Dark Slayer(126)

The infants stopped slipping from the safety of Savannah's womb; instead, they pulled back to listen to the rise and fall of her voice, mesmerized by the story she began. Your father will continue the story and tell you of the two little girls, mere babies, but strong beyond belief, who rose up to defeat the evil mage.

She couldn't bring herself to put her hand on Gregori's shoulder to comfort him, so she gave him a quick, encouraging smile. "I told myself many such stories to hold despair at bay. Make them the heroines of the tale, and make the story long and involved and exciting so they listen and concentrate on that. I will work as quickly as I can."

Ivory waited for Gregori to pick up the story where she had left off. The voices around him fell into a soft accompaniment, lending excitement to the tale the healer wove for his daughters. Savannah added her own voice when she could to bring the tale to life.

Ivory and Razvan followed Syndil out of the caves and together they hurried to the building chiseled into the cliffs. Inside the large main room, Shea, a Carpathian woman with bright red hair, and the human, Gary, who Ivory had already met, worked together with a seamless efficiency that suggested they had worked side by side for a long time and were used to a certain rhythm.

Another woman, who Syndil introduced as Gabrielle, was in a smaller room peering into a microscope. Ivory immediately recognized the silken pouches containing the soil samples she'd brought along with the open book of her records.

Shea whirled around. "I can't believe you have done this," she greeted. "How did you discover this? These life-forms are foreign to me. I've never seen them before. What are they? Where did they come from?"

Gabrielle looked up. "They seem to be abnormally high in iron." She stood up and crossed the room, a graceful woman. "I have studied all kinds of organisms and this is new to me as well."

"Which is why I was concerned with just dumping them in the soil," Ivory explained. "They will spread, and I believe they will eventually destroy all the mutated microbes, but I have not had enough time to determine what else could happen. I do not know the effect on humans or any other species. Plants. Insects. I have no idea."

"They don't touch the normal microbes," Shea said. "You're right, we have to be cautious, but I think you may have found our answer. We need you to work with us."

Ivory forced herself not to back away from the group. She was unused to being the center of attention and certainly was never in such close proximity to people crowding her.

Razvan. She reached to him for reassurance. The moment she did, she was annoyed with herself. She had become dependent on him.

His soft laughter eased the knots in her stomach. He was there instantly, flooding her mind with warmth. As you should be dependent on me. There is still a part of you that would like to run from me.

That is not true. Well, it might be true, but she wasn't admitting it to herself. She was braver than that.

His voice softened. Went tender. I am always with you, Ivory. In your heart and mind. We share the same soul. Always, o jela sielamak-light of my soul.

Ivory forced a smile as she looked at the research team gathered around her. "I will help as soon as I have tried these reversing spells. Before I try this on Syndil, I want to try it on mutated microbes in the soil. If I can come up with a spell to reverse what Xavier has wrought, then I can teach it to all of you. Any Carpathian should be able to use it. It will be a temporary solution until the new organisms do their job and cleanse the soil. And until we can go to the source of the microbes and destroy it for all time.

"The spell will not reverse the mutation," Ivory warned. "It is only designed to reverse Xavier's dark command. We cannot really tell if it will work until we use it on someone the microbe is already attacking. I need to make certain this will not harm the living, especially a child. I am a little reluctant to try it on Syndil even now."

A sudden hush fell over the room. Ivory's skin prickled. The hair on the back of her neck and on her arms stood up. Her breath caught as an unfathomable anguish gripped her by the throat. Around the room, she saw the others freeze in their tracks, their eyes widened in horror. Syndil gasped and began to weep. Shea's face lost all color. The test tubes in Gary's hands began to shake while the glass slide in Gabrielle's numb hand fell and shattered on the floor.

For a moment time seemed suspended. Except, Ivory knew it couldn't be true, because she could feel the rapid thud of her heart, pounding inside her chest like a drum. If time had stopped, so, too, would her heart-wouldn't it? Dazed, uncomprehending, yet fighting an inexplicable urge to weep, Ivory reached blindly out to Razvan and felt the solid connection as his fingers closed around hers.