the change in their relationship. It was pathetic.
I have to get away.
As Roark held up his hand for silence, the murmurs in the room ceased. All eyes were on the king.
“I know you’re wondering why I’ve had you all called in. I’ve received some troubling reports from the Northern Marshlands.”
“Are they eating visitors again?” Pelof asked, taking notes.
“For the last fucking time, we didn’t know pig face was related to you. He was on all fours snuffling and rooting at our vegetables,” exclaimed the scruffy fellow at the table.
Pelof glared over his notebook. “He was wearing clothes.”
“And?”
Roark cleared his throat. “If we could move on to the reason why we’re here.” The men quieted. “It appears the issues plaguing the Diamond Kingdom might soon be affecting our own.”
“Which is his fancy way of saying the poison in the north is spreading,” mumbled the rough-looking fellow whose braided beard appeared to hold hints of green moss. A Marshlander, obviously from an affected area.
“As Gorin has indicated, the tainted air that was previously confined to the Diamond Kingdom appears to be expanding its reach, and the blight of its passing is sucking the life from the land.”
Sofia jumped in. “In small doses, the affected air causes plant life to wither and people to sicken. In higher concentrations, everything dies.”
That caused a murmur.
It turned Roark’s expression serious. “We have to stop the poison from spreading.”
“And how do you propose to do that?” Gunner asked.
“Build some giant fans to blow it back in,” Cam muttered, his sarcasm not staying inside his head like he intended.
“That is one of the proposals we’re looking at,” Riella declared.
To which Casey snorted. “And not a feasible one. It’s a mile-long border. Not to mention, what if the cloud decides to rise and drift over your fans?”
“Indications are that the weight of the gas forces it to plateau, meaning once it reaches a certain height, it does not rise any higher.” This came from Pelof who’d obviously been cataloguing reports.
“You’ve sent in drones to verify this?” Cam asked.
“More like tried,” Titan admitted. “Every machine sent in ends up losing contact.”
Not unheard of since the apocalypse. Signals got scrambled or lost entirely in some areas.
“But before they failed, they managed to show us that the ash fog ends about twelve feet above the ground.” Pelof again with the finer details.
“How quickly is the tainted air moving?” Riella asked.
Roark eyed Gorin. “Has it been measured?”
“Aye. Currently about a foot or two a day.”
“Slow for now, but it could start moving faster. We need to prepare.” Titan was all about the defense.
And so was Gunner. “Twelve feet high isn’t too bad. We can start with airtight walls and then move on to a full dome.”
“There’s not enough time,” Casey remarked.
“Maybe not for the outer villages but it’s a possible option for those far enough that they have a reasonable chance of sealing themselves,” Gunner argued.
“Might as well shoot me now,” Gorin snapped. “We aren’t meant to live in bubbles.”
“And what about food?” Riella added.
Gunner wasn’t daunted. “We set aside plots inside for crops.”
“Ahem,” Pelof said, clearing his throat. “I should mention we don’t have the materials needed to construct that kind of protection. We’d have to order from Port City, and even then, it might take time before we get a delivery. Not to mention cost.”
Roark volunteered to aid the effort by throwing money at it, but they also needed to warn the citizens, especially those in the remote hamlets, which then involved a discussion on how to safeguard the water supplies, preserve the wild crops, and keep the meat they relied on untainted.
Cam had mostly tuned out the boring details until they finally returned to the biggest problem after survival.
“Is there a way to stop it?” Cam was kind of surprised to realize he was the one who blurted the question. But really, all this preparation would be unnecessary if they found the source of the poison and shut it down.
Predictably, his sister had a sarcastic remark. “Because it’s probably got a faucet we can turn on and off.”
“How do you know it doesn’t?” he hotly retorted. “It’s coming from somewhere, obviously.”
“Your brother has a point,” Roark stated, taking his side. “Up until twenty years ago, the Diamond Kingdom was a thriving place, if rather cold. What happened to change it?”
“Has anyone gone in to look?” Gunner asked. Being a newcomer like Cam, they were still catching up on some of the history.
“Plenty have gone in. None returned,” the archivist declared.