesn’t take us long to reach it. Ari raps twice on the front door, fidgeting nervously with the clasp of his cloak.
Unfortunately, it’s Tomas who opens the door.
He scowls the minute he sees us, and I’m pretty sure my expression mirrors his. “Oh,” he mutters, “it’s you.”<
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Ari draws himself up, as if trying to look more official. “We need to speak with Seeker Freyr,” he says. “It’s urgent.”
Tomas rolls his eyes. “Duh. Why else would you be here?”
“Is he awake?” I cut in.
“No. Come back later. Or never, preferably.”
“This can’t wait,” Ari says. “Wake him up.”
Tomas sneers. “You’d better have a good excuse for this,” he says, “or he’ll be furious.”
“Just do it,” I say.
Tomas slams the door in our faces.
Ari and I glance at each other. “Think he’s waking him?” I ask.
“No idea.”
A minute passes, then two. I’m about to suggest we try breaking the door down when suddenly it swings open again. A rather disheveled-looking Seeker Freyr stands in the doorway, a cloak haphazardly wrapped around his shoulders. He blinks at us with bleary eyes and a scowl. “What is it?”
Ari has to open and close his mouth a couple of times before managing to speak. “Emergency,” he croaks.
I quickly take over. “We found a sick gyrpuff in the Realm,” I say. “He’s lethargic and unresponsive, and his energy is very weak. We couldn’t identify the illness, but he needs a healer now.”
Immediately Seeker Freyr looks a little more awake, though he hasn’t stopped scowling. “You were alone in the Realm? Just the two of you?”
Ari and I exchange glances. “We were with Seeker Ludvik for dragon training today,” I say finally. “We were on our way out of the Realm when we found the gyrpuff.”
I don’t think for a moment that Seeker Freyr has missed the glaring omissions in that story, but he doesn’t take the time to question it right now. “And you checked all of its symptoms like we’ve taught you?”
“Yes,” I say impatiently. “He’s breathing steadily, and his pulse is fine. But he’s losing his feathers, he hardly responded to us at all, and his eyes have gone completely black.”
Seeker Freyr freezes, his gaze locked on to me. “What did you say?”
“His eyes,” Ari echoes. “They were black.”
“Completely black,” I add.
For a few heartbeats, Seeker Freyr doesn’t say anything. “That can’t be right,” he says finally. “You must be mistaken.”
Ari and I glance at each other.
“With all due respect, Seeker,” I say, “we’re not mistaken. We both saw it. We thought you’d know what it is.”
“What it is,” Seeker Freyr repeats, “is impossible. We eradicated that long ago.”
I hold back a sigh. It’s clear he doesn’t believe us, but I don’t know why we expected him to. “Come see for yourself,” I say. “If we’re wrong, then I’m sure it’s something else that you can cure. And if we’re right…”
“For the sake of the Realm,” Seeker Freyr says gravely, “you’d best hope you’re not right. Wait here a moment.” With that, he closes the door in our faces again.
Ari looks at me. “That was ominous,” he says.
I shrug. “He’s probably just being dramatic.”
But whatever the problem is, Seeker Freyr is certainly in a rush. He returns only a moment later, fully dressed in his Seeker cloak and throwing a satchel over his shoulder. “Seeker Ari,” he says, “do you remember where you saw this gyrpuff?”
“Yes, Seeker,” Ari says. “We were tracking along the southern cliffs. We flagged the spot with a blue ribbon.”
“Good. I need you to take me to this gyrpuff immediately. And you—” He turns to me. “Find the bellmaster and have the highest bell rung, right now. Then go to Dragon’s Point and wait for Larus and Ludvik. When they land, tell them we’re assembling a meeting immediately.”
“A meeting? Right now?” I ask, but Seeker Freyr is already rushing past me, hurrying down the steps and onto the street. Ari hastens to follow him.
“Right now, Seeker. Do it,” Seeker Freyr calls over his shoulder as he rushes away.
In moments, he and Ari have disappeared down the street.
“Well,” I say to no one, “all right, then.”
I don’t know what the rush is, but it must be important if it’s got Seeker Freyr calling for a Council meeting while the other Seekers are in the Realm. The highest bell in the tower is used only to call the Seekers from the Realm in case of emergency. I can’t remember the last time it was used.
I run through the village and up the hill to the chapel, which is dwarfed by the bell tower rising above it. There are three village bells, all controlled by our bellmaster, Elder Armann. The larger ones are rung at dawn and dusk, and on particular holidays or special occasions. They’re just ordinary village bells. But the smallest, highest one of the trio is imbued with magic, allegedly cast in the fires of a Realm volcano, and its signal will carry to anyone on the island, even if they’re within the depths of the Realm itself.
I scurry into the chapel and spot Elder Armann polishing the candles under the small stone archway.
“Good afternoon, Seeker Bryn,” he says brightly as I approach. “What can I do for you?”
