(Go back to Part 42)

Chapter 23

“There is only one Cure.”

–The Lexicon, Sunrise Doctrine 1:1

–

Alex rode through the forest, holding Brutus to an easy walk. McCann followed close behind on his dumpy-looking brown mare. They were both wrapped in long cloaks—winter’s grasp on Goodhollow was loosening, but the village had yet to see a single shoot of green come up through the snow. Horses and riders alike were spattered in mud from the half-thawed road. Alex’s staff was strapped to the saddle next to her, while McCann carried his own sword as well as another wrapped in oilcloth.

The path turned and they came to the small gate. Alex dismounted and led Brutus through. The apothecary’s cottage was just as she remembered it, a wisp of smoke curling from the chimney.

Alex knocked on the door. Joseph opened it. “Who is—” He stared, gaping. “Alex! Alex! It’s you!” They embraced.

“Damn, it’s good to see you,” she said.

“You too, Alex. I didn’t know if you made it or not!”

The apothecary’s smile vanished when he saw McCann, armed with one sword and carrying another. “You brought someone—I didn’t expect—”

“It’s all right. He knows,” she said.

“Ah.” Joseph’s face fell further. “Well.”

“How is she?” asked Alex.

“She . . . well . . . you should come and see for yourself.”

Dalia was under the blanket just as before, although she’d been moved closer to the hearth. She was thin, wasted, and her hair was brittle and thinning. Worse than that, though, was the gray pallor that crept up her neck and along one cheek.

“What’s that?” asked Alex.

“The Plague moves on its own, somehow. It has its own mind, independent of the body. It’s much slower on its own, but I had to adjust the dosage,” said Joseph.

“Show us,” said McCann.

Joseph pulled back the blanket. Dalia’s entire arm was ghostly white, except where black veins snaked through under her skin. The skin itself was cracked and dry. Her arm was dead, and the plague was creeping up her neck. Even the jugular was black.

“I’m sorry. No one’s ever been under this long before. I don’t know if it’s possible to come back . . . Alex, if you brought a cure, give it to her soon. It will be more complicated now, since the mortification is so far gone in her arm. I don’t even know if she should wake up; the pain would be unimaginable, with all of that dead flesh.”

“Don’t worry. I brought the Cure.” Alex laid a hand on the sword wrapped in oilcloth. Joseph bowed his head.

“I was afraid of that.”

–

They built a small pyre in the field behind the hut, on the opposite side of the vegetable patch. Dalia lay on the logs, wrapped in a cotton blanket. McCann stood by with a torch.

Alex drove her staff into the snow and unwrapped the sword McCann had carried for her. The scabbard was plain black leather, trimmed with steel and silver. When she drew the blade, it rang out with a clear note. It was fine steel, well-balanced, and deadly sharp.

Alex turned to McCann. “Do I have to do it myself?” She already knew the answer.

McCann nodded.
Alex turned to Dalia. She touchedDalia’s cheek one last time with her left hand . . . the wasted red fingers brushed against Dalia’s decaying gray flesh. She sighed, remembering. “What have we become, Dalia?” she asked herself.

Alex laid the blade against Dalia’s throat. One swift cut and it was done. Blood seeped from her neck, red and glistening, but so did something else. It was gray and white, the consistence of curdled milk, and it clogged the veins in her neck. The stink was instant and terrible.

She was already dead, thought Alex. She was dead months ago.

McCann set the torch to the logs. A minute later, and the pyre was aflame. The sergeant said a prayer, and they left Alex to sit by the flames alone.

–

They rode back to the Goodhollow chapter house in silence, McCann in the lead. The sword was clean and strapped tight to McCann’s saddle—Alex would not wear it until Barrius gave her the precepts.

Lost in her own thoughts, Alex didn’t notice McCann slow until the sergeant was right next to her. They rode this way in silence for a while.

“Her name was Elaina,” began McCann without preamble. “I met her at Matthias’s wedding, the year after he was discharged from active service. She was a friend of Maria’s—not a particularly close friend, but a friend. We fell into what some people might call . . . love.” He said the last word like someone admitting a terrible crime.

Alex was too stunned to comment. McCann continued.

“We were together every minute that I was there. Finally, it was time to go. We said goodbye. It was torture. After a week’s march, I couldn’t take it anymore. I deserted.

“I left everything behind; it took far longer to get back without a mount and avoiding all patrols, but I didn’t want to steal from the Curate.

