Peering into her satchel, she took stock of her dullanbark supply; she had only a little left. She’d need more for Da’s fever.
Aaron appeared at her side, out of breath. “I’ve got some ice from the cellar.”
The ice cellar. She forgot Da cut ice out of the nearby river every winter. He stored it in an underground cellar packed in sawdust for use throughout the year.
She hugged him. “Aaron, you’re a genius. Are there still dullan trees near here?”
He nodded.
“Good. Take a basket, a sharp knife and a torch—be careful. I need you to shave off bits of the top layer of bark to make tea for Da’s fever.”
He ran off and she turned to observe her father. The fever had progressed. Soon, he’d be vomiting. She grabbed a bowl from the kitchen and handed it to Jules, who’d remained next to her father’s side.
Jules gently touched her arm. “We’re going to need sheets or blankets for when he starts sweating.”
“I’ll get them,” her mother said from behind her.
Between the four of them, they soon had everything they needed. Natalie got her father to drink the tanyaroot and dullanbark tea, and together, she and Jules Activated it.
Then there was nothing to do but wait. Natalie sat next to her father and held his hand, his eyes closed against the pain of his headache. Jules alternately paced and unnecessarily reorganized their supplies.
“Nat,” her father whispered.
She held his hand tighter and leaned forward. “Yes, Da?”
“Is this…what they had…in Whitestrand?”
“Yes, Da,” she replied. Jules put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She reached back with her free hand to grasp his. They both let go when her father heaved to the side; she and Jules got the bowl under him just in time as he lost the contents of his stomach.
For the next several hours, Natalie did things for her father she’d done thousands of times for other people. She cleaned up his vomit. She helped change his sheets and clothes when the illness made him lose control of his bowels. She whispered comforting things to him and told him to keep fighting. She helped keep him packed with ice to keep the fever down.
In the early hours of the morning, the sweating started. Natalie and Jules changed his sheets once again and handed them to Aaron and Natalie’s mother who took them off to be washed. They were running out of sheets, Natalie worried.
“Nat,” Jules called softly from her father’s side. She went and sat next to him.
He brushed her jaw with his fingers. “How are you holding up?” he asked.
Tears pricked her eyes, but she held her chin up. “I’m doing all right. I’m determined to see him through this.”
Jules smiled at her.
She turned back to her father. In his delirium, he’d stopped recognizing her or any of the family. His incoherent mumblings filled the house, though they did seem to get better the lower they could keep the fever. Natalie put a new round of ice on. She applied the ice judiciously since, as much as he was sweating, the ice also tended to make him shiver.
Hell in a kettle, between the sweating, vomiting and diarrhea, he was losing so much fluid, Natalie thought. It’s like the tea isn’t enough.
“Jules,” she began, “what if the tea isn’t enough?”
He finished shifting one of the ice packs. “What do you mean?”
“He’s losing so much of his bodily fluids, right? What if the medicinal teas aren’t replacing what he’s lost?”
Jules sat back. “Almost like he’s a heat exhaustion patient. Or a patient who has had vomiting or diarrhea so long, they’re dehydrated.”
Natalie nodded, warming to her idea. “Exactly. What if we added honey and salt to what he drinks next?”
Jules stared at her and nodded. “I think you’re right. Dammit, we didn’t even consider dehydration in Whitestrand.” He pounded his fist on his knee.
Natalie ran to the kitchen and flew through the cupboards until she found a pot of honey. Salt, she had in her satchel. She mixed honey and salt with some tea, and together, she and Jules helped her father drink it.
Jules handed the cup to her when they were done. “We’ll have to make sure he gets a lot. He’s lost a great deal of fluids so far, and with the constant sweating he’ll continue to lose more.”
Natalie nodded. “I’ll go fix a big batch and we’ll make him sip some constantly.” In the kitchen, she found a pot and began to mix her ingredients. She smiled when her mother and Aaron came in from doing the laundry, but her smile faded when she saw her mother’s face. “Mother, are you all right?”
