“I used Anu's Light to drive it back,” I said. “The blight is an extension of an ancient garden full of regret. Somehow, it has come to life and is infecting Seelie. Can you tell me if you sensed anything while it touched you?”
“Regret,” the man murmured and looked at the other Iele. “Yes, that's what it wanted. That's what it took.” He looked back at me. “I can think more clearly now. I see how those bad emotions tainted the good. Even love wasn't pure until now. We have been cleansed.”
I glanced at Tiernan without turning away from the Iele. His lips were pressed together.
“It touched your love?” I asked.
A woman came forward. “It pruned our love, Your Majesty. It took the bad parts away.”
“Pruned their love. That's why the Licho reacted so differently. They had very little happiness of their own. If they loved, it was a borrowed emotion.”
“Yes, and?” Tiernan frowned.
The Iele watched me with calm curiosity.
“Their good emotions weren't twisted with their bad emotions. Pruning them didn't dull anything. It's the difference between cutting away a completely dead branch and trimming back healthy ones. The latter leaves a wound, while the former simply reveals the beauty hidden beneath.”
Tiernan's eyebrows lifted. “Yes, of course. That's what happened to me. My love for you was infected with anger. Remove the anger, and you leave holes in the love. I needed time to refill the holes.”
“Then they'll probably recover, even though they were infected for so long.”
Tiernan looked at the Iele. “Yes, I think so.”
“We are not suffering, Your Majesties,” the Iele man continued to speak for the village. “Under that darkness, I felt fear, but now, I am reborn.”
“Good,” Tiernan said, although the skin around his eyes twitched. “Very good. Then we shall leave you to heal. We have another village to get to, and I'm hoping to arrive before nightfall.”
“Tiernan, I can't,” I whispered. “After the air attack, I barely had enough time to recover. Clearing this village has drained me again.”
“Please, we'd be honored if you stayed the night with us.” The Iele man opened his arms, but it looked like a parody of a welcome—someone who knew the motions but didn't have the emotion to back them.
Tiernan looked at me. He wanted to leave. So did I. The Iele were so damn creepy. But I couldn't face the blight as I was. So, I nodded.
“Very well, we accept your hospitality,” Tiernan said.
“Please come with me. My family and I will see to your comfort. The others will find beds for your soldiers.”
“Thank you.” I glanced at Tiernan again, wondering if splitting up was a good idea. But what else could we do—sleep in the pavilion? I looked at the pavilion, considering the option.
But then a group of Iele stepped forward and bowed to us. In unison. I winced. Three of them—the man, his wife, and their son—led Tiernan and me away while the rest went to assist our soldiers.
“Pod people,” I whispered to Tiernan.
“They just need some time.” He looked over his shoulder at our guards.
His King's Guard seemed just as disturbed as I was. They followed us with their hands on their sword hilts. I didn't think we were in danger of being attacked by the Iele, but it wouldn't hurt for us to be extra vigilant. And by “us” I meant them. As soon as my head touched a pillow, I'd be out cold.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tiernan laid his shadow ward over us before we went to sleep, so I knew the nightmares were of my own making. In them, I ran across blackened ground while thorny vines rose to bind me. They didn't burst into flames, but I knew it was my magic. The blight had taken it as it took everything else. I fell into a bramble of blight and came awake, clawing at the air.
My motions woke Tiernan, but he didn't know they'd been a violent reaction to a nightmare. The sun was up, so he thought I had woken normally, and I let him think it. Keeping normal nightmares a secret wasn't a betrayal.
After a quick breakfast with our hosts, who seemed less like pod people after their night's rest, we left Nebunie. The next village was the last on our list and the first to report a blight sighting. It was the Basty village of Kabus. Halfway there, my scry phone chimed. It was Severriel.
“Sever! Hi, how—”
Sever cut me off. “Raza scried me, Seren.”
