Scourge: A Grim Doyle Adventure

Chapter 24

“What can we do?” Grim wondered, leaning against the dusty book shelf. He thought he had his answer, and now the one person he trusted to cure the Scourge might be the one person who started it.

Quinn paced with him. “If you gave him the Jinn blood, likely he will not create an elixir to cure anyone. We need to get it back from him.”

Grim pulled out the two vials of blood he still had in his pouch. “I only gave him one. I have two more.”

Quinn’s face lit up. “Well, that’s good news. So now what? None of us can brew an elixir.”

“We need to find Eevenellin. She’s Master Galan’s assistant. She was working with Dorian to figure this out. We have to find her and give her the Jinn blood. She might even still have the Marmorite Blue that she stole from the old storage room.”

“Can we trust her?” Rudy asked.

“What choice do we have,” Grim said. “Besides, Dorian trusts her and I trust him.”

Quinn nodded. “Then we have no time to waste.”

The three of them scoured the Library, aisle by empty aisle. They finally found Eevenellin reading through some books on diseases.

“Eevenellin,” said Grim. “We need to talk to you.”

The Grundel tensed and her ears twitched. “What do you want? I’m getting hungry and you look like a decent meal.”

Grim faced the girl. “Cut the act. Dorian told me all about you. We need your help.” Eevenellin’s eyes widened in surprise and her ears sagged. “All right,” she said, “what do you want?”

Grim told her of the book in which they had discovered how to create the Scourge and explained what they had discovered. He pulled out one of the vials of Jinn blood and handed it to her.

“If you add this to the elixir it should create an antidote to cure the Scourge.”

Eevenellin grunted. “Valeria had her suspicions about Master Galan. She said she didn’t trust him, but I never believed her. He likely turned her to stone with a similar elixir.” She paused. “I don’t suppose you have another one of these.”

Grim pulled out the last one.

Eevenellin nodded. “This is good. We might be able to free Valeria as well, assuming this was the cause, although we’ll have to be careful. She might be half way to Banshee. I’m going to need Gargoyle hair and the hair of a Changeling.”

“I can give you mine,” Quinn said, tugging at his dark locks.

Eevenellin shook her head. “No, we’ll need the original. He only used you as a carrier. Your cough was the perfect excuse to feed this to you.”

Quinn sighed, as if a small weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “But Veerasin hasn’t been seen since the lockdown and the remaining Gargoyles are in the Infirmary.”

Grim knew where to get both. “I know what to do,” he said. “The catacombs can take me to Veerasin’s lair and to Dorian’s cell. There should be hairs in both. But I’ll need Barny with me. It will be hard to find them without help.”

“I’m coming with you,” Rudy said.

Grim nodded.

“And I need to get back to my room and start the elixir,” Eevenellin said. “I have Marmorite Blue there.”

“You mean the one you took from the old storage room?”

Eevenellin’s ears fluttered and she looked at Rudy. “You knew I took it.”