Escape (37 page)

The Excelcius turned to address the others in the circle. “Paladians, the day we have feared since the inception of our order has come. The Great Rebellion has begun anew.”

Murmurs and whispers skittered through the ensuing silence. The Excelcius's eyes met each of theirs in turn. “Keep your minds clear when you are around them. Focus your minds on your meditative mantras. They may already have the ability to read your thoughts.”

“We will not kill them, then?” Lystra Deswin asked.

The Excelcius regarded him steadily. “If our wolvins could not do so, what chance do we stand? No, we will study them in hopes that we are wrong.”

“And if we are right?” The question came from an elderly woman seated clear across the chamber.

“Then may the Elementals see fit to spare us from their wrath. And may we send them on their way quickly.” Turning back to Paladian Deswin, the Excelcius said, “You will show the changers every hospitality until we can determine the truth.”

“With respect, Excelcius, I do not think it would be wise for me to have any contact with the changers.”

The Excelcius cocked his head and raised his eyebrows .

“They have been told that I will be punished appropriately. That I have chosen exile. That my methods are a heresy. That I am merely a keeper within the order. It will be better if they do not see that these are lies.”

“What better punishment can there be than ministering to the needs of those whom you have offended? As for our deception, this is easily explained. You will tell them that you are a heretic in exile, but still a member of our order, thus we must still punish you. The others already know to refer to you as a keeper, and who better to recognize the symptoms of the changers' transformation than one who has lived among them as recently as you? As one who is familiar with their ways, you will be able to recognize abnormal behavior.”

“They may try to kill me.”

“Then take care that they do not succeed.”

“Very well, Excelcius.”

* * *

Kieran listened intently as they approached the Chamber of Rest and Healing. He could hear running water echoing down the corridor toward him. Jilly's footsteps rhythmically crunched gravel beside his own. She sent him a quick sidelong look which he pretended not to notice.

The distance between flaming wall sconces grew, and the corridor began to glow with a light of its own
—
a faint, blue-green light that was growing stronger with every step they took. Soon the wall sconces disappeared entirely, and the rough rock walls of the corridor began to glisten wetly in the soft blue-green light. The sound of running water was growing stronger, and the air inside the corridor had warmed considerably. Kieran began to feel sticky with humidity. A sweet, floral smell began to cloy the air. He ran a hand along the side of the corridor, and it came away wet.

“Where is the light coming from?” Jilly asked.

Kieran ignored her, but Segurion answered from up ahead: “From the chetins.”

“The what?” Ferrel asked.

“Look up,” Segurion said.

They looked up to see that the entire ceiling was lined with fuzzy blue spheres, each of them pulsing with inner light.

“What are they?” Jilly asked, reaching up to touch one as she walked beneath it. It was soft like feathers, and sticky like tree sap. She looked at her fingertips, and saw that they were covered with a thick, translucent blue residue that was glowing like the chetins. A moment later her fingertips began stinging. She tried to wipe the residue off on her clothes, but it clung stubbornly.

“Don't touch them,” Segurion thought to add a minute later.

Jilly smiled at the irony.
Too late,
she thought. He hadn't seen her touch one of them, yet he'd thought to warn them anyway. “Why not?” she asked.

“They secrete a poison through their epidermal layer.”

A stab of dread shot through her. “A poison?”

Kieran sent her a sharp, anxious look. “How poisonous are they?”

Prime Segurion suddenly stopped walking and turned to them. “Why do you ask?”

“Because she touched one,” Kieran said, pointing to Jilly. Her face was stricken.

“When?” Segurion asked sharply. His eyes narrowed upon Jilly.

“A few minutes ago,” Kieran replied.

Prime Segurion walked up to them, his face drawn. “Show me.”

Jilly held out her hand, palm up.

“Where?” he demanded.

Jilly blinked twice, rapidly. Her fingers were clean “There was some kind of sap on my fingers. I couldn't get it off
 
.
 
.
 
.
”

“I don't see anything,” Ferrel said, coming up behind them.

“Then it's too late. Your body has already absorbed the poison.” Prime Segurion's eyes glittered darkly in the strangely shifting blue light. “Your fate is in the Elementals' hands now.” Prime Segurion turned quic
kly away from them and hurried
down the corridor. “Come,” he commanded.

“What? That's it? Don't you have an antidote?” Kieran asked.

Segurion gave no reply.

“Where are you going?!” Kieran demanded.

“She may have a chance if we can get her to the healing waters before the poison reaches her brain.”

Jilly sent Kieran a desperate look.
I don't want to die,
she thought at him.

You won't. Come on.
And without further comment, Kieran swept Jilly into his arms and began running down the corridor.

Ferrel and Dimmi kept pace behind them.

You don't actually think some mystic pool of cave water is going to help her, do you?
Somehow Kieran knew it was Dimmi
—
even their thoughts seemed to be colored by their usual pitch and tone of voice.

You have a better idea?
Kieran asked.

They soon caught up to and passed Prime Segurion, who called out behind them: “Wait! You don't know which pool to put her in!”

“So tell me!” Kieran shot back.

They were all in such a hurry, that they didn't realize how fast they were moving. Prime Segurion considered himself to be in excellent physical condition, but he'd never seen anyone anyone run so fast his life. He gave no thought of trying to keep up with them. “The one in the middle!” he called after them.

They disappeared around a bend in the corridor before Segurion could tell if they had heard him or not.

