Mortalis

Chapter 37

Symphony ran as never before, bearing Pony straight to the souti thundering down the roads to Dundalis. Bradwarden carried Dainse now, who was recovering with each passing minute, but the cental couldn't begin to pace Symphony and Pony. Even when Symphony ha been carrying both women on the trip to the Barbacan, Bradwarden had t run on much longer each night to keep up.

But Pony couldn't wait for her two friends. Now that she knew Dainsey t be out of danger and was confident that no goblins would surprise the cur ning centaur, her purpose shifted to the wider world, to all the plague vie tims who had to know the truth ofAvelyn's arm. A thousand variables rollei about in Pony's head. Would her newfound immunity against the plagui allow her to begin a general healing process throughout the southland:

Would plague sufferers begin to make the pilgrimage to the wild Barbacan! How would Pony protect them from monsters and animals, from th‹ weather as the season turned to winter? And what of food? Would she offei blind hope to thousands only to have them starve on the road to the north?

Too many questions, too many dire possibilities. But none, Pony pointedly and repeatedly reminded herself on that wild run to the south, were nearly as dire as the reality that the folk of the kingdom now knew, the reality of the rosy plague and so many dying with each passing day.

With each passing minute, she told herself; and she used the malachite as much as she could to lighten Symphony's load; and she used the soul stone to catch some of the strength from nearby deer and other animals, giving it to Symphony; and she used the cat's-eye circlet to see in the dark, then transferred those images to Symphony so that the run could continue long after sunset.

On one such night, in the light of Sheila, Pony found a solitary form standing vigil on the ridge north of Dundalis; and she was not surprised, but her heart was warmed.

"Greetings, Roger," she called, urging Symphony ahead. The man nearly fell over trying to get to her. "Tell me!" he cried. "Where is Dainsey?"

"With Bradwarden, some miles behind."

"Did you get to the B-Barbacan? " Roger stuttered, hardly able to speak the question. "Did Avelyn…"

Pony slipped down from Symphony's back, and when she turned, her beaming smile was all the answer Roger Lockless needed. He exploded into motion, wrapping Pony in the tightest hug she had ever felt, his shoulders shaking with sobs of joy.

They were in Dundalis soon after; and there Pony, strengthened by the miracle of Avelyn's blood, fought the rosy plague.

Her spirit entered the body of an afflicted man. But now she held no fear of it at all. None. It could not latch on to her spiritual arms as she attacked the disease, scraping it from bone and organ, her healing spiritual touch dissipating the greenish disease.

She stayed with the afflicted man for a long time, moving to every edge of his being, fighting and fighting wherever she found sickness.

Finally, exhausted but satisfied, Pony made her way to her own body. She sat back, her eyes closed, reorienting herself to her corporeal form.

"I am healed!" she heard the man cry, and then came a host of responding cheers.

Pony blinked open her eyes, to find Roger and Bolster and Tomas Gingerwart and many, many other folk of Dundalis gathered in the room or just outside the window. And all of them were cheering for her, for her healing of this man.

But Pony knew the truth of it. "You are not cured," she told the man bluntly. The cheering stopped immediately, and the man seemed as if he would topple out of his bed. "I have granted you time, a temporary reprieve, but there is only one way for you to be truly cured."

She paused and looked around, to find them all, every man and every woman, hanging on her every word.

"You said that Dainsey was cured," Roger dared to remark.

"You must travel to the Barbacan," she explained, "to the flattened top of Mount Aida and the arm of Avelyn Desbris. You will see blood in his palm. Kiss it, taste it, and you need not fear the rosy plague anymore."

"The Barbacan?" the man replied, his face bloodless. All about him, people began repeating that question, that name.

Pony understood their terror. Along with the fact that the Barbacan was a place of legendary evil that had been home of the latest incarnation of the demon dactyl, the difficulty of that northern, wild road gave them all pause. Again that tumult of questions, simple logistical problems, assaulted her thoughts. They had to go to the Barbacan, everyone afflicted-and even those who were not yet caught in the grasp of the plague would do well to make the journey. But how?

Pony went back to Fellowship Way soon after, needing rest. The townsfolk had asked her to lead them to the Barbacan, and she had told them that she would answer them in the morning, but in truth, she had known her answer all along. She could not go back now. No, her road must continue to the south, to Caer Tinella and to Palmaris, at least. The word had to be spread far and wide.

