Finally, I turn to Runa, who hasn’t been idle—she’s poured the potion into several smaller vials and passes one to Ari and one to me. “We’ll be able to cover more ground if we split up,” she says. “I just need someone to show me where to go.”
“Okay,” I say. “Ari, how about you head for the icefoxes on Lilja? I’ll fly with Runa on Vin to the gyrpuff cliffs. Once we’re there, Runa, you and I can tackle separate nests.”
“All right,” Ari says, gazing at the shimmering potion. “How much do I give them?”
“It’s strong,” I say. “One vial was enough to cure Lilja, so you should be able to split it among the icefoxes with no problem.”
I hop down from Lilja’s back, and Ari takes off immediately. Seeker Larus glances up in surprise, watching him go, and I quickly approach him to explain.
“We have a cure for the plague,” I say, and all three Seekers stare at me in surprise. “It’s a long story, and we don’t have much of it, and we only have until dawn to administer it. If you’ve got everything under control here, Ari and Runa and I are going to find the sick creatures and give them all the cure.”
“Of course,” Seeker Larus says. “Go at once. We can all meet at my hut when we’re done with our tasks to discuss, yes?”
“All right,” I say.
Seeker Larus nods toward Runa, who’s still waiting for me on Vin’s back. “Bring your friend to the meeting as well.” He says it with no emotion, so I can’t tell how much trouble we’re in. Probably a lot.
I join Runa, and we quickly take to the air. A few minutes later, Vin lands at the edge of the quarantine zone, and I lead Runa down the cliffs. She has quite a few complaints for me when she sees how far down the cliffside we have to climb, but she handles it like a pro. I direct her to one of the larger gyrpuff nests before continuing to the very first sick gyrpuff myself.
I find him in the same place, too feeble to move but still breathing. “Here you go, little guy,” I say gently, pulling the stopper from the vial. “I’ve got something that will make you feel better. I’m just sorry it took me so long.”
He pinches my finger the first time I try to coax his beak open, but I finally manage it and pour a few drops of the potion into his mouth. For a moment nothing happens. Then he startles, his whole body trembling. A moment later the black fades from his eyes, and he hops up. He takes a few teetering steps toward the pile of herring I left beside his bed, then hops triumphantly toward it and begins to eat.
“Great job, buddy!” I say. “Glad to see you’re feeling better!”
He lets out a happy little caw. I grin and leave him to his dinner.
I reunite with Runa at the top of the cliff, and together we find the remaining nest of infected gyrpuffs and distribute the last of the cure. As the little birds leap to their feet and regain their sight, the first rays of dawn emerge on the horizon.
“We did it,” Runa says, throwing her arms up in triumph. “We did it!”
“Mostly it was you,” I say. “You’re the one who came up with the cure!”
She shrugs. “You gave me all the ingredients and told me what to put in. I just mixed it all together and added a little healing gift. And you’re the one who led an army of dragons to attack the Vondur while I was off ringing some church bells and finding the other Seekers.”
“We couldn’t have done this without your potion and your healing gift,” I argue. “And you flew a dragon by yourself without any help, and you brought reinforcements when we needed them. Are you sure you want to be a doctor instead of a Seeker? ’Cause I think you’d be pretty good at the job.”
She laughs. “Last I heard, this was a job without any openings. Besides, if I’ve learned anything tonight, it’s that you do way too much climbing on a daily basis. I’m not sure which is worse—scaling volcanic rock to find dragon dens or climbing down cliffs to gyrpuff nests.” She shudders. “And I prefer riding horses over riding dragons, thank you.”
Vin gives an indignant snort, and I laugh. “Well, if you change your mind, there probably will be a vacancy after the meeting we’re about to have. Pretty sure bringing a non-Seeker into the Realm is breaking the rules. Not to mention all the other rules I broke.”
Runa’s smile fades. “Do you think they’ll fire you? Can you be fired from being a Seeker?”
“Well, they fired Seeker Agnar, so I guess it’s possible.” I try to make it sound like a joke, but I’m not entirely kidding.
