Chapter 233 - 234: I thought you would never figure it out

Chapter 233: Chapter 234: I thought you would never figure it out

Behind the fence, Brea saw the exact moment understanding entered her face.

She should call the guard.

She knew it.

She did not.

Veyra looked toward the newborn.

Then toward the blood-bound stones.

And smiled.

Inside Ironwood, nobody knew that smile existed.

They were too busy celebrating the first good news they had received in days.

Not celebrating loudly.

Nobody had enough energy left for that.

But when the first three fever patients were moved onto raised wooden platforms and one of them woke without screaming about a heartbeat beneath the ground, the change spread through the treatment shelter like sunlight breaking through storm clouds.

Nahla checked the male twice.

Then a third time because she did not trust miracles.

"How is your head?"

The male blinked.

Sweat still dampened his temples.

"Better."

Nahla narrowed her eyes.

"Better how?"

"It doesn’t feel like something is pounding behind my eyes."

Sari leaned over him.

"And the sound?"

He went still.

Everyone around him went still too.

He listened.

One breath.

Two.

Three.

Then his shoulders dropped.

"I don’t hear it."

The sick female on the neighboring platform began crying.

Not from pain.

Relief.

Tilla clapped both hands over her mouth.

Swanly’s fox ears shot upright.

Nerin, sitting on the ground with one palm against the earth and his broken antler faintly trembling, looked toward her.

Swanly looked back.

Neither spoke.

They did not need to.

It was working.

Not curing.

Not yet.

But working.

Raku stood at the entrance with his thick crocodile tail stretched behind him, blocking half the doorway without seeming to notice. His broad face did not change much, but one clawed hand slowly loosened from around the shaft of his spear.

"Move the others."

Soren stood behind him.

Silver eyes sharp.

White tail coiled near his feet.

No smile.

No relief written openly across his face.

But Swanly saw the tiny release in his shoulders.

"Not all at once," Swanly said quickly. "We need to compare."

Soren turned toward her.

She stepped over one of Nilo’s little stone markers and pointed at the map.

"Worst cases first. Raised sleeping surfaces. Different water source. No direct ground contact if we can manage it."

Tovan, who had been crouched over a rough construction sketch, immediately scratched his beard.

"We don’t have enough platforms."

"You have wood," Swanly said.

"We have wet wood."

"You’re a beaver."

Tovan stared at her.

Swanly stared back.

His flat tail slapped the earth once.

"That is species discrimination."

Tilla snorted.

Nahla did not even look up from her patient.

"Build the platforms."

Tovan muttered something extremely rude under his breath and walked away.

Raku’s jaw shifted.

It might have been amusement.

With him, nobody was ever quite sure.

Swanly turned toward the gathered healers.

"No one stops the other precautions."

Nahla nodded immediately.

Sari started counting marked bowls.

Swanly continued.

"We still don’t know if everyone has the same thing. Rot still exists. The infected are still outside. Blood stays separate. Boiled water stays separate. If someone has an actual bite, we treat it like Rot until proven otherwise."

Soren looked toward Raku.

"You heard her."

Raku nodded once.

"Already assigning guards."

A child began crying near the treatment shelter.

Eira’s head turned before anyone else’s.

Swanly looked down.

Both twins were on a thick folded hide at her feet.

Sira had somehow gotten one of Nilo’s symptom stones into her mouth.

Swanly immediately crouched.

"No."

Sira’s cheeks puffed.

"No."

"You cannot eat medical records."

Sira stared.

Nilo came running.

"My stone!"

Swanly held out her hand.

Sira shook her head.

Eira watched all of this with the solemn expression of a tiny queen witnessing public incompetence.

Swanly narrowed her eyes.

"Sira."

The baby smiled around the stone.

Tiny fangs.

Absolute criminality.

"Give."

Sira turned away.

Kairo arrived.

He crouched beside her.

"Sira."

She looked at him.

"That is Nilo’s."

No response.

Kairo sighed and opened his palm.

"Give it."

Sira stared at him for a moment.

Then spat the stone directly into his hand.

Wet.

Kairo’s face changed.

