The Black Shard (32 page)

"I wonder what's going on," Kristina said curiously.

Next they saw one of the officials stop a gnome woman and her son as they left a fruit-and-vegetable stand. The woman was carrying a basket of freshly cut fairy blossoms.

"What are you doing out in the street?" the official asked the woman.

The woman frowned at him. "Excuse me!" she responded. "Why are you asking me such a thing?"

"Everyone is to go to their homes and stay quarantined inside them until further notice," the official said.

The gnome woman looked puzzled. "Oh? Why?"

The official looked oddly at her from his horse. "Where have you been woman?" he asked.

"I've been home all day, washing laundry, and I only recently stepped out to get some blossoms from the market. Why do you want to know?" There was a mixture of fear and frustration in her voice.

"Aren't you aware that there is a plague sweeping over our city?" The woman looked tensely up at the official. "What do you mean?" she said.

"The majority of Ezereens have already been infected with it. Have you been feeling ill or perhaps developed any unusual sores on your body?"

"No," the woman said, with a short, nervous laugh.

The child at her side spoke up. "Mama," he said, "I have a sore on my stomach." He lifted his shirt to reveal a small lesion the size of a pea near his navel.

The scene in the Black Shard swirled in a circle and then the fountain in the city center came into view. It usually had many folks lingering around it, but now it was deserted. The spurting water hitting the pool was the only movement seen in it. But then the stone showed the other side of the fountain, where there was a shamel standing shirtless under the spurting water, washing sores on his back.

Kristina's expression went bleak. "I've cursed the people of Ezeree," she said wearily.

"Don't say that," Werrien said softly.

"There were signs that I should have noticed—like when I first saw the sore on my leg, and then the sore on Tor's hand, and then the sick dwarf, smoking his pipe on the bench."

"Those could have all been coincidences."

Kristina shook her head. "I just got caught up in the moment, and I overlooked it. How selfish of me." She looked forlornly into Werrien's eyes. "What am I going to do?"

"First of all, it's not what are
you
going to do; it's what are
we
going to do. I would never let you go through this alone."

The Black Shard suddenly pulsated again, and then, the inside of Brambil Bunyin's tailor shop appeared. Brambil was at his sewing table, but he was definitely not sewing garments. Instead, he sat shivering, with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and his feet inside a bucket of hot water. Kristina noticed sores on his shins.

The scene in the stone changed again to the inside of Lonkin's house. The red-haired dwarf was sitting on the edge of his bed, dipping a sponge into a basin of water on top of his night table. Then he squeezed the water out of the sponge and dabbed it the onto three sores, on his upper arm.

The scene changed again to Leri and Shin's fishing boat, docked in the choppy harbor on the southern side of Tezerel. Shin was slouching on the bench in the boat, and Leri was standing in front of him, gesturing with his hands as he talked. "What's da matter with ya, Shin?" Leri said. "Dere's no time for belly-aching over an upset 'tomach now. We gots fishin' ta do before nightfall!"

Shin shook his hanging head. "I can't go," he said. "Not 'til my'tomach can handle da waves."

Leri suddenly swooned, and he would have gone headfirst over the side of the boat if Shin hadn't grabbed the back of his shirt at the last second. Shin plopped Leri down on the bench beside him.

"All of a sudden my 'tomach's acting funny, too," Leri said.

"Do ya t'ink it's da food we ate at Zalya's?" Shin asked.

Before Leri could answer, the Black Shard turned a deep black, and its red aura disappeared.

Feeling weak in her knees, Kristina knelt down. Werrien knelt down beside her and gently rubbed her back. He could see another small sore developing on the side of her neck. He cringed silently but said nothing.

"I should have never come here," Kristina moaned. "I'm only a bad omen to this world, the same as Margah was." With weary, red eyes, she turned and looked at Werrien. "You should leave me here and go back to Bernovem on your own. At least up here on these hills, I'll be far enough away from everyone."

"Quit talking like that! I'm not leaving you," Werrien said firmly.

The Black Shard lit up again, and Werrien looked into it. Kristina heard him draw in a tense breath, and then he stood up quickly.

"What is it now?" she asked. "Don't tell me the Ezereens are dying?"

Werrien had tension written all over his face. He didn't respond except to shake his head.

Kristina could sense something terrible was happening. She looked into the stone, and what she witnessed next was so disturbing that she quickly backed away from Werrien.

The Black Shard was showing Jabela being dragged by her hair across a kitchen by her mother. Then her mother picked up a rolling pin and went toward the little girl with it, but before she got to her, the Black Shard darkened again.

Angered, Werrien clasped his hand around the stone and squeezed it until his fist shook. Then he brought his arm back behind his head. Kristina realized that he was about to throw it over the bluff, and she grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Don't!" she said.

Still holding the stone above his head, Werrien looked down at her. "If I can't do anything about what's happening to you, the people of Ezeree, and now Jabela, then why should I torture myself by seeing these horrible things?"

Kristina let go of his arm."You may not be able to do anything for me or the people of Ezeree, but you can do something for Jabela," she said.

Werrien looked indifferent. "What could I do for Jabela?" he said in an annoyed tone.

"Did you see any sores on her?"

"No, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have any."

"So far, the Black Shard has revealed everyone that has sores, has it not? If you didn't see any on Jabela, my guess is that she probably hasn't developed any."

"So? What's your point?"

"I say you go back to Ezeree and rescue her from that disgusting woman." Kristina's eyes became glassy. Werrien sensed she was about to say something that he didn't want to hear. "Then take her to your ship and leave. Go back to Bernovem."

Werrien's eyes narrowed. "Are you saying that you want me to leave without you?"

