The Forever Blaze [3]

C H A P T E R - 9

"What does red mean?" Sophie asked, not sure if she should scream or flail or run to the nearest bathroom and wash her hands with an entire bar of soap.

"It means you need to get to the Healing Center. Does Elwin keep piquatine on hand?"

"I don't even know what that is."

Lady Cadence sprinkled the silver powder on her own hands and rubbed it in. "It's an acid, second in strength only to alkahest, so it should be strong enough to remove aromark. Honestly—have you learned nothing in alchemy?"

Alchemy had been Sophie's worst subject—by far—and she'd barely managed a passing grade. But she did remember that alkahest was the universal solvent, able to dissolve anything.

Wood.

Metal.

Flesh.

"What's aromark?" she asked, more than a little afraid of the answer.

Lady Cadence held her nonglowing hands up to sniff them. "Something I'm very thankful not to have on me. It won't hurt you. Not by itself, at least," she added when she noticed the way Sophie had started to tremble. "But you must get rid of it—quickly. Did anyone else handle the device besides you?"

"Alden, Mer and Keefe. And Jurek at the Sanctuary. And maybe some of the Councillors. Plus it was tangled in Silveny's tail, so I'm sure it touched her."

Lady Cadence rubbed her temples. "They'll all have to get tested." She handed Sophie the vial of powder. "Have them sprinkle this on their skin. Anywhere that glows red has to be purged. And if you need more, let me know. I have plenty of reveldust with my supplies."

"Reveldust?" Sophie repeated, trying not to think about the word "purged."

"It's a special type of spore that reacts to various ogre enzymes. It doesn't get rid of them. But it'll let you know they're there."

Sophie studied her glowing hands. "How come Alden and Sandor didn't know about this stuff?"

"Because they never asked. And most of the reports I sent the Council seemed to vanish into some sort of void, never to be mentioned again. I sent them all kinds of information about what I discovered of the true nature of ogre technology. For instance." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a necklace with a round silver pendant. "This is a Markchain. King Dimitar, the ogres' supreme leader, gave it to me when he finally granted my residency in their capital—which was no easy feat, I can assure you. He told me I had to wear it at all times if I wanted to remain safe, and for years I thought it was a gadget, like the registry pendants we wear. But I was wrong."

She rubbed her finger along the edge of the sphere and held out her hand. After a few seconds, her fingertip glowed green.

"That's the essenseal reacting with the reveldust still on my hands," she explained.

Sophie shook her head, struggling to keep all the weird names straight. "What does that have to do with aromark?"

"Because they're both enzymes. That's the ogres' true brilliance. Their technology is actually quite simplistic. But their biochemistry! I had no idea until I knocked over a vat of reveldust while I was working, and walked through the cloud it created. My skin glowed bright green everywhere my pendant had touched me, and I realized that the Markchain is actually an ecosystem. A tiny, self-sustaining world of microorganisms."

She dangled the silver pendant in front of Sophie's face, pointing to the nearly microscopic black holes that covered the outside like tiny pinpricks. "Essenseal is an enzyme secreted by the colony of microorganisms living inside this sphere. As elves we can't see the enzyme, smell it, or taste it without reveldust. But the ogres can. And if they don't detect it on someone walking through their city, they know they're dealing with an intruder."