“I thank you for your time, but I must leave,” I told the ex-queen. “I need to get to the bottom of this.”
I also needed to confront Emell. If she had killed Mama, I wanted to look her in the eyes and hear her confess. I wanted justice.
Chapter 14
I was at a crossroads. To my left was the cobbled path to my mansion. To my right was the path to Zawne. I wanted more than anything to be cradled in his strong arms, to tell him everything I had discovered. I needed advice, and I needed it badly. I couldn’t go to Nnati or Tissa, or even to Raad. I couldn’t discuss the Great Secret with them, but I could discuss it with Zawne.
On the other hand, I was a little nervous of Zawne’s allegiance. I was sure in my heart that he was fully unaware of Lordin’s deception. Yet I couldn’t risk it. I needed a mutual mind to help me. I needed …
“Roki.”
I whispered his name, standing in the dark between the two mansions. I was out of options. He was the only one who could help me, even if I did hate him for betraying my trust. “Roki,” I said, “I need you now. I need your help. I have nowhere to turn. I’m alone in the world.”
I dreaded the thought of him appearing in front of me. I could still see the images of him and those other women tangled in lustful embraces. It made me sick. Yet deep in my heart was a longing for Roki. I had to trust my instincts, that summoning him was in my best interest.
His scent came to me on a breeze. I closed my eyes and felt the wind stir. When I opened them, Roki stood before me. Unlike in the past, he wore no smile. He had a sad and beaten quality to him. There was blood on his shirt.
“Are you bleeding?” I immediately threw away all my hardened resolve to keep things impersonal and rushed to Roki. I lifted his shirt and looked for wounds. I was checking him all over, Roki sagging where he stood as if drained of energy.
“No.” He took my hands and gently pushed them against my chest. “But thank you for the concern. I have been helping in Nurlie, dragging the wounded from the streets, trying to protect the innocent. It’s insanity there right now. Reinforcements are on their way, but right now it is violent. With Surrvul in the mix, flaunting their money and providing weapons, things look grim. The Gurnots are trying to help, but there is only so much they can do.”
“The Gurnots? I thought they were terrorists!”
“Hardly,” Roki said. We began to walk along the left path, toward my mansion, through the sweet night air. It was dark and no one could see us. “The Gurnots fight for the people of Geniverd. They despise the way Decens-Lenitas imprisons the lower classes. Everything they do is for the liberation of humanity. Sometimes they must use violence or intimidation tactics. It’s why they released the Dragon. Just look, Kaelyn. Look at what the greed of the clans can do!”
Roki activated his visin to show me an overhead view of the nighttime violence in Nurlie. Buildings aflame, laser beams zipping between the ruined towers, wounded and dead stuck between two walls of opposing soldiers. The soldiers weren’t even soldiers. Not really. They were ordinary men and women fighting for their cause. It was horrendous, and in their hands were weapons.
“I can’t believe it has come to this,” I said. “And on top of it, the virus is spreading. Why fight in the streets when people would be safer inside?”
Roki said, “They believe in their cause. That’s stronger than the fear of death.”
I had never thought about it like that before. I had never truly understood how devoted people were to their clans. Not until I saw them fighting, losing their lives for their beliefs. Only now did I realize the power the upper class and the media had over the masses. Quite frankly, it made me sick.
In the video, words on the bottom of the screen read: Surrvul Clan denies involvement in Nurlie war. Claims soldiers are rebels and not endorsed by Surrvul.
They had said this to save face, I figured. The clan leaders needed to keep up appearances, keep up their moral standing in the eyes of Decens-Lenitas. It was all blindfold politics. It wasn’t for the people. It was all an act for the other illustrious families!
On Roki’s screen, a massive ship came from the sky above the Nurlie capital. The back hatch opened, and P5 Protectors spilled from the ship by the dozen and used their booster systems to hover toward the ground. They immediately started using their built-in supersonic artillery to push back the invading islanders. It was mayhem. People were blasted back into buildings, against flaming cars. I could hear the screams.