Mother’s face was gaunt and red. “I’m exhausted, sweetheart.” She stumbled to her husband’s side and held his hand.
Jules caught Natalie’s eye over Anna’s head, concern on his face. “Mrs. Desmond, we can make a place for you to lie down. You can’t care for your husband if you do not care for yourself.”
Mother rubbed her temples. “Perhaps I will lie down. Just for a bit.”
Natalie walked over and knelt next to her mother. “Mother. Do you have a headache?”
Tears spilled down her mother’s cheeks when she nodded.
“It’s all right, we’ll take care of you,” Natalie cupped her mother’s face with her two hands and brushed her tears away with her thumb. “Aaron, do we still have a trundle cot upstairs?” She turned and saw her brother looking petrified, one tear rolling down his own cheek. She strode over and hugged him. What a change, she thought grimly. Yesterday afternoon, sunlight shone in this room upon all four of them hugging together. Now, she and Aaron clung to each other as Da fought for his life and Mother began her fight.
“Will they die, Nat?” Aaron asked.
Natalie closed her eyes and buried her face in her brother’s hair. “Not if Jules and I have anything to say about it.”
“Will I get sick, too?”
Natalie sighed. “Well, that’s the odd thing. In Whitestrand, none of the children got sick at all. So, I think you’re safe. Come on, let’s get the cot for Mother.”
Dawn broke on the Desmond household. Coughs racked Da’s body as his lungs filled with fluid despite the tanyaroot tea. Mother made it through the worst of the digestive symptoms, her body beginning to sweat. Natalie and Jules ran themselves ragged taking care of two patients and doing all the laundry with Aaron’s help. They rejoiced that Mother received the honey and salt mixture from the beginning to help keep her hydrated and could not help but be optimistic about the difference it might make in her outcome.
Natalie observed Jules tending her father. His face was haggard from lack of sleep. Thick stubble grew along his chin. He’d discarded his cloak and rolled up his shirt sleeves in an effort to remain cool. Yet he cared for her father and mother with the utmost gentleness and patience under the most trying of circumstances.
Jules caught her staring. “What is it?”
For once, she did not hesitate to hold his gaze. “Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. I am so grateful to you.”
He tilted his head to the side and considered what she said. “This,” he gestured around the room, “is what I was born to do. When I became Attuned and then a Healer, it was the happiest time of my life. But I’m not tending to your parents because I am a Healer and I took an oath. Yesterday afternoon and evening, when I spent time with your family, it was one of the happiest times of my life. I have never felt so at home or welcome.”
Natalie smiled at him. She was glad her family had been able to give him such a gift, if only for a short while. Five willing, it was a gift they could all give him again. She turned to give her mother some more tea.
“I hate to bring this up, but we must send word to the Abbey; Mistfell needs an Imperial quarantine,” Jules said.
Natalie sighed. “Yes, I’ve been thinking the same thing. And, what do we tell the townsfolk without causing a panic? Furthermore, I still don’t understand how Morley transm
itted the disease. Oswald said he didn’t buy any of his beer.
Jules rested his head in his hand. “I haven’t the foggiest idea. Obviously, Morley brought it with him somehow.”
“Oswald said he stayed for the night at his tavern. Maybe when Mother and Da are stable, we should take a look at where he stayed. See if there’s anything that might help us figure it out.”
Jules nodded, then reached to help Da as a new round of coughing came on.
“Nat,” Da gasped as the spell passed. “Aaron.” Jules and Natalie stared at him. Usually the delirium didn’t let up.
Natalie fetched Aaron, who had fallen asleep on a stool in the corner, and placed her hand on his shoulder to wake him. “Da is asking for us.”
She and Aaron went to Da’s side. Jules stood behind them with his hand on Natalie’s shoulder. Natalie and Aaron both grabbed their father’s hand. To Natalie’s amazement, he was able to open his eyes and focus on them.
