by Dale Furse
‘I’m sorry,’ Lesel said. ‘They weren’t my words.’ She poked a finger at the second Grarl. ‘He impersonated my voice.’
Wishing the Kroll had seen the first intruders, Sam glowered at Varlor. He could give himself a swift kick in the butt. He should have known the Corl would be up to something and he should have been more careful. Tanat and Nadar were busy exchanging looks. Huh. They were up to something as well. He just wished he knew what it was. Giving Mekie’s hand a squeeze, he let go and sidled up beside Tanat.
Varlor’s smile was more like a sneer. ‘No need to be concerned,’ he said to Tanat. ‘I have no intention of hurting anyone at this time. However, I can’t say the same for you.’
Sam grinned. The ex-Elder certainly had no love for Tanat and Sam knew Tanat felt the same about the Corl.
‘Disconnect all communications,’ he said to the Grarl who came in with him. ‘Imprison them with a spell…’ He gazed around the room. ‘…that restricts them from going anywhere else but these rooms and the alimentary then follow me. I suppose you can also unbind Nadar.’ He directed his next words to the armed Corls. ‘Stay.’
Although Sam knew they were in real trouble, he almost laughed aloud at the dog command. Heh. He supposed they were Varlor’s lap dogs.
Swishing his blue cape back over his shoulders, Varlor turned to leave.
Behind Sam, Mekie’s communicator buzzed from her hidden pocket. She started and Sam coughed, hoping to cover the noise as he shot her a stop it look. Mekie covered it with her hand.
Varlor twisted his head back.
Uh oh. Stepping forward, Sam sneezed, spraying the Corl with what he hoped were Earth germs. ‘I think I’m getting a cold,’ he said.
Letting out a laugh of contempt, Varlor said, ‘You have a physician right here.’ He wheeled around and left.
The Grarls waved their hairy little arms about and mumbled something in unison before following him.
No one moved.
‘Lets eat,’ Sam said, not knowing what else to say. After all, he and Mekie had already prepared the meal.
As if he had broken some other spell, his family and friends let out their breaths. They exchanged glances and started moving into the dining room. Sam grabbed Mekie’s hand and pulled her into the kitchen. ‘You can help me.’
One of Corls followed them through the door and before he had time to move into the kitchen any further, Sam said, ‘You stay there out of the way.’
As if used to taking orders, the Corl stayed beside the door.
‘Let’s get the things out of the chiller,’ Sam said to Mekie. Once they were through the doors, Sam whispered, ‘Check the communicator.’
Turning her back to the Corl, Mekie did. ‘Nell tried to call.’
‘There’s some stuff at the back.’ Sam spoke loudly enough for the Corl to hear him. As soon as they were in a more secluded position, he said, ‘Can you send a message on that thing?’
‘Yes.’ She pressed a button. Speaking quietly and quickly into the speaker, she relayed to Nell what had happened and told her not to ring back.
Sam started piling things onto a tray and once Mekie had finished, he said in a raised voice. ‘That should do us.’
‘We don’t need all of that,’ Mekie chastised and put item after item back on the shelves. She picked up the platter of salad and handed it to him. ‘Just this.’
***
Nell followed Keela into a room she had never seen before. It was small and cosy, a place Nell could spend a lot of time in. Warm lemon walls enclosed the space that had no furniture except for four large cushions that almost covered an olive-green rug in the middle of the room. A fireplace full of warm flames in one wall and open glass doors in the adjoining wall told Nell the day was fading.
‘Sit opposite me,’ Keela said, as she fell elegantly into a cushion.
The ritual was simpler than Nell had imagined. She and Keela sat gazing into each other’s eyes until Nell fell forward. The movement startled her and she pulled back.
‘No, Nell,’ Keela gasped. ‘You almost did it.’
‘That was what it’s like to change forms? It never felt like that with anything else.’
‘None were Eldorap. That will be the sensation you feel when you shift into my form. Don’t worry. You will get used to it.’ She repositioned her legs, and smiled, ‘Are you ready to try again?’
Nell returned the smile and nodded.
