Lemuria: The City of Mysts

Chapter 52: Taboo

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Chapter 52: Taboo

Cheska gaped at the woman kneeling before her. Her eyes darted to Mohy. His confidence shattered, he looked at his sister in defeat.

With a deep sense of foreboding, she asked the guardian, "What did you do?"

"I exposed the doctor's healing abilities and location to the enemy. I also led them to him through the tunnels," Zafeera answered steadily.

"They injected a truth serum to make Zafeera talk. She did tell them about Fred's healing ability but she never broke the Guardian's Code, even when they tortured her. I was the one who told them about the tunnels because – because they were going to kill her." His hands clenched on his lap as he begged: "Please, don't punish her. Everything she said and did afterward was to protect me."

They had broken the Code when they lied to the guardians during the assembly. Zafeera should have come clean instead of covering for her brother. Deceiving the guardians only added to their transgressions. It was just as well Cheska asked Strago to leave, this way she could keep it a secret among themselves until things settled down. But, first, she would have to know more about the real situation. Second, she'll have to test Mohy if he was indeed telling the truth.

"Why tell them about Fred's healing ability?" Cheska directed the question to Zafeera.

"I couldn't lie. They showed me a video of Fred. It was from the time he saved me from a soldier that came after us. Fred accidentally killed him. It turned out the man was no ordinary soldier; he was the eldest son of an officer. I was afraid they'd use Fred as a weapon or kill him for revenge. Knowing they were already hunting him, I told them about his gift to keep him alive."

"And you," Cheska turned to Mohy, "how much did you tell them about the tunnels?"

"I said that some tunnels are doorways that traveling to faraway places takes less than a day. They wanted to check if it was real, so they made me lead them to where Fred is."

She was finally able to piece the events of that day with what she knew – Fred's emergency call then at Tony's. With the way Zafeera clutched her side, Cheska assumed she was the patient Fred had attended to. Mohy hadn't lied but she sensed he hadn't given her the whole story. Her eyes narrowed when she realized what they hadn't yet explained. "How did you know where to find him?"

"I called his secretary. I convinced her it was urgent that I talk to Fred. She gave me his number and I tracked him down—"

"Was that before—"

"No." Mohy looked up quickly. "The first contact was for Zafeera. Her old wound was giving her pain. The doctor's medicine was the only effective pain reliever. An ampoule of the medicine could keep her going for six months. But we lost it in an ambush. That's why I called him. I didn't know it would come to this."

Cheska pinched the bridge of her nose. She could imagine what went on afterward. Fred's medicine had potential. Zafeera had probably tried to help a plague victim get through the pain and unexpectedly cured them. Cheska couldn't blame her, though. If the plague was in another country, the doctor would have joined a team of volunteers to aid its people. It was just like Fred to drop everything when someone – or a lot of someones needed him. She'd been on the receiving end of it too. Fred had skipped classes when she became sick before. He'd stayed with her until her fever went down.

"You should have summoned one of your sentinels when you were captured," she said to Zafeera. The summons would have been within reason, considering that the guardian and her successor's lives were in danger.