Page 29 of I Married Kayog
“You know about that?!” she exclaimed.
I shrugged. “Yes, he told me.”
“Everything?” she insisted, her gaze intense.
“Not about the specifics of his illness,” I conceded. “He only mentioned that the one time he was seen by a Temern doctor, there was reason to believe that he might try to hurt him.”
“Not hurt him but flat out kill him,” Isobel corrected, her voice and expression hardening with lingering anger towards the doctor.
It was my turn to recoil. “What?! Why in the world would someone sworn to heal people want to harm them instead? And especially one of our own?!”
I didn’t want to believe what she said, but the emotions swirling around her made it clear she was totally being honest based on the facts she knew.
Isobel opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before sighing with frustration.
“I’ve said as much as I can on this matter. All I can do is beg you to please, please talk to him. You are well-connected. Maybe you can help get him the medical assistance he needs,” she said in a pleading tone.
I ran a nervous hand over the soft feathers on my head and shifted my wings to release some of the tension building in my back.
“I haven’t seen him since the incident yesterday, and he rarely comes to class,” I said.
“He will do his canoe training tomorrow,” the priestess replied swiftly. “It helps him focus. Please, I don’t know how else to help him. This whole thing is breaking him both physicallyand mentally. I believe with all my heart that the Maker sent you here to save him. I can feel it in my bones!”
Overwhelmed, I rubbed my nape, too many thoughts swirling inside my head. But even then, I already knew that I would do whatever was in my power to help him. This woman genuinely believed that he was in distress, and that I could tip the scale. As she stated so accurately, I was well-connected. If whatever was affecting Kayog was medical in nature, we would find a cure.
“Are you in touch with him, or do you see him?” I suddenly asked.
She nodded, hope shining brightly in her dark green eyes. “Yes, I do.”
“Then the next time you speak to him, tell Kayog he still owes me dinner.”
She gaped at me for a few seconds before bursting out laughing, all tension bleeding from her shoulders. Then the warmest wave of gratitude emanated from her and slammed into me. Whatever doubt I might still have had about her feelings for him faded in that instant. Isobel truly loved him like a brother, or even in almost a motherly fashion.
“I can see why he loves you. Thank you for giving me hope of his imminent salvation. The Maker sent you.”
She gently caressed my arm in a gesture that combined friendship and gratitude before turning around and walking away.
Ipaced my living room restlessly, glaring at my vidscreen every other second as if it was responsible for my nan not calling me. My impatience was unjustified as we were stillfour minutes away from the agreed time. One thing that could always be relied upon was Nana Arika being exactly on time, not a little before or after, but right on the dot.
And yet I couldn’t help but inwardly curse the clock for not moving faster.
Right on cue, an incoming message popped on my screen at exactly 5:30 PM. I all but threw myself onto the couch as I accepted the call. My grandmother’s gorgeous face immediately appeared. I was her spitting image, except that where I was completely white with a few dark specks on the fluffy down feathers of my chest, my nan was completely black with white specks. We often joked that she was the Ying to my Yang. And yet, our personalities were disturbingly similar.
“Hello, my darling,” she said in that loving tone that always felt like a warm blanket.
“Hi, Nana,” I replied affectionately. “I’m so sorry for bothering you while you’re in the middle of that big mandate, but I really need your help.”
“Regarding that Kayog Voln?” she asked in an overly nonchalant tone that didn’t fool me in the least.
I stiffened, my mouth gaping as my mind raced to figure out how she already knew about him. I hadn’t spoken a word yet regarding Kayog as we didn’t officially have any kind of relationship. And then it hit me.
“Did Colin say something?” I asked.
She shrugged her left shoulder, her face still noncommittal while her blue gaze, identical to mine, remained intense.
“Maybe,” she replied in a mysterious fashion.
My temper instantly flared. I knew this was her professional instinct kicking in to draw as much information from the other party without giving away too much of what she knew. But right now, I needed an ally, not a prosecutor.
