Interlude 3.4: Snakes in the Grass

So Jemi cycled back home and fed her family the medicine. It wasn’t likely to be a cure yet, but something that would slow the spread of illness, so Jemi kept an eye on the broadcast, where they were trying to figure out the method of the plague.

The broadcast showed a number of angel medics, as well as sunbloods with their shining eyes.

“Thanks to the efforts of the angels, we have determined the cause of the plague to not be an infection but rather water poisoning,” the broadcaster was saying. “Here we have our Beast specialist, Warden Selan. Thank you for coming. And you say that the poison involved happens to be snake venom, specifically king cobra venom?”

The angel that must’ve been Warden Selan nodded his head. “The King Cobra is endemic to Fenlin, but we did not find any specimens in the Linqin wells, for example a dead snake that might’ve been poisoning the water. That means only one thing; that someone must have extracted the venom and used it to poison the water. The Linqin villagers then drank it and fell sick. There is a culprit to be captured here.”

“I find that doubtful,” another angel said, this a man in silken white robes and sash, a multi-pointed insignia on his left breast. “Venom only kills when injected in the veins. If taken in by drinking, stomach acid would destroy the venom.”

“Pardon my interjection, Chief Marshal Atlas, but you’re not exactly the Beast specialist here,” said Warden Selan dryly. So that was Chief Marshal himself?... Jemi was stunned to see someone as high-profile as him in Linqin. “In a backwater town like this here, most of them are likely to have poor gums, through which venom can still access the blood. If they washed themselves and had open cuts anywhere—very common in the farming community—they will also be affected.”

“For it to unilaterally affect every single person in the village?”

“Yes, it’s certainly possible,” maintained Warden Selan. “Fortunately, ingested cobra venom is nowhere as potent as a direct bite, but it’s still enough to cause very ill effects. The trouble is now finding out who was behind this. I daresay a Beast—someone who could handle a king cobra and extract its venom without being killed themselves.”

“Have you got any suspects in mind, Warden Selan?”

“We recently apprehended a naga, who was laying low in the area,” said the Warden. The camera panned to a strange-looking woman, who was being hauled back by two angels. She was human from the waist up, but from the waist down a skirt had been ripped open to reveal her skin melting into scales, forming a single slithering tail where legs should’ve been. Jemi pressed up against the small television screen to try and make out the blurry details. So this was one of those Beasts. Animals that drank from Queen Medusa’s moon and became attuned with its dark magic; shapeshifters that disguised as human. Jemi’s parents used to tell her and her siblings that if they misbehaved a Beast would eat them or take them away. Jemi had never seen one before; at least, not one in their true form.

“Liessss!” the naga hissed, still attempting to shake off the angels. “I was nowhere near your scrappy little village! And I definitely had no interest in poisoning whoever even lives in that hole.”

“It doesn't matter, does it?” Warden Selan sneered back. “You're a Beast. You're going to jail either way.”

“You don’t even care about finding the culprit, do you?” the naga chuckled derisively. The angels started to haul her away into the back of a wagon.

Just then, someone in the background of the screen yelled out, “We know who’s the culprit!”

To Jemi’s horror, it was none other than Timothy.

“There’s a little girl who lives on the farm next door to mine,” Timothy said to the broadcaster, Warden Selan, and Chief Marshal Atlas. “Gold hair, purple eyes. She could always talk to animals. No doubt she could control the king cobra. What’s more, she’s the only one in the village that didn’t fall sick! It wasn’t just me, other people at the clinic saw it—and everyone knows that she’s one of the weakest villagers. Maybe she convinced the king cobra to give her the antivenom, while poisoning the water for the rest of us. She was probably jealous of our health.”

Antivenom taken directly from a snake would only work for other reptiles, idiot, Jemi thought to herself. The two angel officers also looked unconvinced.

“It’s unlikely that a child could be behind such a large-scale operation,” Chief Marshal Atlas’ voice was smooth. “Perhaps she was simply lucky.”

“The perpetrator was the snake Beast,” Warden Selan maintained firmly. “That is the end of this discussion.” And the two angels swept away, leaving Timothy behind.