“Three weeks later I was back in the city. I showed up on her doorstep, muddy and exhausted. She was with someone else—one of the other Curate brothers. Elaina pretended not to know me.” He looked away, into the woods.

Alex didn’t comment. She sensed that the story wasn’t over.

“I came back to Rochelle and Desdemona. I went to them, broken, and begged for mercy. The Grand Master gave me these lashes, and the name Oathbreaker, but he let me live. And so I still serve.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Why do you think?” McCann spurred his horse and pushed on ahead.

–

Alex’s feet were heavy as she walked up the hill to the fort. She felt the stares of passersby; she even knew some of them, but everything seemed strange and out of place. Images and voices pressed for attention in her head—Dalia’s blood, choked by white gunk, McCann’s story, the conversation with Rochelle a month ago . . .

A few of the Acolytes pointed as she passed through the gate. No one approached—she could feel their stares on her hand, even though it was covered by a leather glove. Everyone had heard of the red claw by now. She ignored them.

Alex’s feet carried her through the barracks, up the stairs, and down the hall. Finally she stood in front of Headmaster Barrius’s door. She hesitated for a moment, as she had that first time in September, before pushing her way through.

Barrius rose to his feet when Alex appeared. The sword from the citadel was there on the desk, although there was no sign of McCann. Instead, the two knights of the chapter were there to witness. Alex went to one knee.

“Headmaster. Sirs.”

“It is done, then?”

“Yes. She is dead.” She was dead already. She was dead in September.

“Are you ready to take the precepts?”

“Yes,” said Alex.

“Then rise, Acolyte, and hear your oath.”

Alex rose and took a look at Barrius. The headmaster looked as strong as ever, although the reading glasses looked ridiculous on his nose. The desk was as she remembered it, too, although the large document bearing the Grand Master’s seal was new. Barrius began to read the vows.

It was a lengthy process. Alex tried to concentrate, but she heard the words no better than she had before in the chapel above the citadel. Instead, her thoughts were crowded with the events of the morning. Dalia’s lifeless gray skin. Fat worms of white gunk bursting plump from her jugular vein. McCann’s story of oathbreaking . . . his face appeared again and again in Alex’s mind. “Why do you think?” Why, indeed? Why had McCann told her that story now, of all times?

“Acolyte?” Barrius’s voice called her back to the present with a start.

“Yes?”

“Have you heard these words, and do you understand them fully?”

“Yes,” lied Alex.

“And are you ready to take these vows, and bind your life to the Curate and the service of the sacred flame?”

“I . . .”

“If you are, bow, and you will rise a knight.” Barrius held the sword in his hand, and was looking at her with a raised eyebrow. It would be Alex’s sword, if she would only kneel now. Kneel now, and for the rest of her life.

“I . . .”

McCann’s face appeared again. “Why do you think?” And everything clicked together in Alex’s head.

“I do not.”

“You—what?” Barrius stumbled over the word.

“I cannot take the oath. I will not.”

The three of them stared at her. “You . . . won’t? But the knighthood . . .”

“Is not a path that I can follow. I’m sorry, Headmaster. The fault is not with you, but with me.”

“I . . . see.” Barrius sheathed the sword. “Will you be going?”

“Yes. Thank you for everything.”

“Good luck, Alex. And God bless.”

–

She met McCann outside the fort’s gate.

“Well?” he asked her.

“I refused.”

The shadow of a smile flickered across the old sergeant’s face. “Why?”

“Because you’re right. I would’ve broken my oath for Dalia, given the chance to. And the Curate doesn’t need two oathbreakers.”

“She’s dead, you know.”

“Yeah. I know.”

McCann grunted. “Rochelle suspected that this would happen.”

“He did?” Alex was surprised.

“Yeah. Said it didn’t much matter—said that you’d be useful either way.”

“Useful.” Alex spat. “I don’t know if I want to be useful to Normand Rochelle.” She thought of Baron Sinclair, General Clovis, Minister Turin, and the young soldiers she’d befriended below deck. They were all dead now.

McCann guessed her thoughts. “He doesn’t always kill them, you know. The ones who look for cures. Some he handles differently, like you.”

“Like me?” asked Alex, surprised.

“Aye. You’re not that different than the baron, after all—both of you were looking for a cure.”

“And now the baron’s dead, and I’m ‘useful.’” Alex shook her head. “I hope Rochelle isn’t right. I want no part of this.”

“So what are you going to do?”

Alex fingered the reins. “I don’t know. Can I come north with you?”

“Without taking the precepts? Best not.”