“Got a … short time here.” Da rasped. “I love you. Take care … of Mother. And the farm. So … proud … of you both.” His eyes lost focus, his mouth gaped open and he stared at the ceiling.
Tears poured down Aaron’s face. “Is he really dying, Nat?”
Natalie observed her father’s body as a Healer would. His breathing changed from congested wheezes to unpredictable, rattling, sporadic breaths. The part of his body facing the ceiling was pale and cold. Lifting his shirt gently, she could see the skin resting on the couch was mottled and purple; his heart was no longer pumping blood properly. She took a shaky breath and said, “Yes. Da is dying.”
“What can you do?” he cried.
Tears fell down Natalie’s own face. “We can hold his hand and tell him how much we love him. We can tell him stories from when we were growing up. We can tell him we’ll take care of Mother and the farm and it’s okay to go to the Goddess when it’s time.”
“But that won’t save his life. You said you could save him!” Aaron accused.
Natalie bowed her head, dimly aware of Jules’s hand squeezing her shoulder. “I can’t save him. We … I tried,” she said, her voice tinged with defeat. “Being with him and talking to him will ease his transition into the next world. That’s our job now.”
Chapter 15
R
J
ules cared for her mother while Natalie talked to her father. Aaron, after some time standing off to the side, arms folded and eyes boring holes in the floor, joined his sister.
Aaron put his hand on his father’s shoulder. “I love you so much, Da,” he said.
Natalie rubbed her father’s thumb with her own. “I love you, too, Da. I’ll make sure to take care of Mother and Aaron.”
Aaron sniffed. “And I’ll run the farm.”
Natalie smiled. “And I’ll Heal him when he falls off the ladder and breaks his arm like he did when he was seven.”
“Hey,” Aaron said.
“Do you remember that, Da?”
“Of course he remembers. He’s the one who carried me to the Healer.”
“Aaron, do you remember the harvest when we accidentally knocked down a hornet’s nest?”
“I’ve never run so fast in my life. You made compresses for us for days. Those buggers really hurt.”
Aaron stared at his father, who lay staring at the ceiling. “Can he hear us, Nat?”
“I believe he can,” she said.
“Shouldn’t Mother be with us?”
Natalie turned to Jules. “Do you think it’s safe to wake Mother?”
Jules ran his hand through his hair and then shook his head. “No. She’s too weak, It’s all I can do to get her to drink. I’m so sorry.”
Natalie nodded, blinking back tears. “Da? Mother loves you, too. She’s sick and can’t be with you now, but she has loved you for so long. She says to go be with the Goddess when you are ready. We will take care of her, don’t you worry.” Natalie wiped her tears away with one hand.
Natalie and Aaron held their father’s hand, either telling stories or holding hands in silence. Over the course of the morning, Gerard’s breathing slowed until he took a breath and it seemed like another would not come.
Aaron stood up. “Nat? Is it—what’s happening?
Natalie hugged her brother. “His body is shutting down and dying. Soon he won’t be suffering anymore.”
Aaron turned away, and she cradled his head against her. Natalie, having witnessed the process many times, watched her father’s last sporadic, fitful attempts to gasp for air; his body relaxed when it stopped trying and let go. She closed her eyes. “He’s gone, sweetheart. He’s with the Goddess now.”
Aaron looked at his dead father. Natalie put her arm around his shoulders and held him tight; she wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen a dead human body. Aaron reached out with a shaking hand and gently closed his father’s eyes. The eyelids popped right back open and Aaron jumped. “It’s okay, it’s okay, they don’t stay closed, it’s normal,” Natalie hugged him as he sobbed, and she buried her face in his hair, a few of her own tears falling. She’d failed. She’d failed to save her own father.
Another pair of arms embraced the two of them. She reached out to squeeze Jules tight, rested her forehead on his shoulder and leaned on him as if her life depended on it. She wanted to cry—let all the pain out—but the sobs stuck in her chest and refused to move.
