If they won’t do anything to save the gyrpuffs, then I’ll just have to do it myself. Even if it means going into the Realm in secret.
FIVE
I return home that evening with a plan.
Elisa greets me as I walk up the garden path. Ever since I became a Seeker, she’s started pestering me with all kinds of questions. I haven’t had the heart to explain to her that I haven’t been allowed to see much of the Realm yet.
“What did you see today?” she asks. “Were there firecats or unicorns or—”
“Gyrpuffs,” I tell her, trying to muster some fake enthusiasm. Elisa jumps up and down in excitement. She’s still learning all about the creatures of the Realm, and they excite her just as much as Papa’s stories excited me when I first heard them.
“Did they disappear right in front of you? Did they make any sounds?”
“Yes,” I say, but I don’t really have it in me for this conversation right now. “Does Mama need help cooking?”
Elisa follows me into the hut, where we find Mama chopping vegetables at the table. “Just in time,” Mama says. “The chicken stew needs to be stirred, Brynja. Elisabet, your tea is ready.”
“Hi, Mama,” I say with a grin. Giving orders is Mama’s usual form of greeting. But the chicken stew means she’s in a good mood. Now that I’m a Seeker and going to start trading things I find in the Realm, we can afford nicer ingredients for meals, and Mama’s even been splurging on the chicken sometimes. Of course, I haven’t actually gotten very much from the Realm to trade yet, so I’d better start finding more things soon.
Elisa sits at the table before a steaming mug of her starflower tea. “Bryn saw gyrpuffs in the Realm today!” she begins excitedly.
“Is that so?” Mama says, chopping briskly. “Bryn, make sure that stew thickens up right.”
“Yes, Mama.” I head to the pot over the fire and begin to stir. For a few minutes, I close my eyes and enjoy the familiar sounds of home—Elisa’s chatter, Mama’s footsteps, the bubbling stew. Before I became a Seeker, all I wanted was to get out of this hut every day. But now that I spend so much time at Seeker meetings and training sessions, it’s nice to come home to something familiar.
Dinner is nearly ready by the time Papa strides through the door, setting down his walking stick and shrugging out of his coat. Elisa starts babbling to him right away, luckily, so I’m saved from having to answer any questions about what happened in the Realm.
It doesn’t last long, though. As we sit down at the table and begin to eat, Papa turns immediately to me. “I heard the bells,” he says. “What happened?”
Of course. As a former Seeker, Papa knows exactly what that signal means.
“The bells were pretty,” Elisa chimes in, splashing her spoon around in her bowl of stew.
“Manners, Elisabet,” Mama says, placing her hand over Elisa’s.
For a moment I hope Papa’s been distracted enough to forget the question, but he looks expectantly at me. “Well, Bryn?”
“Ari and I found a sick gyrpuff in the Realm,” I explain. “We couldn’t heal it ourselves, so we asked Seeker Freyr, and then he rang the bells to call in the other Seekers.”
Papa immediately homes in on the missing information in this story. “Seeker Freyr wasn’t able to heal the gyrpuff either?”
“He said it was some kind of… plague,” I say carefully. “One that the Seekers have seen before.”
Papa freezes, his spoon halfway to his mouth. “I see,” he says carefully. “Well, I’m sure you’ll get it all straightened out.”
I frown. Papa’s forehead is creased in concern, and I suspect he knows exactly what kind of plague I’m talking about. But instead of asking any more questions, he changes the subject and starts telling Mama about how some of the garden vegetables are doing. No one asks me anything else for the rest of the meal.
But after dinner, Papa takes me aside. While Mama does the dishes and Elisa runs behind the clothesline to our bedroom, Papa leads me into the garden.
“Was it the black eyes?” he asks me immediately, and I nod. He sighs, running a hand over his beard. “I was afraid so. I can’t believe it’s come back.”
“It was before you became a Seeker, right?” I ask.
“Yes. But I saw the devastation it wrought. I became a Seeker while the Realm’s population was still recovering from the loss.”