She knew the only hope for making this miracle known to the whole land: she would have to enlist the aid of the King's soldiers and the Abellican brothers. All of them.

Even if she accomplished such a thing, though, how could she secure the northern road so that the pilgrimages could begin at once?

For every passing minute brought pain and grief, every passing day made the pile of corpses grow larger.

Pony fell asleep with those disturbing thoughts in mind, trying to work out the speech she would make to Braumin and the others, to King Danube and Duke Kalas, trying to figure out some way that Bradwarden and Bolster could find aid to begin the first pilgrimages. She woke up sometime later, the night still dark, the dawn still far away.

She had her answer.

Pony fell into the soul stone once more, freeing her spirit from its corporeal bonds, then flying, flying across the miles to the west.

Soon after, she came to a place where she knew that she was not welcome, but she called out anyway for the lady of the land.

A few minutes passed; Pony considered plunging through the misty vei] that covered Andur'Blough Inninness, invading the elven homeland with her spirit. But then, suddenly, she felt a pull and recognized that Lad) Dasslerond was using the magic of her emerald gemstone to bring more ol Pony's corporeal form to the place, that they might speak more clearly.

And then the lady of Caer'alfar was before her, glaring at her danger ously. Pony noted that many other Touel'alfar were about, and that thosi she caught sight of were carrying their deadly little bows. Instinctively, shi reached down and felt her own body, recognizing that she was solid enougl for Dasslerond's archers to truly harm her.

"We have already had this discussion," the lady said sternly. "Our boi ders are closed, Jilseponie, to you and to all others of your race."

"The situation has changed," Pony started to say.

"No, it has not!" Lady Dasslerond insisted, narrowing her golden eye "The plague is a problem for the human kingdoms. We'll not let it, or yoi touch Andur'Blough Inninness. Now begone from this place-I will relea; your body and I expect your spirit to follow. On pain of death, Jilseponi your spirit must follow."

"I have found a cure!" Pony yelled at her, and that did cause the lady eyes to open wide. "At the Barbacan, the arm ofAvelyn," Pony began to explain, "the same arm that brought forth the miracle and killed the goblins. The palm bleeds, Lady Dasslerond, and that blood, the blood of Avelyn, confers immunity to the plague."

"Our community has not been touched by the plague," Dasslerond replied. "Why, then, do you come to tell us?"

" Because you must know, for if the plague does find your valley, you can survive," Pony replied.

Lady Dasslerond thought for a moment, then nodded. "Perhaps we misjudged your return," she admitted. "You have our gratitude for this information. Should we find that we need it, we will heed your words."

"But I need your help," Pony boldly went on. "The folk will begin their march to the Barbacan, by the dozens, the score, the hundreds. Until King Danube and the Abellican monks get their people in place, that will be a road fraught with danger, I fear. With goblins and starvation."

"What do you expect of the Touel'alrar? " Dasslerond asked, a tightness coming back to her voice.

"I expect nothing," Pony replied, "but I beg of you that you lend aid in this time of our need. A host of elves would greatly aid that necessary journey. Your people could chase away the goblins, even could leave food along the road, and would never have to make contact with the pilgrims. You could-"

"Enough!" Dasslerond interrupted. "Your point is made."

"And is my plea heard? "

The lady made no movement, no shake of the head and no confirming nod.

"Begone from this place, Jilseponie," she ordered after a short while.

Pony started to argue, but she felt a sudden tug as her body separated yet again from her spirit and sped back to her room in Dundalis. She blinked her spirit eyes open to find that Dasslerond had already receded into the misty blanket of fog. She thought to follow, to demand an answer, but Pony understood it all too clearly: if she did go down there, Lady Dasslerond would use her emerald to bring her body back, and then she would be killed.

Bradwarden and Dainsey arrived in Dundalis the next morning, to find the folk already preparing to make a pilgrimage to the north. How they cheered Dainsey, many running over to give the miraculously cured woman a big hug, though it was obvious that Roger didn't want to share her with anyone!

"I'm going to need you to lead them back to the Barbacan," Pony said to Bradwarden when she found her way to him.

"Bradwarden and Roger and me," Dainsey said, her eyes sparkling.

