Riley answered, “No, she wouldn’t let me near her. She warned me away. And she told me about—“ Riley turned back to her mother. “A plague in Kisten. Mother, have you heard anything about that?”
“The wood is full of mad women,” Her mother took another bite of the fish from her plate before continuing. “And you should know better than to worry. Kisten is leagues away from here.”
A ruddy Guild Master to her right spoke, his beard spitting bits of food from his shaking jowls. “We had heard… I mean, I don’t import anything from Kisten myself. But I had heard.” He picked up an ornate bottle from the table and pointed at the greasy man seated across from him. “Don’t you have a caravan out of there?”
She knew all the Guild Masters by sight and deed. Her mother had paraded her in front of them for years. The one across the table from the fat one used to stroke her back when she was younger. He stopped that when Riley’s combat training had put a hardness to her muscles and eyes. She tried not to remember their names.
“The last one, a month back, never returned. I had it pegged as bandits on the report.” She could feel his eyes crawling up and down her torn blouse as he said, “Honestly, there is very little profit out of that route. One hears rumors, late at night. Ghastly stuff. Something about boils, rashes.” Riley glared at him.
The fat man rubbed his cheek. “Well, they are unhygienic out there. Half of them are Nomads. No sense of civility.”
Gavin was whispering to the Guild Master by the entryway. Riley had a sense of her brother preventing the flight she had spurred.
Riley thought he looked pompous in his burgundy ascot, then realized he was hiding the wound she had left on his throat in training. Her stomach twisted at the thought, but it may have just been at the stench of spiced fish mingling with cigar smoke.
Her brother turned to her from the Guild Master and said, “Riley, you look terrible, there are leaves in your hair and dirt on your blouse! Go back to your rooms.” Gavin was waving his hands at her like he wanted to wash her away. He turned back to the Guild Master and said, “We can still salvage this meal, the next course is duck à l’orange.”
The tall man hissed, “We cannot be certain she did not touch her, or anything the woman may have touched! That is how disease spreads.”
“Take your seats.” Her mother’s voice cut across the room like velvet thunder.
The voice of commanding dogs.
“Please, elucidate.” Mother dabbed her lipstick with her napkin and set it in her lap.
The man made no move toward his chair, but his shoulders slumped, as though he was settling. He stared at the banners on the wall and said, “I was going to tell you in private, Lady Llanarth. It is only a rumor, after all.” He looked at Riley with distaste. “Though I now have one more anecdote of corroboration. I do not want to put ideas into your daughter’s mind until we have heard her story in its entire.” He looked at Riley out of the corner of his bird eye.
“I was in my rooms, nursing my shoulder and my leg.” She shot Gavin a look. “From training earlier. You had me dress for dinner, but I went riding.”
Gavin snorted and Mother scowled, but Riley continued, “I rode up Commerce Road and took a trail to a clearing.” She was struggling to put the details together, all she could think about was the woman’s face, her dying eyes. “I thought she was a corpse, polluting the spring, but then she spoke to me.”
Riley took a shuddering breath. “She said she was unclean. She was screaming not to touch her, not to approach.”
“I tried to give her water, but she wouldn’t let me. I told her I would ride for help, but before I could get to Sugarsnap, she started talking. Ranting. She said she was from Kisten City, and that everyone there had come down with a rash.“
The red-faced Guild Master interrupted her, “Probably shit in the well. I told you, no hygiene.” He swung the decanter and took a swig.
Riley went on, “She said it was like the whole city was crying together. Their eyes wept constantly. They fell feverish, sweating, crying and scratching. She said the village medicine woman tried everything but nothing stopped the itching. The skin would tear.”
Riley looked up at the sound of Cora crying. Her friend looked like she belonged here. Did the right things, looked the right way. Crying instead of commanding.
Riley squared her shoulders and continued. “The screaming came next. People were ranting, running from the medicine, running from their families. None of it made any sense.”
“The woman said that after the fear drove people out of their homes, they started acting possessed. They couldn’t feel anything but the itching. They couldn’t feel their own fingernails digging into their skin. The fear became madness, and no words would come anymore.” Riley snatched her mother’s water goblet and took a drink; her voice was growing hoarse.
“Just animal screams. She fled as soon as the rash appeared on her own skin and made her way to alert the king. She must have gotten lost. I waited, listening to her story. If I had left, no one ever would have heard.” Riley finished softly, but her words carried, echoing off their wide eyes.
Cora whispered, “I have family in Kisten. It’s right next to Terndowns. Our castle is just across the bridge.” Her friend’s green eyes shone and her skin was ashy.
The tall Guild Master took a step into the doorway. “I had only heard of the rash and the fever.”
Cora’s voice cracked. “Has it reached Terndowns? Is my mother safe?”
“Crumpet,” the Guild Master next to Cora said, a hand reaching for her shoulder. She flinched at his touch. “For what it’s worth, I had a shipment of furniture in from Terndowns a fortnight back. No word of anything unusual.” The man put his napkin up to her face. She snatched it out of his hand.
“In light of this information, we shall call an early end to this meal.” Her mother waved her hand to the servants. “Gentlemen, your quarters are prepared.”
