Guinevere's Grail | ✓ [BOOK 2]

~ 8 ~

NO ONE ATE THAT day, or the day after that. The river refused to give after Connor's visit, and Kit didn't doubt it was him that caused it. He didn't know how, but it couldn't have been a coincidence that they so suddenly didn't have a single way to eat anymore.

They departed from the river after the battle. Their travels took them West instead, still to heaven knows where, while they thought of a solution for Giselle. They were weary and malnourished, and Kit's lips were peeling from dehydration. The most they found were a few stalks of wild grain.

"We're not going to be able to last long out here," Selene said when they stopped for a break in a dense forest. "We still can't find food."

"And I need to be with my people," Giselle added. "I'm beginning to wonder if I should just take the risk."

"No," Selene and Morgana said in unison.

The princess frowned. "I know it won't be easy, but we need to eat and Connor will just keep looking for us as long as we're up here. He will keep growing his power until he can win. Besides... maybe Faerie can give us more information on the Grail."

"Well, considering our only evidence was burned, I suppose any start is better than nothing," Morgana grumbled.

"Eurion did the right thing," Kit snapped back. "It's better that we remember what we can as long as Connor doesn't get those pages."

Morgana looked at Eurion. "How much did you remember?"

The thief shrugged. "Some of it."

"Great."

"Listen," Giselle cut in before another argument could break out. "I don't think we'll find a solution here anyways. We need to find it in Faerie, and we'll have to go there to do that. This whole search for something up here has been pointless and we know it."

It went quiet. Even Selene and Morgana weren't going to protest, because they all knew she was right.

"Astyr," the princess continued. "How is it spread?"

"Giselle, you're not really--"

"Selene." Her eyes were steady on the Lady, effectively silencing her before she turned her attention back to Morgana's mother.

The Autumn faery nodded and pulled a small leather book from her satchel. It was covered in quickly-scrawled notes and diagrams, likely her observations of the illness.

"I'm led to believe it's spread through direct contact," she said. "But I think it could be spread through the air as well. If we find a way to keep you shielded, it might protect you so long as you isolate."

"We can save a few of my remedies as well," Morgana offered. "Worst case scenario... we can at least help her."

Selene's arms were crossed over her chest, but Kit could see her fists curled beneath them, tight enough to turn her knuckles white. Morgana didn't look much better, tugging on the broken chains of his cuffs.

Kit tried not to let it bother him that he was free again, there were other things more urgent than that now. It still didn't stop the nagging in the back of his mind, though.

Giselle looked just as afraid as all the others, but she kept her chin up. "I'll need gloves, then. If I stay far from anyone else, the air won't be an issue."

It was all confusing to Kit. His own people knew very little of illnesses and how they spread, but the Fair Folk had been around long enough to have information far beyond his human comprehension. He settled for doing what the faeries told him to.