… give it to you. I’m sorry, it doesn’t work like that.’ She sounded genuinely regretful. ‘I know it took courage to come here. It was a noble thing to do, but—’
‘I don’t understand.’ Morrigan said quietly. ‘You said you have a cure.’
Maud nodded. ‘We do.’
‘But you don’t want to share it.’
‘It’s not a question of what I want.’
‘Why, then?’ She felt anger and confusion bubbling up inside her. ‘Why can’t you help us? Just because the Wintersea Republic and the Free State are supposed to be enemies? That’s not real life, that’s not even real people, it’s just governments.’
‘It’s not that simple.’
‘It is that simple!’ Morrigan insisted. ‘Wunimals are turning into unnimals. People are dying. It’s always simple when people are dying, you either save them or you don’t!’
‘Am I suddenly the prime minister of the Free State? I don’t wish to sound callous but, politically speaking, your epidemic isn’t our problem.’
‘Politically speaking, it is your problem! It came from your Republic, didn’t it?’
Maud leaned back in her chair and surveyed her with cool surprise.
‘Why would you believe such a thing?’ she asked in a level voice. ‘All borders between the Republic and the Free State are closed. How could this disease have entered one from the other?’
Morrigan stared at her. Was it possible that President Wintersea didn’t realise how porous her own borders were? That people were smuggling Wunimals and humans across them on a regular basis?
She couldn’t be that uninformed.
‘I just meant … nobody’s ever heard of this disease in the Free State,’ Morrigan mumbled, tiptoeing herself backwards out of what felt like a trap, ‘but you said you’ve had it here in the Republic before. I thought maybe that meant … it could have come from here. I guess that was stupid, sorry.’
The ‘sorry’ was deliberate this time. Morrigan chose her words carefully, making herself small and unthreatening, a mouse before a lioness.
Maud steepled her fingers together and held them to her lips, looking thoughtful. ‘I’m not unsympathetic, Morrigan. It’s a terrible and dangerous disease, but a decision like this – to offer aid to a state that considers itself our enemy – must be made by my entire government, and I’m afraid the Wintersea Party is something of a dragon. A big, weighty old beast that can be difficult to reason with and impossible to steer. They’ll never agree to help the Free State without some sort of quid pro quo. A deal,’ she clarified, noting Morrigan’s look of confusion.
‘But they’re your party,’ Morrigan pointed out. ‘Aren’t you the one with the power?’
Maud stiffened slightly and cast her a wary, calculating look.
Morrigan rushed on, worried she’d said something rude. ‘I just mean … well, you’re the president, after all. Shouldn’t they do what you say?’
‘You’d think so, wouldn’t you?’ said Maud, and the wary look melted away with a perplexed chuckle. ‘But no, I’m afraid the political world doesn’t quite work that way. Not here or anywhere else – the Wintersea Party might be stuck in its ways, but I can assure you, your own government isn’t much better.
‘For more than one hundred years the Republic and the Free State have been at an impasse, with little communication and no cooperation in either direction. Even if I could persuade my party to do the right thing – and I’m not saying I won’t try – there’s no guarantee Steed and his government would come to the table. Once upon a time, when I was a young idealist …’ She paused to raise one sardonic eyebrow in Morrigan’s direction. ‘… I hoped to change things. I’ve been trying for years to seek an audience with Steed. Even so-called enemy nations should have an open dialogue, but he’s been utterly unwilling to engage. I’m afraid I can’t imagine the Hollowpox has changed his attitude.’
Morrigan felt a tiny glimmer of hope.
‘What if I could persuade him to talk to you?’
‘Morrigan.’ Maud gave her a kindly, sympathetic look, as if she’d just said something incredibly silly. ‘You are an impressive girl. It was brave and clever and humble of you to travel all this way on the Gossamer Line, to stand alone before the leader of an enemy nation and ask her for help. But even all of that – even being a Wundersmith – doesn’t mean you have the power to change a stubborn man’s mind. Believe me.’
‘I don’t mean me personally,’ Morrigan clarified. She was thinking of the Elders, and of Jupiter, and of Holliday and the