From the rooftop were blasts of light. “Oh no!” I said. “The rebels are using remote plasma cannons!”
“Yeah,” Roki said.
We both watched the green particle beams launch off the rooftops and dissolve entire groups of P5 Protectors like they were made of butter. It was a barrage of laser fire back and forth. Human and robot, rebel and defender, Gurnot and Nurlie and Surrvul—they all fought and died in the ruined city, the P2 camera drones recording all the action for the people watching in their homes, one last bloody show before they died of the KS3 virus.
“The humanity,” I said. “I can’t watch it. Please, Roki. Please turn it off!”
He deactivated his visin. We were entering the mansion, and I said, “Can you mask our presence until we’re in my apartment? I’m supposed to be under quarantine.”
“I already am,” he said, giving me his sweet smile. “I’ve been masking us since I heard your call and zipped across the world. I’m tuned in to your voice. If you say my name, I will always come.”
“But—”
“Don’t worry,” he assured me. “I haven’t been listening to your thoughts. I’m still not. I guess I don’t really need to. I can tell what you’re thinking without listening. I guess it’s because of the bond between us.”
“I guess so,” I said. But I didn’t want to fall back into our old ways. I was still mad. I couldn’t let Roki’s charms seduce me. I had to ask, “Is it possible for a Min to control a person to get what they want? I need to know if Lordin entered the body of a woman named Hagan. I also need to know if Lordin is conspiring with her mother. What I’m asking is, has Lordin used being a Min to bring about all this destruction to get her mother’s revenge?”
Roki let out a sigh. We were in my room now, and he plunked himself down on my sofa while I sat on its arm, observing him. “Yes,” he said. “It’s what Min do best. They invade bodies to manipulate events. I’ve been a little busy these last few weeks and didn’t really have my eye on Lordin, so I can’t say for sure if she is involved. But it is possible. A Min can do pretty much anything.”
An idea burst into my head like a bomb, shaking me to my core. A Min can do anything. If I were a Min, I could save the world!
It was a good thing Roki had stopped reading my thoughts. He would never have let me consider dying to become a Min. My friends, my family … my husband. I would be abandoning them all. Yet how else could I stop the virus? If Lordin was the kingpin of this terrible design, I could never stop her in my useless human body.
“Thanks anyway,” I said. “The Crown of Crowns is no help. I don’t know if I can trust Zawne. I’ve recently found out Emell killed Mama. And now—”
A message blipped onto my visin. “Sorry,” I said to Roki while I opened it. “It’s from Raad. Oh no …” I gasped. “Raad says they had to let Emell go free. There was no evidence to suggest she had designed and unleashed the virus, nor that she was withholding the proper medicine. He says an antiviral is in the works but won’t be ready for approximately thirty hours. That means Emell is going to distribute the cure just in time to avert mass extinction.”
“It’s not enough,” Roki said. “The virus is spreading too fast. Thirty hours will mean at least two million casualties.” He buried his face in his hands. “I can’t believe it. I thought humans had a handle on these viruses. How could one woman have done all this?”
“The scorn of a loved one,” I said, catching Roki’s eye. “It’s amazing what a broken heart can do.”
“Don’t start,” I said. “I saw the photos. I’m not blind.” I shook my head. “Thank you for being here, Roki, but I think I need to be alone now. I have a lot of decisions to make.”
“I’ll always be here,” Roki said. And then he vanished. Not even his scent lingered when he was gone.
I had lied to Roki. I only had one decision to make. I needed to decide. Was I going to give up my life to become a Min?
The first thing I did was call Raad.
“Brother,” I said when he answered, “you’ve made a terrible mistake letting Emell go.”
“I know,” he said. “I could see the guilt in her eyes when we arrested her, but there was no physical evidence. Plus VBione Corp had already started to ship the inhibitor antivirals to slow the virus. They’ve promised a cure within thirty hours. We had to release her.”
