“Oh,” Riedel said, “that. Yes. We have been watching.”
“So?” I asked. I was on the verge of hysterics. “What’s the deal? How could you not foresee this? Aren’t you omniscient? Or did you know beforehand? Are you behind VBione Corp? Are you friends with Emell?” I sucked in a deep breath, looked between their flashing masses. “What gives?”
“Well,” Hanchell said, “we can see the future, but not so well. Our capabilities are restricted to somewhere between twelve and twenty-four hours. We had no idea humanity would break out in disease or conflict. In fact, the whole reason we ruled in favor of VBione Corp was because one of our Min convinced us it was the smart move for Geniverd. She told us that by siding with VBione Corp, more potent and effective medicines would be put into mass production. She showed us convincing evidence, and we passed the order along to you. We take full responsibility for the poor recommendation. That was our bad.”
“Your bad?” I was furious! The Crown of Crowns was not supposed to make mistakes.
“Let us remind you,” Riedel said, “at the end of the day, our recommendations are just that: recommendations. We picked you as queen because of your wise mind and questioning heart. Had you felt strongly enough to disagree with our suggestion, it was your decision to make.”
“Now you tell me,” I said sourly. I felt deflated, as if the Crown of Crowns had just smooshed the air out of me. My decision to make? They were trying to blame the entire mess on me, say everything was my fault because I didn’t listen to my gut! The Crown of Crowns was acting like a couple of cowards!
“We do apologize,” Hanchell said. “And we wish we could fix it. However, we are unable to directly interfere with humanity. We have our Min working to keep the balance, but we oversee everything from the spirit dimension. The future of Geniverd is in your hands, Queen Kaelyn. There’s nothing we can do.”
“You’re saying I’m on my own?” I asked.
“You have all the resources available to a queen,” Hanchell said chipperly.
“But I need your help! Can you at least tell me why Emell has done all this? And who was the Min who gave you the suggestion to side with VBione Corp? Was it Lordin? If you could at least fill in some of the blanks, it would make it easier for me to save the world from my quarantined apartment.”
Hanchell and Riedel both fizzled strangely. I thought they were uncomfortable, which was odd considering they were thousands of years old and had seen this sort of thing before, war and death and disease.
“We cannot divulge information about our Min,” Hanchell said. She at least sounded sad about it. “We do want to help you, Queen Kaelyn, but we cannot give up the secrets of the Min to a human. Our bond is sacred and may not be broken. However, we can tell you that Emell is currently being taken into custody by your brother. She is the head of VBione Corp, and she is very angry at the seat of power and seeks vengeance. As for the Nurlie conflict and the virus, it’s almost too late. Without the distribution of a full cure in the next thirty-six hours, the world will be consumed by disease.”
“Great,” I said, all hope sucked out of me. “The world is doomed, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“No,” Riedel said, “not doomed. The world will not end; it will merely regrow, like a forest burned to the ground that takes a long time to grow back. Humanity will flourish once again.”
“But four billion lives will be lost!” I screamed. “I can’t have that. I must save my people. I must protect the six clans!”
“I have an idea,” Hanchell said, her gaseous light brightening to a fantastic hue of yellow. “What about your friend Roki? He’s a good Min. We may not be able to give you information, but he can. I suggest you seek out Roki. He may be your only hope.”
The Crown of Crowns had proved more useless than I could have possibly imagined. I supposed they didn’t care. I couldn’t blame them. If ninety-five percent of humanity were wiped out, they would just watch and wait while society regrew and restructured itself. We were nothing to them, a kingdom of ants who could rebuild if our nest was destroyed. Time was irrelevant to such beings. Five hundred years went by in the blink of an eye.
I woke from my nap supremely exhausted, eyes red and bleary. I sat up and checked the news on my visin. Twenty thousand more deaths around the globe. It was already more death than anyone in my generation had seen. It was too much, too devastating. I had to stop it. But that meant …
Roki.
What had the Crown of Crowns meant when they told me he was a good Min? What did that mean to them? So long as Roki did his job in Geniverd for them, he could be considered good. But I knew better. Roki was an evil womanizer. Yet lives were at stake. The world was at stake. It looked like I was going to have to swallow my pride and call out to him. I just had to promise myself it would be strictly business. Then, after we saved the world, I wouldn’t speak with him anymore. I also had to promise myself that when I saw him again in the flesh, I would refrain from getting emotional. No matter how badly I wanted to, I could not touch him. Not even a friendly hug!
I got off the couch and stretched, almost too exhausted to think. It was a quarter past seven, the time sifting away from me like grains of sand. Only thirty-four hours left to free the world from disease.
I checked my
