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As soon as my hand was immersed in the river’s current, other thoughts fell away. I couldn’t sense the water, exactly, but when I pushed out my power, searching for life, it slid eagerly and quickly through the water, latching on to the various river dwelling creatures with ease. I focused harder, looking for a different sort of life.
“Oh!” My exclamation made the rest of them crowd in close, peering over my shoulder as if my discovery might be visible.
“Did you sense something?” Amara asked.
“It’s faint, but it’s definitely there.” I couldn’t help sounding excited. “And it felt similar to the disease in the bodies of the townsfolk. I’d be surprised if such faint traces could make someone ill, but maybe it gets stronger downstream?”
“The two of you can put your hand in a river and sense traces of disease?” Ida looked at the two of us with hints of awe in her expression.
I was growing used to people looking at Amara like that, but I felt uncomfortable being viewed the same way.
“I’m sure any healing cross elements or elements cross healing mage could do it,” I said.
“The important thing is that we find and eliminate the continuing source of infection,” Amara said. “This river seems like it could be the answer, but we need to find out how the infection got from this river to the other one.”
“Why don’t we follow it south?” Ida suggested. “We can track its route as well as anything it comes into contact with.”
Amara glanced at Costas before nodding. “That sounds sensible.”
We quickly formed ourselves into a single file line with Amara at our head. She led us along the edge of the river for several minutes before holding up a hand to signal a stop. I put Ember down and peered around Costas and Ida, trying to see what Amara was doing.
Kneeling again, she once more put her hand into the flow of the river. This time she took even longer to rise, her eyes narrowing. When she said nothing, Costas copied her movements, also making contact with the water.
Almost as soon as he did so, his eyebrows shot up.
“You can feel the branch?” Amara asked.
“Of course. But where did it come from? That definitely didn’t used to be there. I swum this river many times as a boy.”
The melancholy tone of the final sentence brought to mind the image of an ostracized boy with an elements seed, seeking comfort in the water since he was unwanted within his healer family.
“Is it possible this new branch joins with the town’s river?” Amara asked. “It seems to be heading in the right direction.”
“Entirely possible.” Costas looked up at Ida. “I apologize. It seems you were right. I shouldn’t have dismissed what you were saying so readily. Something has changed since I was last in this part of the island.”
“If this branch has connected the two rivers only recently, that seems like further evidence this is the source of infection,” Ida said. “And it might explain why I’m still healthy as well. I didn’t like to say anything to my hosts, but when we first arrived, I found the taste of the town’s water unpleasant. I fell into the habit of boiling a pot for myself and letting it cool since I found it produced a more familiar taste.”
“It must be the water source causing the problem,” I said. “Everything fits. It even explains why no one at the manor is sick since we use a well on the grounds rather than traipsing across town to the river.”
Amara stood, shaking water from her hand. “We’ll follow the branch when it appears and confirm that it joins the town’s river. But I now feel confident about what we’ll find.”
We resumed walking, but this time chatter passed up and down our line.
“How could a new branch suddenly form out of nowhere?” I asked.
“It happens more often than you might think,” Amara said.
“Is it also normal for a new branch to carry a new disease with it?” Nik sounded skeptical.
“No. That bit isn’t normal at all.” Amara glanced back at us. “A new branch explains how the infected water is reaching the townsfolk en masse, but it doesn’t tell us any more about the actual source of infection. How did it get into the water in the first place?”
“Between us all, I’m sure we’ll find the source,” Ida said with conviction.
I glanced back at Nik, but his face was carefully blank, giving no indication of what he thought of our chances. But when his eyes caught on mine, I glimpsed a fire raging beneath his calm exterior.
I whipped my eyes back to the front again. I was fairly certain that particular blaze had nothing to do with the epidemic or the town, and it was something I couldn’t deal with right now.
But now that I’d glimpsed it, I could feel the warmth of his gaze on my back, making it hard to concentrate. When Ida stopped in front of me, I walked straight into her back, nearly sending us both tumbling into the river. We would have gone over if not for the cushion of air that pushed back against our momentum, righting us both. I threw a thankful look at Amara who was watching me with amused forbearance.