Nilo looked horrified.

Miko, behind them, screamed with laughter.

"It has spit!"

Kairo slowly looked at Sira.

"You could have given it normally."

Sira smiled.

"Mine."

"It was not yours."

"Mine."

Eira reached over, took the stone from Kairo’s wet palm, and handed it to Nilo.

Everyone stopped.

Nilo took it carefully.

"Thank you."

Eira nodded.

Sira gasped.

Betrayed by her own blood.

She lunged.

Eira shoved her face away with one tiny palm.

Swanly stared.

The world might be ending underneath them.

Her daughters were still fighting over rocks.

Good.

That was almost comforting.

Soren looked down at them.

"Your daughters are feral."

Swanly’s ears twitched.

"Your daughters."

"Our daughters."

"You said ’your daughters.’"

"They look like you when they’re unreasonable."

Swanly’s tail puffed.

Kael, passing with an armful of wood, said without looking over:

"They look like him when they bite."

Soren’s silver eyes narrowed.

Kael’s black tail flicked.

Then he kept walking.

Swanly sighed.

Normal.

Strangely, beautifully normal.

For the next several hours, Ironwood moved.

Platforms rose.

Old sleeping hides were lifted off the earth.

Tovan barked instructions while three younger males dragged timbers into place.

Raku reorganized patrol routes so no weakened section of the settlement was left unattended while workers moved people.

Nahla and Sari divided patients by symptoms.

Tilla took over meal distribution so nobody from a sick household needed to enter the common food area.

Nilo followed her with his stones and kept correcting adults.

"This bowl is western water."

A female looked down.

"No, this one is northern."

Nilo frowned.

He pointed to the carved notch.

"Western."

She looked closer.

"Oh."

Nilo nodded seriously.

"Western."

Tilla leaned toward Swanly.

"He scares me a little."

Swanly smiled.

"He got that from me."

Kael, close enough to hear, said:

"No."

Swanly turned.

"Excuse me?"

Kael set down a beam.

"He got that from me."

His black ears were forward.

Proud.

Nilo looked between them.

"I got it from myself."

Silence.

Tilla burst out laughing.

Even Raku’s enormous jaw moved.

Swanly pointed at her son.

"That one. That’s mine."

Kael’s tail lashed once.

Nilo returned to his stones, unimpressed by both parents.

By evening, the change was obvious.

Not a cure.

Not safety.

But fewer screams.

Less confusion.

And because there was finally something people could do, panic loosened its claws.

Swanly was outside one of the new raised shelters trying to stop Sira from crawling beneath it when a familiar voice floated toward her.

"Oh."

She froze.

No.

Not now.

"I see the great minds of Ironwood have finally arrived at the obvious."

Swanly slowly turned.

Azren was not in a tree.

For once.

He was stretched across a large flat rock outside the boundary as if someone had carved the thing specifically for his laziness.

One knee raised.

One arm behind his head.

Chains ran from one wrist and ankle toward a thick Veskari restraint post several paces away.

Again.

Apparently somebody had decided chaining their Crown Prince was a necessary administrative procedure.

He was eating a red fruit.

Swanly stared.

Azren bit into it.

Juice ran over his thumb.

He licked it away.

Far too casually.

His six translucent wings were spread around the rock, catching late sunlight in violet-blue veins.

Swanly pointed.

"You’re chained again."

Azren looked at his wrist.

"Oh. This?"

"Yes. That."

"I escaped."

"Again?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I was bored."

Swanly closed her eyes.

"Of course."

Azren took another bite.

Then nodded toward the raised platforms.

"You figured it out."

Swanly’s ears lifted.

"What?"

"The ground."

He said it as though discussing weather.

Swanly stared.

Azren chewed.

Swallowed.

Then smiled.

"I thought you would never figure it out."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Excuse me?"

"You were taking very long."

"Azren."

"Way too long."

"Azren."

"But you got there eventually."

Swanly went still.

Something ugly crawled up her spine.

"You knew?"

Azren blinked.

"Knew what?"

"What was making them sick."

"Oh."

He took another bite.

"Yes."