“I need you to ring the highest bell,” I say, and he freezes.
“Is something wrong? Have the Vondur returned? Are we under attack?”
“No,” I say quickly, “nothing like that. But there is a Seeker-related emergency, and Seeker Freyr has asked me to ring the bell at once.”
“Of course,” he says. “Of course.” He drops his cleaning rag and hastens toward the steps of the bell tower. “Right away, Seeker.”
His words give me a surge of confidence, and I straighten my spine. Not all of the villagers are so quick to recognize me as a Seeker just yet. But I am a real Seeker, and this is my first big job. I’ve got to handle it exactly right.
I leave the tower and rush up the path to Dragon’s Point, which is deserted when I arrive. I sit down in the grass just as the high, clear notes of the bell ring across the landscape.
Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.
I don’t know exactly where in the Realm the others are now. Seeker Ludvik and Seeker Larus have been pretty focused on strengthening the boundary spells ever since the Vondurs’ almost-successful attack a month ago. They’ve been traveling all over the length of the Realm to work on the spells, so there’s no telling where they’ve ended up.
Fortunately, their dragons are fast, so I don’t have long to wait. In less than five minutes, the familiar shape of a dragon emerges from the clouds. As it nears, the sunlight glints off its golden scales. It’s Gulldrik, Seeker Larus’s dragon, whom we met in the valley this morning. Seeker Larus must’ve entered the Realm sometime after that.
Within moments, Gulldrik lands, and Seeker Larus slips gracefully off his back. “Seeker Bryn?” he asks, concern in his voice. “What’s happened?”
I realize, abruptly, that I haven’t even thought about how I’m going to explain this to the other Seekers. “Um, Seeker Freyr asked me to ring the bells and call a Council meeting,” I say. “Ari and I found a sick gyrpuff at the southern cliffs. We couldn’t identify the illness, so we went to Seeker Freyr, and when he heard its symptoms, he rushed off with Ari to find it and told me to wait for you here.”
Seeker Larus frowns. “Why would a sick gyrpuff require a meeting?” he asks.
“I’m not sure exactly,” I say. “Seeker Freyr seemed very concerned about it when we told him the gyrpuff has black eyes.”
I don’t remember ever seeing Seeker Larus look startled, but he looks that way now. He blinks, and for a moment he says nothing. “Black eyes?” he asks finally. “Are you certain?”
“Yes. Both Ari and I saw it.”
Seeker Larus looks over his shoulder, in the direction of the Realm. “It can’t be….”
“Seeker?” I ask hesitantly. “What do the black eyes mean? Why is everyone so concerned?”
Seeker Larus twists around sharply, like he forgot for a moment that I’m here. “We’ll discuss it at the meeting,” he says finally.
“I must ask Seeker Freyr what he thinks after he’s had a moment to examine the gyrpuff. Where did you find it?”
“A nest at the southern cliffs,” I say. “We flagged the spot with ribbon so that we could find it again.”
“Good thinking,” Seeker Larus says with an approving nod. “Regardless of whether this turns out to be as serious as I fear it is, you and Seeker Ari have done excellent work, bringing this to our attention.”
Before I can respond, the sound of beating wings echoes above us as a second dragon emerges from the clouds. It’s Snorri, and Seeker Ludvik is perched atop his back. “What’s wrong, Larus?” he calls before the dragon has even finished landing. “I heard the bells!”
Seeker Larus glances at me before he speaks. “We need to hold a meeting immediately,” he says. “I’ll fill you in on the way.”
After they send their dragons back into the Realm, we walk down the path to the village together, and Seeker Larus quickly repeats the story to Seeker Ludvik, whose mouth falls open in shock when Seeker Larus mentions the black eyes. “If it’s true…,” Seeker Ludvik says, “if it’s come back…”
“I know,” Seeker Larus says gravely. “We must take precautions immediately. We can’t allow it to spread like last time.”
“Spread?” I repeat. “You mean the illness?”
They both glance at me and turn quickly away, and I can barely contain my frustration. I know they still see me as a twelve-year-old girl, but I’m a Seeker now, and I’m supposed to know what’s going on. “Tell me,” I say. “What are we dealing with?”
“It’s best if we wait until we’re sure,” Seeker Larus says finally. “Once Seeker Freyr returns, we’ll explain everything to you and Seeker Ari.”
That’s hardly an answer, but it seems to be the best I’m going to get.
Before becoming a Seeker, I assumed that private Council meetings took place somewhere grand and formal. Which is silly, now that I think about it, because there isn’t a single grand or formal building anywhere on the island. Instead, the designated meeting place is the tiny front room in Seeker Larus’s hut, which is stuffed full of comfy furniture. After we arrive, I sink into a plush armchair across from Seeker Ludvik while Seeker Larus bustles about in the kitchen, making us a pot of tea.
Legend of the Realm Page 4