Alex nodded. “South, then, maybe, or west. I don’t know.”

The two of them shared a look. They embraced. “Take care of yourself, Sergeant,” she told him.

“Aye. You too, Alexis of Goodhollow. Good luck.” And Alex watched McCann ride off to the North. She turned Brutus the other way.

“Well, Boy? Where to next?”

The End

(Go back to Part 41)

Alex followed the Grand Master out of the chapel. They emerged into a neat garden of white gravel footpaths and trimmed green hedges. Trees arched over the path, branches bare against the slate-gray sky. She fell in step next to the Grand Master, not sure where to start.

“Do you believe us?” she blurted out finally.

“About the Weeping Tree? And the baron?”

“Yes.”

“Of course,” he said.

Alex was surprised by this answer. “Why?”

“Because Tobias McCann is one of the finest knights the Curate has ever seen. One foolish decision and Desdemona’s machinations do nothing to change that.”

Alex sighed in relief.

“Also, I’m quite familiar with the book that you describe,” added the Grand Master.

“Is it a Curate book?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Rochelle.

“Then how did the baron get it?” asked Alex.

“Why, I gave it to him, of course.” The Grand Master’s voice was light, and it took Alex a moment to realize what he had said.

“You—what—a Curate book, but—you gave it to him?” Alex spluttered.

“Well, not personally. I arranged his finding it. And it was a clever forgery—the original is safe in our vaults, where your friend The Bookbinder may stumble across it one day. The complete original,” he added.

“. . . You removed the pages at the end—the pages that warned against using the Weeping Tree to cure the Plague?”

“Yes,” said Rochelle.

“Why would you do that?” asked Alex.

“Ah. An excellent question. And to answer it, we must go very far back into the history of the Curate. Right to the beginning, in fact,” said Rochelle. He sat on a small bench under the bare branches of an oak tree. “Alex, do you know why the Founder formed the Curate?”

Alex sat next to him. “The Founder started the Curate when he saw humanity would not survive the Plague. That’s what the history says.”

“Yes,” agreed Rochelle, “and the history is wrong.”

“Wrong?” asked Alex.

“Yes. The Founder created the Curate because he discovered a cure.”

“But—”

“Listen to me carefully, Acolyte, because this is not a truth that many have the privilege of hearing. Seven hundred years ago, the Founder was the champion of his village. One day, the Headman of the village was bitten. He was like a second father to the Founder, whose parents had died when he was very young, so instead of putting him to the blade and burning the body, the Founder went searching for a cure.”

“And he found it?” asked Alex.

“He found it, brought it back to the village, and the Headman was cured,” said the Grand Master.

“But how—”

“It doesn’t matter, because a week later the Plague tore through the village again, starting from the Headman. It was no normal Plague, not just the zombii—it was a virulent strain, like what you saw at Weeping Tree. I have seen it like that, too—three times with these eyes—and it is always a nightmare made into flesh. You and I have that in common, now.”

Alex shuddered as Rochelle continued.

“The Founder defeated that outbreak, too, but at terrible cost. The Founder’s adopted brother, wife, and entire family died in the carnage, and after the last of the infestation was burned out the villagers exiled him for bringing such destruction upon them.

The Founder wandered for many years, bearing the scars of his battles and the loss of his family. Finally, he found the great lost library of Ongressi and began reading the histories of the Ancients. There he learned something very important.”

“What?” asked Alex.

“Every time a cure has been found, destruction and bloodshed have followed in its wake. Sometimes it comes quickly, like at the Weeping Tree, while sometimes it takes years, but one thing never changes—whenever the Plague is ‘cured,’ it only returns again in a more terrible form. There have been no exceptions. And that is why he founded the Curate—to search for cures.”

“Wait—to search for them? Why search for them if they only destroy?” asked Alex.

The Grand Master stood again, and resumed walking. Alex followed suit.

“Imagine for a moment, Acolyte, what would happen if a cure was found. A cure different than the Weeping Tree’s tears, slower, one that actually seemed to work. Imagine if people found that cure—what would they do?” the Grand Master asked her.

“Spread it. Give it to everyone, of course,” answered Alex.

“Exactly it. Far and wide, everyone would take it, sick or not, just to be safe. And when the inevitable doom came . . .”

“They would become zombii? All of them?” asked Alex.

“Hundreds of thousands. Millions. More than the Curate and all of humanity could hope to face, and strengthened with unspeakable demons erupting from the soil and falling from the sky. It would be the end of us all. And that’s why we seek out the cures—to destroy them, not to use them. There is only one real Cure, in the end.”

