Chapter 50

 

 

 

Chapter 50

 

YUKI staggered her way to the bathing chamber. Servants undressed her and eased her into a grand tub. Sinking down into the boiling hot water, the scorching temperature was just perfect for the chills racking her body. Heat relaxed her hardened veins and blood began to circulate through her body once more, warming her chilled fingertips.

The servants prepared a fresh gown of aqua-blue silk for her to don. By the time they dressed her and decorated her hair, her chills subsided and she felt significantly calmer. An eerie calm settled over her raging emotions like the eye of a storm.

Selena’s fierce scowl softened into a smile when Yuki returned to her room. “Yuki, your complexion looks much better now.” She knelt at Yuki’s feet and brushed her knuckle along her cheek.

“Does it? I sure hope so.”

Vigo brought a wooden bowl over to Yuki and put it in her hands. “Drink this. It won’t do much more than bring you temporary relief, but it’s something at least.”

“…Thank you.”

She drank the curiously sweet smelling bluish-green liquid. Shock throttled her senses at the disgusting, acrid flavor, but she managed to down the whole bowl. The nasty aftertaste brought tears to her eyes. Vigo patted her on the back to help her choke down the desire to throw it up.

“…Lady Yuki.”

“I know. I’m coming now.” Selena looked up at Yuki’s face from where she knelt and reached her hand out to stop her from going. “Selena.”

Yuki had been thinking about this for a very long time. Every time she contemplated her choice she worried and anguished over what she needed to do next.

“Vigo, I want to say this to you as well.” Yuki looked at both of them. “Thank you very much for looking after me ever since Rifaenotis’ cabin.” She couldn’t bow to them. The weight and motion of leaning forward would topple her over; she barely had the energy to stand up straight. “I hope my power was of some use to you.”

Selena gasped. “Yuki, since when did—”

“Just recently. Rhad told me…. I don’t know what kept you both with me. I guess Rifaenotis’ request played a role in it. Still, thank you for listening to my selfish requests and for treating me well. I love you both like you’re my surrogate parents. I’m so happy to have been able to spend my last days with you.” Yuki grabbed hold of Selena’s hand where it hung grasping thin air.

“Wh-What are you talking about, Yuki? We…plan on being with you from now on too, you know? We have a lot we still need to discuss with Prince Lucat as well…” Selena’s warm hand squeezed Yuki’s hand, sharing a fraction of her warmth. “You make it…sound like this is goodbye. I don’t like that.”

What a relief for Yuki that they caught on. A sad smile touched her lips with the hope everything she felt would get through to them.

“Yuki!”

“…Little lady.” Yuki turned around and saw Vigo standing there with a pain-ridden expression. “…I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I don’t have a single regret.” Their eyes met. Regret and repentance filled his gaze. She desperately wanted to reassure him.

“Vigo, had I known this was going to happen sooner, I believe I would have done the same thing. Please don’t blame yourself.” Yuki let go of Selena’s hand and walked over to take Vigo’s hand. “Once I wake up Luca, I’ll be sure to ask him to listen to what the people of Rvydom have to say. I’ll absolutely create an opportunity for you and Selena to talk with him.” She looked at Rhad at the back of the room. Selena and Vigo followed her gaze.

Rhad bowed respectfully. “You have my word it will be done, m’lady.”

“Okay then, my dear Selena and Vigo, I must be on my way.”

“Wait, Yuki!” Selena reached out for Yuki, but Rhad stepped between them and knocked her hand away. A servant took Yuki’s hand and escorted her from the room.

“…Please refrain from causing her any further hesitation.”

“Screw off! This is—” The door shut. “This is…too much!” Selena’s sorrowful yell brought a wave of dizziness to Yuki.

***

RHAD escorted her by the hand. Yuki walked slowly, leaning against him. Dizziness consumed her mind and her eyes failed to see much through the blurry, partially closed line of sight. She had to put one foot in front of the other without stopping, because the moment she stopped her legs would buckle and there was a chance they wouldn’t work again.

“…I have pinned down which room belongs to Prince Luca. He rests in the top floor of the inner castle tower…. I have also made preparations to allow you access.”

“…I see.”

“Servants change Prince Luca’s sleep position every day at the exact same time, but I have bribed the servants who work the nightshift. It was quite the feat to do so. They have a tight guard on him,” Rhad grumbled. Yuki no longer had the strength to even offer him a word of thanks.

I’m amazed I could speak so much earlier.

Now it took her full concentration to put her right foot in front of her left foot. Thinking about something other than walking was a critical mistake. Her right knee buckled and she pitched forward. Rhad’s arm shot out and caught her as if he were expecting this to happen. He swept her into his arms and carried her like a bride over a threshold.

“Carrying you this way will allow us to get there faster…. Please pardon my rudeness,” he said, his breath tickling her ear.