After a few minutes, Jules turned around and covered Da with a sheet. “I wrote a letter to the Abbey telling them of the situation here and asking for an Imperial quarantine and more Healers. I’ll ride into town and get a rider to take it to the Abbey. I’ll also get the undertaker and tell the town Healer what to watch out for.”
Natalie nodded. “Thank you.” Exhausted, she sat next to her mother. Please, Mother, she prayed. Please live. I don’t know what I’ll do if you die, too.
When Jules returned from town, he suggested Natalie set up their tent near the house and get some rest. The undertaker had come and gone, taking Da’s body with him. Aaron fell asleep in his bed upstairs. Jules kept watch over her sleeping mother, who coughed from time to time, but Jules and Natalie had heard worse from patients with this disease. With everything in as much order as it could be, Natalie staggered out to the tent and was asleep before her head hit her bedroll.
She woke when the sun’s rays were setting behind the apple grove. Taking in the beauty of her father’s life’s work, it was hard to believe it would live on long past him. Before the tears could fall, she reminded herself she, Aaron and Jules needed to eat. She grabbed the equipment to make snares and set up several in the nearby woods. Returning to the house, she found Jules dozing in his seat next to her mother’s bedside.
She squatted in front of him and brushed a hand across his leg. “Jules.”
He jumped awake and ran a hand through his hair, which stood out at all angles. “Wha? I’m sorry I dozed off. Is she all right?”
They both examined her mother. Natalie shook her head in wonder. “She’s sleeping still.” She put her ear on her mother’s chest. “I can hear congestion, but I’ve heard worse. Why don’t you go get sleep now? I’ve set snares in the woods. Hopefully, we’ll eat well soon.”
Jules nodded wearily. “She hasn’t woken up since your father … She still doesn’t know.”
Natalie bit her lip and nodded.
Jules staggered out the door to the tent, and Natalie took an inventory of the tea and supplies, keeping an ear out for her mother. She alternated plying her mother with medicinal teas and reading her Healing diary, desperately searching for any sort of clues that might help them treat or understand the sweating fever. There must be something in her notes; some clue as to why the young and old did not die from a similar disease or how the disease was transmitted. She must have written down something over the years.
Near dawn, a small whisper came from the trundle cot. “Nat.”
Natalie ran to her mother’s side and graspe
d her hand. “Mother. How are you feeling?”
“Chest. Hurts.”
“Do you want some tea?”
Her mother made a face. “So. Sick. Of. Tea.”
Natalie laughed. She touched her mother’s head. It felt much cooler than earlier.
“Starting. To. Feel. Better. I think.” Anna swallowed. “How is Da?”
Natalie bowed her head and swallowed as the tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Mother. I tr-tr-tried so hard.”
Mother looked like a deer that had been shot by an arrow and did not yet know the wound was mortal.
Unable to face her, Natalie rested her head on her mother’s chest, the sobs that had refused to come earlier now rushing out in full force. “I’m so sorry, I d-d-did my best.”
The feeling of her mother trembling beneath her made Natalie cry all the harder.
Aaron came downstairs. “Is Mother all right?” His voice sounded terrified.
Natalie lifted her head and nodded, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “I’ve only just told her about Da. She’s awake, you see.”
Aaron joined his mother and sister, and the grieving family sat in a small circle sharing their sorrow with one another. Natalie had to put a stop to it, though, when the crying irritated Mother’s coughing. She helped her mother drink some more tea to settle her cough.
Jules came in for the morning and helped reposition her mother. “Nat, it’s dawn. Best walk the trapline and see if we’ve got some breakfast.” He handed her his dagger.
She nodded, took his dagger, grabbed her cloak and went out onto the porch. She turned in surprise when the door opened and closed behind her.
Jules took her elbow and turned her gently toward him. He took her face in his hand and tilted her chin up so she gazed right into his eyes. The shimmering light of dawn shifted Jules’s emerald eyes in a bewitching manner, distracting Natalie from her bleak thoughts. “Nat. It’s not your fault. We tried our best.”
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