“The sacred flame,” Alex finished for him. Her skin had gone cold as she followed the Grand Master’s argument. “You gave the baron that book on purpose. You sent him to the Weeping Tree to kill him.”

“Most of those who seek cures will never find them, and are no threat. The baron was different—he was on the cusp of finding something truly dangerous, and so I sent him a present.”

Alex was horrified. “You sent him and all of his men to die. Boys—farmers—hundreds of them—”

“And they were a small enough price to pay to offset the deaths of millions. The very virulence of Weeping Tree makes it one of the least dangerous cures in existence. In a few years it will be back much as you saw it when you first arrived,” said Rochelle, unmoved.

Alex could not believe what she was hearing. “How many times have you sent innocent men to die there? How can you—”

“I use the dead to keep others from unleashing the dead on us. It gives me no pleasure, Acolyte, but our swords are stretched thin enough as it is. Even without the cures, we stand closer to the edge of destruction than you know.” The Grand Master looked suddenly weary. Alex caught a glimpse of something else behind his eyes before they hardened again. “It was done in the name of survival, and it will be done again in the name of survival. Enough of this; it is time for me to ask you a question. You did not come here seeking knighthood, did you?”

Alex hung her head; she’d sought the Grand Master to learn how to cure Dalia. That would be impossible now. “No.”

“Tobias suspected as much. So did Barrius—he knew a bit more than you thought, as it turns out.”

Of course, thought Alex. “I . . . should’ve guessed that.”

“You should know that your friend Dalia was not wrong.” Rochelle reached inside his robes and removed a small object. It was Dalia’s journal. “She made some small errors in translation, but was essentially correct. The older texts do make a few passing references to other cures discovered early in the history of the Curate.”

“How did you get that?” asked Alex, not without some hostility.

“It was delivered to the citadel along with Knight-Sergeant McCann’s dispatches when your horses arrived on the Lysia. When it was discovered what was inside, we could not leave it out in the open. Dalia was a very smart young woman; I am sorry we have lost her.” He gave her the journal. “The librarians removed the sensitive passages, but I believe the rest of her writings now belong to you.”

“Thanks,” said Alex. She took the journal and tucked it away.

“Do you understand, now, Alex, why I cannot give you what you desire? Why our mission is so important, why it is the most important mission there is?” His eyes were burning into hers again.

“Yes.”

“Then, even though you did not come here seeking knighthood, I hope that you depart seeking it. Complete one last task for me, Acolyte, and you will be granted the precepts.”

Alex knew she should feel elated, but she just felt weary. “And what task is that?”

They were nearing the edge of the garden. One turn remained in the path. “You must return to Goodhollow. I will send one of my own testing-masters with you.”

“Who?”

As they turned the corner a person came into view slouched on a bench. The tattered clothes, the plain scabbard—

“Sergeant!” Alex couldn’t believe her eyes.

“It’s about time.” McCann rose and went to one knee before Rochelle. “Master.”

“Tobias. You know the girl’s last task?” asked Rochelle.

“Yes.”

“Good. Go with her—take the dispatches north. It should be easier this time without the baron’s interference. Your orders are with Desdemona.”

“Yes, Master.”

Rochelle turned to both of them. “Now, receive my blessing.” They knelt, and the Grand Master blessed them. Then he was gone.

McCann rose, but Alex remained on one knee, lost in thought.

“You coming?” asked McCann.

“Sergeant . . . what is the final task?” she asked him.

McCann hesitated.

In her heart, Alex already knew what the task would be. That didn’t stop her from weeping when McCann told her.

(Go on to Part 43)

(Go back to Part 40)

Chapter 22

“Why?

Why must the Plague persist?

Why does the sacred flame always burn those who carry it?

Why do we fight the eternal battle against the darkness of our ancestors?

Why does the Curate endure, year after year?

Why do we shed our blood in a fight that will never be won?

Someone must answer this question.

This is the Master’s task.”

–The Lexicon, Mastersbook 1:1

–

They were high in the citadel, lined up in two lines in the Grand Master’s chapel. Alex knew that it was a place most Acolytes only saw once, when they took the precepts. An octagonal room, the dome-shaped roof was held up by round marble pillars. Rich red and green stone alternated in the floor, separated by bands of gold. Alcoves alternated with windows around the outside, though most were closed this time of year. Braziers smoldered in the center of the room to keep the chill away, while an altar on the far side of the room held a candle and a simple sword, both lying on rich white cloth.

