by Pedro Urvi
“Fully recovered?” Haakon asked. He looked disbelieving.
“Completely, though he’s still weak, and he’ll need another couple of seasons to recover fully.”
“Can we look after him now?” Edwina asked.
“When the Council meeting is over,” Angus said.
“We have to make sure he doesn’t relapse,” Eyra said.
“He won’t relapse, at least not from the same cause,” Angus promised her. “Egil, do you have what I asked you to bring?”
“Yes, sir. I made it myself.”
“Leave it on the table, if you would.”
Egil placed a phial of blue liquid in the center of the table.
“Is that what I think it is?” Haakon asked.
“Yes, it’s the antidote,” Angus said. “Just in case there should be another accident …”
“There won’t be!” Esben cried.
“We can’t be sure of that,” Angus pointed out, “so I’ve covered my back.”
“Good idea,” said Ivana. “Accidents do happen.”
Haakon stared at the antidote distrustfully.
“What has been shown,” Angus went on, “and I don’t think anybody has any doubt about it by now, is that Dolbarar has been poisoned. All my own doubts have been dispelled by the process of isolation we’ve followed, and the result.”
“I still refuse to believe that Dolbarar was poisoned,” said Edwina. “I would have noticed.”
“So would I,” Eyra agreed. “I can’t believe I’d have overlooked something like that. I’ve devoted my whole life to healing potions and poisons. If there’d been a toxin, I’d have recognized it.”
“It isn’t your fault,” came a weak but firm voice from the top of the stairs. They looked up to see Dolbarar leaning on his staff, with Nilsa helping him and Gerd behind them.
Esben got to his feet. “Dolbarar! How wonderful to see you!”
“You look a lot better,” Eyra said in astonishment.
“It’s amazing! What an improvement!” Edwina cried.
Ivana and Haakon too got to their feet, and the delight on their faces seemed to be sincere.
Dolbarar began to make his way down the stairs with Nilsa’ help, very slowly. Gerd followed close behind in case he tripped or lost his balance. When he reached the bottom, he smiled gratefully at Egil, who smiled back at him.
“Dolbarar,” Angus said respectfully, “I relinquish my seat to you.”
“It’s not my place. I’m still in no condition to lead.” He nodded gratefully to him. “I’ll sit in the armchair by the fire and follow the meeting from there. I’m very interested in what’s to be debated.”
Angus waited until Dolbarar was seated before he went on: “Dolbarar is the living proof that he was poisoned, just as Egil suspected. That suspicion is now confirmed. Hence it’s our duty to find out who poisoned him.”
“I find it hard to believe, but I can’t deny the evidence,” Haakon said. “If we’re looking for the poisoner, it must be someone in the Camp.”
“It’s someone who’s even closer than that,” said Angus.
Ivana turned to him suspiciously. “What do you mean?”
“The poisoning was progressive, not the result of a single dose. Isn’t that right, Egil?”
Egil nodded. “The poisoning of King Leonidas was carried out during a whole season. That’s the way it produces symptoms like those of Putrefaction of the Blood.”
“So it wasn’t in a single dose?” Esben asked.
Egil shook his head. “It’s a sustained poisoning.”
“That complicates things,” said Ivana.
“Or simplifies them,” Haakon pointed out.
“Simplifies them?” Esben repeated.
Haakon looked round at all of them, one by one. “Yes, because it has to be someone very close, with access to him. It’s one of us.”
Ivana rose from her seat in fury. “How can you possibly say that?”
“Who else had access to Dolbarar while he was lying in his bed?” Haakon asked. He pointed to each of them, then to Egil.
“If you’re going to point to someone, do it to yourself,” said Ivana.
“I’m doing that,” said Haakon, and pointed to his own chest.
“It pains me to admit it,” Angus said, “but Haakon is right. It’s one of us.”
“It wasn’t me!” Esben roared like an enraged bear.
