Jason and Tal looked at her incredulously, and Mila supposed their reaction was similar to her own mother expecting to be admitted to the White House. “King Kessrick? Bleedin’ hell. He isn’t seeing
anyone
right now, Mum. You know that. He’s been locked in the palace, seeing only courtiers since the evacuation weeks ago. Not to mention,” he added with a stunned note in his voice, “that you can’t just expect to walk in the bleedin’
palace
, or be granted an audience, without stacks of paperwork.”
She blew out a harsh breath and nodded her head angrily while tapping one finger on her leg. “That’s right. Forgot the bloke’s a bloody coward.” She looked up again when Mila was forced to stifle a snort. “Well, he is. Hidin’ away from his own subjects just because the world’s gone a bit wonky. His da would have been ashamed of how he’s actin’.” She swung her legs to the floor briskly, as though she hadn’t almost died moments before. “It’ll have to be King Mumbai then.” She looked at Jason, and disapproval spilled into her features. “I’ll be expecting one of these gates of yours leads to Shambala? While I’m not pleased with you, son—not one dosh—those gates just might have some use. But if I were you, I’d be thankin’ the Blessed Tree that you’re not layin’ over my knee this moment.”
Jason couldn’t meet her gaze. He began to study his hands while she kept the motherly evil eye on him and waited for an answer. “Well? Does a gate lead to Shambala?”
Tal cleared his throat before Jason could respond. He got to his feet and then offered Mila a hand to stand. She moved over to where Dareen was leaning against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest while he spoke. “I hope it’s not too impertinent to ask, Mrs. Rockwell—but what do you need to see the kings
about?
Is there anything we can do?”
“Nay, lad. ’Tis far too—” She paused and then stared at the three of them, each in turn, for a long moment. “Bless me … now that you mention it, you just
might
. In case it’s worse than I fear, or I don’t make it back, someone else should know to get word to the kings.”
“Mum, don’t talk that way!” Jason nearly yelled the words and reached out to grab her hand. “I’ve just barely got you back. Cheatin’ the devil once is more than most get.”
She patted his hand, but her expression was no longer warm. The brown eyes had turned to black, steely with determination. “There are things in life worth dyin’ for, boyo … and stoppin’ that scoundrel Vegrellion is one of them.”
“Vegre?”
They couldn’t have planned it better if they practiced, for all three voices said it simultaneously. It was Tal who continued. “I knew he’d come to Vril after escaping. Do you know what he’s planning?”
She nodded. “Indeed I do. Why do you think he wanted me dead, then? He’s the leader of Demeter’s Children, though the others are too befuddled to realize it. Many of them are too young to recognize him—calls himself
Reilly
in the group. But I spotted his black heart at one of the rallies straight away and wondered what he was up to. So I stayed around to join up while Patrick left with the others. Our little town of Ryver was the first to be hit by the red death, ya know—when he was still full of himself and not afraid to be seen. But I never expected he might recognize me in return. Bad mistake on me part, and very nearly the death of me.”
Mila found herself nodding. “I
knew
you’d been intentionally infected. It was exact same spot as Suzanne. But I still can’t figure out why he’d attack a little girl up where I live … one who doesn’t even know about any of you or this place.”
Dareen’s expression turned canny. “Don’t ya, lass? Are you very sure you don’t know why? Think on it for a bit.”
She felt her head shaking no in tiny movements. “Not a clue. Really. I’d
love
it if you’d tell me.”
She leaned forward and poked a finger into Mila’s stomach. “He’s
flushin
’, lass. Bringin’ the conjurers out of the brush, he is. With every illness that’s magic in nature, they come because they can’t help themselves. It’s in the blood, don’cha know. But ‘tis an absolute disgrace, what he’s doin’, and I mean to put a stop to it.”