“The Founder’s sword,” whispered someone when they entered, before someone else nudged them. “Shh!”

The unknown knights left as soon as they ushered the Acolytes in, and doors shut behind them. They waited in silence for a minute, listening to the sounds of candles guttering in the alcoves before a different small door opened. The Grand Master entered.

Curate Grand Master Normand Rochelle was the 86^th Grand Master of the Curate, Alex remembered from her conversations with Binder. He was clad in rich white velvet and satin, cut through with gold thread. A neat beard and close-cropped hair were as snow white as his tunic, and the sacred flame was embroidered on one sleeve. Two eyes glittered beneath his brow like chips of ice.

The Acolytes bent their knees as soon as he appeared. “Rise,” said the Grand Master in a smooth tenor. They did.

He stood silently, eyes moving from Acolyte to Acolyte in turn. Alex fought the urge to look away when he got to her, but his gaze betrayed nothing. They stood like this, in silence, for another minute.

“You are here to take the precepts,” he began, “or to join the service of our order. All work is useful; all service to the flame is sacred. Our testing masters, in their wisdom, have lain before each of you a path by which you may serve according to your abilities.”

He paused in front of them, looking from face to face in turn. “Those who would be knights, though—take heed. Your vows are more perilous than most. To violate them means death. Do not bind yourself lightly.”

Rochelle stopped again in the center of the room. “Make no mistake about it. We ARE the servants of the sacred flame, and we ARE the only thing that stands between the world of man and the shadow of the plague. If we fail, the world will fail, and it has been so since the founding of our order. Our swords keep the darkness at bay, yes, but also our quills, our hammers, our scythes, our sails, and our prayers. There is no more vital calling, even for our humblest brothers, and we must not fail because—do you know why?”

“There is but one Cure!” said the Acolytes as one.

“Exactly,” said Rochelle, “and WE are the keepers of that Cure. Sir Osmund? The list, please?”

Sir Osmund appeared at his side with a roll of parchment, backed by a priest from the Credo. “If I call your name, please step forward.” He cleared his throat once. “Garth Tolley, of Tunbridge . . .”

Name after name was called, bringing colytes forward to take the precepts. Garth, Cragson, and most of the best fighters were called to the knighthood. Darrin became a librarian, just as he’d predicted; the tall boy sighed in relief.

Alex waited and waited . . . it was strange that her name would be so far down the list. And then—but no, that couldn’t be right. Surely some mistake had been made. Osmund was rolling up the list without calling her name. Alex nearly said something, but restrained herself just in time. Not in front of the Grand Master . . .

Her cheeks began to burn in shame as the realization set in. She had not passed the trials; she would not take the precepts or become a knight. She had failed, and would not even get a chance to speak to the Grand Master about Dalia. She’d slain more zombii than any of the Acolytes, trained hard under McCann’s eye, and yet still it wasn’t enough. She couldn’t even pass the trials, much less save Dalia from the Plague.

She was a failure.

Alex barely heard the Grand Master lead the other Acolytes through their vows. She barely saw Rochelle take up the sword of the Founder and dub the new knights. She didn’t smell the perfumed oils or the incense; she didn’t hear the priest recite the Credo, and she didn’t watch them walk from the room. Everything was a blur as hot tears threatened to spill from her eyes.

She only noticed what was happening when the double doors slammed shut behind Sir Osmund. The others were gone; her name had not been called for anything. She was alone in the chapel except for—she almost jumped when he realized it—the Grand Master. He was looking at her, right at her, staring into her face. Alex’s despair gave way to confusion, at least for the moment.

“Acolyte Alexis of Goodhollow . . . and now, it is your turn.”

“Master.” She bowed her head.

The two ice-blue eyes of the Grand Master were focused on her, like he was trying to read Alex’s mind. “You came here underage, half-maimed, swordless, and escorted by one of the most notorious oathbreakers of the past twenty years. You’ve been bloodied in battle, seen your comrades die, and you’re suspicious of unfamiliar wine.” Half of a smile showed itself for an instant. “You know the horrors of the Plague beyond what all but a handful can imagine . . . if your story is to be believed.”

Alex gulped. The word ‘if’ hung heavy in the air.

“You’ve come through all of that . . . and yet still I do not grant you knighthood. Tell me, Alex, is that why you stand there pretending not to cry? Tell me truly.”

Alex said nothing. The Grand Master looked at for a moment more before turning to one of the doors. “Come. Walk with me.”

