"No, they won't." I was trying to sooth the old woman as I wiped her face. She'd woken,drenched in sweat, the heat and stink radiating off her body in waves. I'd added rose oil to thewater, and it seemed to help with the smell. Her weak eyes were wide with fear, and sheclutched at me with what strength she had left as I bathed her face and chest. "Can you tell mewhat happened here?" She squinted up at me, confused. "Who are you?" I decided to keep myexplanations simple for now. "Lara, Master Healer, trained by Eln of Water's Fall."
Isdra entered, hair damp, but fully dressed, carrying more water. The old woman tensed,sucking in a breath. "That's a Firelander!"
"It is, but she will not harm you. She is my friend." I tried to block her vision with my body.
"Who are you? What happened here?"
"Rahel, Healer, trained by Thrace of Lake's End." Ra-hel answered me almost absently asshe tried to see what Isdra was doing.
"What happened here, Rahel?" I repeated.
Her eyes moved back to lock on my face. "It's changed, the Sweat. Too fast, too fast!"
"Tell me."
"Three days ago, two strangers were found on the main road, ill and feverish."
Three days? These people had all sickened and died in the last three days? My throat wentdry.
Rahel grasped at my arms, her gaze fixed on my face. "We had no warning, no time to act.
There's those that left for the city two days past, but all we could do was close the gates andpray to the Goddess. My fault, all my fault that they died…" Her voice rose in a shriek,waking the baby who started to cry. Isdra moved to pick her up, and soothe her.
The babe's cry seemed to clear some of Rahel's confusion. "Whose baby is that?"
"We don't know. We found her next to her dead mother."
"How old?"
I rinsed my cloth out in the cool water. "Some six months is my guess."
Rahel lay back against the pillows and stared unseeing at the ceiling. She drew in a longshuddering breath.
"Meara's get, then. So Meara's dead." Her eyes filled with tears. "I birthed her with thesetwo hands. My babies, all my babies. I tried so hard." Her voice trailed off in sobs.
I wiped her face with soft strokes. "Tell me about the illness, Rahel. I must know."
"First the sweat, where water pours from the body in rivers. Then the madness, a delirium likeI have never seen. The soul raves and rants with unseeing eyes and horrible anger." Sheclosed her eyes, and took a deep breath, as if reciting a lesson she'd forced herself tomemorize. "Then a sleep so deep that they respond to nothing, not pain nor noise. Deep, deep,past any hope or will to live. They are just…" She opened her eyes, and clutched at my arm.
"They all died. I tried everything I knew, but they all—"
"Hush now, all will be well." I assured her. "A good broth, a strong dose of fever's foe and youwill be—"
"Fool girl," she snapped. "Trained of Eln? Have you not heard what I said? Tried them all,there's no remedy, no cure, they just fall over. There's only cold, cold death." She cried out,sobbing as through her heart would break. "I failed them all. My babies…" Her fingers pulledweakly at the blankets.
"Fever's foe—"
"Tried it."
"Dittany."
"Tried that."
"Watermint."
"Tried that, too." Anger flashed over her face, but she was too weak to hold the glare. "Foolgirl, tried them all, but there's no remedy, no cure. There's only cold and the grave." She put ahand to her forehead. "It's come for me, death has, and it's welcome. All my babes, and theirbabes…" She started to wail, sobbing out her despair.
Isdra was trying to feed the babe, and comfort it at the same time. Epor stuck his head in.
