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“Am I sick?” the woman asked. “Can you heal me?”
“You’re not sick,” I said. “But also, you are. Sort of.”
“What?” She looked to Isolde, who shrugged, clearly just as confused.
“I never would have noticed it,” I said to Hayes, once again impressed by his skill.
“That’s because you didn’t know to look. It isn’t something our power picks up instinctively like a wound or damaged organ. But I’ve seen it once before with a different illness.”
“What is it?” Isolde asked.
“The disease is there inside her,” I said. “It’s just not making her sick.”
“We call it being a carrier,” Hayes said. “Some diseases are more prone to the issue than others. I hadn’t even considered it for this epidemic, given how many in town are sick, so it’s a good thing you discovered it early. If we heal only the sick and leave the carriers, then we’ll just see constant reinfections. We’ll need to heal everyone—symptomatic or not—before this will be over.”
“There can’t be many carriers in town, though,” I said. “Almost everyone is sick.”
“Hmmm…And you’re saying five adults in this one family are all carriers?” Hayes let the woman go and stared at the far wall while he thought. “Is it something special about them, then? Something passed on by blood?”
“They’re not all related, though,” I said. “There were three married couples.”
Hayes ran a hand along his jaw. “I’ll have to examine the others to be sure they’re carriers too, but if they are, then it must be environmental. Something they’ve consumed or been exposed to has protected them from symptoms.”
“If we could find out what it is…” I said excitedly.
He nodded. “If it was something that could be replicated, it might be a big help in getting this epidemic under control. We’ll still want to eradicate the disease from the population completely, but it would be helpful to be able to do it more slowly, without worrying about more and more people reaching a dangerous level of illness.”
“I suppose you’d be looking for something Nina wasn’t exposed to,” the matriarch said consideringly. “I’ll have a think and talk to my family and daughter-in-law. Between us, we should be able to come up with a list of possibilities.”
“Thank you,” Hayes said.
“I can lead the investigation,” Nik said suddenly from behind me. “There’s a good chance it’s something they ate, so it makes sense to have a plants mage in charge. I’ll probably need assistance from a healer at some point, though.”
“I’ll manage assigning you one,” Amara said. “Costas and I are about to head out to cleanse the river, but once that’s finished, my ability won’t be of use to anyone, so I can take on a management role. You’ll be the one making the overall decisions, of course, Hayes, but with the shortage of healers, you won’t have the energy for purely administrative matters.”
“Thank you, Amara,” he said, with a speaking look.
She smiled back, a note of tenderness in her eyes that made me look rapidly between them.
“I know you healers well enough to know you’ll need someone to remind you about taking regular rests,” she said. “I’ll oversee that and make sure no one is working themselves dangerously hard—and while you’re each having a turn resting your ability, you can help out with searching the forest.”
“We’re very fortunate your boat turned up when it did,” Isolde said. “The island would have been in trouble without you.”
“We’re not out of trouble yet,” Hayes said grimly. “But I’m starting to think we have a chance.”
ChapterNine
The following days passed in a blur, day and night blending together as I slept when instructed and woke when told. Every waking moment was full of healing as I trailed either Hayes or Clay, learning how to better heal this particular strain and then immediately implementing everything I learned.
Two full weeks had passed before I once again had the chance to stand on the back porch of the manor and admire the dawn light over the mountain. And, just like the last time, Ida’s voice calling my name interrupted me. I waited, letting her come to me as I enjoyed a final moment of peace.
As soon as she appeared, she handed me a piece of paper, and I scanned it quickly before giving another sigh. The list was still so long.
“I’ll leave immediately,” I told her, but she stopped me with a hand on my arm, her face concerned.
“Have you eaten?” she asked. “We don’t want a repeat of last week.”
I flushed at the reminder. The first few days had been chaotic as we scrambled to first identify and then harvest and distribute the plant which had protected Nina’s family—the one she had hated and refused to eat. When I had collapsed halfway through my rounds, everyone had panicked, thinking I had driven myself past my limits. Most people had been relieved when they learned I had simply forgotten to eat for almost twenty-four hours—too caught up in my work to take the time for basic self-care. But Amara and Ida had both had stern words for me.
