Page 21 of Blood Red Woes

I blink at Frederick. “You want me to go out there and find your dad’s research?” It sounds silly. It sounds stupid. It also sounds impossible. How the hell did Frederick expect me to find anything when it could be anywhere?

“I know it sounds like an impossible task, but my father left my mother a map with the exact trail he was taking to Acadia’s castle. I memorized it a long time ago. I can give you the map. You can follow it, see if you can find any trace of him. I don’t know if he ever made it to Acadia’s castle.”

The look on my face must say enough, because Frederick stands. He walks around the table and kneels beside me. I try not to look at him, but the earnestness in his voice causes me to do exactly that, “I know I ask much of you, Rey. I know you are a stranger to me and to this land, but you can walk through the storms. You’re safer out there than anyone else in here could be. I’d go myself if I could.”

Frederick chuckles softly. “I tried, a few times, but each time the guards stopped me. The furthest I ever made it out of the city was thirty paces beyond the walls. You aren’t the only one that has been dragged into the city and thrown into a cell. I spent my fair share of time in those tiny cells until I learned that I simply cannot go.”

The smile he gives me right then is hopeful, sweet, the kind of smile that’s meant to make me give in. “But you can. You can go. You can go where I cannot. Please, Rey—” He actually reaches for my hand and holds it against his upper chest. I’m so caught off-guard by the action that I sit there, stunned, and let him hold my hand. “—you are my last hope.”

I don’t know how long I sit there with my hand inside his, and I don’t know how long he kneels there, wordlessly pleading with me, but it has to be a while.

Fuck. Right now, this guy is my only lead. If he’ll only help me once I look for his dad’s things, then… shit, I guess I have to. Clinging to the small sliver of a chance that I might stumble upon someone else in this hellish kingdom that can help me is probably the stupidest thing I can do.

“Fine,” I mutter with a sigh. “As long as you promise to keep up your end of the deal and help me get back home even if I don’t find anything. Can I have my hand back now?”

It’s as if a switch is flipped inside Frederick, like he forgot he was holding my hand, and he immediately releases it and gets to his feet. “Oh, yes. I’m sorry, I—” He runs a hand through his hair, the awkwardness thick enough to choke us both, and he returns to his chair across from me. “I’m aware of how daunting this task is. I know you might not find anything, but… we can’t last forever in this city. We have some areas inside the walls set aside for farming and livestock, but it’s not enough long-term. Things will get bad, and we’ll slowly starve. It’s why we need to figure out how to reverse this, somehow, how to fix these woes.”

I hear the urgency in his voice, and he’s so desperate for a fix, I can’t blame him. I don’t know if I’ll be able to help him, but… I guess, since I can walk through the storms with only a dry mouth as a result, the least I can do is look for his dad’s research.

“You keep calling them woes,” I say, resuming my meal. I take another bite of the lamb jerky. “Why? What are they?”

“They brought nothing but woe to everyone in Laconia, so the name was fitting. I don’t know who first started calling them that, but it was long after they began. Around twenty years ago, a blight spread across the kingdom. Accounts vary. Some say it originated in Acadia, but others say it appeared simultaneouslyin Magnysia and Pylos as well. The blight affected crop yields. If you ate infected crop, you got terribly sick. Many people died.”

Oh. Shit. This has been going on for twenty years now? I guess it’s true. You go out with a whisper and not a bang.

“The next woe that spread upon Laconia was a plague among livestock. Farm animals started to get sick and die. Some turned wild and attacked their owners. It spread to wild animals soon after. If one of your herd got sick with it and you didn’t catch it in time, your whole herd would get it soon after. It’s a miracle we have the animals we have left, honestly.”

“I saw a dog out there,” I tell him, shivering when I remember that blasted dog. All the bones poking out of its gut. The crazed look in its eye. “It was fucked up. It didn’t really look like a dog anymore.”

“Those animals that the plague didn’t touch, the animals that were locked out there… the conclave calls them blighted. Something’s wrong with them and we don’t know if it’s something we can fix. We assume their erratic behavior is made worse due to being caught in the third woe, the scourge.”

“The scourge?”

“Shadowstorms. A thick, gray mist that devours and changes anything it touches. Human or animal, nothing can withstand its tainting nature… until you, that is. The scourge is what forced most to finally abandon their homes and try to flee. Many did not make it here.”

I take a slow sip of my water. “I’m sorry.”

“I was a child when my family fled Magnysia. I don’t remember much of anything. My father was close to Empress Krotas, but I only know that because of the stories my mother would tell. It was chaos. I don’t know how we got out.”

“So where the hell are your empresses, then? If they’re so powerful and revered like gods, why haven’t they lifted a finger to try to help you?”

Frederick leans back, his hands in his lap. Shadows touch his face. “They… have not been seen outside their lands in over ten years, and when they were… they were not themselves. Not everyone got to meet them, let alone one of them, but my mother always said they were supposed to be the best of us. The kindest. The gentlest. The most powerful. They were supposed to protect us from everything and anything. Some people here still cling to those ideals—you saw that in the conclave—but it’s clear the woes that affected us also affected them.”

In other words, if by some miracle the empresses are still alive out there, they’re bat-fucking-shit.

I finish off my plate. Even eat the greens, though I’m not much of a salad person. All the while, Frederick watches me.

“You can sleep here tonight. Early morning, I’ll have Prim take you to the wall, where you can get out. I’ll pack you a bag of food to take with you, along with the map. Most animals you see out there are going to be too tainted to eat, so I suggest sticking to anything in the water. Fish, clams, and such seem to be immune, for whatever reason. The water has kept them safe.”

Ooh, yummy. Fish, second only to clams. All seafood, really, is a favorite of mine. So yummy.

Sarcasm. That is all sarcasm. I guess it depends how hungry I get out there. I think I’ll have to be starving before I tell myself to go look for someclamsto eat.

Frederick rubs the back of his neck. “I… only have one bed. Mine. But you can use it for the night. Outside the walls, you won’t have much comfort.” In other words, I’ll be sleeping on the ground a lot.

He stands and gestures for me to follow him, so I get up and trail after him. He brings me to a door in the far end of the room, and once he pushes it open I see it’s his bedroom. A tiny bed along with a desk of sorts, and a small dresser.

“Goodnight,” Frederick says with a soft smile, and then he ducks his head out of the room, shutting the door behind him. I hear him move around the house, probably cleaning up my plate and cup, along with getting everything ready for me.

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