Runa’s eyes widen. “They exiled Seeker Agnar. Do you think they’ll do that to you?”
“Of course not. I didn’t lead Vondur into the Realm, at least! Surely it isn’t an exile-able offense.”
Runa looks unconvinced. “So what should we do?”
“Right now all we can do is meet the other Seekers and see how angry they are with me.”
“We? I’m invited?”
“Seeker Larus requested your presence,” I say gravely.
“Oh great, that means I’m in trouble too!”
“Probably,” I say with a grin. “But at least we’ll be in trouble together!”
Runa sighs. “I don’t know why I let you talk me into these things.”
I give her a nudge with my shoulder. “Because it’s always an adventure!”
“That’s one word for it.”
“Hey, I owe you two million favors. I won’t forget.”
She laughs. “I’m pretty sure we’re up to two billion.”
TWENTY-FIVE
Dawn lights up the sky as Runa and I arrive at Seeker Larus’s hut, where the rest of the Seekers, including Ari, have assembled. Now that the excitement is over, everyone looks exhausted—deep shadows line Seeker Freyr’s eyes, Ari can barely keep his open, and Seeker Ludvik is cradling his mug of tea like a lifeline.
Seeker Larus greets us as Runa and I step through the door, and he doesn’t seem angry with us—yet. He presses mugs of steaming tea into our hands and ushers us to the seating area, where we droop onto the couch beside Ari.
“I know it’s been a long night,” Seeker Larus says, settling into his armchair, “so let’s try to keep this brief, but there are some urgent matters that we must attend to. First, has the cure been administered to all of the creatures?”
“Yes,” I say. “Runa and I gave it to all of the sick gyrpuffs we could find. But there might be more we were unaware of. I’d suggest doing a full sweep of the area tomorrow—er, today—to check for any others.”
Seeker Larus nods. “And the icefoxes?”
Ari straightens. “All taken care of,” he says. “The mama and her cubs recovered right away.” He looks like he’s about to say something else, but then Seeker Freyr cuts in impatiently.
“We need a decision about the Vondur, Larus. This cannot be allowed to continue. We were lenient last time, against my better judgment, you may recall, and look what has happened.”
Seeker Larus doesn’t look surprised at this outburst. “You’re right. Stronger action must be taken, now that they have ignored our warning. But what would you suggest? We don’t have the means to imprison them here. If we exile them again, how do we prevent them from returning?”
“This is the same discussion we had before,” Seeker Ludvik says, gripping his mug. “We have no other option than to banish them and strengthen our guard of the island.”
“But we tried that before, and clearly it didn’t work,” says Seeker Freyr.
“I have a question,” I say, trying to cut into the argument.
“Freyr, what do you propose—” Seeker Ludvik says, not hearing me.
I set down my mug and rise to my feet, clearing my throat loudly. Finally, I have their attention. “Excuse me,” I say, “but can I ask how, exactly, Agnar and the Vondur came back? I don’t think we can debate how to prevent them from returning if we don’t understand how they did it in the first place.”
A beat of silence fills the hut, and heat floods my cheeks. I sit down abruptly, but then Seeker Larus nods. “An excellent
point, Seeker,” he says. “I had the same thought myself. While you were administering the cure to the gyrpuffs, I questioned the Vondur and asked the same thing. Most were reluctant to speak to me, but I believe I convinced a few of them to tell me the truth, and their story makes sense.”
“That dragon,” Seeker Ludvik says. “Where did it come from?”
Seeker Larus leans back in his armchair. “It seems we made one critical error last time. We saw them fly into the Realm on Vin before, and we assumed that they had successfully stolen a dragon egg with the help of former Seeker Agnar. What we did not think to ask was whether that was the only egg they had stolen.”
“Agnar tried to take Lilja’s egg first, but Ari stopped him…,” I say slowly.