She rode the falling sensation, half-expecting to crash into the rug. Instead, her body vibrated as if every nerve rubbed onto the next. In that moment, she stared straight into Keela’s black eyes. Usually, she had to look up to the taller Eldorap; but now she was about the same height. Glancing down at her now white legs, she adjusted that thought. She was exactly the same height. She was Eldorap.
Beaming at Keela, she said, ‘I did it.’
Keela laughed. ‘Yes, you did. You look like me but you are still you. Now, please change back. I don’t enjoy seeing someone else as me.’
‘Of course. I’m sorry.’ Again, she gazed into Keela’s eyes. Nothing. No falling. Nothing.
‘Not like that, silly,’ Keela giggled. ‘You have to envisage your own form.’
Nell gave her a self-conscious smile. How could she be so stupid? She closed her eyes and when she opened them again she had to look up at the Eldorap. Following Keela’s lead, she stood up.
Keela gave her a hug. ‘We are now joined forever.’
‘Really? Does that happen no matter what animal I shift into?’
‘No. I am Eldorap.’ As if that explained everything, Keela said, ‘You need to go to your father.’
‘That was quick,’ Deesc said, as soon as Nell entered the sitting room. He moved to her side in less than a twinkle of starlight.
‘Thanks so, so much,’ Nell said, hoping her life-friend knew she meant it with all her heart.
Keela gave her another hug in answer. ‘Go,’ she said.
Nell bit her cheek on their way out the door. She still had to learn how to do that.
Taking her hand, Deesc said, ‘Like this.’
Swirling colours circled them and when the rainbow slowed, Deesc’s words entered her mind. ‘You can slow your travel.’
It was like she hung in space and time. Nothing existed outside the vortex. It was only them. He let go of her hand. She gasped but no sound came out. It was nothing like the time she had spent with Nadar in the vortex. She hovered there with no fear of falling into the void.
‘It feels slower than it is,’ he said. ‘Follow me and when you get the idea, increase our speed.’
At first she moved slowly, then she sped up more and more until they stood on a hill. The lights of the palace shone clearly above the rest of the city below
‘Fade your form so no one can see you,’ Deesc said, as he did just that.
Trying the most obvious way, Nell imagined herself as invisible. It worked. Wow. It was like once she had succeeded with her first shape-shift, everything else fell into place—as if she had been doing those things all her life.
As they neared the first city building, a sense of foreboding overcame Nell. ‘Something’s wrong.’
‘I feel it too,’ said Deesc. ‘It is early evening yet there is no sound or sense of movement close by.’
The doors of the house were open. Nell peeked in. The entrance led directly into what looked like a sitting room. It had no other exits than the one she stood in. Grarls didn’t need them, of course, but they still ate off solid plates and drank out of real glasses. She doubted those things could pass through walls. Ah, maybe an enchantment. She frowned. If there were Grarls behind any of those walls, no one but another Grarl could find them. Two Grarls were on the floor between a low sofa facing an open fireplace on the back wall. It looked like they were embracing. ‘Look,’ she said, and pointed into the house.
Not hesitating, Deesc crossed the threshold and whooshed to the Grarls. ‘They are dead.’ He spoke aloud.
‘Rebels?’ Nell ga
sped.
‘I don’t think so. They have died naturally. A disease that I haven’t seen before.’
‘Oh,’ Nell said, wrapping her arms around her middle as her stomach convulsed. She retreated back onto the road. With her back against the wall, she shifted back into herself. The sweet smell of death she had read about in books was all around her, sickening her.
Biting her cheek, she couldn’t let go of the thought that it was the rebels who caused such a horrific disease using some sort of germ warfare. It could be done. If the Humans of Earth were capable of such a disgusting act, and they were, Grarls or any other species the rebels dealt with surely would find it no great obstacle.
She couldn’t nor did she want to stop the tears wetting her cheeks. ‘You can shift, Deesc. There’s no one here.’
They checked the next house, and the next, and time after time, they found the occupants dead. It was no use. She had to get to her father. Whatever happened to the citizens might have found its way into the palace.