"There's nothing you can do for me, but at least you can still save yourself and Jabe—"

"No!" Werrien said adamantly. He placed his hands on her arms. "I won't leave you."

"Werrien," Kristina said sternly, pulling away from him, "don't be selfish!" The words slipped out of her mouth without a thought.

Looking affronted, Werrien scowled at her. He turned, and walked toward the horses, who were still grazing in the field.

Kristina trembled with fear, but she crossed her arms across her chest and stood firm, determined not to chase after him.

When Werrien was done saddling Lisheng, he mounted him and rode over to Kristina. She was sitting with her back toward him, looking out at the dark sea. He dismounted Lisheng, and as he went to Kristina, she stood up and turned to face him. It was almost dark now, but he could still see well enough to notice a new sore developing on her forehead. He said nothing about it but only handed her his saddlebag. "There's a lantern, matches, and the pastries Zalya made for us in it," he said. Taysha was walking slowly with her head down toward them. "I'm leaving Taysha here with you."

"Thanks," Kristina said.

Werrien took hold of Kristina and hugged her, and they held each other for a short while. "Did I ever tell you why I love you?" he said.

Kristina smiled weakly up at him. "I guess I don't remember your saying why," she said.

He smiled down at her. "You're not only the most beautiful girl that I've ever met but also the strongest and most selfless girl as well."

Werrien took the Black Shard out of his pocket. "I want to leave it with you," he said, setting it in the grass near her feet. "Maybe it will show you where I am." He turned and went to Lisheng. Taysha stood by Kristina and nuzzled her with her soft white head. Werrien mounted Lisheng, saying, "I'm getting Jabela and then coming back for you."

Too weary to argue with Werrien, Kristina only smiled and waved farewell to him as he rode away down the hillside.

K
ristina dug into Werrien's pack and took out the lantern and the bag of pastries. She lit the lantern and then sat down on the grass. She took one of the loganberry pastries out of the bag—now cold and hard instead of warm and soft as when Bronya first gave them to her.
Nothing good ever lasts long,
she thought, staring down at it. She brought it up to her mouth to bite into it, but when it touched her teeth, she just couldn't bite it; her stomach was a bundle of nerves. She dropped the pastry back in the bag and stared out toward the vast waters. She knew she was looking in the direction of the sea but the water was no longer visible due—it was nightfall and a cold fog was rolling in. Shivering, she looked at the lantern, her only light source; its meager glow radiated only a couple feet around her. To her, it already seemed so long ago that she had sat in the same spot with Werrien, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the soft breeze. Now there was only bleak darkness and a biting wind, chilling her.

Taysha went to Kristina and gently nudged her with her muzzle. Kristina leaned her head against the mare's head, and as she did, a brisk wind came at her, hitting the sore on her forehead and making her painfully aware of it for the first time. She felt something cold trickle down her cheek and she swiped it with her fingers.
Blood,
she thought. She tried not to think about her horrendous situation, but it was so very hard not to dwell on it—there were now many more sores developing all over her body, itching and stinging at the same time.

The necklace lay on the grass beside her. She picked it up and held it close to the lantern to view the stone. It was lifeless and devoid of all color. She dropped it onto the ground.

"It's really happening, Taysha. I was hoping that I was just imagining this, but it's real," she sobbed, her eyes itching from her warm tears. She stood up and embraced Taysha around her neck. "If I turn into a tree, will you at least wait by me until Werrien comes back?" she asked the horse.

"Be strong, Kristina," Taysha said.

"But I'm not a strong person. I've been so insecure and sickly, practically the whole time I've been here in this world."

Suddenly, directly ahead of Kristina, a silhouette of a woman appeared on the horizon. She was tall and slender and wore a long, flowing cloak. Locks of hair swirled about her head in the wind. "Dear child," she said to Kristina in a soft, soothing voice, "I know how frail and sick you are."

"Who ... are you, and why are you here?" Kristina asked, squinting to see the woman more clearly.

"I am here for you," the woman said.

"But why?" Kristina asked curiously.

"I want to take you away from this world's troubles."

A sense of relief filled Kristina.

The woman held her arms open to Kristina. "Come with me, child," she said in a soft whisper, "and I will take you to a place where all the calamities you have faced will be no more."

So weary and longing for someone—anyone at this point—to comfort her, Kristina walked slowly toward the woman, but when she was no more then a couple feet away from her, Taysha charged at the woman and then reared up at her. Then, suddenly, emerging from the woman's body, into the air above, was the ghost-like, gruesome old hag that Kristina had encountered the past few days. She swooped down from the sky and with her bony, long-nailed fingers stretched out, she lunged at Kristina, reaching toward her throat. At the same time, Taysha charged at the hag, squealing and kicking at her. The hag spun around and from out of her mouth, she spewed a black vapor, which sprayed all over Taysha's body, causing the horse to squeal in pain. Taysha took off running up the hillside.

Shocked, Kristina fell to the ground, and as she lay on her back in pain, as well as physically and mentally drained, the hag hovered closely over her. Then out of her mouth the hag blew a cold gray mist over Kristina's body. Kristina tried to move away from the hag but she couldn't, her body was suddenly paralyzed.

"Poor, sweet child," the hag crooned. "How would you like me to rid you of those sores, so that you can have your beautiful, flawless skin again?"

"Of course I would like to have my skin back to normal," Kristina said weakly.

"Then you must first come with me and help me to once again rule this world. Then, I'll not only give you back your beautiful skin, but I'll also give you the desire of your heart."

"You could never give me the desire of my heart, for I already have it."

The hag cackled softly. "Remember, I told you before that you and I are alike!"