The Cleansing (Book One: The Folara Chronicles)

052: Galantyne

Korlon stepped out of Taan's chambers and grasped Galantyne's shoulder. "Are you sure he should be going?"

Galantyne's eyes traveled to the closed portal between them and his Father. "He is still the King. These are desperate times; we have no choice but to follow this course."

"I shouldn't have sprung the news about your mother in that manner." Korlon followed Galantyne to the shuttle entrances from the King's quarters.

Galantyne nodded as if the words had gone in one ear and out the other. He approached the shuttle. "Korlon. You must find Kara. Make her your priority. I don't care what it takes. Find her!"

Korlon nodded twice, and then boarded his shuttle.

Galantyne wasted not one second watching Korlon leave but headed down another hallway, dashing through doorways and pushing people out of his way. When he reached the emergency rooms he was shocked to see medical people running from room to room and the quarantine bells ringing non-stop. He grabbed a nearby medic and spun her around. "What is going on?"

The girl was inexperienced, her eyes were red. "Oh, my Lord Galantyne! No! You cannot come in here! Please leave!" 

"What the--?" Galantyne took three steps and then pulled back the curtain separating him from a room full of healers. What he saw made his stomach clench. He leaped to his son's side and would have fallen on his prone body, but he was caught by three medics grabbing him and forcing him away from the lifeless body before him. Someone forced a hazard helmet over his face.

"No!" he yelled. "NO! What has happened here?! Tell me now!"

"He's dead, sire!" One of the healers yelled, as he pushed against them without heed.

Galantyne cried his son's name over and over, his eyes streaming tears, and then gasping for air, he jerked away from the healers and turned his back on the awful sight. "How did this happen so fast?"

He slumped against the wall, his shoulders quaking with disbelief. He had just passed the boys running out of Taan's offices for their Etrusian escapades. A huge man dressed in full hazard suit grabbed his arm and pushed him roughly toward the farthest doors.

"Get out Galantyne! You can't do anything to help anyone here. Get out now!"

Galantyne slammed his fist into the wall behind him. A framed certificate of authenticity fell off, and the sliding glass of a window rattled but didn't break. All he wanted to do was make it break, shatter in a million pieces just like his heart was. He slammed his fist again and then whirled back around to face the man who was standing there witnessing his grief.

"Is it plague? Is it plague?" 

The man held Galantyne at bay nodding in horror at his own confirmation. Galantyne grabbed his head as if it were about to burst. A thousand regrets flashed through his mind before his warrior training came to his rescue, even then, the pain of losing a son, possibly two...

"Where is Lailoken?"

"They are trying to save his life." The assurance was like a brand of terror. "But Sire, you cannot see him. You cannot touch him. You must leave. Leave before you are a carrier, or worse. Leave!"

"Save his life, Healer! At all costs. He may be the future King, save his life!" Then he turned and ran out of the hallway and toward the closest shuttle bay.

*******

Evian sat against the wall, as the doctors and nurses hastily rushed about, pressing themselves into hazard suits, and lifting the bodies of the boys who had collapsed. They hadn't even made it back to the docks! First Faherdin had fallen, his face flushed and blood squeezing out of his eyes. His veins stuck out on his arms, and sweat poured off him in front of Evian's eyes. He'd grabbed for Lailoken as he too began to fall and had screamed for help.