(Go on to Part 42)

(Go back to Part 39)

Chapter 21

“Are you afraid, Acolyte?

I hope so. Because your study is fear.

Make yourself master of it, and you will be an Acolyte no longer.”

–The Lexicon, Vorhall’s Letters to the Acolyte 1:1

–

Other tests followed over the next several days, more conventional than the midnight attack. They took a history exam on long rolls of parchment, placing kings and patriarchs in order along chains of succession. They were tested on languages (where Alex did well), religion (she was not so sure on this), and mathematics (where Alex was fairly hopeless). The poisoned Acolytes were pale and wan for a few days, but gruel and broth kept them alive.

They talked amongst themselves every night by the fire. Alex’s victory with the wine had not brought her into the group; rather, it only reinforced her status as an outsider. Cragson nodded to her now when they passed, but other than Binder she had no friends among the acolytes. This didn’t bother her much; she hung on the edge of the circles, slouched in the darkness, listening to their conversations and trying to work some flexibility into her stiff red claw of a hand.

The talk that night was of the final test. There was only one day left, but the last test remained a secret. Speculation was rampant.

“I heard we have to fight the Grand Master!”

“You idiot, if you can’t even beat Osmund, what chance do you have against him?”

“Maybe it’s an obstacle course.”

“Pfft, that’d be a disappointment.”

“What about riddles? Or a maze?”

“I heard they’re going to blindfold us.”

“Aye, and plug our ears with wax.”

The Acolytes continued, each suggestion more outlandish than the last. Finally Alex broke in.

“You’re all wrong.” She was in a foul mood from the mathematics exam and feeling reckless.

Silence fell. “Yeah? And how do you know, Clawhand?” This was her newest nickname.

“What does the Curate exist to fight? And what haven’t we seen yet?” She paused. “The zombii. You know I’m right, Garth.” She stared straight at the big Acolyte, who alone among the others had yet to put forth a theory. “There is only one Cure.”

“The flame.” Garth met her gaze with less animosity than usual. “No, No-Sword’s got the right of it for once.” He stood. “Come, it’s time to sleep.”

—

The next morning Sir Osmund gathered them all at the far side of the cave. Here there was a small door in the rock, ancient and scarred. Half-faded words in the old language surrounded it, carved into the stone but so faded and worn as to be illegible.

“Today,” began Osmund, “you face the final test. Drink from the chalice,” he gestured to a large ornate cup sitting on a stool nearby, “and enter the tunnel. The precepts await you on the other side. You will not return here.”

“Is it dangerous?” asked one Acolyte.

“Yes. Not everyone survives. You will need your weapons.” A few Acolytes looked askance at the cup, remembering the poisoned wine. “And don’t try to pretend. I’ll know if you don’t drink.”

Osmund called Garth forward first. The big young man took a sip from the chalice. Osmund made him kneel, stared into each of his eyes in turn, and then blessed him once before sending him inside. Garth disappeared into the tunnel, sword drawn.

They heard nothing more of the big Acolyte. The minutes dragged by; the Acolytes huddled together, apprehensive and afraid to speak. Alex sat apart from them, feigning indifference, while she puzzled over a different problem. She had no weapon.

Ten minutes passed without sign from the tunnel. A flash of light made one of the Acolytes gasp—a flaming arrow streaked down from the lip of the cave’s open roof to bury itself in the sand. Osmund rose. “It is time for the next one.”

One by one they went, sipping from the chalice and receiving Osmund’s blessing. Cragson Sarth went with a bounce in his step, humming an old war tune under his breath. He was followed by Darrin the Bookbinder, pale and quaking but gripping his sword all the same. One Acolyte after another went until Alex was the only one left.

Osmund looked up after sending the last of the others into the tunnel. “So.”

Alex met his stare. “So.”

“You’re the last, Alex No-Sword.”

“I prefer Clawhand. It’s a little more fearsome.”

Osmund grunted. “Hrmph. Claw or not, you need a weapon. Wait here.”

Osmund walked off to the door that Alex had first entered by and disappeared inside. He was gone only a minute, and returned bearing something wrapped in cloth. He gave it to her.

“What’s this? A blade?”

The old knight laughed. “Ha! Blades are dearer than that; it’s not for me to go around handing them out. No, this is something I found in the back room . . . go on . . .”

Alex unwrapped it. It was a long black quarterstaff, oiled, banded in iron, and heavy. “I . . . where did you get this?”

