«Where's our brother, Makfar?» Alessan asked. «Asleep above?»
«He's gone. They left about two hours ago.»
Alessan rubbed his face. Makfar had had two runners in the racing. «When you've spoken to Mother, send a messenger after them. The way Makfar travels, they won't have gone far. Say, say …»
«That you have urgent need of Makfar's advice.» Oklina grinned.
«Exactly.» He gave her an affectionate pat on the shoulder. «And inform our other brothers that security is required for the Hold proper.»
By the time Alessan returned to the forecourt, Norman had arrived with a number of Ruathan holders. Alessan told them to find short swords and ride in pairs along the main roads to turn back travelers on whatever pretext came to mind. The holders were ordered to use force where persuasion failed. His brothers, in varying stages of discontent, reported to him. He dispatched them to get arms and assist the messengers, if need be, but to be sure that no one else left the Hold. Just then Lord Tolocamp bustled out of the Hall. He looked full of arguments.
«Alessan, now I'm not sure that all this fuss is absolutely necessary.»
Echoing up from the south, the message drums of River Hold could be heard plainly. As Alessan counted the double-urgent salutation and heard the healer code as originator, he took a moment's pleasure in the astonishment on Tolocamp's face, but lost it as the meat of the message boomed out. Those who could not understand the code caught the fear generated by those who did. Drums were a fine method of communication but too bloody public, Alessan thought savagely.
Epidemic disease, the drums rolled, spreading rapidly across continent from Igen, Keroon, Telgar, Ista. Highly infectious. Highly contagious. Two to four days' incubation. Headache. Fever. Cough. Prevent secondary infection. Fatalities high. Medicate symptoms. Isolate victims. Quarantine effective immediately. Runnerbeasts highly susceptible. Repeat Epidemic warning. No travel permitted. Congregating discouraged. Capiam.
The final roll commanded the pass-on of the message.
«But there's been a Gather here!» Tolocamp exclaimed fatuously. «No one's sick but a handful of runners. And they haven't been at Igen or Keroon, or anywhere!» Tolocamp glared at Alessan as if the alarm was somehow at his instigation.
«Vander's sick and two of his handlers,»
«Too much to drink,» Tolocamp asserted. «It can't be the same thing. Capiam just says the illness is spreading, not that it's here in Ruatha.»
«When the Masterhealer of Pern calls a quarantine,» Alessan said in a soft angry voice, «it is my duty, and yours, Lord Tolocamp, to respect his authority!» Alessan didn't realize that he sounded very much like his sire at that moment, but Tolocamp was silenced.
That was all the time they had to speak for those who had understood the drum message were now searching for the two Lords Holder.
«What's Capiam talking about?»
«We can't be quarantined! I've got to get back to my hold.»
«I left stock near to birthing …»
«My wife stayed at the cot with our babies …»
Tolocamp rallied, standing stolidly by Alessan's side, confirming the dreadful message and Capiam's right to broadcast a quarantine restriction.
«Master Capiam is not an alarmist!» «We'll have further details once that message has passed.» «This is just a precaution.» «Yes, a runnerbeast did die yesterday.» «Master Scand will tell us more.» «No, no one may be permitted to leave. Might endanger your own hold and spread illness further.» «A few days is not too much for health's sake.»
Alessan answered almost by rote, letting the first panic roll over his head. He had already taken the first steps toward recalling people and to avert a mass exodus. He and Tolocamp did their best to quiet apprehension. Alessan rapidly calculated how much food he had in convenient storage. The Gatherers would soon exhaust their travel rations. Assuming some people might catch Vander's illness, if it was Capiam's epidemic, would it be better to house them in the Hall? Or clear one of the beastholds? The Hold's infirmary could accommodate no more than twenty and that with crowding. Four dead animals, another dying, and Norman said nineteen more were coughing? Twenty-four animals out of a hundred twenty-two in twentyfour hours? The emergency had nothing to do with what he had been trained to meet. Nothing to do with the immemorial evil that ravaged Pern. As impartially as Thread, this new and equally insidious menace would blight the inhabitants as Thread could devastate the land. «Fatalities high,» the message had said. Were there no dragons to combat disease? Was this sort of disaster provided for in the Hold Records his father had always referred to?
«Here comes your healer, Alessan,» said Tolocamp.
The two Lords Holder moved to intercept Master Scand before he reached the forecourt. The man's usually placid round face was nearly purple with his exertions, his mouth thinned by annoyance. He was sweating copiously and blotting his face and neck with a none-too-clean cloth. Alessan had always thought Scand merely an adequate healer, suitable to attend, the Hold's large number of pregnancies and treat occasional accidents, but not up to a major emergency.
«Lord Alessan, Lord Tolocamp,» Scand panted, his chest heaving, «I came as soon as I received your summons. Did I not hear drums? Did I not recognize the healer code? Is something the matter?»
«What ails Vander?»
The sharpness of Alessan's question put Scand on his guard. He cleared his throat and mopped his face, reluctant to commit himself. «Well, now, as to that I am perplexed for he has not responded to the draught of sweatroot which I prepared for him last night. A dose, I might add, that would have made a dragon perspire. It was ineffectual.» Scand blotted his face again. «The man complains of terrible heart palpitations and of a headache that has nothing to do with wine because I was assured that he didn't indulge, he felt unwell yesterday even before the races.»
«And the other two men? His handlers?»
«They, too, are legitimately ill.» Scand's pompous speech had always irritated Alessan. Today he brandished his sweaty cloth in his affected pauses. «Legitimately ill, I fear, with severe headaches that render them unable to rise from their pallets, as well as the palpitations of which Holder Vander complains. Indeed, I am inclined to treat them for those two symptoms, rather than sweat them, although that is the specific treatment for unidentified sudden fevers. Now, may I inquire if that message from the Healer Hall in any way concerns me?» Scand cocked his head inquisitively.
«Master Capiam has called a quarantine.»
«Quarantine? For three men?»
«Lord Alessan,» said a tall lean man, wearing harper blue. He had grizzled hair and a nose that had suffered from many an unexpected adjustment to its direction. His glance was direct and his manner quietly capable. «I'm Tuero, journeyman harper. I can give Master Scand the full text so that you can get on.» Tuero jerked his head to the people milling excitedly in the forecourt.
Just then Ruatha's drummer began to relay the news onward to the large northerly and western holds, the instruments' deep reverberations adding to the general atmosphere of apprehension. Lady Oma emerged from the Hall with Lady Pendra and her daughters. Lady Oma listened intently to the drum then gave Alessan one long steady look. She and the Fort Hold women converged on Harper Tuero and the healer, who was now dithering, his face cloth hanging from his limp hand.
For the first time in his life, Alessan had cause to be grateful for the unquestioning support of his bloodkin and even for the officiousness of Lord Tolocamp. A rider galloped back to request aid in bringing in one of the more aggressive holders with whom Alessan had already had trouble. Then Makfar's family wagon thundered in, scattering folk in the roadway. Alessan put him in charge of improvising shelters from Gather stalls and travel wagons. It was one thing to doss down in a corridor for a night or grab a few hours sleep in the Hall, but quite another matter to be so cramped for four nights. Tolocamp was not the only one who failed to see the irony of that as he countered Makfar's suggestions with some of his own. Alessan left the two to solve the housing problem so that he could accompany Norman to the race flats and survey the sick runners. People were already making small camps in the first of the fields.