“The other Seekers have decided to quarantine the area where we found the gyrpuff. The whole cliff. They say there’s nothing we can do except to stop the plague from spreading.”
“They may be right,” Papa says. “They’ve seen this before. And we certainly wouldn’t want the plague to reach other portions of the Realm.”
I stare at him. I can’t believe Papa, of all people, would be in favor of this plan. “But what about the gyrpuffs? We can’t just leave them all there to die. We have to find a way to save them.”
“And I’m sure you will,” Papa says. “Perhaps this time you’ll all be able to find a cure. But don’t take any chances with this, Bryn. It could endanger the entire Realm.”
“I understand,” I say. “I just think there’s got to be something more I can do.”
“Well, this is why a little new blood on the Council is always a good thing. You and Ari will bring optimism and new ideas, and perhaps that’s what you need to find the solution.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Except the other Seekers aren’t really letting me and Ari do anything. They still don’t let us into the Realm unsupervised.” I leave out the part about how I broke the rules today and got us into more trouble. Papa doesn’t need to know about that.
“This must be quite upsetting for them,” Papa says. “Seeker Freyr lost his first dragon to the plague. It must have been devastating.”
“I didn’t know that,” I say, and for a moment I actually do feel a pang of sympathy for Seeker Freyr. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose Lilja.
“I’m sure they’ll come around.” Papa gives me a pat on the shoulder. “Everyone’s emotions are just running high.”
“Yeah,” I say. “I guess.”
He gives me another pat. “You’ll all figure it out, Bryn. Protecting the Realm is what the rest of the Council has been doing for decades, and I’m sure you and Seeker Ari are more than up to the task.”
Papa returns to the hut a minute later, but I sit outside on the garden bench to think. He’s right about finding a solution, but I don’t think the Seekers are ever going to listen to me about it, not when they still see me as an inexperienced little girl. I’m going to have to enact this plan myself. I’ll make sure that the Realm stays safe. I’ll find a cure for the plague. And when I do, the other Seekers will finally have to start taking me seriously.
Luckily, I know just the person who can help me.
* * *
By the time I arrive at Runa’s farm, the sun has set, and only a few slivers of moonlight illuminate the path leading to her hut. Her family will likely already be in bed, but I walk up to the door anyway. One of the perks of being a Seeker.
Runa’s mama opens the door. “Good evening, Seeker Bryn,” she says. “We were just heading to bed.”
“Sorry to disturb you,” I say quickly. “I need to speak with Runa for a minute. It’s about a Seeker matter.”
“I see.” She studies me a moment, then nods. “I’ll get her.”
Runa appears a moment later, wearing a loose nightgown embroidered with flowers, her black hair neatly braided. “What’s wrong?”
I pull Runa into the garden, out of earshot of her parents. “I need to tell you something about the Realm,” I say. “But this has to be a secret, okay? We’re not supposed to tell anyone.”
“Okay,” she says, looking concerned. “You know I can keep a secret.”
I quickly recount what happened today. By the time I finish, Runa’s eyes are wide.
“I can’t believe that there was a plague like that in the Realm and no one ever knew,” she s
ays.
“I know. But now that it’s back, we have to figure out how to save all the infected creatures. The other Seekers think it’s enough to establish a quarantine for the gyrpuffs and leave them there to die, so that the plague dies out too. But I don’t think that’s right. There’s got to be a cure that will save the gyrpuffs. There’s got to be a way.”
“Maybe,” Runa says slowly, “but if the Seekers couldn’t find a solution before…”
“That was ages ago.” I wave one hand dismissively. “We know a lot more about magical healing than we used to. And I’m sure the best young healer in the village can figure it out.”
Runa immediately shakes her head. “No way. I’m not nearly experienced enough to handle some kind of death plague, Bryn. I’m not even a real healer!”
“But you know more about healing than anyone.”
“You should be asking the doctor or the other Seekers or—”
“They’re not going to listen to me. But you will. I know you can do this.”