Rhad is carrying me like a princess…

“You don’t even have the energy to reply?” Rhad had guessed correctly, so she didn’t merit his question with a response. He continued in a tight voice, “…There is a reason why the servants and guards are tense. Prince Luca has contracted the Ten Day Fever…at the exact same time the queen did.”

Yuki’s heart lurched. Soothing her heart to stop from squeezing like a vise in her chest, she ordered Rhad to continue with her eyes.

“It is uncertain whether he caught it from the servants who flipped him over or if he contracted it from unnatural means. The news hasn’t been made public because they want him to die of the Ten Day Fever.” Anger laced his tone. Further proof of his fury came from his fingers digging into her legs.

“They bring in the best doctors for the queen and leave Prince Luca to die like a dog. They changed the servants attending to him every day and the ones who had contact with him disappear from the face of the planet. Despicable.”

Yuki strongly agreed. Just what did this country—what did Orga want to do to Luca?

“…Rhad,” she rasped.

“What is it, m’lady?”

“I will…heal Luca no matter what,” she said, mustering all her strength to form the words and have them make sound.

“…Thank you.”

The rest of the way was marked by silence. Yuki shut her eyes and let Rhad carry her. Strength evaporated from her limbs—she lay limp against his chest, swaying with the motion of his gait. She drifted into a brief sleep and opened her eyes when Rhad stopped.

“We have been awaiting your arrival.”

“I have brought the girl blessed with the power to heal.” Rhad bent down and lowered his arms.

It took Yuki a second to realize he was letting her down. She slowly touched her feet to the ground. Rhad helped her stand and put her back against his chest to support her from falling.

“Here is the medicine we examined and boiling water. The queen is awake. We shall accompany you through the process. You have no qualms with that, correct?”

“Yeah, we don’t mind.”

“Very well. Your Majesty, we are coming in.”

The two royal doctors opened the grand doors to the queen’s chambers. The room was spacious enough to fit a whole classroom inside. A canopy bed larger than Yuki’s bedroom in Japan took up the center of the room. Yuki walked inside with Rhad’s arm around her shoulders for support. She trampled his feet more than once, but he said nothing. She furled back the canopy curtain and proceeded deeper inside.

…Awful.

Rhad’s hand flinched on her shoulder—he was abhorred by the state he saw the queen in too.

“…I am honored to make your acquaintance for the first time, your Majesty,” Yuki said, addressing the bedridden woman.

“……”

The pocks and hives should have only erupted yesterday…

Pus filled hives covered the queen from head to toe, rendering it impossible to even imagine what she once looked like. Pustules grew on top of pustules, generating large, oozing sores.

“Please pardon me. I need to touch you.”

Yuki lifted the queen’s left hand. Pustules had popped and began festering on the hand reddened by blood and yellowed by pus. Shock snapped her awake and kicked her adrenaline into action, replenishing her energy for the moment. New hives formed, erupted, leaked pus, festered, and were replaced by another set of hives on the queen’s left hand at an unbelievable speed.

“What the heck?” Yuki gasped.

“…The queen’s Ten Day Fever has progressed at a rate ten times faster than common.”

Yuki couldn’t believe her ears. Ten times faster than normal? Is that even possible?

A small moan escaped the queen’s split, swollen lips. The moan was so quiet and helpless it seemed to coincide with her quickly fading lifeforce. She was on the verge of taking her last breath.

“Rhad, I don’t need the medicine,” Yuki said, looking over her shoulder at Rhad preparing the medicine on the end table. She glanced at the doctors. Rhad accurately guessed what her signal meant and his eyes wavered for but a second.

“I’m sorry, but she is in the middle of the medical examination. I have to ask you to leave the canopy with me for the time being.”

“We can’t! We must stay beside the queen—”

“Our presence here distracts her from using her power.” Rhad put his hands on the doctors’ backs and pushed them outside the canopy. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at Yuki. Grateful, she smiled back and gave a firm nod. The nod was enough to summon another surge of dizziness.

Yuki was running out of time.

She returned her attention to the queen. She wanted to turn her face away from the grotesque skin infested by rapidly exploding pustules.

“…I will heal you now.”

The queen moaned again. The wisp of a sound was fainter than the first time. Yuki shut her eyes and took a deep breath. Slowly, she reopened them. The white spots dotting her vision cleared. She took the swollen, pock covered, almost inhuman hand in hers and squeezed. Pus seeped out of the hives. She knelt beside the bed and brought the hand to her forehead.

“…I will absolutely heal you,” she muttered in prayer and closed her eyes. Behind her shut eyelids she felt light emitting from her hand. The warm, soothing light slowly spread from her.

The incessant cackling she had been hearing abruptly ceased. “What a foolish child.”