“Thirty hours is too long,” I said. “That’s two million human lives, Raad. I’m positive Emell is biding her time until the very last second. She must want maximum casualties to make Zawne and me look incompetent.”
“I figure the same thing,” Raad said. “But my troops searched the VBione Corp main lab and factory. There was nothing. Protectors searched Emell’s home, her known places of affiliation. They didn’t find a single thing.”
“What about the reopened plant in Krug?” I asked.
Raad shook his head. “It was a dud. VBione Corp had the Medseet factory stripped. It would take at least two weeks to rebuild the proper systems and get new machines online.”
“Darn,” I hissed. Then I looked to Raad. If I was going to become a Min, I needed to be sure he would chase Emell to the far corners of the planet. I needed to know he would get justice for Mama. “Raad,” I said, “I talked to the ex-queen, like you suggested. And, well, we both figure it must have been Emell who killed Mama. We think she’s been planning her revenge for twenty-five years.”
Raad’s eyes grew huge in anger. “What!” he bellowed. “I had Emell in my flyrarc! I had her in custody. And now you tell me this? Had I known she was responsible for Mama’s death, I would have … I would have …”
“I’m sorry,” I said, “but I just found out. It turns out Emell has a vendetta against our family and Zawne’s family. She’s poisoned the world to rid the throne of us. She killed Mama to get revenge for being banished all those years ago.”
“I knew she was the mistress in Mama’s story,” Raad said. “But I never suspected murder. I can’t—”
“I’m sorry,” I said, “but I have to go. There’s something I need to do, and every second I stall means more lives lost. I love you, brother. Get justice for Mama. Find the truth.”
I ended the call with tears in my eyes. How could I say goodbye to Raad for the last time? He would be so upset when my body was found. I was thinking about what the Crown of Crowns had told me: a painful and tragic death. It scared me, but I needed to be strong. Strong for Mama, for Gaard, for my friends.
My tears only worsened when I called Papa, Nnati, then Tissa. They all knew something was wrong, asking me a thousand questions.
“Is it Zawne?”
“Is it the virus?”
“Is it the images of war on the news?”
“Why are you crying?”
I wished I could tell them about Shiol, Min, my plan to save millions of lives. All I could do was thank them for their friendship and tell them I loved them. Then I sat in the dark and wept. Only one person left on my list.
“Hello, Zawne.”
“You’re still up too?” he asked.
“Yeah. I can’t sleep with all this turmoil.”
I struggled to hold back my emotion. Going through with becoming a Min meant I would probably never touch Zawne again, never taste his lips, never smell his musk. Will he let me slip back into his life? I wondered if it was how Lordin had felt, if she had felt anything. I still wasn’t totally convinced she was evil. I asked Zawne, “Did you hear the news about Emell?”
He nodded, twisted his face in a grimace. “It’s hard to believe my dead fiancée’s mother was arrested on suspicion of planned genocide. I hope it’s not true. I only met the woman once at Lordin’s funeral, but she seemed okay. I can’t believe someone like Lordin, someone so divine, would have been raised by a murderer.”
I suddenly felt bad for doubting Zawne, thinking he was somehow involved in the KS3 mess. His eyes were too sincere to be lying. I knew in that instant he had nothing to do with Emell’s plotting. It gave me hope that Lordin was innocent too.
“It’s not important now,” I said. “I just wanted to say good night.”
Or goodbye, I thought. Goodbye forever, my sweet king. I must make this ultimate sacrifice for the good of our people. It’s what Mama would have done.
“Good night, Kaelyn,” he said. Zawne blew me a kiss through the screen. I caught it, and tears spilled down my face.
“I’m going to miss you in my dreams,” I said. It felt like my heart was being ripped in half. I could feel shards of glass tearing through my body, wrecking me until I quivered and lost my breath. Things had been so much easier three years ago, following Roki blindly through the pretend market. Why did Geniverd’s salvation have to fall on me? Why couldn’t I just have my happy ending?