Chapter 19

J
illy watched the wet rock walls of the corridor blur as Kieran ran and marveled that she could somehow still make out every crack and fissure along their dimpled surface if she tried. The distant, echoing sound of running water grew steadily nearer. Her heart was pounding with adrenaline, but otherwise she felt fine. Her hand had even stopped stinging where it had contacted the poison.

“I feel fine, Kieran. If I were poisoned, surely I would feel some pain.”

“Not necessarily,” he replied. “Segurion said the poison would go to your brain. There aren't any nerve endings in your brain, so you won't feel a thing when it gets there.”

Jilly marveled briefly that Kieran didn't even sound out of breath. He'd been sprinting down the corridor for over 10 minutes. “Well, I still feel fine.”

The sound of running water blossomed into thunder as the corridor they were running down abruptly ended in an echoing cavern. Jilly sucked in a quick breath at the sight of it. They were standing at the bottom of a series of steaming pools, five in all. The topmost pool was fed by a gushing waterfall which roared out of solid rock and kicked up clouds of mist that sparkled in the blue-green light. High above, a ceiling of chetin-covered stalactites glowed a pulsating blue. Each chetin had its own rhythm of slowly pulsing light, so that it appeared like blue-green stars were twinkling overhead. A scattering of people in plain white robes sat cross-legged or lay flat on stone slabs along the near wall of the cavern. They were being ministered to by others in blue robes. Some of those wearing white robes were walking along paths leading to the pools, disrobing, and then walking in naked.

“It looks like some kind of spa
.
 
.
 
.
 
.
” Dimmi said.

“Whatever it is, it stinks,” Ferrel said, wrinkling his nose.

“Sulfur,” Jilly explained, eyeing the steaming pools from where she was cradled between Kieran's arms. “These appear to be geothermal pools.”

Wordlessly, Kieran ran toward a staircase that was cut straight out of the rock. He ran up it, with no regard for the fact that the stairs were wet and slippery. The others followed close behind. Kieran stopped halfway up the staircase and took the pathway which curved off to the left, to the middle pool of the five. He reached the end of the pathway just as a blue-robed man was helping another in a white robe to undress before entering the pool.

Kieran set Jilly on her feet beside the pool and hesitated briefly, watching the man in the white robe. The man shrugged out of his robe, letting it pool around his ankles. It was then that they noticed how heavily he was leaning on the man in the blue robe. And why.

His entire left leg below the knee was black.

“Oh Deus,” Jilly whispered. “That man has gangrene.”

As though she weren't about to die herself, Jilly walked up to the man in the blue robe and tapped him on the shoulder as he was helping his charge into the pool. When the naked man was seated comfortably on a stone shelf inside the shallow, steaming pool, the man in the blue robe turned to Jilly with eyebrows raised. His head was shaven, and his smoothly-rounded, stubble-free face revealed him to be little more than a boy, perhaps even an adolescent.

The boy's eyes ran up and down Jilly's attire briefly, and his lips curled into a sneer. “What are you doing here, changer?”

“I'm an honored guest.” Jilly pointed impatiently to the man in the pool. “If you don't amputate that man's leg, he's going to die a very painful death.”

The boy in the blue robe smiled thinly at her, while the man in question paid her no attention, his eyes staring blankly ahead. “That is for the Elementals to decide.” The boy nodded to the crude, blood-crusted bandage wrapped around Jilly's rib cage. “Have you come to the Pool of Cleansing to seek their healing touch?”

“No,” Jilly said, fuming. She pointed again to the man with the gangrenous leg. “I don't care how sacred these waters are, if you don't amputate
—
”

Kieran stepped between Jilly and the boy in the blue robe. “My friend here
—
” He cast Jilly a quick look, both to keep her quiet and to indicate whom he was referring to. “
—
touched one of the chetins. Can you explain how immersing herself in this pool will help her?”

“How long ago was this?” The boy in the blue robe asked.

“About 15 minutes ago.”

The boy's brown eyes widened. “Then she should already be dead.” He gave Jilly a quick look, and his eyes narrowed sharply as he reappraised her. “If this is a jest, I do not appreciate it. I have others to attend to.”

“He's telling the truth, man,” Ferrel put in. “I saw her touch one of those fuzz balls myself.”

“I do not believe you, but if what you say is true, then the only possible explanation is that you have found favor with the Elementals
—
though I can hardly imagine why.” The boy added that last part with an accompanying sneer in Jilly's direction. “Go in peace, changers, unless you have further reason to be here.” The boy turned to leave before they could reply, but Dimmi stepped calmly in front of him, blocking the path.

“As a matter of fact, we do,” she said. “Show him your leg, Ferrel.”

Ferrel hesitated uncertainly, but seeing the look of implacable annoyance on Dimmi's face, he sat down and began tugging at the bandage around his leg.

Kieran shook his head. “Don't bother, Ferrel. These primitives would probably do more harm than good.” Turning to the boy in the blue robe, he said, “We can minister to our own injuries, thank you.”

The boy shrugged and started forward, angling to squeeze by Dimmi. She gritted her teeth and stepped in front of him again. “Not so fast. We'll need some clean strips of cloth, as many as you can bear to part with.”

The boy nodded, then walked deliberately off the path to get away from her.

“Good thinking,” Jilly said. “At least we'll be able to replace our bandages and clean the wounds. Whatever else these pools might be, the sulfur will serve as a good antiseptic.”

Kieran was looking at Jilly strangely. She noticed and sent him a curious frown. “What?”

“How did you survive the venom?”

Jilly shrugged. “Maybe I'm immune to it.”

“That doesn't make any sense and you know it.”