Pony shook her head. "I need you," she explained to the woman. "We must go south, to Palmaris, perhaps farther, to show them the miracle, to begin the pilgrimages."

"South, then," Roger said.

"But north for you," Pony said to Roger. He started to protest, but her simple logic cut him short. "You have not yet entered the covenant of Avelyn," she reminded.

"I do not want to be away from Dainsey," said Roger, and he and his wife stared lovingly at each other.

"You will have your time together," Pony promised, "but not now." She grabbed Dainsey by the arm and pulled her away from the man. "You ride Greystone, and I, Symphony."

"Now?" Roger asked. "This very minute? She has just returned, weary already from the road. And we have not even found the chance to-"

"And every minute we wait means that another person will die," Pony said. "That is the truth, is it not? And measured against that truth, does Roger still believe that we should tarry here in Dundalis? "

The man looked at her plaintively, then turned his loving gaze back to Dainsey. But then he sighed and kissed his wife. "You and Pony go with all speed," he said.

"Not Pony," Jilseponie stated, more out of reflex than any conscious thought. Both Roger and Dainsey looked at her curiously, wondering if she had changed her mind, if she had decided that Dainsey must go south alone while she went back to the Barbacan. Pony looked up at them, her expression as determined as any either of them had ever seen.

"Jilseponie," she declared, "not Pony. Pony was a woman who lived quietly in Dundalis. I go south as Jilseponie."

Roger thought about that for a long moment, then nodded. "A fine road and a fast horse to both Dainsey and Jilseponie, then," he said. "Go with all speed."

They did just that, riding out of Dundalis only a few minutes later.

"I telled ye she'd find her heart," Bradwarden remarked to Roger as they watched the pair gallop away.

"Off to save the world," the dejected man said with more than a little sarcasm.

"She lit her fires." The centaur laughed. "Now she's ready to go and fight, beside Braumin, against the plague. Against the Duke, if he's not hearin' her, and against the King himself, if she has to. Ye remember her walk across Palmaris when she had enough o' the fool Markwart? " Bradwarden said with a laugh.

Roger stared hard at the centaur. He did indeed remember that journey Jilseponie had made across the city. All who witnessed the bared power of the angry woman remembered it well, and would not soon forget.

"Why're ye lookin' so wounded?" Bradwarden asked, clapping Roger hard on the shoulder. "Weren't ye the one complainin' when she came back to us after refusin' both city and Church? Well, boy, ye got what ye wanted!"

"Maybe she can make a difference," Roger admitted.

"To herself, at least," said the centaur, and Roger looked at him curiously. "Ye need yer purpose in life, lad," Bradwarden explained. "Without it, ye got nothin'. She's seein' her power now, and clearly, and knowin' the responsibility that power's bringin' to her. If she doesn't use it, or at least try, then she'll be failin' her very purpose, and that's a wound ye canno' heal."

"You think she'll beat them all?" Roger asked.

"I'm not knowin' if ye ever can, nor is Pony," Bradwarden admitted, "but ye can beat 'em one at a time, beat 'em back and go on as best as ye can. Pony'11 do good for the kingdom, don't ye doubt, and for the little folk who got no hope. A hunnerd, hunnerd will live better, or live at all, because of her workin's, and how can Pony ignore that callin'? "

"Jilseponie," Roger corrected.

They came toward him, toward him, smelling of peat, their lifeless eyes staring at him, envious of his warmth. He tried to run-always before he had been able to escape-but this time, the walking dead had come to him in greater numbers and seemingly in coordinated fashion. Whichever way he turned, they were there, reaching for his throat with stiff arms.

He kicked out at one, spun and punched the face of another zombiethough the horrid creature showed no sign that it had felt the blow.

He dropped and scrambled desperately, pushing through.

But they crowded around him, a wall of rotting, dirty flesh, and he had nowhere to run.

He called out for his companions, but then realized that he had no companions, that he was on his own.

And so he tried to fight, briefly, but then he was down on his back, the walking dead looming over him, coming down at him… down at him.

Duke Tetrafel woke up with a shriek, clawing at his bedsheets so wildly that he wound up on the floor in a tumble of blankets. He continued to scream and thrash for some time, until the haze of dreams flitted away, revealing the dawn, the secure dawn in Chasewind Manor.