“I don’t—”
“Just think about it, okay? It’s a plague that drains healing energy. If you encountered something like that, what would your first instinct be?”
As I suspected, Runa can’t resist the challenge of trying to figure it out. Her eyes light up as she tilts her head to the side, pondering the question. “Well, using healing magic directly on the creatures won’t work, then,” she says. “It’ll just feed the plague. But direct healing isn’t the only form of medicine. I’d try a potion or a tonic. There might be some kind of ingredient that would kill the plague without feeding it any energy.”
“That’s perfect!” I say. “See, I knew you were a genius.”
“But I haven’t come up with anything.” She shakes her head again. “I have no idea what kind of ingredient would stop this plague. There could be thousands of possibilities.”
“But it’s a start. Creating a potion is exactly what we need to do. We just have to figure out the right ingredients. What about starflowers or fairy clovers or something else from the Realm?”
“I don’t know,” Runa says. “The only way to figure it out would be to start making potions and testing them.”
“Then that’s exactly what we’ll do. Runa, I can bring you any ingredients from the Realm that you need to start brewing the right potions. And one of your cures could work!”
“But I don’t even know where to start,” Runa protests. “I don’t know anything about this plague or what it might be resistant to. We need to narrow down the possibilities.”
She makes a fair point, but I won’t let that temper my enthusiasm. We have to figure this out. The gyrpuffs are counting on us. “Okay, how about this,” I say. “I’ll talk to the other Seekers and ask more questions about the plague. I’ll find out all of its symptoms and ask if they’ve ever tried any kind of potion or tonic before. I’ll tell you everything I learn, and we’ll go from there.”
“All right,” Runa says skeptically. “It’s really a long shot, Bryn.”
“I know,” I say. “But it’s either this or do nothing, and I won’t do nothing. We have to try. If the other Seekers won’t do it, then we will.”
Runa sighs loudly. “What have I gotten myself into?”
I grin. “Aren’t you glad we’re best friends?”
“I’d never find trouble if it weren’t for you,” she grumbles, but she smiles as she says it.
I leave Runa’s farm with a spring in my step, following the trail of moonlight toward home. If anyone can figure this out, it’s Runa. I just know it.
We’re going to find the cure and save the Realm, no matter what.
SIX
I wake bright and early the next morning, unable to sleep. After helping Mama with breakfast and completing my chores, I bid my family goodbye and take off for Seeker Larus’s hut.
He looks flustered as he opens the door, blinking in the early-morning sunlight. “Seeker Bryn,” he says. “What an unexpected surprise.”
“Sorry it’s so early,” I say quickly. “But with the… with everything that happened yesterday, we don’t have any time to waste.”
He nods. “Of course. Come in.”
I settle into the living area as Seeker Larus brews a pot of tea, and we make small talk for a moment before finally getting down to business.
“What can I do for you?” he asks.
“I wanted to ask you a few questions,” I say. “About what happened with the plague before. Ari and I can help come up with solutions, but we need to know what we’re up against.”
Seeker Larus nods, which I take as a signal to continue.
“Can you tell me all the symptoms of this plague?” I ask. “I want to know exactly what it does.”
“Extreme lethargy, loss of feathers and fur, dullness of coat, low life sparks… and the black eyes, of course.”
“I see,” I say slowly. This sounds bad, but I forge ahead. Any information I get will be helpful to Runa. “So… what did you try last time, to find a cure for it? You said it feeds on energy?”
“Yes,” Seeker Larus says. “Any attempt we made to use healing gifts on the sick creatures only made the illness worse. The magical energy seemed to feed the plague instead of curing it.”
“What about, say…?” I pause, as if the idea just occurred to me. “What about a potion or a tonic or something? What if you didn’t try to heal with a gift directly?”
Seeker Larus nods. “That’s the conclusion we reached as well,” he says, and I deflate a little. I was hoping the idea was new. “We tried a few different things, but none seemed to work.”