Someone coughed.
‘Deesc,’ Nell whispered, and ran into a house. No one was in sight. Scanning the first room, she noted the house was much like all the others and she only had to take a couple of steps forward. Three bodies were on the floor. Another cough. The long hair over the smallest in the centre quivered.
‘The little one’s alive,’ Nell said, as Deesc joined her.
He knelt and felt each Grarls necks for their pulses, before gently pulling the middle one out from under the other’s arms. Lifting the little one, he said, ‘She is a child.’
Nell had never seen a Grarl child before. Orenda had told her they had never taken them off world. The girl was like a doll. The hair that covered her body was longer than the adult’s short fur.
‘She is gravely ill,’ said Deesc.
Nell placed her hand on the child’s forehead and shifted to Eldorap. ‘We have to take her straight to the palace. They’ll have someone who can help her.’
With her hand still in place, Nell stood in the giant foyer of the palace. She quickly shifted back, expecting royal servants to come and go from room to room or at least the sounds of the rebels who had breached the palace walls. But there was no one either in seeing or hearing distance.
‘Hello,’ she called out.
‘The great hall,’ Deesc said, heading to the closed okfor doors on the right. They must have been locked because he threw a blast from his mind against one. Nothing. He threw another. Still nothing. ‘Nell, help me.’
She moved to his side and connected her mind with his. Together, they blasted the door. It smashed open.
Nell followed Deesc through the opening into a high wide passageway. Single dark wood doors stood at regular intervals in the left and about half way on the right, double okfor doors were again closed. Again they were locked and Nell joined with Deesc before he could ask and again, she let Deesc take the child through first, but as soon as she entered the hall, she heaved. The stench in the air was worse than in the city. Through watery eyes, all she could see and smell was death.
Trundle beds filled the room. She swallowed down the bile that threatened to explode from her mouth. Regaining her control, she searched for her father and Kandar. Checking bed after bed, she found each of the occupants dead, but after about a dozen or more, she began finding live Grarls. ‘Some of these are alive,’ she screeched at Deesc.
He had pulled a bed against the front wall away from all the rest and placed the little girl on it.
‘I’m going to find clean cloths and water,’ he said. ‘Keep an eye on the little one.’
Nell nodded and continued checking the beds. Each one had a side table cleverly connected at the head end. They were obviously prepared for an emergency. Nell frowned. Just how many diseases did the Grarls have to deal with?
‘Dad!’ she called out time after time. Please, please be all right, she pleaded to him silently after each call. Everyone in the last rows of beds was alive. If her father were there, he would alive too. Near the end of her search, she cried out as loudly as she could, ‘Daad.’
A faint groan came from the corner bed. She changed her direction and ran to it. ‘Dad,’ she sobbed, kneeling alongside him and wiping the wet from his forehead. ‘You’re all right now.’ But as she said the words, she wondered if he would be. His whole body burned with fever. He was so weak, even his coughs were silent tiny puffs of air.
His mouth opened as if he was trying to say something.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Save your strength and let me in.’
He did, and although his thoughts were jumbled, she realised he was trying to tell her the disease was contagious. Everyone died within weeks of infection and everyone developed symptoms only hours after exposure.
She had to ask the question. ‘How long have you been sick?’
‘Bot…tee weks,’ he said.
Nell had to think about the words for a moment before she understood them. About three weeks. With him so sick, she hoped it just felt that long to him, but a frightened inner voice told her he might also be unaware that it could have been longer than that.
Standing and turning at the same time, Nell thought-moved the beds splitting a row in two, making a wide passage to the front wall. She moved her father’s bed down it and against the wall between the child’s bed and the okfor doors.
‘We will find a way to help you all,’ she said to the patients. Walking to the front, she made up her mind to get all the dead Grarls out. She sobbed and wiped her nose. No. She couldn’t think about them. The living was her priority.
Leaving her father and the child where they were, it took Nell about some time to mind-move the rest of the beds with living patients to the back and the dead ones to the front. It was like playing checkers except none of the pieces ever left the board. She glanced at the doors. Deesc should be back by now.
