Emily Rodda - Sister Of The South

Again he paused. Lief waited, his eyes fixed on his mother’s face.

‘By morning she was burning with fever and the red weals were already showing on her face,’ Doom went on after a moment. ‘The guards who had escorted her to the palace, many of the people she had served, the horse-master who greeted her in the stables and the cooks who sat with us at table, were in the same state. Most of them died the same day. Then those close to them began to fall ill. And so it went on.’

‘How many are dead?’ Lief forced himself to ask.

Wearily, Doom rubbed his brow with the back of his hand. ‘Many hundreds,’ he said. ‘I have lost count over the past days. I have given orders that the dead are to be burned. The citizens have all been told to cover their faces in the streets, and while nursing the sick. But still the deaths continue.’

He sighed. ‘The only thing I seem to have achieved is to stop the plague spreading beyond Del. No-one is permitted to leave the city. That is why Gla-Thon is with us. A Kin carried her from Dread Mountain, to bring me news of you. The Kin returned at once, but Gla-Thon remained, and she was still here when the plague broke out. Gers the Jalis and Steven were trapped in the same way.’

‘Gers and Steven?’ Lief repeated stupidly.

‘Gers came asking for food for his people,’ Doom said. ‘Steven arrived a week ago, with the boy Zerry. They told me of your journey to Shadowgate, and your encounters with the Masked Ones, and Laughing Jack.’

Lief nodded, his mouth suddenly dry.

‘To me the Masked Ones were just one of Deltora’s many curiosities,’ Doom went on sombrely. ‘I have never known their history, or cared to find it out. I was astonished when Steven told me that the troop was founded by Ballum, the younger brother of King Elstred.’

He saw Lief’s eyes widen, and nodded.

‘Did Steven not tell you?’ he said. ‘You share a bloodline with the traditional leaders of the Masked Ones, Lief. No doubt that is why Bess saw a resemblance between you and her son. Steven told me that Ballum was a magician and juggler—much loved by the people, and by his brother, the king. Then a trick went wrong and Ballum’s face was badly marked by fire.’

‘So he began wearing a mask to hide his injuries,’ Lief said slowly.

‘He did,’ said Doom. ‘But not long afterwards he was accused of attempting to kill Elstred out of bitterness and jealousy, and was forced to flee.’

He shrugged at Lief’s muffled gasp. ‘Yes, it is likely that Elstred’s chief advisor planned it all, to ensure that Elstred listened to her alone. Your father and I were separated by the same trick, centuries later. The Enemy forgets nothing, it seems.’

‘Ballum was hunted, no doubt, supposedly on the king’s orders,’ Lief said, remembering how bitterly the Masked Ones had spoken of the king in Del.

‘Of course,’ Doom said. ‘But he kept to the wilder parts of Deltora, earning his bread as a travelling entertainer, and was never caught. Gradually a loyal troop gathered around him. They moved around constantly, and they all wore masks, so that if ever they were attacked, the guards would not know at once which one of them was Ballum.’ He raised a tired hand, and dropped it again. ‘Whether Ballum had discovered the secret of making the masks permanent by that time, or found it out later, no-one can know,’ he added.

Lief shuddered and turned his head away.

‘Forgive me,’ Doom said awkwardly. ‘This is not the time to be speaking of such things.’

He cleared his throat. ‘Steven’s story of what nearly befell you filled me with horror, but I was glad to see him—more glad than I can say. Now I wish with all my heart that he had stayed away. If he and Nevets fall victim to this accursed plague—’

‘They will not,’ said a quiet voice. ‘Did you not tell me that Steven and the boy had taken the horse-master’s place? They will be safe in the stables, surely.’

Lief looked up and with dull surprise saw Zeean of Tora standing by a second bed on the other side of the room. Like him, and like Doom, Zeean was wearing a mask of red over her mouth and nose. Her hands were covered by close-fitting scarlet gloves of some shining Toran cloth.

She saw him staring at her, and her eyes warmed in a sad smile of greeting. Lief saw with a shock that there was a large, darkening bruise on her cheekbone, just beneath her eye.

‘As you see, I decided that I had to come after you, to bring Sharn what comfort I could,’ she said. ‘Marilen dearly wanted to come also, but her father persuaded her to remain in safety, and I am very glad of that. Del is no place for Marilen now—and not just because the risk of infection is so great, either.’

She moved away towards the wash stand, revealing the person lying motionless in the bed. Lief stared in horror at the strong, handsome face branded by the terrible marks of the Toran Plague.

‘Lindal!’ he whispered. ‘But only last night she was—’

‘The Plague works quickly once it strikes,’ Doom said grimly. ‘Consider the guards on the door last night—healthy when they went on duty, dead before dawn. I found Lindal like this when I came to tell her that you were here, and injured, and that Josef and Paff had been struck down.’

He grimaced. ‘And now Zeean has come to take her turn in this chamber of death,’ he added. ‘She insists upon it, though neither Sharn nor Lindal would want her to risk—’

‘They cannot be left alone to suffer, Doom,’ said Zeean calmly, dipping a cloth into a bowl of water and wringing it out. ‘And you cannot be here night and day. Who is seeing to Josef and Paff?’

‘Gla-Thon was willing,’ said Doom briefly.

Zeean nodded and crossed the room to Sharn’s bed with the wet cloth in her hands.

‘There is little enough that can be done,’ she murmured, beginning to sponge Sharn’s hot face. ‘Cool the face and hands. Be there to comfort, and give water. Hope and pray that the body will have the strength to throw off the pestilence.’

Lief wet his lips. ‘I had hopes that the diamond in the Belt might help Mother,’ he said huskily. ‘Now, I fear the help may have come too late.’

Zeean hesitated. ‘You may be right,’ she said gently, at last. ‘Sharn has clung to life far longer than anyone else, but it is a cruel illness, this thing they call the Toran Plague.’

Lief saw her mouth tighten beneath the mask.

‘Doom himself came to the city gates to escort me through the city,’ she said. ‘I think that if he had not, harm would have come to me. The very sight of me—of my Toran robe—seemed to inflame the people in the streets. They called and jeered. Some threw stones.’

Thoughtfully she lifted a gloved hand to the bruise on her cheek.

‘Oh, Zeean!’ Lief muttered in dismay. ‘I am so—’

‘I do not mind for myself,’ Zeean broke in, moving back to the wash stand, putting aside the cloth and picking up Sharn’s silver-topped jar of soothing cream. ‘I mind only that your people believe that this evil has come to them from Tora, when I know it cannot be so.’

‘It must be so, Zeean,’ Doom said firmly. ‘Sharn came here directly from Tora, and there is no doubt that the plague came with her. Perhaps she was protected from its effects while she stayed within the magic city’s walls, but once she left—’

Zeean shook her head, her eyes fixed determinedly on the lid she was removing from the jar. ‘If the seeds of such an evil had been within Sharn in Tora, we would have known,’ she said.

‘I beg you not to say that outside this room,’ Doom answered gravely. ‘From what I hear, it is exactly what the people of Del suspect.’

‘What can you mean?’ Zeean demanded, looking at him at last.