***
Sithias appeared beside his Holy Knight. “Alric.”
Alric stirred slightly and then looked up. “Sithias?”
“She needs your help.”
Alric looked beside him and saw the empty bed. He jumped to his feet and got dressed. “Where is she?”
“She’s out in the woods alone.”
Alric sheathed his sword and flew down the stairs, calling for Finn. Two knights ran to get the captain, and the other knights gathered to see why the king was awake so late at night.
“We have to find Kyrin,” Alric said to them. “She’s out in the woods alone, and I don’t know why. Find her.”
The knights spread out quickly, and two of them came forward. “Sir.”
“You were at the doors tonight?” he asked them.
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you see her?”
“Yes, sir,” the closest knight said. “She came down the stairs about two hours ago.”
“Did she speak?”
“No, sir. She didn’t even look awake. She was in her nightgown, barefoot, and she didn’t really do anything but walk down the stairs and head outside.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me?!”
“Sorry, sir. We didn’t see anything wrong. We thought maybe she was going to see that assassin.”
“Go find her,” Alric snapped.
“What’s wrong?” Finn asked, running up.
“Sithias came to me. He said Kyrin’s out in the woods and needs help.”
“Why is she out there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then let’s go,” Finn said. Alric and Finn headed out into the night on foot. Finn decided to search near Alric. He had felt uncomfortable about the assassin being so close to his king and took it upon himself not to let the king walk alone through the woods.
The sounds of knights calling for Kyrin echoed through the dark trees, and after four hours, no one had found her. The forest was too large and covered too much land for one woman to be easy to find.
Alric was about to return to the temple to ask Sithias for help when he heard someone call out for him. Finn heard also and met up with the king before they ran toward the voice.
A knight ran to them. “We found her. She’s walking west and isn’t responding to us.”
“Take us,” Alric said. The knight led them through the trees to where Kyrin was walking slowly through the forest.
“Kyrin?” Finn asked, walking up to her.
She didn’t respond or stop walking, and her eyes looked ahead, almost lifeless.
“Kyrin,” Alric said, taking her arm. “She’s feverish.”
Finn reached up and touched the back of her neck, which was burning hot.
“Kyrin?” Alric asked again, and stopped her from walking farther. He touched the back of his hand to her cheek. “She’s burning up. We have to get her back.”
Alric picked her up, and she laid limply in his arms as he headed back for the castle. “Call ahead for Saith.”
Two knights ran ahead to get the priest.
“You’re such a buffoon you can’t even watch her sleep!” Creteloc said angrily from behind them.
“Not now, Creteloc,” Alric snapped.
“No! You need to hear this.”
“I said not now!”
“You’re going to force me to watch her even at night. What an abhorrent thought,” she said, seething.
“I can watch her at night.”
“Apparently not!” Creteloc said, and then sped up to match his pace. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She has a fever.”
“Was she speaking?”
Finn looked at her. “No, why?”
“Let me guess. She was just walking.”
“What’s wrong with her?”
“It sounds like Sepethies Fever.”
“What’s that?” Alric asked, looking down at Kyrin.
“It’s a fever you get from time near the river Styx.”
“The river Styx is just a story,” one of the knights told her.
She ignored him. “It causes a dangerously high fever, wandering, and unresponsive behavior.”
“Well, how do we get rid of it?” Alric asked her.
“You don’t.”
“So it wears off on its own?”
“No, it usually causes death. It can last months though, so unless the babies get too hot from the fever, they should be okay.”
Alric looked at Creteloc, shocked at how casually she spoke of Kyrin dying. “You’re more worried about the babies than Kyrin?”
“I see no reason to lose sleep over this. However, the babies are of great concern to Daemionis, and he’ll want them safe.”
“You make me sick,” Alric said, and walked up the stairs in the castle.
He laid her down, concerned that she didn’t move and at the red flush in her cheeks.
Saith came in shortly after they arrived, and he eyed Creteloc suspiciously. “You called for me, sir?”
Creteloc’s red eyes glowed from under her dark cloak, and he walked over to the bed.
“She’s sick, feverish, unresponsive,” Alric explained. “Creteloc said it’s a sickness that causes death.”
Saith touched her forehead lightly. “This looks bad.”
He instantly went to work trying to determine what kind of illness she had. Priest healing didn’t extend to sickness and was unfortunately limited to injuries. However, Sithias insisted that his priests also know medicine.
“Yes, the pitiful king was supposed to be watching her, but she has Sepethies I suspect.” Creteloc was talking to the window, and the others ignored her. Any time they were near her, they were uneasy, and they didn’t want to invoke her wrath.
The rest of them watched Saith work and prayed to Sithias to help Kyrin through the fever.
After almost an hour, Saith turned to Alric, obviously concerned. “Her fever is way too high. We have to get it down immediately.”
“Finn, get the knights and bring me snow from the mountain,” Alric said, and went into the wash room to fill the tub with cool water. Finn ran out of the room. He knew that it had snowed the night before near Boriana ruins, and he figured the knights could easily begin bringing it in.
