"Bestrum sent us. Lord Alessan, with his condolences and greetings," said the more grizzled of the two men. "I'm Pol; my brother's Sal. We like runners better nor other beasts."
Alessan turned his smiling light-green eyes to me, and all that Suriana had told me about him rattled through my head. But the sketches that she had also sent did not do him justice, or else he had changed dramatically from that young and rather reckless-looking man. There was now considerably more character about the eyes and mouth, and an ineffable sadness, despite the smile of his greeting-a sadness that would fade, but never leave. He was thin, had been fever-gaunt; the broad bones of his shoulders pushed through his tunic and his hands were rough, calloused, racked, and pricked, more like a common drudge's than a Lord Holder's.
"I'm Rill," I said, to bring myself back to the present and to guard against unexpected queries. "I have always managed runners. I've some experience in healing and concocting all kinds of medicines from herbs, roots, and tubers. And I've brought some supplies with me."
"Would you have anything for the racking cough?" the girl asked, her huge dark eyes shining. Such a shining could scarcely be for me or for the provision of cough syrup, but I did not know until much later how these people had spent the unusual hour that had just ended moments before we arrived.
"Yes, I do have," I said, hefting my saddlebags packed with the bottles of tussilago.
"Holder Bestrum wanted to know if his son and daughter live," Pol asked bluntly, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot while his brother looked anywhere but at Lord Alessan.
"I'll look at the records," the harper said gently, but we had all noticed the shuddering expression that dampened the smile in Alessan's eyes. And Oklina had given a little gasp. "I'm Tuero," the harper went on, smiling to reassure us all. "Alessan, what's the order of business now?"
And so Tuero deftly turned our thoughts to the future, away from the sorrowful past. Shortly we had no time for anything, past or future. The present consumed us.
Alessan quickly explained what had to be done. First, the few patients still remaining in the Main Hall infirmary had to be moved to quarters on the second level of the Hold. Then the Hall must be scrubbed thoroughly with redwort solution. He looked beyond me, from whom he could expect assistance at such a task, to Pol and Sal.
"We must make sufficient serum to inoculate runnerbeasts." He turned and gestured toward the pasture. "We will take blood from those that survived the plague."
Pol stopped mid-nod and glanced at Sal. I must admit that I was stunned by the look of the runnerbeasts. Many were weedy, with light bones and high haunches, rather thin-necked and far too gaunt to bear any resemblance to the sturdily conformed, rugged, firm-fleshed beasts that had been the pride of Ruatha Hold. Some were no more than great walking bone racks.
Alessan noticed our consternation. "Most of the beasts that my father bred died of the plague." His tone was matter-of-fact and we took our cue from it. "Those that I had bred for speed over short distances turned out to be resilient and came through, as did some of the crossbreds that our guests had brought."
"Oh, the pity of it, the pity of it," Pol murmured, shaking his grizzled head. His brother did the same.
"Oh, I shall breed fine strong beasts again. Would you know my handler, Dag?" Alessan asked thebrothers. They both brightened and nodded with more enthusiasm. "He'd some of the mares in foal and a young stallion up in the hill meadows. They survived, so I've some of the old basic stock to breed from."
"Good to hear, lord, good to hear." Sal's words were directed more to the runners than to Alessan.
"But-" Alessan grinned apologetically to the two men "-before we can start collecting blood for the serum, we have to have a clean and totally uncontaminated place in which to work."
Pol began rolling up his sleeve. "There isn't much my brother and I wouldn't do to help you, lord. We've scrubbed before, we can scrub again."
"Good then," Alessan said with a grin. "Because if we don't do it right the first time, journeywoman Desdra will make us do it all over again until we have! She'll be here tomorrow to check on our labors."
When we reached the courtyard before the Hold door, Tuero, a man named to me as Deefer, five fosterlings, and four of the convalescent farm holders were constructing a strange device from cartwheels.
"We'll have several of these centrifuges with which to separate the miracle serum from the blood," Alessan told us. The brothers nodded as if they knew exactly what he was talking about, though some confusion and surprise showed on Sal's face.
Oklina met us in the Hall, leading out the procession of drudges with their buckets of hot water, cleaning rags, and brooms. She carried containers which I recognized as those generally used to store the strong cleaning fluid. We all rolled up our sleeves and I noticed that Alessan's hands were red already, though there was only a fainter tinge of red on his upper arms. Then we all set to scrubbing.
We scrubbed until the glowbaskets were lit, scrubbed even as we munched with mean-oils in one hand and tried to ignore the faint taste of astringency that the overpowering aroma of redwort invariably gave to anything in its vicinity. We scrubbed until the first sets of glowbaskets had to be replaced.
Alessan had to shake me several times before I left off the scrubbing motion and realized that the others had quit this labor. "You're all but asleep and still scrubbing, Rill," he said, but he spoke with such a kind sort of raillery that I gave him a rueful grin.
I had barely enough energy to follow Oklina up the stairs to the first-story inner room that she assigned me. I remembered that I bade her goodnight as I closed the door. I knew I should plan a few words to say to Desdra on her arrival the next day, so that she would not expose me as Tolocamp's mutinous daughter, but the moment I fell across the bed, I fell asleep.
Chapter VIII
I woke, startled, as people do at finding themselves in a strange place, and had to reassure myself that I was not back in my room at Fort Hold. It was silence that I heard so palpably, a silence that confused me more than did the slightly strange surroundings. Then I isolated the difference-no drums at all. I rose and dressed, and began my first full day at Ruatha.
I was in the Hall, drinking klah and eating a quick breakfast of porridge when Desdra arrived on Arith. We all went out at the commotion for the little dragon was once again draped with many bottles, the large apprentice size and the smaller ones for the all-important serum.
I had no chance to speak with Desdra, for Alessan singled me out with the two brothers and took us off to the field to begin the next step in making the serum.
Either the animals were apathetic from their recent illness or they had been well handled, so we were each able to lead in two at a time. A second and third trip filled all the stalls in the beasthold, then Alessan demonstrated how to draw blood from the neck vein. AU the creatures kindly submitted to this bloodletting. Sal and I began to work as a team, and when I saw that he had little stomach for inserting the needlethom, I took over that job as he held each runner's head.
It was full noon before we had finished with the twenty-four beasts. After each drawing, the blood was decanted into the great apprentice jars, then transported to the Hall and secured onto the cartwheel centrifuges. Though I was not the only one dubious about the device, much less the process, Desdra's attitude towards the manufacture was so reassuringly calm that we didn't question anything. As soon as she had checked the fastenings, she motioned the crews of men to begin spinning the wheels. The men changed places at the flywheels frequently, always keeping the speed of the whirling at the same pace. I thought briefly what a mess one loose jar could make of the Hall, and all our cleaning to be done again, and then decided that such ruminations were unsuited to the general air of hope and industry in Ruatha.