“Found it lying about. It’s no Curate weapon, but I think the Grand Master will approve, seeing as how you left him with quite a bruise from that broomstick the other night. He blames his visor, the old goat!” Osmund laughed to himself, while Alex paled. “No, it’s no Curate weapon, but it should serve for the trial.”

“Thank you.” The wood felt good in her hands, smooth and strong.

A flaming arrow struck the ground nearby. “And now, Alex from Goodhollow-North-of-Dunheim, it’s your turn.”

Alex laid the staff down for a moment and moved to take the cup. There was only a swallow of liquid left—she tipped it back and drank. It was warm and rich, not at all what she expected from the clear water, and burned through her nostrils with a rich autumn scent.

Alex set down the cup, bent her head, and received Sir Osmund’s blessing. “Now go, Acolyte, and remember—there is only one Cure.”

Alex already felt different as she reached for the staff. The wood felt alive under her fingers, warm and almost glowing. Her good hand felt like it was sinking into the grain, each finger lost amongst the individual fibers . . . the sunlight was brighter, and all shadows stark and deep. Smells blossomed in her palate—she could taste the chalice’s liquid again, burning in her throat, along with the dry dust underfoot and the cold, dank air of the tunnel. She gave Osmund a questioning look, but the old knight’s face was all a blur. An arm beckoned her on; Alex stepped into the tunnel.

The darkness was palpable around her. She groped her way forward, feeling with her good hand as the burned one clutched her staff. Raw stone passed under her fingertips, the sensation of rough granite so intense to her heightened senses that she shuddered. These are the bones of the mountain, thought Alex, deep and wide and old.

She passed several twists and turns before a light appeared ahead. It glowed bright as the sun to her altered senses, throwing a maze of confused shadows around her. As she neared it, she realized that it was a torch, and Alex pulled it from the old iron wall bracket and pushed onward.

She could not say how long she walked. The tunnel wound on and on, sometimes rising, sometimes falling. Finally it opened up into a large cavern. Her torch didn’t cast enough light to illuminate the walls; they fell away on either side into darkness.

Something metallic glinted in the twilight ahead of her. She walked out into the cave toward it, footsteps echoing around her again and again until they sounded like a flurry of other feet. When she stopped, the sound quieted . . . she shook her head and kept walking.

It was an ancient brazier, set on a low stone pedestal and stained with the soot and grime of a fresh fire. It was warm; a pitcher sat beside it, reeking of lamp oil. She poured some on the brazier’s dish and touched her own torch to the liquid.

The flame leaped up, blinding her for a moment. It threw a great deal of light, but still the far reaches of the cave were indistinct. A flat dirt floor stretched around her, sloping away from the brazier—

A shuffling step caught her attention. It was real, not a product of her own echoing footsteps or the sense-altering liquid from the chalice. Alex whirled around to see a stooped figure shambling into the light. It was a zombii, she was sure.

And it was slow. She was in no immediate danger. “Only one?” she wondered aloud.

Alex laid her torch down next to the brazier and gripped her quarterstaff in both hands. She took a few steps toward the creature, keeping her ears alert for any others, but she heard only the single set of footsteps. Up close, the zombii didn’t appear to be any different than the others she’d seen, but it refused to raise its face.

That’s funny, thought Alex. Against her better judgment, she pushed the end of her staff against the creature’s chin and forced its head back, casting light on its face.

Alex’s heart froze. It was no zombii—Dalia’s face stared back at her.

It wasn’t Dalia’s whole face. Her cheeks were open, gaping to show smiling skeletal teeth where the flesh had sloughed away. One eye was missing, replaced by a gaping socket that seeped brown pus and was decorated with half of a yellow graveworm. The other eye, though it was intact, with the soft brown color that she remembered. She didn’t have the glazed, unfocused stare of a newly-raised zombii, but instead looked at Alex with recognition and interest. She knows me, realized Alex, as she scrambled backward.

Dalia cracked her mouth open in a horrific smile and leaned back, spreading her arms to the side. Her ruined abdomen erupted with a thousand flying black shapes, streaming from her in a thrashing cloud of leathery wings. They streamed from rents in the taut skin of her belly and from her open mouth, filling the air and surrounding Alex. Wings tore past Alex, scratching her skin with a texture like sandpaper. They beat at her eyes, nose, and mouth, filling her world with the sound of scratching leathery skin. She covered her face with her ruined hand, still scrambling back from the Dalia-creature.

“No! No! NO!”