Tal let out a harsh breath that said he’d expected the news, but also couldn’t understand the rationale. “But why would he want to kill all the remaining Parask? Most of them don’t have enough magic to fill a thimble and more than half probably don’t have any clue about their heritage—like Mila.”
“Are ya daft, boyo? He doesn’t want to
kill
them.” Her face was filled with surprise. “He means to
collect
them.” She nodded as they looked at each other in shocked confusion. “At first I thought he was blinkin’ crackers, but if there are enough of you about still, he might just manage it.”
“Manage what?” Mila had to ask. They were finally getting to the meat of what Vegre was planning and her curiosity was insatiable. She was just hoping that all of the pieces they’d discovered added up. But what Dareen had to say wasn’t what she’d imagined. She’d expected to hear that Vegre planned to topple a government in a coup and become a despot, or bilk millions by starting an epidemic that only
he
could cure. But this—
“He plans to harness the very sun, lovey. The entire world would be at his mercy. He could freeze the equator or melt the poles … bake the land or deprive whole regions of warmth if the humans refuse to bow to his sorry hide. ‘Tis an ambitious plan, to be sure … but with enough magic, anything’s possible.” She shrugged and threw up her hands. “While I don’t claim to understand the connection with the Parask guild, there seems to be one, and he’s usin’ it to increase his own magic, and that of the Children. If the kings can’t stop him, there’s no telling what he might do, because it doesn’t seem that he requires, nor
fears,
the Sacred Trees. That’s why I have to see King Mumbai, so he can rally the others to stand against him.”
Mila didn’t say anything, and Tal likewise kept silent. He simply nodded noncomittally, the way she’d seen a hundred cops and another hundred lawyers do. She was having a hard time even wrapping her head around the enormity of the plan. Dareen was answering questions, all right, but raising so many more. Like, how were the Children involved, and what did the name change have to do with it? “Is there anything else about the things the Children have been doing that strikes you as odd? How do they fit in?”
She nodded. “You mean other than gatherin’ up your other Guilders? Well,
Reilly
has been sendin’ out groups to the outer rings in all the cities, collectin’ root vegetables for some reason. Originally, I’d thought it was for food for the members because they’ve been rounding up birds, too. Chickens, turkeys, and the like. But we’ve gone hungry more than one night, even though I’ve seen baskets of onions, beets, and sweet potatoes being brought into the shelter. I’d expected at least
one
shephardess pie to come out of the kitchen … or perhaps a nice chicken dinner, but not a breath of ’em have reached us. Same with the berries and flowers I helped craft in the bogs near the moat.”
There was something about that list of ingredients. “Were they
crocus
flowers, by chance?”
She nodded and Mila couldn’t help but feel a level of admiration for Vegre. “Damned if he hasn’t got it all figured out. I suppose you’re raising bees, too?”
Dareen tipped her head again, her look now curious. “Honey for our tea and made into sweets for the children. Why?”
Mila noticed Tal and Jason were staring at her as though she was mad. But she wasn’t insane. In fact, this was probably the sanest she’d been in a long time. While she understood Baba would probably be annoyed if she revealed the secret she’d learned at Viktor’s, there was too much at stake. There was no way she was going to be able to stop him alone. Hell, if she didn’t spill the beans, Dareen might not even reveal where they were headquartered, and
then
where would they be?
“Mila?” Tal was looking at her curiously, obviously failing to make the connections in his head. It was no wonder, since he had no experience with pysanka.
“He’s making dyes and wax, Tal. Vegre’s somehow figured out what was in the scroll at Viktor’s. Wrap an egg in yellow onion skins and it dyes red. The stamen of crocus is saffron, which is yellow. I wouldn’t have thought you could get orange out of sweet potatoes, but maybe he’s figured out a way. And berries—well, that’s just obvious. Blue and purple. Mix ’em all together and you get black. I’ve never tried to make green, but I presume you could boil leaves.”
The realization actually staggered Tal and he had to grip the back of one of the chairs to keep his balance. “And with enough chickens and turkeys—we’ve got to stop him.”