The child coughed a few times in quick succession. Nell used the sheet that she hoped wasn’t too dirty to wipe back the girl’s hair. ‘Rest, little one,’ she cooed, and realised the little Grarl hadn’t been infected as long as her father had been. Her coughs still sounded normal, and although she clearly had a fever, it wasn’t as high as his was.
More coughs sounded outside the door. Nell knew it was Deesc. No, not him too. She had hoped they would be immune. After all, they were Wexkians. Huh. How could she be so stupid? Wexkians weren’t invincible.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
NELL CONVINCED HERSELF THAT DEESC WAS ALL RIGHT until the owner of the cough walked through the door. She ran to him. Stopping short, she gasped, ‘Deesc?’
He smiled and gave a slight shrug. ‘I’m afraid so, beautiful.’
She moved to hold him, but he stepped back.
‘No,’ he said in a stern tone. ‘Keep away from me.’
‘But—’
‘No, Nell. You’re not to touch me or anyone else with your bare hands.’ Although he grinned, it held a hint of regret. ‘And definitely no kissing.’
She huffed. ‘Fine. I suppose I can deal with the ‘no kissing’ part, but how am I supposed to treat everyone without bare hands…unless you have some gloves for me.’
‘No. No gloves. You’ll just have to use antiseptic cloths to cover your hands.
Now he was just being silly. ‘I’ve already touched Dad and the girl and a whole lot of the other patients.’
He pushed a small cylinder at her. ‘Find something in one of the chambers to change into and after you bathe, spray this on every part of your body.’
By the set of his jaw, there was no way she could win the argument. She snatched the spray out of his hand. ‘Where are the chambers?’
‘You’ll find guest chambers on the second floor. There should be something for Humanoids in one of them.’ He gazed at her from her feet to her head and shot her a suggestive grin. ‘I can help if you like.’
She knew he was joking, but couldn’t let the opportunity pass. Huh. He thought he could embarrass her, did he? She sprayed
both sides of a clean cloth, wrapped the container in it and held it out to him. ‘I’d love you to,’ she said, eyeing his body and trying to be as suggestive as he had been. ‘But remember, no touching.’
He shook his head with a chuckle. ‘Go on, get out of here or I’ll do something we’ll both regret.’
Nell laughed and left him leering after her. She had too much to look forward to with Deesc. There was no way anything she would let anything happen to him. She knew with all her heart and being, they had always been destined to be together.
With renewed hope, she found her father’s clean clothes in the second chamber she tried, bathed in an adjoining shower room, sprayed and changed into the trousers and shirt. She rolled the legs of the trousers and the sleeves of the shirt up. Finding a cord hanging off a curtain, she threaded it through the belt band of the trousers. While she tied it in a bow to make it easier to untie, she wondered if she should get Dar-Seldra and some other doctors and nurses to help. No. They would be at risk and she could never let that happen. Huh. Sam and Mekie would insist on going with her. She shook her head. There must be some other way to get help.
Once she was back in the great hall, Nell tried to make Deesc lie down but he refused. ‘Okay, at least let me check you out.’
He held his arms up in surrender.
Glad she had won at least one argument, she led him to his bed. He would only allow her to examine him the same way he insisted she did with the rest, with gloved hands. She trailed an instrument over his forehead to take his temperature. It was up, but not nearly as high as the other patients.
She and Deesc worked through the night, taking the dead out, collecting supplies and treating the sick as best they could. Her father slipped in and out of consciousness and Nell tried to be near him every time he woke up. Not that he could talk to her, but she hoped her voice and touch soothed him a bit.
Deesc had found an array of medicines in a small treatment room at the back of the ground floor and put a trolley load of them on the makeshift workbench Nell built from banquet tables along the right wall. One end held the cleaning equipment and the other, medical supplies. She decided not to reuse any cloths; instead, she built a fire in a fireplace she found in a bedroom at the back of the palace. She wanted to dispose of the infection-riddled rags as far away as possible. Once she had found the linen storeroom, she was able to make new ones from sheets she found there.