“What did you try, specifically? Maybe we just need the right ingredients.”
Seeker Larus rattles off a list, and my head spins trying to keep up. “Starflower tonic, a potion made from fairy clovers and aven roots and poppy seeds, a tonic made from snowpetals and arctic thyme…”
“And none of them worked? Did they affect the plague at all?”
“We got closest with a potion made from starflower petals, mountain avens, figrose roots, and bilberry juice,” he says. “A few of the creatures who were given a potion with that combination seemed to show signs of improvement. But they didn’t improve quickly enough. We were still missing something.”
“A missing ingredient,” I say slowly. “Something that would speed up the healing? Or take out the plague more directly?”
“Right. But by that point, we didn’t have time to try every possible ingredient to perfect the potion. The Realm was dying. We had no choice but to establish the quarantine, and none of the infected creatures survived long enough for us to continue experimenting.”
“But that gives us somewhere to start,” I say. “This time we can figure it out faster.”
Seeker Larus smiles. “I admire your optimism, Bryn. Perhaps you’re right.”
“So what can Ari and I do right now that would be helpful?”
“I’d like you to accompany Seeker Freyr today,” he says. “We’ve decided to check all the largest populations of the Realm to see if any other creatures have signs of infection. Seeker Freyr is going to check the phoenix nests, and he could use some assistance. The nests tend to be scattered about, so the additional sets of eyes will be useful.”
I nod slowly. I suppose it is a way to help, and at least they’re letting us into the Realm, though I doubt Seeker Freyr will be thrilled about it.
After a few more minutes of discussion, I bid Seeker Larus goodbye, lost in thought. I fetch Ari from his family’s hut and repeat Seeker Larus’s instructions, and we head up to Dragon’s Point to meet Seeker Freyr. While we wait for him to arrive, I tell Ari about my conversations with Runa and Larus. Ari is skeptical, to say the least.
“The missing ingredient could be anything,” he says. “Or nothing at all. Maybe there’s nothing that works.”
“We have to try. Don’t you want to help the gyrpuffs?”
“Of course I do.”
“Well, th
en, we don’t have a choice.”
“But Seeker Larus said they’ve already tried to find a cure.”
I roll my eyes. “Seeker Larus doesn’t know everything.”
“He pretty much does,” Ari mumbles.
“So you won’t help me? Is that what you’re saying?”
“I didn’t say that. I just think there are other ways to help. We need to make sure the boundaries around the quarantine stay strong, we need to make sure no other creatures in the Realm are sick, and we need to try to figure out what’s causing this plague in the first place. Where did it even come from?”
My eyes widen. “Ari, that’s brilliant,” I say. “If we know what’s causing this plague, we might be able to figure out how to cure it and stop it from ever coming back!”
“Right, but how do we do that?”
I bite my lip, considering. “We need to make sure that there are no other infected creatures in the Realm first. If this plague has only affected those gyrpuff caves so far, then it must be coming from there. That will help us narrow it down.”
Ari nods. “All right. But technically our assignment is to check on the phoenix nests.”
“Of course. We’ll just make the suggestion to Seeker Freyr. Maybe he’ll let us go over to the caves after we check the phoenixes.” I don’t believe for a second that Seeker Freyr will let us do anything at all, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it on my own later. Ari doesn’t need to know that.
Besides, it will be good to check on the phoenixes anyway. Phoenix feathers are pretty powerful magical items. Maybe that could be just the ingredient Runa needs to create a healing potion that will work.
Ari starts to say something else, but he’s cut off by the arrival of Seeker Freyr, who nods at Ari and ignores me entirely. “Call your dragon and we’ll head to the phoenix nests,” he says, looking at Ari and not me.
With a somewhat-apologetic glance at me, Ari whistles the three-note melody that we taught Lilja. Seeker Freyr then whistles a series of sharp notes to call his own dragon. Within a few moments, both dragons appear on the horizon.
Legend of the Realm Page 6