Seeker Larus nods. “When Agnar failed to steal Lilja’s egg, he tried again with Vin—and again, with this green dragon. The green one was not old enough at the time of the third trial to fly them to the Realm, so they left him on the mainland and used Vin alone. We didn’t think to wonder whether Vin was the only baby dragon in their possession.”
“Agnar said something about that last time,” I say, remembering the conversation. “He said the reason he sabotaged the second trial was to delay the competition—because the dragon wasn’t ready yet. We thought he meant Vin, but maybe he was thinking of this dragon too. He tried to delay the competition so that both of them would be ready.”
“So when their first attack failed,” Seeker Ludvik muses, “they retreated to the mainland with Agnar, who we exiled and who could teach them everything they needed to know about training the green dragon for a second attempt on the Realm.”
“That’s why this one was better trained,” I say. “Vin was in chains when they brought him to the island, and injured and underfed. I didn’t notice any of that with the green dragon, and one of the Vondur was riding him successfully at one point, while Agnar was following me on the ground. Agnar must have taught them how to fly.”
“And when the dragon was ready,” Seeker Freyr says gravely, “they tried a second attack. Without a competition to distract us this time, they simply tried to sneak into the Realm at night, when we would be unaware. Agnar knew the Realm well enough to move around without detection.”
“Mostly without detection,” I mutter. I haven’t forgotten how the other Seekers dismissed me when I said the Vondur were on the island.
“Excuse me,” Runa says quietly. Every head in the room swivels in her direction; it’s the first time she’s spoken since we arrived. “But what about the plague? Bryn told me it came from Vondur magic. But why would the Vondur want to infect the Realm and kill the creatures? I thought they wanted to claim it for themselves?”
“They do,” Seeker Larus explains, “but they have never cared about taking the Realm’s creatures alive. They have no magic of their own. Their spellwork relies on extracting the magic from objects like, say, unicorn horns or dragon scales. And those items are generally much easier to collect if the creatures they come from are dead.”
Runa shudders. “So they caused the plague to kill the Realm, and then planned to fly in on the green dragon and collect their parts?”
“It appears that way,” Seeker Ludvik says. “Perhaps the Vondur were somehow responsible for the original plague, all those years ago. They used to trade here, and could have planted something.”
“Seems likely,” Seeker Larus agrees.
“But I have to wonder…,” Seeker Ludvik continues. “Why were they here tonight? The plague hadn’t killed any of the creatures yet, and it may have traveled even farther and infected more creatures if they had waited. Our quarantines were failing to contain the spread.”
“And how did they manage to introduce the plague into the Realm in the first place?” Seeker Freyr asks.
“Um,” I say, “I might know the answer to both those questions.” Quickly, I recount how I found Vondur magic in the glacier hidden in the southern cliffs and the mysterious figure I saw in the Realm and tried to pursue before Lilja got sick, who turned out to be Agnar. Then I relay what Agnar said to me after I found the Fairy’s Gold.
“In other words,” I conclude, “this wasn’t their first time in the Realm. I think they’ve been sneaking in for a while. Agnar or some of the others must have come here to plant the plague in the water, and they’ve been secretly returning at night to watch the plague spread, see how many creatures have been infected, and watch us to see if we had found the cure. That way they could make sure the plague was working and plan their attack.”
“So why did they plan it tonight, before the plague had a chance to spread further?” Seeker Freyr asks abruptly.
I try to ignore the interruption. “After I realized that Lilja was sick,” I say, “I convinced Runa to come with me into the Realm to find Fairy’s Gold. I suspected that it was the missing ingredient from her potion, which could cure the plague. She didn’t want to break the rules, but I talked her into coming with me. We found the Fairy’s Gold together, and Agnar saw us. He knew we had the cure, and he knew that he had to act before we were able to give it to the infected creatures.”
To my surprise, the room has fallen strangely silent, and it takes me a moment to realize why. The Fairy’s Gold.
“You’re certain that’s what you found?” Seeker Ludvik asks after a moment. “Not simply a yellow flower, but one made of gold? Like the legend?”
