Page 30 of I Married Kayog
“What did he say?” I asked in a clipped tone, annoyed that I couldn’t read her emotions through the screen.
She narrowed her eyes at me, my reaction making her even more suspicious.
“You know that I’m not one to reveal what has been confided in me. However, you got yourself an interesting friend, if a little violent,” she replied in a neutral tone as she studied my responses.
There was no question my nan also wished she could read my own emotions right now.
“He’s not violent,” I replied firmly, shocked by my own conviction as I spoke those words.
This very morning, I’d been uncertain how I felt about the brutal display he’d put on just yesterday. But that one conversation with the priestess had completely flipped everything on its head.
“Really?” Nana Arika asked, her dubious eyebrow reflecting the disbelief in her voice.
I nodded. “I know how it looks,” I conceded. “Truth be told, I had some reservations about him. But he was in fact protecting a victim against three bullies. Clearly, he had the strength and skills to inflict grievous damage to all of them, but he didn’t. That said, I’m not calling you about that incident but to request some medical help and your word that it will not be discussed with anyone we can’t fully trust.”
This time, my nan straightened, and the slightly distant expression that screamed careful reservation faded. I never made this type of request, so she knew something serious was happening.
“Of course, sweetie. You have my word.”
“Thank you,” I said with sincere gratitude. “The reason for this request is that Kayog is suffering from some kind of rare condition. I don’t have all the details yet, except for him tellingme that the one time he consulted a Temern doctor, his life and welfare were endangered.”
My grandmother recoiled, and a troubled expression flitted over her features.
“A Temern doctor wanted to hurt him?” she insisted, her majestic wings stiff with tension.
I nodded then proceeded to recount everything that happened since meeting Kayog, including his song, everything he said while we shared breakfast, the incident with the bullies, and Isobel’s revelations.
Seeing my grandmother almost slump against the backrest of her chair as if in need of support had every single one of my senses going on high alert. Her eyes flicked from side to side as her mind raced, countless conflicting emotions pushing and shoving each other over her face. My tongue burned with the need to question her, but I didn’t want to break her concentration as she sorted out all that I had confided in her.
“How old is your friend?” she suddenly asked.
“Kayog is twenty-seven,” I replied, my back stiff with anticipation and nervousness.
She frowned and shook her head with an air of confusion.
“What?” I asked, getting aggravated. “What are you thinking?”
She shook her head again as if unable to make peace with the thoughts bubbling in her head.
“I know of only one specific situation where Temern doctors would want to kill one of us, and in fact be expected to,” she mused aloud, still seeming to struggle to reconcile whatever was going through her mind.
“Expected to?!” I exclaimed, outraged. “Whatever happened to their oath of doing no harm?”
“Like I said, there is a very unique situation that warrants it. But Edals are never that old.”
“Edals?” I echoed. “What is that? And what could possibly warrant murder?”
“Edals are Temerns who suffer from an extremely rare mutation,” Nana Arika explained carefully. “It’s a case of madness where the child is born rabid.”
My blood turned to ice. “Rabid? But how? Why?”
“They have abnormal pineal glands, which is what controls our empathic abilities,” she replied.
“And that gives them powers, like that glowing energy around Kayog’s hand?” I asked, my mind reeling.
She shook her head. “I can’t say whether they do or not. From what I read on the topic, their EEG readings are through the roof. Most of them die in the womb or are terminated the moment they’re diagnosed as Edals. The rare exceptions who make it through birth show absolutely no visible sign during gestation. Then the moment labor starts, it seems to trigger some sort of activation of the mutation within their pineal gland, and they just come into the world screaming non-stop. They claw at everything and everyone, including themselves. They have to be restrained not to severely self-harm. In most cases, they die from an aneurysm or full-on cerebral hemorrhage.”
I clasped my hands in my lap to keep them from shaking as I replayed my conversation with Kayog in my mind. When he first told me about his story, I wondered what kind of monstrous parents would just put their newborn in stasis, stuff him into an emergency pod, and ship him to a species that knew nothing of his anatomy just because they couldn’t handle his crying. Now, I couldn’t help but wonder if they had in fact sent him away to give him a chance at life and spare him from our doctors’ euthanasia.