Jason and Dareen still looked confused, but they wouldn’t be for long. “You both might want to make yourselves comfortable, because I’ve got something to tell you that’s going to be hard to believe.”
But while shocked, they
had
believed. By the time Mila and Tal finished explaining, Dareen and Jason were both sitting down on the couch with nearly identical expressions of shock. When Mila pulled out the bit of egg she’d pulled from the Tree, Dareen had crossed herself the same way Baba always did when she heard bad news, but sideways, like an X over her chest.
“So then,” Dareen said after a few moments of silence. “The kings signed the death warrant of us all by puttin’ the Parask out in the cold. I wish I could say I was surprised, but they’re a damned stubborn lot.”
“The problem, as I see it, is what do we do now?” Tal’s voice was calm, but there was a level of frustration setting in and Mila understood why. It was a ridiculous scheme Vegre was planning—completely insane, and while she couldn’t imagine it could work, it was obvious Vegre did.
She walked across the room to the window to look outside at the patchy darkness while she thought. “Even if he managed to pull together the power, though, there’s no way people will believe him back home. They’d never bow to him. There’s weird weather everywhere right now—droughts in some places, flooding in others. One side arguing that global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect of too much carbon dioxide, while the rest say it’s just a natural cycle and there might be a new ice age. No matter what he did to the climate, the scientists would argue for
years
about the cause before they’d believe magic was involved.”
Tal and Jason both appeared to agree based on their nods when she turned back from the window. “’Tis true,” Jason said. “Humans are a skeptical lot nowadays, Mum. The few who don’t consider magic mere fiction for books believe it to be evil and would fight to the death before they’d bow to it. And you’d be surprised at some of the weaponry they’ve created. You can’t craft if you’ve no limbs left. Vegre would have to do somethin’ damned impressive to bend their knees without risking being blown to bits.”
“I wonder—” Dareen’s voice was a whisper, as though she was musing to herself.
Mila turned to watch her as her eyes shifted from side to side. A pressure in her bladder told her it had been too long since she’d drank the juice. She hadn’t gone since she’d walked into the library. “I don’t suppose there’s a bathroom I could use?” She looked around, but didn’t notice a doorway other than the one that led down the stairs.
“Down the hall and to the left.” Jason waved his hand and energy shivered her skin. A doorway appeared in the corner of the room. “We shielded it to keep out looters during the riots, but I haven’t been in there recently, so I don’t guarantee the condition. It
used
to be very modern. I do like the comforts you lot came up with topside.”
He wasn’t kidding. People must have paid a pretty penny for the illegal gates, because it was a bathroom most people can only dream of. It was larger than her bedroom, with a whirlpool spa, bidet, and even a heated towel rack under bright fluorescent lights. But the pipes clanked and groaned and while the toilet flushed adequately, the water came out only as a trickle when she washed her hands—reminding her that time was running out down here.
Tal was talking when she returned to the small living room. His beard stubble was darker on his chin and it reminded her to flick her arm over to look at her watch. Six o’clock! Yikes. They were going to need to get back pretty soon. “That seems pretty unlikely. I mean, where would the vent come out?”
“What seems unlikely?” She sat back down in the chair she’d vacated and leaned against the padded back.
“Dareen claims there’s something being planned topside involving the Children. Vegre’s convinced them that for the
age of fire
to begin, a sacrifice has to be made to Demeter.”
“He’s already sacrificed a few of the followers.” Dareen’s voice shook with anger. “I was supposed to be next, owin’ to me knowing too much, but fortunately I still had enough of me mind not to consider it an
honor
to be tossed in a pool of lava. Beatrice and Nigel weren’t so fortunate.”
She tried to remember her earth sciences classes from high school. “Lava? Didn’t you tell me Vril’s under the Appalachians, somewhere on the East Coast? That’s not a volcanic region … I don’t think.”