“He is a weaver,” Seraphina said before she could think too hard. She heard Rune gasp, but he didn’t contradict her. “He also has medical experience.” In prison, he’d told her about the woman he’d tried to save, the one whose leg he’d had to amputate. She still thought that story had sounded fantastical, but she didn’t think he’d lied to her. “He wants you to take us to the church because he wants to see the patients. And your broken lattices. Maybe he can help.”
“Truly?” Willa asked.
Seraphina turned to Rune, and the relic showed his head nod in approval. She breathed in relief. She hadn’t made a mistake. She hadn’t read his intention wrong. Did this mean that what she’d told Willa was true? That he was a weaver and a physician? She’d said it so Willa would take them to see the hospital, so Seraphina and Rune could assess the situation for themselves. Maybe Seraphina would get to see the Black Eagle tavern too. It would reopen old wounds, but she couldn’t stay away when she was so close to the place where she’d last seen Matteo alive and happy.
“Yes,” Rune said. “Take us, please.”
“You will get sick,” she whispered. “But then again, you probably got the bone fever already. From me. In a few days, your joints will begin to ache.”
“Don’t worry about us,” Seraphina said. “We can help, and that’s all that matters.”
Willa shook her head but then sighed in defeat. “All right. They sent doctors and nurses at first, when ours started dying, but they stopped, and no one blames them. Now we have nodoctor, and only two nurses are left. The rest of us help as much as we can. I am a midwife. I was just gathering herbs when I saw you.” She lifted a fabric pouch that was attached to her waist, then waved for them to follow her. “Bring your horses. The animals are not affected.”
Seraphina and Rune took the reins of their horses and followed Willa into the town. The sound of their footsteps and the horses’ hooves echoed loudly on the empty street. Seraphina felt the crunch of rubble under her boots, and the relic showed her the shadows of houses with walls blown open and roof beams jutting like broken ribs against the sky. They reached the church and tethered the horses in the courtyard.
“The bell tower still stands,” Willa said. “The walls are scorched black from cannon fire. This is the church of Saint Nikolaus, and the interior is barely damaged, so we built a makeshift hospital inside when the resistance took back the town.”
They entered, and Willa led them past the font of holy water and into the nave.The pews had been pushed against the walls to make room for rows of makeshift beds – wooden planks laid across sawhorses covered with thin mattresses stuffed with straw. The air was thick with the smell of fever and unwashed bodies. Patients moaned and coughed, and when they were silent, their breathing was shallow and labored.
“How many?” she asked.
“Twenty beds, all occupied,” Willa said. “We lost two people yesterday and another one today. More might die tonight, and we don’t even have a priest anymore to hold last rites. Father Johann died in August. He was among the first.”
“I’m so sorry,” Seraphina whispered.
Willa bowed her head and led them toward the altar, where two women, one young, the other in her forties ground herbsand whispered in dim candlelight. Willa took out the herbs she’d gathered in her pouch and placed them on the table.
“We’re running out of willow bark,” one of them said. “This is the last we have left.” She sighed as she kept grinding.
“These are Katharina and Barbara, our nurses. We use willow bark for high fevers, and chamomile when the willow bark runs out. Yarrow and comfrey in poultices. They help with the pain and calm the bruises. Plants are good, but they work slowly, and once the bone fever burns deep, it sends the patients into a coma. From that point on, it’s a matter of days before the body gives up.”
“Where are the broken lattices?” Rune asked.
“Who are these people?” asked one of the nurses.
“Barbara, these are Seraphina and Rune. They are travelers, they got lost, and they didn’t know about Langenbach. About what happened here.”
“And you brought them in? Willa, you have doomed them.”
“It’s true we didn’t know about the bone fever,” Seraphina said, “But now that we’re here, we can help.” She reached for Rune’s arm, found it, and gripped his sleeve to pull him forward. “Rune is a weaver, and he would like to take a look at your medical lattices.”
“They’re broken beyond repair,” Katharina said, shaking her head.
“I’d like to see them myself, if you’ll allow it,” Rune said.
As usual, his voice was low and gravely. Seraphina had gotten used to it, but she wasn’t surprised when she noticed the women seemed to be softened by the vibrating baritone. Barbara got up and motioned for them to follow her to a side door. She opened it, and the three of them stepped into the sacristy.
It smelled of old books in here, of incense, myrrh, and beeswax. Ornate chests were pushed against the walls, most likely containing the vestments of Father Johann. There werenumerous cupboards and shelves, all filled to the brim with books, chalices, candles, and oil for sacraments. In a corner, there was an open crate filled with bottles of communion wine. There was a table pressed against the only wall that had a small, arched window, and it was filled with papers, parchments and books, neatly stacked.
Barbara took a box from a shelf to their right and placed it on the table. She opened it.
“Six Anodyne Bands, four Quietus Nets, and four Antipyretic Nets, all broken. One Staunching Lattice, which still works, but we don’t need it.”
Rune reached for the box, his hand hovering over the tangle of bone shards, thread, and linen cloth. His fingers flexed before he could touch them.
“Can I take some time to look at them?”
“All right.” Barbara made to leave. “I’ll be just outside if you need me. I’ll send Katharina to bed soon, then she will replace me in a few hours. We work in shifts at night. We can’t do much for the dying, but we can be there for them, changing their poultices and vinegar compresses.”