He sat there on the floor for some time. The dream was not new to him, had followed him all the way across Honce-the-Bear every night since his expedition had been savaged by the little folk and their host of zombies.

But this time, for the first time in his dreams, he had found no escape. This time, for the first time, the walking dead had caught him. Duke Tetrafel pondered that disturbing notion for some time, until the door of his room banged open and one of his attendants came rushing in.

"My Duke!" the man cried. "Are you murdered? "

Tetrafel chuckled and held up an arm to keep the concerned fool at bay. To his surprise, though, his signal, while stopping the attendant, onh seemed to make the man grow even more concerned. He stood a few strides away, gawking openly, and then, to Tetrafel's further astonishment, he began shaking his head and backing away.

"What is it?" the Duke asked, but the man did not-seemed as if he could not-respond. He continued backing, almost to the door.

"Speak up, fool," Tetrafel demanded. "What is-"

The man turned and bolted from the room.

Still on the floor amid the tumble of blankets, Tetrafel stared at the open door for a long time, wondering.

And then it hit him, and then the variation of his too-common dream made perfect sense. Slowly, slowly, he brought his arm back in and turned it over.

Rosy spots.

His screams came even more loudly than before.

Abbot Braumin rubbed his hands together nervously as he walked along the quiet corridors of St. Precious. The day had not been good, not at all, with devastating rumors rolling along the unruly streets of Palmaris. And now this news, of a secret visitor that Viscenti had considered important enough to be admitted to the abbey-quietly and after a thorough gemstone inspection.

The abbot came to the door and paused, taking a deep and steadying breath, trying to find his heart. He pushed through, to find Shamus Kilronney waiting for him.

"Brother Viscenti claims that you are packed for the road," the abbot said, trying to keep his tone lighthearted.

"As long a road as I can find, my friend," Shamus said, coming forward and offering a handshake to the abbot. "I have seen too much of all this. I have no heart left for it."

"Palmaris will be a lesser place without you," Braumin remarked.

"Palmaris will be a place of catastrophe whether I remain or not," Shamus corrected. "You have heard the rumors? "

"I hear many rumors every day," said Braumin. "I cannot begin to sort fact from fancy."

Shamus nodded and chuckled, and Braumin knew that the man understood his evasiveness for what it was. He had indeed heard the specific rumor to which Shamus Kilronney must be referring, and his obvious dodge made that truth quite clear.

"It is more than rumor," Shamus said gravely. "Duke Tetrafel has the plague and is even now in a fit of panic at Chasewind Manor."

"As he should be," Braumin said with sincere sympathy.

"He will turn his eyes outward from his insecure sanctuary, will look to St. Precious for aid," said Shamus. "He and I have already discussed-"

"None of that will matter," Shamus interrupted firmly. "His desperation will lead him to your gates, do not doubt." He held his hand up to stop Braumin's forthcoming, expected response. "And you will turn him away. I am leaving, my friend. I cannot suffer this catastrophe any longer."

That last statement, linked with Shamus' insistence that Tetrafel would come for help, explained it all to Braumin. The catastrophe to which Shamus was referring was not the plague itself but the coming storm when Duke Tetrafel realized that St. Precious would not help him. Shamus was foreseeing-and quite logically, it seemed to Braumin-the chaos that would ensue within the city, the all-out riot, even warfare, between Tetrafel and the abbey. To Braumin's thinking, the brothers of St. Precious had already lost the city, a situation made even more dangerous by the arrival of De'Unnero and the Brothers Repentant. If Duke Tetrafel, instead of merely remaining neutral, actually put his muscle behind De'Unnero and the roused populace, then St. Precious would be hard pressed indeed!

"Where will you go? " Braumin asked his friend.

"North, perhaps," Shamus answered, "to Caer Tinella, and maybe farther-maybe all the way to the Timberlands."

"Is there nothing you can do to help us?" Braumin asked somberly.

"Is there nothing you can do to help Duke Tetrafel?" Shamus replied.

Abbot Braumin looked around, then rolled his eyes and shook his head helplessly. "Then pray for us, my friend," he said.

Shamus Kilronney nodded, patted Braumin on the shoulder, and turned to go.

Abbot Braumin could not bring himself to judge the man, for in truth, he wished that he might run away with Shamus.