Once the tub was full, Alric picked Kyrin up, ignoring the nonchalant way that Creteloc went through things in their bedroom. He walked into the wash room and set her down in the tub in her nightgown.
“What else can we do?” Alric asked as he held her, so she didn’t slip under the water.
Saith came into the wash room and knelt down. “I don’t know anything about this and haven’t seen symptoms like this before. Once we get her fever reduced, we’ll see if she wakes up.”
“Cooling her off may work,” Creteloc said, walking into the wash room. “I’ve never heard of doing that before… course… it’s hard to cool someone down when you don’t have any water.”
“Will you get out of my room?” Alric snapped.
“No”
“Then make yourself useful. What kind of illness is this?”
“A fatal one.”
“Always?”
“No”
“Is there anything you can tell us to help us treat her?”
“No”
“You’re just a wealth of information,” Alric said, irritated.
“What do you care? You’ll get your babies and be rid of Kyrin in the process. It’s the perfect scenario,” Creteloc told him, and then started looking through a cabinet.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means you’re too honor-bound to kill her off. Now you have an excuse to be rid of her.”
“I don’t want to be rid of her.”
“Sure you do! Why else get her pregnant?”
“So you’re the one filling her head with that?”
Creteloc shrugged. “I simply validate what she’s seen in her everyday
life.”
“Well, we aren’t like that here.”
“Sure you aren’t.”
Alric looked over as Creteloc began going through the towels in the cabinet. “Would you stop going through my things?”
“No”
“What are you looking for, anyway?”
“Nothing in particular.”
“Well either stop or I’ll have you removed.”
Alric looked over when three knights came in with buckets full of snow. He took the buckets, and they bowed and left.
“Slowly,” Saith said, putting a handful of snow into the water. “We don’t want to shock her by lowering the fever too fast.”
Alric nodded and put another handful of snow in.
Trox came into the wash room and watched Alric and Saith put snow into the water. When they were done, he held out a vial. “Kyrin made this. It’s a healing potion.”
“Let me see,” Creteloc said.
“No,” Trox told her, but then realized he no longer held the potion. He turned to her, frustrated.
Creteloc pulled out the stopper and smelled it. “Kyrin made this?”
“Yes”
“Impressive. I don’t think I taught her this.”
Trox tore it out of her hand. “She’s figured out how to make potions on her own.”
“It won’t work though. That’s to heal flesh.”
“How do you even know?”
“I would say trust me, but that would be a stupid move on your part,” Creteloc said, and then walked over and looked down at Kyrin. “You know, I might return to my home for a few hours if you were to promise me the birth fluid.”
“The what?” Alric asked, looking up at her.
“The fluid that comes with birth. I’m fresh out.”
“No,” Trox said sternly. “I know what you do with that, and I won’t have it.”
“Guess I stay,” Creteloc said, and went back into the bedroom.
Alric looked over at Finn. “Go make sure she doesn’t steal anything.”
Finn turned toward the room. “Good luck. She could steal a man’s nuts, and he wouldn’t know it.”
“Don’t give her any ideas,” Trox said, and then grinned.
Saith looked up at Trox. “You said Kyrin has figured out how to make potions?”
“Yes, she’s getting better at it.”
“Has she taught you?”
“She’s tried, but it’s more complicated than you’d think.”
“Could you try to make a potion to help her?”
“I can try. The hard part is finding what the potion wants,” Trox explained.
Alric frowned. “The potion wants something?”
“I’m not sure it really does, but you need to counter what you want. So for instance, for healing potions, she uses blood from a dying man.”
“I don’t want to know,” Alric said, putting a new handful of snow into the water.
“I don’t know exactly what to put into a sickness potion.”
Saith shook his head. “I say we leave the evil ways and just make her well ourselves.”
“That’s true,” Trox said. “If we mix up the wrong potion, we could do something harmful.”
“Her fever’s dropping,” Saith told them after feeling the back of her neck. “I can feel the babies kicking too, so I don’t think she had a fever long enough to hurt them.”
Alric looked up at Trox. “Creteloc says this fever comes from the dimension with the river Styx.”
He looked shocked. “There really is a river Styx?”
“Depends on how much you trust what comes out of her mouth.”
“True. However, I’ll have to ask Kyrin about it.”
“It is true,” Creteloc said from the doorway. “There’s no use waiting to talk to her. My guess is she’ll be in a coma by morning and die in a couple of months.”
“Finn,” Alric said through gritted teeth.
The captain spun, grabbed Creteloc’s arm, and hauled her out of the wash room.
Alric and Saith began putting new snow into the water, and both looked up at her when she sighed softly.
Saith smiled. “That’s encouraging.”
“Kyrin?” Alric asked, and then touched her cheek lightly. “Her fever has come down a lot.”
“Now we just have to keep it down and see if she wakes up.”
Finn returned to the wash room. “I lost her.”
“How can you lose her?” Alric asked him.
“Well, she threw something at me and made me cough. When I was done, she was gone.”
“Perfect”
“She’s not in this room though.”
“Make sure.”
Finn smiled crookedly and went back out into the bedroom.