Seeker Freyr scoffs. “Obviously not like the legend,” he says. “It’s a fairy tale for children.”
“It was Fairy’s Gold, and it was exactly like the legend,” I say. “I found it in the heart of the Realm, and it cured the plague.”
“Just because it turned out to be the right cure doesn’t mean—” Seeker Freyr starts.
Ari clears his throat so abruptly that Seeker Ludvik jumps and nearly spills his tea. “Seeker Bryn is a naturalist. She knows magical plants better than any of us, and she knows the Realm. If she says it was Fairy’s Gold, then I believe her.”
“I saw it too,” Runa chimes in. “It really was Fairy’s Gold.”
After a moment, it’s Seeker Larus who breaks the silence. “All right,” he says. “So what did Agnar do after he caught you with the gold, Seeker Brynja?”
I smile. “That was when Runa and I got away from them and went to put the Fairy’s Gold into the potion, so that we could begin curing creatures right away. And that must’ve been when the Vondur went for the dragons in the Valley of Ash. It was plan B. They knew none of the creatures had died from the plague yet, because they’ve been monitoring the Realm. So they decided to cut their losses and go after the biggest prize they could, as quickly as they could. They went for the dragons and introduced the plague to their water.”
“But how would that work?” Seeker Freyr asks. “It would have taken days for the plague to kill those dragons, even if they got them to drink the water right away.”
“Maybe there was a larger dose in that water that would’ve killed them quicker?” I suggest.
“Or,” Ari says, “maybe they didn’t care how long it would take for the dragons to die, as long as they were infected before we could get enough of the cure to save them all.”
“And Agnar mentioned something about getting the cure and offering it to us in exchange for something,” I add. “I think he thought he could blackmail us into letting him back onto the island or something. Maybe he thought that once all the dragons were sick, we’d agree to his terms in exchange for the cure.”
Seeker Larus sits forward. “Regardless of what they were planning,” he says, “it is thanks to everyone in this room that they did not succeed. This was a much closer call than any of us would have liked, but I am proud to know that our young Seekers were able to act quickly to prevent catastrophe. Even if one of them does have a penchant for rule-breaking.”
He looks directly at me, and I gulp. “I’m sorry I didn’t follow the rules. I didn’t agree with them, so I thought that made it okay to do what I wanted, but I was wrong.
And I’m sorry I brought Runa into the Realm. I know I shouldn’t have. But I didn’t know how else to cure the plague, and Lilja didn’t have time for me to wait for approval. It was all my idea, not Runa’s. She’s the one who created the cure. The creatures are all safe thanks to her.”
The older Seekers exchange glances. “Under ordinary circumstances,” Seeker Larus says, “I would consider allowing outsiders into the Realm to be a grave offense, one that might necessitate removal from the Council of Seekers. But these were certainly not ordinary circumstances, and no one can deny the results. Besides, it is clear that the rest of this Council owes you an apology as well; you tried to tell us about the Vondur before, and we didn’t listen. We must all endeavor to improve our teamwork in the future. Therefore, if my fellow Council members are in agreement, I am prepared to overlook the infraction—this time. But going forward, there will be no more rule-breaking. Are we all in agreement?”
Seeker Ludvik smiles. Seeker Freyr hesitates before giving me a gruff nod.
I turn back to Seeker Larus. “No more breaking the rules,” I say. “I promise.”
“And, Runa,” Seeker Larus says, turning to her, “I believe we are all deeply in your debt. You have managed to create a cure that many Seekers tried and failed to find. I do not know how we can repay you, but if there is anything—anything at all—that we can do for you, please let us know.”
Runa blushes. “Thank you, Seeker,” she squeaks.
I give her a sharp nudge with my elbow. “Runa wants to be a doctor,” I say loudly. “She’s an apprentice to the herbalist to learn about medicines, but only because she isn’t allowed to apprentice for the doctor. Which is ridiculous, because as you can see, she’s the best healer in the village.”
Legend of the Realm Page 20
