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Drefan missed a step.
Beth was fevered, but not gravely so. She had a wet cough, and complained that her head hurt. Drefan all but ignored her. He watched Lily, in that analytical way of his, as she sat in her blankets, carrying on an earnest conversation with her rag doll.
The grandmother fussed with her collar and watched from the doorway as Hattie fussed with Beth’s covers. The aunt mopped Beth’s brow with a wet cloth while Nadine spoke words of comfort to the girl. Nadine really did have a soothing, kind way about her. She selected herbs from leather pouches in her bag and wrapped them up in several cloth packets, giving the intent, nodding mother instructions.
Richard and Kahlan moved with Drefan over to the younger girl. Kahlan squatted down and talked to her, telling her what a lovely doll she had, so as to keep her from being frightened by Richard and Drefan. Lily cast worried looks in their direction as she chattered with Kahlan. Kahlan hugged an arm around Richard’s waist to show Lily that he wasn’t anyone to be afraid of. Richard made himself smile.
“Lily,” Drefan said with forced cheerfulness, “could you show me your doll’s sores?”
Lily held the doll upside down and pointed out spots on the inside of the doll’s thighs.
“She has ouches here, and here, and here.” Her big, round eyes turned up to Drefan.
“And do they hurt her?”
Lily nodded. “She goes ‘ouch’ when I touch them.”
“Really? Well, that’s too bad. I’ll bet she’s better, soon, though.” He squatted down so that he wasn’t towering over her, circling an arm around Kahlan’s waist and pulling her back down with him. “Lily, this is my friend, Kahlan. Her eyes aren’t so good. She can’t see the sores on your doll’s legs. Could you show Kahlan here the ones on your legs?”
Nadine was still talking to the mother about the other girl. Lily glanced in their direction.
Kahlan brushed Lily’s hair back and told her what a pretty doll she had. Lily grinned. She was fascinated by Kahlan’s long hair. Kahlan let her feel it.
“Can you show me the ouches on your legs?” Kahlan asked.
Lily hiked up her white nightdress. “Here they are, just like my doll’s ouches.”
She had several dark spots, the size of pennies, on the inside of each thigh. Richard could tell when Drefan gently touched them that they were hard as calluses. Kahlan straightened Lily’s nightdress back down and drew the blanket back over her lap as Drefan patted her cheek, telling her what a good girl she was, and that her doll’s ouches would be better by morning.
“I’m glad,” Lily said. “She doesn’t like them.”
Erling was absently planing a chair seat at the workbench. Richard could see that he wasn’t paying any attention to what he was doing, and was ruining it. He didn’t look up when they came down the stairs. At Richard’s urging, Clive had stayed upstairs with his wife and daughters.
“Do they have it?” Erling asked in a hoarse voice.
Drefan laid a comforting hand on the old man’s shoulders. “I’m afraid so.”
Erling took a shaky, crooked stroke with his plane.
“When I was young, I lived in the town of Sparlville. The plague came one summer. It took a good many people. I hoped never to see such a thing again.”
“I understand,” Drefan said in a soft voice. “I, too, have seen it visit places.”
“They’re my only granddaughters. What can we do to help them?”
“You can try to smoke the house,” Drefan offered.
Erling grunted. “We did that in Sparlville. Bought cures and preventatives, too, but people died just the same.”
“I know,” Drefan said. “I wish there was something I could do, but I’ve never heard of a sure cure. If you know of anything that you think helped when you were young, then try it. I don’t know of all the treatments, by any means. At worst, it could do no harm, and at best may help.”
Erling set the plane aside. “Some folk burned fires hot that summer, trying to drive the sickness from their blood. Some said it was because their blood was too hot already with the high summer heat and with the fever on top of that, and tried to fan their loved ones to cool their blood. Which would you advise?”
Drefan shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I just don’t know. I’ve heard of people recovering when each was tried, and I’ve heard of people dying just the same with each. Some things are out of our hands. No one can stay the Keeper’s hand when he comes.”
Erling rubbed his scruffy chin. “I’ll pray that the good spirits spare the girls.” His voice caught. “They’re too good, too innocent, for the Keeper to touch them just yet. They’ve brought untold joy to this house and family.”
Drefan returned his hand to Erling’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, master Anderson, but Lily has the tokens upon her.”
Erling gasped and gripped the bench. Drefan had been ready and caught him under his arms to keep him from falling when his knees gave out. Drefan helped him to sit on the carving horse.
Kahlan turned her face away and put it to Richard’s shoulder when Erling covered his tears with both hands. Richard felt numb.
“Grandpa,” Darby called from the steps, “what’s wrong?”
Erling straightened. “Nothing, boy. I’m just worried about your sisters, that’s all. Old men get foolish, that’s all.”
Darby eased the rest of the way down the stairs. “Yonick, I’m real sorry about Kip. If your pa needs anything, I’m sure my pa would let me leave my work and go help.”
Yonick nodded. He looked in a daze, too.
Richard squatted down before the boys. “Did either of you see anything strange at the Ja’La game?”
“Strange?” Darby asked. “Strange like what?”
Richard combed his fingers back through his hair. “I don’t know. Did you talk to any strangers?”
“Sure,” Darby said. “There were lots of people there we didn’t know. Soldiers were there watching the game. Lots of people I d
idn’t know came to congratulate us after we won.”
“Do any of them stand out in your mind? Anything odd about any of them?”
“I saw Kip talking to a man and a woman after the game,” Yonick said. “More than like they were just congratulating him. They were leaning down talking to him, showing him something.”
“Showing him something? What?”
“I’m sorry,” Yonick said, “but I didn’t see. I was too busy getting slapped on the back by soldiers.”
Richard was trying not to frighten the boy with his questions, but he had to press for answers. “What did this man and woman look like?”
“I don’t know,” Yonick said. His eyes were filling with tears at remembering his brother alive. “The man was skinny, and young. The woman was young, too, but not as young as he. She was kind of pretty, I guess. She had brown hair.” He pointed at Nadine. “Like hers, but not as thick, or as long.”
Richard glanced up at Kahlan. By the stricken look on her face, he knew she was fearing the same thing as he.
“I remember them,” Darby said. “My sisters talked to that man and woman, too.”
“But neither of you talked to them?”
“No,” Darby said. Yonick shook his head. “We were jumping around, excited that we’d won the game in front of Lord Rahl. A lot of the soldiers were congratulating us, and so were a lot of other people; I never talked to those two.”
Richard took Kahlan’s hand. “Kahlan and I have to go ask Beth and Lily a question,” he said to Drefan. “We’ll be right back.”
Pressed close together, seeking support in each other’s touch, they climbed the stairs. Richard was dreading what he might hear from the girls.
“You ask them,” Richard whispered to her. “They’re afraid of me. They’ll talk easier to you.”
“Do you think it could have been them?”
Richard didn’t need to ask who she was talking about. “I don’t know. But you told me that Jagang said he had watched the Ja’La game—through Marlin’s eyes. Sister Amelia was with Marlin. They were doing something here in Aydindril.”
Richard reassured the women that they just had a small question to ask the girls. The women busied themselves with their work while he went with Kahlan back into the bedroom. Richard doubted they were paying any more attention to their meat pies than Erling had been with the chair seat he had been planing.