“Well it certainly wasn’t me either!” Ivana said. She sounded deeply offended.
“It wasn’t me either, but it’s no good denying it,” said Haakon. “We’re all going to deny it. We need proof.”
“Exactly,” Angus agreed. “It wasn’t me either, but I can’t prove it, and I’m sure Egil – even though he brought us the antidote, and that rules him out – can’t either.”
Edwina glanced at Eyra. “The most obvious suspects are the two of us. You didn’t say it, but that’s what you’re thinking.”
“We’ve been with him day and night,” Eyra said. “That’s undeniable.”
“And we’ve given him potions and healing treatments,” Edwina added.
The others were all staring at them in silence. They were obviously the prime suspects.
“And neither of you found the poison,” Haakon said, “which is even more suspicious.”
“To do something like that, you’ve got to have a reason,” Ivana pointed out. “What reason could these two have? No, it can’t be them.”
“I don’t believe it was them either,” Dolbarar agreed. “They’ve been by my side for years, and they have my full trust. We’ve been through a lot together, and they’ve always behaved with the utmost integrity. I don’t know anybody more devoted to helping others in the most disinterested manner than the two of them. No, it can’t be them.”
“Everyone in this hall is trustworthy,” said Esben. “At least as far as I’m concerned, and I believe as far as the others are concerned too. I don’t think any one of us can have done it. It’s unthinkable.”
“The key is the motive,” Angus insisted. “To commit murder, there has to be a motive. If we find the motive, we’ll find the killer.”
“Who among us would have a motive?” Ivana asked. She was looking around at all of them.
“Haakon wants power, we all know that,” Esben said, “but not so much that he’d kill the Camp leader. Apart from the fact that he wouldn’t get the position.”
“Thanks for your unnecessary defense,” Haakon said with heavy irony and a grimace of distaste. “If I’d wanted to kill Dolbarar, he’d be dead.” He made a swift movement with his hands as if they were daggers.
“And I’d hunt you down the next day,” Esben retorted.
“I have no motive,” Ivana protested. “I’m not interested in being Camp Leader, nor do I have anything against Dolbarar.”
“You may not, but Edwina, for instance, does,” Angus pointed out.
“Me? What motive?” she said, surprised and offended.
“Not everybody knows this, but when Dolbarar asked for a Healer and they sent you, something terrible happened to you.”
Edwina’s face took on an expression of horror. “That … what happened to me … and the death of my Protector Sisters … it was an accident.”
“Yes, a chance event. But it happened. People tend to blame others for their misfortunes, particularly if they’re as serious and terrible as what happened to you.”
“Do you … do you think I blame Dolbarar for what they did to me?”
“And that you hold it against him. It’s a resentment which has grown over the years … which has taken over your heart … until it clouded your judgment and led you to take a senseless revenge.”
“That’s not true! I don’t hate Dolbarar! I don’t hold anything against him! It’s something that happened, and it’s buried in the depths of my soul!”
“Are you sure? A little while ago you mentioned it to Egil. It doesn’t seem so deeply buried …”
�
�I was tired, I simply told them my story … Dolbarar, you don’t think it’s true, do you?”
He shook his head. “No … I don’t think it’s true.”
“I swear I hold no grudge against Dolbarar or the Camp for what happened to me,” she said, looking from one to the other.
“You say that,” Haakon said, “but Angus is right. You have a motive.”
“Nor is she the only one,” Angus added.
“Who else?” Ivana asked.
“Eyra.”
They all turned to the Master Ranger of Nature.
“Me? Are you out of your mind, Angus?”
“I wish I were, but I don’t think so. You and Dolbarar have competed to be the best ever since you met here for the first-time years ago. He was given the leadership of the Camp, which was something you wanted as well, and believed was your due.”
“I won’t deny that we were competitive, and that at one point I did want the position. But that was ages ago. I don’t even remember it anymore.”
“I don’t think that’s reason enough, after all these years,” Esben said in her defense.
