Chapter 25
On Board the Spirit of Taz
After three days of rough seas, The Spirit of Taz headed for land. The ship anchored before sunrise and only Rabar and his oarsman had gone ashore. By the time the Fernlanders woke up Rabar had been gone several hours. After breakfast Electra and her fellow Fernlanders stood on the ship's deck watching for his return. From the ship the port seemed little more than a smattering of run down buildings at the water's edge. A road led out from the port and around a hill. They assumed Rabar had taken this road and all eyes were riveted on the point where the road disappeared around the curve of the hill.
"There comes someone," Muller shouted.
A cart pulled by a horse came around the hillside. The cart was full of people.
"I doubt that's Rabar," Avor said. "Where would he get a cart?"
The cart continued on to the shore's edge where the people got out. Some had to be carried out and loaded into the shore boat.
Muller spat into the water. "I knew it. More women and children."
It did indeed appear to be women in dresses and small people who were likely children. The two men were most likely Rabar and the oarsman.
They continued to watch as the shore boat drew near. As they came very close to the boat, Electra whispered, "Oh no."
Muller heard. "What do you mean, oh, no?"
"Keep a distance," Electra warned. "Some of them may be contagious."
Muller pulled at his hair and muttered a curse. He turned to Electra. "You can not go near them yourself if they are contagious. Your father would not allow it and I am here to speak for him."
"Were my father here I would tell him the same—it is my duty."
Tandor looked frightened. "What disease do they carry?"
Electra watched as Rabar climbed up the rope ladder. "We will wait for Rabar's instructions."
Rabar climbed over the ship's rail and caught his breath.
"Yes, good. You are staying a distance away. Some of our guests have what you call the scarlet fever. It is highly contagious. We will keep them separated from those who are not infected. It might be best if you kept to your cabins."
Electra could see the other Fernlanders would not leave unless she left first. Saying nothing she left for her cabin and the others followed suit.
Tandor followed her to her cabin. "Will you put yourself in danger to care for them?"
"I have seen cases of scarlet fever before. I will take precautions, but yes, I must care for them."
Tandor decided it was useless to argue and went to his place in the crew's quarters.
Electra waited a few minutes, then went back up to the deck. She got there just in time to see Rabar and the oarsman leave again in the shore boat. She realized they must be going back for more people. She was glad Muller was not here to see it.
With Rabar gone and unable to forbid Electra from treating the sick, she was free to do as she wished. She went down to find where the new arrivals had been housed.
She found them in the cargo hold, spread out on blankets.
"Does anyone speak any English?" she asked.
"I know little English." A boy about twelve years old sat cross-legged on his blanket.
His mother said something to him in the Taz language and then coughed.
"She says, I mean, she asks, what you say." The boy leaned closer to Electra. "She is very sick."
Electra could see that the red rash that accompanies scarlet fever had spread over her body.
"Tell your mother I am Rabar's helper. I will get her something to make her rash less itchy." Electra mimed scratching her chest to show what 'itchy' meant.
The boy nodded and spoke to his mother.
The woman pushed herself up on one elbow and stared at Electra with feverish eyes. She whispered something.
The boy translated. "She says thank you."
Electra kept the ship's cook busy that day making broth and mashed vegetables—something to sooth her patients' ravaged throats and tongues. She made plasters of herbs to sooth their rashes and infusions to bring down their fevers. The shore boat returned over and over until more than a hundred women and children filled the ship's cargo hold.
Rabar's wife and Haddad's wife and daughter came to help but Electra turned them away. "The others are too contagious," she argued. "We do not need more sick people."
"But let me be in your place," Haddad's wife, Atefa insisted.
"No. It is too late for me. I have already been exposed. You need to take care of yourselves. You are weak and could easily become infected. Go back and take care of your children."
Atefa shook her head. "Is not right."
"I am a physician," Electra insisted. "This is my work."
Atefa raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You are physician?"
Electra was surprised herself. At some point she would be. Why not now? She looked at Atefa. "Yes, I am. I must get back to my patients."
By the time Rabar joined her, she was adamant.
Rabar was upset by her presence in the cargo hold. "But you were not to expose yourself. I will not allow you to put yourself in danger."
Electra laughed. "What kind of physician keeps herself away from sick people?"
Rabar allowed himself a small smile, then he was all business. "Tell me what you have done so far."
Rabar was pleased with Electra's course of treatment.
"I am not in favor of bleeding such patients. I know is is the normal course of treatment but I believe it leaves the patient in a weakened state. I prefer the willow bark infusion with warm green tea."
Electra and Rabar took turns watching their patients through the night. By morning only one young child had been lost to the disease. The child was wrapped and buried at sea with Electra, Rabar and the crew to witness the burial and say a few words.
"I believe all the others are improving," Electra said.
"Yes, but many were lost before we arrived." Rabar hung his head. "It will be news I dread to deliver to the men when we return to Fernland."
"Was all of the city affected?" Electra asked.
Rabar's face flushed red and Electra feared he might be coming down with the fever himself. Then she saw the expression for what it was—anger.
"The people we trusted with our wives and children... I suppose when they heard Taz had been taken by the Barburians they assumed we would not be coming back to reclaim our families. They treated them like slaves—worse even... They..."
Electra saw that Rabar could not go on. Nor did she want him to explain. "It is all right. They are safe now. They are all safe."
Rabar's eyes glistened with unshed tears. He shook his head, still unable to express his thoughts.
Electra continued to fill the awful silence. "I know there will be problems. We must keep them hidden while we are in Taz, since most speak only the Taz language. Then we must deal with King Geoffrey. But one step at a time. We have worries enough for today."
Rabar smiled through his grief. "Are you sure you are a physician and not a philosopher?"
Rabar and Electra took their meals in their cabins in case they had become carriers of the disease. With everyone eating alone in their cabins, no news was exchanged among the passengers.
They reached the port of Taz a few days later and only a handful of people ventured out to the deck to watch as the beautiful white city came into view.
Avor stood at the railing, barely containing his excitement. Electra walked over to join him and saw his eyes sweep her face for any signs of rash.
"I believe I must be immune," she said, looking out at the city. "It is a lovely city. How sad it must be for the people who built it."
"It is winner takes all when it comes to war," Avor said. "Are you going ashore in the first boat?"
"I suppose I had best do so. It would not do for Bataar to come out to the ship to welcome us to Taz."
As s
oon as the anchor caught, the first shore boat was lowered and Avor and Electra were rowed to the beach of the beautiful white marble city.
Princess Electra Book 3 Gypsy Music Page 25
