The man ran off into the night, ranting about Ava-Surrvul Askas. I didn’t get it. I had to seriously think for a minute before it came to me. Oh, I realized. That’s great. Lordin must have altered his reality, made him think bees had killed her, instead of letting him live with the awful truth of being a murderer.
It was a nice gesture on her part to save the man the emotional anguish of being a killer. But how was I supposed to battle Lordin if she could distort reality? All I could do was view memories and some of their past!
I had been so distracted by my wandering thoughts that I hadn’t noticed Lordin get up and move into the hallway, and now she was watching me. Lordin stood right under me, eyes fixed on my flaming Valer, cursing me silently with her wrathful stare.
Chapter 16
I flew away. I zipped down the hall, squeezed under the front door, and took to the skies. My mind was racing. It seemed like every hour I was bombarded with new and disturbing information. Now I had Lordin’s elaborate history to dwell on, the innocent girl twisted into a power-hungry lunatic. Plus she was still in love with my Zawne! There was Lordin’s ability to twist reality to consider. If that was the case …
The photos!
I stopped midflight, hovering somewhere above the ocean. If Lordin could change reality, it meant she could have shown me falsified photos of Roki with other women. It meant I had lashed out at him for no reason, calling him a creepy Min when he was anything but. It made sense now that I knew the whole story. I had been the queen after all, and Zawne’s wife. Lordin couldn’t have allowed me to continue consorting with a Min. It could have ruined her plan.
Worst of all, I was nowhere nearer to finding the cure for the virus. Lordin must have disguised her memory of its location as a fail-safe against memory thieves. She really was prepared, much more than I was.
I decided to fly to Nurlie. It was the only move I had left. My plan was to find Roki, beg for his forgiveness, and ask him to help me save the world. I could only hope that he would forgive me.
Roki was easy to find. I could sense the other Min and see their fiery Valers from a substantial distance. They were like little red beacons, pulsing more brightly the closer I got. But even without the Valers, I could smell Roki’s toffee odor. I followed it to the scene of a great battle, Tomenistin, the port town that connected mainland Nurlie to the island.
P5 Protectors had made a wall of armor against the rebel forces, blockading the government building against the mob of angry, laser-toting Gurnots, Surrvul rebels, and island forces. It was hard to believe the agitators had crossed the water and reached the mainland, and that Tomenistin was now under siege. The whole place was on fire. I wondered if the supposed Gurnot Dragon from the news reports was among the attackers.
“Roki,” I said, flying down to where he had pulled a family from a smoking apartment building.
He turned at the sound of my voice, then gasped when he saw my Valer. “Kaelyn, you’re a Min!”
“And you’re a hero,” I said. “How many people have you saved today?”
He sighed and said, “Not nearly enough.”
The family Roki had saved were scampering off down the sidewalk. They hadn’t even thanked him. All they wanted was to escape the fighting, the laser beams, the desperate cries of the injured.
“If you want to stop millions more from dying,” I said, feeling out of breath even though I had no lungs, “I suggest you help me. I know Lordin’s got the cure, but I don’t know where she’s hidden it. Will you help me search?”
Roki didn’t so much as blink. “Of course,” he said. “Let’s start looking. We can go right now.”
I had a sensation of crying—again, even though I had no eyes. I rammed my little fire cloud against Roki’s, which lived in his chest, and reveled in the sensation of our two spirit bodies rubbing together. It was like a hug, only euphoric and titillating. It was two balls of electricity warming each other with ethereal static. I wanted to stay like that forever.
And that was when I cried to him, “I’m so sorry!” I couldn’t help it. I felt even more emotional as a Min. “I’m sorry that I didn’t believe you. I thought you were bad.” And even without a face, I felt wet with tears. “You were always the best thing that ever happened to me, Roki. Even after I was a total jerk, you still agreed to help me without another thought. You truly are amazing.”
Roki laughed, which was weird to see, because his face was sooty and everywhere around us the world was burning. “I always thought you might return. I never lied to you, Kaelyn, but I can understand where your anger came from. I learned about Lordin’s gift shortly after our little incident in Shiol, so I knew why you had freaked out. I just figured I would respect your wishes and wait it out.” Then he squinted at me. “But how did you find out about her gift?”
“Oh,” I said, “I forgot to mention, I can siphon memories from people and Min alike.”
“Whoa!” Roki’s eyebrows raised in an arc. “That’s so cool! And pretty convenient, don’t you think?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you became a Min just in time to find a secret cure that can stop millions of deaths. Your power is to steal memories, which will help us to find the cure. And me, because of my power to mask presences, we can fly around the world unseen and look at memories without anyone knowing.”
“It’s almost as if …”
“The Crown of Crowns has known all along,” he finished. “You and I are destined to