“Our rivalry was always a natural, healthy one,” Dolbarar said. “We never went to extremes, and it helped both of us greatly.”
“And besides,” Eyra added, “as you can see, they sent you, Angus. They didn’t give me the position.”
“My stay here is only until Dolbarar recovers. If he doesn’t, one of you will take over. Gondabar has arranged things that way. It’s good to promote people from among the ranks, it helps morale and the feeling of belonging, and provides a reward for a job well done and those sacrifices which have been made.”
Suddenly the door opened and Master Instructor Oden came in. From his manner, it was clear that he knew he was interrupting something important. He looked from Dolbarar to Angus.
“Forgive the interruption, sir,” he said, sounding embarrassed. “There’s someone who wishes to speak to you immediately.”
Angus frowned. “We’re in the middle of a council meeting. It’ll have to wait.”
“He says it’s very important … and urgent.”
“Important enough to interrupt the Council?”
“I think so, sir … he says it can’t wait. That it has to do with the situation our leader finds himself in.” He was staring at Dolbarar, who shifted in his seat in surprise.
The comment had intrigued Angus. “All right, let him in.”
Oden nodded and beckoned to someone outside.
A Ranger Specialist entered the House.
It was none other than Lasgol.
Chapter 51
“Lasgol!” Dolbarar cried in surprise.
“I’m glad to see you so much better,” Lasgol replied with a smile. “I see I got here in time. I thought I wasn’t going to make it.”
“As your appearance suggests,” said Angus looking him up and down.
Lasgol was covered in saltpeter, mud, dust and filth, and his face showed the accumulated exhaustion of several days travelling non-stop to get there as soon as possible.
“I’ve come from a very long way away,” he apologized, and looked at Egil, who nodded at him unobtrusively. Lasgol nodded back and smiled. He was very happy to see his friend, and to see Dolbarar alive. He did not know how, but he was sure that Egil had had something to do with the fact that Dolbarar was still alive and looking so well.
“We’re in the middle of a very important meeting,” Haakon said aggressively. “How dare you interrupt it?”
“I have some very important information to present to all of you,” Lasgol replied, unmoved.
Ivana turned toward him in her chair. “For your own good, it had better be,” she said, her voice as cold as ever. “What we’re discussing is deeply serious.”
“It is,” Lasgol said firmly.
“I very much doubt it,” Haakon said in a voice which cut like a knife, “but I’ll be amused to see what punishment Angus gives you for interrupting the meeting like this.”
“I’m sure Lasgol hasn’t interrupted the meeting without some good reason,” Dolbarar said, straightening his back in his armchair.
“Let’s hear what he has to say,” Angus said more positively, and waved a hand at Lasgol in encouragement.
“I’ve found out that someone’s been poisoning Dolbarar,” he said with complete confidence, and glanced at the old man. Then he looked at the others, waiting for some reaction of surprise or confrontation, dismissing the statement. He was ready to disprove their arguments.
This was not what happened.
“Your friend has already found that out,” Haakon replied at once with a touch of disdain. He gestured at Egil.
Lasgol was frozen to the spot. How could they have found out?
“How did you know that? You haven’t even been here, or to Erenal, have you?” Esben asked.
“Lasgol didn’t come with us on the Erenal mission,” Egil confirmed. He was looking at his friend, intrigued by what he could have discovered that they had not.
“Then you can’t have found out the same way Egil has,” Angus said, sounding equally intrigued. “How did you find out?”
“More or less …by chance, really …” Lasgol began.
“Quite a chance, to let you find out a thing like that,” said Angus.
“You can’t reach that conclusion because of a mere chance,” Haakon grumbled.
“It was just that. If you’ll let me explain ...”
“Go ahead, I want to know,” Angus said encouragingly.
“I’ve just come back from a distant and exotic place. Magical, even. I’ve been visiting the Turquoise Queen.”
