I give her a sympathetic nod. “Solomon must’ve had his reasons. I doubt they’ll make much sense. This plague isn’t the work of a sane man, that much I can guarantee. He targeted the women of your species specifically. I think he wanted Opal City to survive and the rest of the planet to die out. Back home, we have legends about cities that shut their gates from various threats and survived, but none were the result of a fabricated crisis. Solomon did this. Regardless of his reason, he did this. He designed and tested the viral strain until he was sure of the end result. He then went out and released it specifically and systematically in a way that would guarantee an epidemic.”
“And when the government decided to try and nip this in the bud, Solomon gathered all the city’s survivors into the underground tunnels,” Leela says, resting on the edge of a desk. “I remember the stories Sarin told us about it. They saw him as a prophet. Solomon foresaw that the government would try to kill us all in a desperate attempt to save the rest of their people. He told my parents and the others that he could usher in a new era, that if they stayed hidden, they would emerge victorious, healthy, and safe.”
“Do you know if he designed a cure for the infection as well?” I ask her.
“I don’t know, I’m sorry. But Sarin mentioned they drank something before they emerged from the tunnels, days after the city was bombed,” she says. “Something that tasted strange. It had an orange glow.”
It hits me hard. I take a deep breath. “Leela, have you ever been all the way up at the top of this volcano?”
“No.”
“Has anyone?” Kingo replies, constantly stealing glances at me. He’s thinking what I’m thinking. “Anyone you know in Opal City?”
“No. The king won’t let the Hunters’ Guild go anywhere above Kaos Town,” she says. “It’s punishable by death. Truth be told, most of us have gotten so used to our gilded cage that we didn’t even consider defying him on the matter. We didn’t see a reason for it. What’s up there? Just lava, right?”
I shake my head slowly. “That’s the thing, Leela, I don’t think it’s lava.”
“We wouldn’t be able to stand here without literally melting,” Kingo adds. “The temperature at the top would ripple downward. It would be too hot for even a flimsy little blackwood tree to sprout.”
“What is it, then?”
“I suppose you’ve heard the legends about the inner fire of Sunna,” I say.
Leela gives me an understandably confused look. “They’re folk tales, stories. I never read a single description of what that might even look like.”
“We know one person who actually saw it,” I say, and Kingo nods in agreement.
“Cynthia.” He manages to shove one last folder into his bag and then looks through another that he previously studied. “Ah, here…I knew I read something that makes a tad more sense now. Listen to this,” he says, reading from an excerpt on a yellowed page. “The liquid fire is the perfect conductor to cure samples 1 and 2. Cure sample 3 didn’t reverse the effects of the strain’s final stage of infection, but encouraging results are noted for the first two.”
“Liquid fire, that’s it,” I say.
Leela is trying to keep up. “You’re talking about the glow at the top of the mountain?”
“It’s not lava. It’s a bright orange liquid, water-like, sweet-tasting. My friend Cynthia drank it and felt incredible for a whole day. When I say incredible, I mean superhuman. Stronger, faster, sharper, healthier than she’s ever been,” I say. “There’s something in this so-called liquid fire that’s extremely beneficial, and from what I’ve gathered here, Solomon used it to give you his cure for the plague prior to letting you out of the tunnel.”
“I wonder if the cure gives them full immunity against reinfection as well,” Kingo says, “and if the immunity is genetically inherited. These files we’re taking should give Cynthia more information on the matter.”
“Yeah, it’ll be interesting getting this stuff back into the palace,” I mutter.
It will be even more interesting getting this stuff and ourselves out of the palace after tonight. I’ve got a feeling Solomon’s guards are frantically searching for us, likely turning the city upside down to find us.
I worry about Helios and Kharo and what they might encounter at this point, but I have faith in their quick wit and their ability to adapt to any unexpected situation.
Once we’ve gathered all the evidence we need, Kingo, Leela, and I prepare to go back down the mountain. She knows of one tunnel entrance we can use from the northern city gate that leads straight into the palace. From there, we’ll have to sneak back to my room and hopefully find Helios and Kharo waiting for us. Then, we’ll have to sneak out of the city.
However, by that hour, Solomon will have figured out what we’re up to.
“Leela, you should come with us,” I tell the young queen. “This won’t end well for you. We’ve broken one too many laws just by being here, and the fact that we have the ugly truth in our hands won’t bode well for Solomon. It’ll bring trouble to Opal City, too. The other tribes won’t let him off the hook for the decades of death and misery he’s inflicted upon the planet.”
“His kingdom will fall apart with you in it,” Kingo adds. “Alicia is right. Leela, you can get out of Opal City with us. We’ll make our way back to our buggy, and we’ll drive as fast as we can. Solomon won’t catch up with us before Diamond City, and I’m sure he won’t want to risk exposure there.”
Leela frowns. “I can’t leave my sons behind. They are innocents.”
“We’ll take them, as well,” I offer, already thinking about how we’ll hold the little ones in our laps while the red dust rises in our wake. “We’ll make room.”
“What about Neya and Sarin and their children? And my mother and other brother? No, there are too many people I care about in Opal City. This is my home. I cannot leave.”
“Leela, your life is at stake,” I say, trying to reason with her. “You saw what Solomon’s men did to your brother. What do you think he’ll do to you once he learns you helped blow the lid off his entire operation? The whole planet—or what’s left of it anyway—will know that Solomon Daron manufactured and released the plague, killing millions of innocent women.” I stop. A realization has just dawned on me. “Oh, shit…”