Chapter 8

Despite the exhaustion, I tossed and turned through much of the night. Nothing disturbed my jayda, neither beast nor beautiful woman, but nonetheless, sleep came and left far too soon. When the sun's rim slid over the eastern horizon, I woke Reena and sought out a long thin stretch of boulder a few steps out onto the plain. With such a powerful presence nearby, I didn't dare to stretch forth my senses and explore. Instead I turned inward, seeking the knots and crevasses in my own thoughts. The exercise was to undo the knots, smooth out the rough passages and allow the jayda to flow unhindered. I sensed a presence sit before me, which I assumed was Reena in her morning repose.

Imagine my surprise when I opened my eyes and peered into the pale depths of the princess-priestess. She took my breath away.

"Blessings of a new day to you, Rohanan oter Set-Ne'ethar," she called softly.

"To you as well, Tali anther Kurdatha," I returned.

"You are dangerous man, Rohanan. Your presence imposes itself on my dreams. Then I awaken to find you in the deep meditation of the priest-mage. I will not discount your power again," she promised.

"I won't let your great beauty distract my thoughts again," I offered, letting slip my infatuation. She blushed from her cheeks down to her chest.

Reena broke out our dried provisions for breakfast, which we ate in silence. When the morning dew had burned off, I asked for an answer.

Tali's thoughts turned inward for a moment. She stretched for her hands with her palms facing up, "we have a treaty." Guessing that I had to seal the deal as well, I placed my hands on top of her hands until our palms touched. I echoed her words, "we have a treaty." The warmth of her hands spread through my body directly to my privates. She smiled at me and I matched her face with mine.

Tali insisted, "Let us leave now and so that you may remove the curse. I have already tarried too long."

My lips etched back in a grimace. "It's not that easy, princess. This is not an Eldenhaun curse, but a human one. Removing it is not as simple as uttering a counter spell. The, uh, ooze must be removed and purged."

Her eyes flashed with anger. "You have sealed a treaty you cannot fulfill? If you have lied, I will rain the wrath of my people upon your head with such fury that even the rodents will find no scraps of your flesh to ease their hunger."

"I haven't lied," I snapped defensively. "This curse is like no other curse in the history of your world; that's why your mages can't stop it or cure it." I needed antibiotics, but those were long gone. Even if I had, Ebola was a virus, untouchable to most medicine... My last science class was for fourth graders; it isn't like I had a college degree in this stuff.

I brought my palms to cover my eyes, if only to block out Tali staring at me with her best death mask. Then the insight arose from the back of my mind, the virus came from humans but it wasn't human, it was Eldenhaun in human form. Their healers couldn't remove it because they didn't know how to look for human microbes. I knew what the virus looked like and where to find it. The virus could removed with my jayda by simply recalling it my creation.

I gave her a weak smile, "I'm ready to go." I motioned to Reena to follow but Tali stopped me with her outstretched staff.

"She can't go; she is cut off from Eldenhaun." She exclaimed.

"She," I pointed to my Reena, "is part of the cure. Where I go, she goes." I crossed my arms and held my ground. I waited. Tali nodded with reluctant consent and raised her ring into the air. The rift appeared with its painful squeal of tortured air and through it we stepped,

Only to step into a large cavern lit with the bluish glow of jayda lamps. Twisting around I stared at a blank wall with four decrepit looking elders seated before it. The cavern was filled with a multitude of bodies.

Then the waves of jayda washed over me and suddenly I understood how a fish feels when it leaps out of the water into the air and plunges back into the wet. The air was rich with the power; the very fabric of the world was infused with the stuff. The effect was intoxicating as the jayda flowed through and around me.

In the midst of my revelation, a sudden stifling of noise reached my ears. I peered into the distance and watched hundreds, if not thousands of faces turn towards me with hatred written on their brows. I heard swords leave their sheaths and spears scrape the ground.

"Quiet!" Tali called, "a treaty has been struck and this human will remove the curse."

Her declaration was met with mutters and the sounds of more swords being drawn. The gathering mob seemed to ignore her declaration and I felt the hatred rise like the hair on arms. Reena nervously fiddled with her bow as I glared at the crowd. My fear receded as my anger rose to a fever pitch. I stepped in front of my protector and threw my shoulders back.

"Cowards!" I bellowed out over the muted roar of a thousand mutters. They stopped. "Hear me you cowards who murder millions of defenseless humans. You come to my world with your hundreds of thousands of warriors and your curses, and you lay waste to my planet."

The muscles in my neck strained. "Understand this: I am killing you with one drop of spit from the tip of my tongue. One human spells one gob of spittle and all Eldenhaun are huddling in fear in the deepest, darkest hidey holes they can find. Hate me if you want, but you have learned how to truly fear me."