“Have you struck up a friendship with the Queen?” Angus asked. “From what Eicewald told us about her, she’s pretty unwelcoming, and she keeps herself and her people away from foreigners. Isn’t that so?” Presumably Angus had got this information from Gondabar.
“That’s right. She let me come back to her kingdom. We made a deal, which I honored. And she also allowed me to leave and come back to my country.”
“Very interesting,” Dolbarar said. “You’ll have to tell me all about it at leisure.”
“Of course, sir.” He looked at Egil, whose expression said: ‘me too’.
“Go on. What did the Turquoise Queen reveal to you?” Angus asked.
“She asked me to let her analyze the components and elements we Rangers use, out of intellectual curiosity. She’s in search of knowledge to do with Healing and Death which she doesn’t yet have.”
“An intelligent woman,” Angus commented.
“We let her analyze our Rangers’ belts, and in mine she found something very interesting. An element of Death which is quite rare ...”
“I don’t follow,” said Esben. “Every Ranger carries poisons and ingredients for preparing them in his belt. There’s nothing odd about that.”
“They’re necessary for maiming or killing an enemy,” Ivana said. “We all use them.”
“They’re especially used in my school,” Haakon said. “The strongest and most lethal ones.”
“There’s nothing strange about that,” said Angus. “How did you get from there to the conclusion that Dolbarar was being poisoned?”
Lasgol nodded. He had been expecting this question.
“Because the substance Uragh identified as the poison she found particularly interesting wasn’t any of the ones I was carrying, or the ingredients I used to make them, it was a different one. One she had never seen before. A very strange one, which fascinated her. One that interested her so much that she analyzed it, and then she confirmed that it was a poison for the blood. It putrefied it.”
There was a long silence. Haakon and Ivana exchanged glances. Esben was looking at Angus.
“Putrefaction of the Blood ...” Angus whispered.
“Yes, sir.”
“It’s the same conclusion we’ve come to, based on the information Egil has brought from Erenal.”
Lasgol glance
d at his friend, who nodded in confirmation.
“That corroborates it,” Esben said. “Two different sources, the same conclusion.”
“We’re currently immersed in finding out who the poisoner is, and the motive,” Haakon said, dismissing Lasgol’s discovery.
“I can help with that too,” Lasgol said very seriously.
“You know who the poisoner is?” Angus asked in disbelief, and Lasgol nodded. All eyes focused on him.
Very slowly, he raised his arm and pointed to one person. “It’s Eyra.”
The aged Master Ranger rose to her feet in fury. “How dare you! This is outrageous! Are you out of your mind?”
“What proof do you have?” Dolbarar asked him. He was clearly unable to believe the accusation.
Lasgol turned to him. “The poisonous substance the Turquoise Queen found so fascinating is the Undying Bell.”
“I don’t know that flower,” Angus said, shaking his head.
“Neither do I,” said Esben.
Ivana and Haakon shook their heads.
“I’m not familiar with it,” said Edwina.
“What leads you to believe it’s Eyra?” Dolbarar asked him.
“Because she asked me to look for it in secret. She told me the flowers would help cure the disease. I looked for them and brought her several. They’re very rare.” He looked at Dolbarar. “I’m afraid that – without knowing – I helped to poison you.”
The Leader of the Camp bowed his head. He looked deeply sad and hurt.
“This is all a lie!” Eyra replied. She was red with rage.
“Did you ask him to get you that plant?” Angus asked her.
“I’m not going to go on with this farce any longer! I’ve got nothing to prove! Whatever I did or didn’t ask him is my business, and mine alone!”
“If you don’t explain yourself,” Haakon said accusingly, “how will we know what really happened? It’s the boy’s word against yours.”
“Exactly! It’s my word against his! Who are you going to believe, me or a young Ranger who may have good intentions, but who’s wrong?”
Dolbarar was shaking his head. “It can’t be Eyra. She’s been by my side all my life, and she’s always done an impeccable job.” His voice was deeply troubled.