“I’ll miss you too,” Zawne said, and he ended the call. No one had any idea what I had planned.
It was difficult to keep my eyes closed for all the tears spilling out of them. I didn’t think I had cried so much in my life, yet this decision was immense. I had said goodbye to my friends, to everyone I had ever loved, and when I awoke, I would face a terrible demise. I took a deep breath, hugged my blanket tight, and spelled Shiol over my heart.
“Welcome, Kaelyn,” Riedel said as I materialized in the void. “We have been waiting for you. We’ve listened to your heart, and we understand you have made the decision.”
“To become a Min,” Hanchell said, visibly excited from the way her light pulsed.
“I have no choice,” I told them. “If I don’t find the cure for the virus right away, over two million people will die. I can’t let that happen. I will gladly forsake my human life to save the lives of others.”
“Which is why we made you queen,” Riedel said. He seemed cheerful for once. I thought he had a soft spot for me and was glad to see me doing the right thing, the truly righteous thing.
“Do you suspect the cure is already made?” Hanchell asked.
“Yes.” I nodded. “I’m sure Emell is waiting until the very last second to send it out. She probably had it made at the same time she engineered the virus. She must have it stored in a secret location. As a Min, I’ll be able to read her thoughts and discover the location, thereby preventing millions of innocent deaths.”
I thought Hanchell’s electric light was smiling. “You are smart for a human,” she said. “Now let me give you some prep before we do this. You will wake up to a horrible death. There is no way around it. Next, you will be a formless Min. You will experience an intense desire to occupy a human body, but be careful. There are two options for occupying bodies. You may either occupy the body for its entire life span, or just long enough to complete a task given to you by us. Upon completion of the task, you will exit the body, and they will have no idea you were ever there. The human thinks they are in control, but really, they’re just on a very intense roller coaster. In the case of a long-term body possession, the human will take a kind of back seat in their own mind. It’s like your friend Roki. His body’s owner is dormant while Roki works missions for us and does whatever fun things Min do in Geniverd.”
“You think you can handle that?” Riedel asked.
“Got it,” I said. “What happens if I break the rules, like if I disobey a direct order or give away the Great Secret?”
“Death,” Riedel said. “The Seeing Water will see to it personally
.”
“Who’s the Seeing Wa—?”
“The universe does not deserve the mercy shown by the Seeing Water. We’ll tell you more later,” Hanchell said. “Time is of the essence. Go back to your bed. A Min will take possession of an undercover Gurnot working alongside you in the council. They will assassinate you upon waking.”
“It’s going to be brutal,” Riedel said. “Prepare yourself. Pain is temporary. The sacrifice you’re making is eternal.”
It happened fast. I dissolved out of Shiol and opened my eyes to pitch-blackness. It must have been two in the morning. I figured I had twenty-six hours left to save the species. Realistically though, I only had another two hours before the death toll began to peak and spiral out of control. I briefly thought, Wait, aren’t I supposed to be murdered?
I tried to get out of bed, and that was when I noticed Torio standing above me with a snarl. He wore all black and looked terrifyingly evil.
“Tori—oh!”
He had a rope around my neck and was strangling me. Torio had one foot on the edge of the bed for leverage, tugging the rope so its rough fibers chafed my skin. He was strangling me to death!
My instincts took over. I tried to pry the rope from around my throat, coughing and gagging as Torio shook me out of bed and threw me onto the floor. Then he stood over me as he screamed, “I’ve waited my whole life for this!” Torio was insane, bloodthirsty, and violent. “I want to look in your eyes as you die, Kaelyn!” He cackled, tightened the rope, and watched me squirm.
In that moment, I wished I could take it all back. I had never known such agony or fear. My eyes felt like balloons ready to pop, my teeth sank into my bloody tongue. And Torio, so crazed. His saliva dribbled onto my face as he strangled me.
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