But even though the angels hadn’t bought it…

…Everyone in Linqin who had been listening to the broadcast had. In the absence of other better theories, it was the one which made most sense. These were people, in their anger of having their joyous Spring Festival robbed from them, the pain of loss from days of missed work. A populace that prided itself on being strong and unyielding become bedridden. They needed someone to blame.

Even her own family, overhearing the broadcast from their rooms, were apparently suspicious. Each time she came in their rooms to deliver them food and soup, they regarded the dishes with uncertainty. In the end, Jemi stopped trying to argue. She just fed and washed them in silence.

It wasn’t long before the others started to come. The villagers of Linqin gathered outside the door of their homestead. At first in twos and threes, then later in droves. The king cobra antivenom was being distributed to households swiftly, and once they had recovered from the water poisoning, they now had the energy to go hunting for their culprit. Outside the homestead, they set off legions of popping firecrackers, POW! POWPOW! like erupting cannons. The chants outside grew louder and louder.

“Come on out, little devil,” she heard them jeering outside. “You can’t hide in there forever.”

“Pay for your crimes against humanity, wretch!”

Jemi stayed inside, quivering in fear. “It wasn’t me!” she cried back.

“Sure it wasn’t,” they shouted. “Who else would it be?”

“We should’ve fed you to the Beasts a long time ago!”

“Be a good girl, now, and open the door,” amid the noise, she heard Dr Ada saying gently. “We just want to talk.”

The girl remembered, before, when her parents and teachers and storybooks had instructed her: don’t open the door for strangers. But these weren’t strangers. These were people that she knew.

Arrest her, kidnap her, burn her—Jemi didn’t know what they were going to do if she opened that door. But she didn’t want to find out. She kept the doors locked and barricaded them with furniture. She drew the curtains over the rattling windows, where villagers’ faces were pressed up against, banging on the glass. Then, wrapping herself in her father’s old hunting cloak, she tried not to sob.

Finally, her mother roused to defend her. Stumbling out from the room with a pale face, she hugged Jemi protectively.

“What are you lot making such a fuss outside for?!” the mother whisked aside the curtains and yelled at the mob outside the windows. “She's just a kid! She didn't do anything to you. Poisoning the wells? Really? She can’t even stand up from bed half the time. She couldn’t have done anything of the sort.”

“Then who else could it have been?!”

“Why was she alone spared from the poison, then? Explain?”

“That doesn't prove that she did it!” her mother snapped. Jemi sniffled in her arms.

“You can't prove that it wasn't her, either!”

“If she's innocent, then why are you hiding her in the house? Just let her come out and we can really find out.”

There was no reasoning with such a mob. Emotions had escalated out of control. Some began pounding on the door, making it rattle in its frame. Others raised stakes and pitchforks, ready to come at the windows.

Her mother would not back down. From the wall she grabbed the crossbow they sometimes used for hunting. She nocked it, and brown eyes squinted to aim, ready to fire should someone come crashing in.

But just then, someone stepped forward.

It was Dr Ada, with her hands up placatingly. Her voice was as tender as when she’d spoken to Jemi during her appointments, asking her about her life, listening to her talk about her pain.

“There’s no need to get so handsy, everyone,” Dr Ada said reassuringly. From her coatpocket, she dug out a paper bag. Through the windowpane, she looked toward the little girl and her mother. “We have the antivenom. If you let Jemi come with us, we’ll exchange it for the antivenom. Or else… well, there’s always another family in need. Be reasonable now. Would you give up your husband and six children just for one girl?”

“I don’t think your antivenom worked, Doctor, seeing as you’re still sick in the head,” Jemi’s mother seethed. Fuming, she drew the curtains over the crowd, slammed the crossbow on the table, and stormed back into the house with Jemi in tow. “What kind of demented offer is that? Who do they think is the real devil here?” she continued to rage. “Our family is strong. We’ll pull through this, antivenom or not.”

“......” As she was urged back into her room, Jemi was quiet. Her violet eyes simmered.

Next cold morning light, Madam Garen awoke to find a bag of antivenom medication on the table.

And Jemi was gone.