Her back thumped into something solid and hot—the brazier. Here the winged things were less thick; a pair got too close and went up in flames like dry parchment. A shrill scream pierced the air as they died.

Another shambling figure emerged from the swirling black wall in front of her. This one was missing a foot, and stumbled forward on the splintered end of a leg. It raised its head and Alex saw the baron’s wasted face. His clothes hung in tatters around him, torn to shreds. As she watched, the baron misstepped and fell forward. The ruined creature shuddered once and started pulling itself forward on its belly with one arm . . . its jaws clacked together again and again as it reached for Alex’s foot. She couldn’t move—she was paralyzed with fear. Her brain screamed at her limbs to move, but they were frozen in place as the zombii’s jaws widened . . .

The pain was intense when it bit into her foot. Alex screamed; the pain broke her paralysis and she dealt the zombii a mighty kick with her other foot. The baron’s head snapped around; the swirling black wall surged forward, and when it retreated the zombii was gone.

She looked at her foot. Maybe if she cut it off in time she could stop the Plague . . . but the Plague was already taking her. Black blood raced up her veins, skin flashing gray on either side as it went. Flesh crumbled and dripped from her bones as the Plague raced past her groin—huge blisters rose on her shins and burst, splattering slime and pus over the ground. Alex tried to scream, but the Plague already had her chest and she could taste was burning bile in her throat. Her hair fell out in great chunks, and she felt the skin pull back from her eyes, withered and dry. Her teeth tumbled out at the touch of her tongue, drowning her voice like a mouthful of rotten nuts. The swirling black cloud pressed around her, closing in, preparing to take another as their own.

Worst of all, she felt the itching again in her left palm. “Oh, no, no, no, please, please, no,” begged Alex, but when she raised her hand to her eyes a river of spiders was pouring from the egg sacks buried in her palm. They streamed down her arm, tickling her with their hairy legs, dripping off of her fingers . . .

That was strange. Alex looked again at her fingers. They were gray and dry with the Plague, but they still had flesh clinging to them. They were not the withered claws that she’d had ever since McCann burned away her flesh outside the Weeping Tree. She squeezed her hand into a fist and then opened it again, expecting to see it filled with the blood of dead arachnids. Instead, she was greeted with five red, scarred fingers and a skeletal palm. She looked down—the rest of her body was untouched by the Plague. Her foot was unmarked.

This is only fear, thought Alex. I can fight this.

The fliers shrieked in anger. Alex stood up, gripping her staff. Other creatures pushed through the wall—other zombii, wearing the faces of people she knew. Darrin, Cragson Sarth, Garth. Osmund. Headmaster Barrius. She smashed them all, breaking skulls and shattering joints with her staff. McCann’s zombii leered at her, as if he was in on the joke—Alex leered back before breaking its neck.

Finally, the zombii stopped coming. There was a pause . . . Alex kept her guard up. The Dalia-creature emerged, still filling the air with fluttering black fliers. Her single eye stared at her from the remains of her face.

“You were too late.” The voice came from her and from the black winged things surrounding them.

“You’re not real. I’ll kill you like I killed the rest.”

“You were too late.” It grinned. “And you ARE too late.”

Two black arms whipped out from inside of her chest, impossibly fast, and ripped Alex’s staff away from her. Two more emerged, then two more and two again, until a halo of spider’s legs surrounded the Dalia-creature in an arc behind her back. They were long, furry, and jointed. Wicked talons dripping with poison decorated their ends.

Alex stood, facing her, unarmed. The Dalia-creature took a step toward her, smiling her skeletal smile. Her single eye burned. One step, another—the creature was nearly upon her. The flames in the brazier dimmed as she leaned over Alex, twisted lips pulled back to reveal sharp, black teeth. She grinned in anticipation, preparing to bite.

“No.” Alex drew her knife from her belt and in one smooth motion stabbed it up and through Dalia’s single brown eye. The creature shrieked once, fell back—

—and Alex was alone. The cave was as empty and silent as it had been when she entered. A single short zombii lay at her feet, twitching. She turned it over with her foot and removed her knife from its eye. It was not Dalia. The staff lay a short distance away where she’d thrown it.

A few minutes later Alex emerged, blinking, into the sunlight. The tunnel ended in a small grotto, where brown trees arched over a fountain. The other Acolytes were there, sitting in a group around it. A knight Alex didn’t know asked her name.

“Alexis of Goodhollow,” she told the knight.

“Are you the last?” asked the knight.

“Yes.”

“Then come. It is time to see the Grand Master.”

(Go on to Part 41)