The man at the door had a hint of panic in his voice. “She says she didn’t touch the woman, but she needs to scrub herself.”
Riley gave the man an appraising look. His clothes were stylish, but they seemed like armor to shield himself from society. With his false confidence broken, he was just a frail old man. “I would never have thought of that,” she replied, pulling a stick from her hair.
The butler led the men out of the room.
Mother sighed and said, “Before you run off to bathe, I would like you to recount your story to your father.” She pointed at Riley’s best friend, who stood in the serving white uniform. “Lisandra, please gather the Duke.”
Riley sat at her empty place setting, elbows on the table. She propped her tired head on her hands. Gavin stared at her from the foot of the table, across Cora. Riley stared back.
Cora quietly wept between them until Riley snapped at him, “What are you looking at?”
“Why did you leave your corset on to go riding? You look like a jester,” Gavin muttered.
Riley glared. “You look like a fop and a lapdog.”
Cora waved to them both and sobbed, “How can you be squabbling now? There are real problems.”
Father entered through the servant’s door wearing a silk dressing gown over his broad shoulders. His brows were knit as he scanned the room with his military glare, before they landed on Mother. His eyes softened and he kissed her gently on the forehead. “What is wrong, my love?”
Mother looked up at him. “Your daughter has a story to tell you.”
Riley relived the horror. The woman’s mad stare and bloody face danced in her mind, and she could feel her eyes glazing over.
“I’ve heard of this.” Even in his dressing gown, Father looked regal. “During the war. The Nomad prisoners would threaten the soldiers with the screaming sickness. They said it was a curse from the Wind. Never had it pan out for them, but it sounds like what they were promising.” Father spoke of this the same way he did of his dogs getting milkfever. The same way he spoke of the men who died under his command. Riley couldn’t help herself smiling.
Father knows what to do, she thought.
Gavin spoke up, “So it’s a disease from the Plains? They must have known about it, and passed it down like a story. Not understanding the difference between a disease and a curse.”
Mother took another bite of her fish and declared, “It’s gone cold. Tomorrow you will close all the borders. Provide an escort for the Guild Merchants to return to Kalden. We will levy the farmers, and do accurate accounting of all of our stocks. But I think we can survive without imports for a season.”
Father took her hand, “Aveline, you’re right to want to defend our Duchy. But we must send at least one company with medical supplies. Kisten is not well-led, they won’t be able to organize. If it spreads, there will be refugees on our borders.”
Mother sniffed. “Refugees will meet the tip of a spear or the head of an arrow.”
She read her mother’s face. It was honest. Riley snatched the empty goblet from in front of her.
“The king needs to know.” Gavin stood up. “I will speak to him personally. I will travel with the Guild Masters.”
Father counted on his fingers. “We can spare one company and still protect all of our borders.” He looked up at Gavin. “I’m sure the Guild Masters can pass on that message well enough without your help.”
Mother laughed. “You know they won’t. You saw L’Marc, they are terrified of trade stopping. Gavin, if you leave—you cannot return. The borders will be closed to all.”
Riley struck the empty crystal goblet with a finger, listening for the ring. “We don’t even know if this disease is always fatal!” She threw it past her mother into the fire and shouted, “We barely know anything!” She stood up. “All we know is that the capital of Kisten got sick and an old lady ran away. Someone needs to find out what’s really going on.”
Cora said, “I have to get back to Terndowns before the borders close. I have to be there for my mother.”
Father kept staring at his fingers. “Then you can go with the company I’m sending.”
Mother breathed her words. “She will stay here. She is the sole heir to Terndowns. We cannot send her into the plague. If Lady Maribelle falls, all gods forbid, Coretta Hart must be kept safe.”
Cora sobbed at that, her face fell to the table, disappearing behind her shaking red curls.
“I’ll go.” Gavin said, “I’ll carry the message to the king.”
He must sound awfully noble in his own mind, but he just wants to make a name for himself.
She looked over at him and said, “No one cares what you do, Gavin. Do you think you can ride Father’s coattails all the way to the castle?”
As though he hadn’t heard her, he said, “I promise to return once the plague is no more.”
Riley looked to her mother, no one else in the room mattered anymore. “You are sending no one to Kisten.”
“There will be a company with medical supplies prepared to go tomorrow,” Father repeated in a voice suiting a much smaller man.
Here stands the greatest general of the War of Coalescence. If only I could have spoken to him alone.
Mother kissed his hand. “You may prepare the company, but do make sure to take stock of our medicines that can get through a season without imports.” Father’s eyes fell to the floor.
He will send no one, Riley thought. I would have been better off finding an attacking army. That’s all he knows how to deal with.
Riley stood up and laid a hand on Cora’s back. “Cora, will you help me get myself cleaned up? And Mother, may Lissie be dismissed as well?” Riley caught her friend’s eye in the line of servants. Lissie offered Riley the smallest smile.
Mother inquired, “Wouldn’t you rather the maids run a bath for you?”
Riley looked in her mother’s eyes. “Let them rest, the three of us can handle it.”