“Don’t… Please, don’t…” Ellene gripped at him so tightly that Vi was certain she left bruises. He lightly kissed the top of her head through the young woman’s spiral curls, then looked to Jayme and Vi.
“Take her and keep her safe. Donotlet her come after me.”
Vi gave a short nod, overlooked the fact that a commoner had technically just issued an order to her—sometimes etiquette was best ignored, particularly in the face of what was very obviously young love—and pulled Ellene into her arms. “We have to go now.”
“No, don’t take me!” Ellene twisted. “I’m going with him.”
“Your mother asked us to take you.” Jayme got a grip on Ellene’s other arm.
“Ellene.” Za’s voice was a sharp and searing blade to the heart of her daughter’s contention. “Back to the fortress. Now.”
Ellene slumped against Vi and let herself be shepherded away.
More and more people were beginning to panic. There was wailing, crying, shouting, and accusations thrown their way whenever someone bold enough got a good look at Vi walking in their midst.
The four of them navigated through it, hastening back to the fortress to wait out what already truly felt like the longest night of the year.
Chapter Thirty-One
They sataround a small table in the back corner of one of the kitchens. Between each of their hands was a mug of warm tea; a plate of food steamed in front of them, but none of them could muster the will to eat.
After the events of the day, Vi certainly wasn’t hungry.
“He’s going to die,” Ellene mumbled grimly.
“You don’t know that.”
“He’s going to get sick with the White Death, and die.”
“No one knows how it’s transferred,” Jayme started.
“Part of what makes it so terrifying,” Andru interjected under his breath.
Vi was silent. The old Western woman was still in her mind. She’d said the White Death came from the Crescent Continent. If Vi’s theories on the crystal caverns were true, then the plague’s origins were far more homegrown.
But the solution might lie across the sea, nonetheless… with a man she knew through strands of light. What would she ask Taavin first? She worked to sift through the chaos of the day to find an answer.
“I saw houses in the capital, families who lived together in one room—five people—poor folk who couldn’t afford any clerical help.” Jayme continued to try to cheer up Ellene. “Mostly left to fend for themselves… One fell ill, but the other four survived. I’m no cleric myself, but I don’t think it’s transferred by mere proximity, like autumn fever.”
“He’ll catch it. If anyone will catch it from proximity, it’ll be him.” Ellene wasn’t hearing them. She wasn’t seeing them either. She stared off at nothing, wallowing in her own doubt.
Vi wrested herself from her thoughts and rested a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Listen to Jayme.”
“He’s going to be taken by the illness just like my grandmother!” Ellene pushed her hand aside and crumpled into tears. Jayme and Vi shared a look.
The death of the last chieftain had been particularly hard for the North. A people who were still relatively new to the Empire, still stinging from the loss of their sovereignty, had their leader called to a foreign land to see if her rare magic could assist in finding a cure for the White Death. Sehra’s mother, Ellene’s grandmother, had never returned from that journey. She’d succumbed to the disease and her body was burned in Norin, her last rites given by foreign people in a foreign land.
“Darrus is strong,” Vi attempted. “He’s much younger than—”
“My grandmother was not that old.” Ellene’s head jerked up, tears streaming down her cheeks. “And she was one of the strongest chieftains to ever live.”
“You poor lot, stuck in here on the night of solstice.” Renna made a clicking noise with her tongue as she shook her head in disapproval. “You should’ve been dancing the dusk away, filling your stomachs with good food, filling your souls with the final rites of the evening, and then drifting to sleep as the wonders of the day filled your mind.”
“Unfortunately a plague doesn’t wait for festivities to be over.” Vi sighed, still rubbing Ellene’s back with an open palm as the girl sniffed softly.
“It does not. But at the very least, would you three like a story? Seems a shame to head to bed without even hearing one of the old tales around a fire. What good is the solstice if you don’t?”
“I wouldn’t mind.” Jayme was the first to seize the opportunity.
