Dread dug into her throat like a blade when she found Kadra’s grim eyes. “Robe yourself,” he ordered Junia, who complied with a flinch. “How did this happen?”
“Well,he,” Junia spat at Lucanus, who studiously ignored them all, “decided to take himself up north via Bridger. Gods only know why, there’s nothing to do unless you fancy tradeswomen or miners, but he seems to have had an excellent time with both.Then, I saw him last week when he returned. I thought his welts were from whipping, because he’s fond of—”
“Godsdamn you!” Lucanus jumped up at that. “How was I to know it was that northern plague?”
Whispers of alarm came from the crowd. They darted back from the two in a frantic wave.
The pit in Sarai’s stomach widened. “When did you become aware that you had it?”
He rolled his eyes. “Few days ago, when a fucking larva popped out of my skin. Went straight to a healer and got myself purged.”
“But thescarsremain, asshole!” Junia snarled.
“What sort of beetle was it?” Sarai stood, circling around the table. “Can you think of where you were infected?”
“Elsar only know that. I wasn’t entirely sober up there.” The man had the gall to grin. “But I think they said something about boil beetles.”
Sarai felt her jaw drop.That makes no sense.She had seen a few during her time as a snowgrape climber, but Arsamea had been too cold for the crimson, fingertip-sized pests with bright-yellow venom sacs to pose a problem. They nested within heavily forested areas and largely lived offanimalflesh. Upon biting their targets, their venom loosened the top layersof skin so that they could tunnel in and gnaw at the meat underneath. But boil beetles had only ever been cattle killers at worst. Notplagues.
Tension seeped into the air when she met Kadra’s eyes. Their audience stuffed their exposed hands in their pockets, swiftly shielding all visible skin with silent horror. The worst part was that she couldn’t entirely tell them not to fear.
“Bad enough that the north creates a hue and cry over the Guilds every day, now they’re spreading their diseases?” someone yelled.
“Oh gods, I’ve children! What if I infect them!”
Lucanus waved a dismissive hand. “Ruin’s tits. Just see a healer.”
“Not everyone canafforda healer, you rich fuck!”
“That’s enough!” Pulling herself together, Sarai spoke brusquely. “According to reports from the north, youwillfeel if you’ve been infected. There’s no mistaking the sensation of a beetle or larva burrowing into you. I doubt anyone here has felt that over the course of…” She trailed off as the crowd ignored her in favor of fleeing the marketplace, frantically patting themselves as they ran.
Wisdom save us, this is a disaster.
“Where,” Kadra’s voice cut through the furor with deadly precision, “did you encounter each other for the larvae to go from him to you without your notice?”
Junia froze, exchanging a rapid but unmistakable look of guilt with Lucanus.
“Others could have been infected at the same place,” Sarai bit out. “If anyone is hurt as a result of your silence,iniuriawon’t be the only charges you face. Never mind a plague, your skin,” she glanced coolly at Junia, “will look far worse after a month in the mines.”
“A whitesleep den,” Junia immediately blurted, then fidgeted in her seat when Lucanus glowered. “Look, it was just a bit of fun.”
Whitesleep again.She thought back to the Guildswoman’s crusted eyelids.Is there a link?
“Where.” Kadra’s voice brooked no refusal.
“Absolutely not!” Lucanus sputtered. “No one’ll let us into one again if we rat out—”
“The people there could be—”dead“—gravely injured. Especially if they’ve had one too many rubs to realize that they were infected,” Sarai said flatly. “Where is it?”
“The owners frequently change the den’s location in case it leaks to vigiles,” Junia mumbled. “But it’s in Tetrarch Harion’s Quarter.”
Of course it is.Sarai looked into the terrified faces of the few still remaining in the marketplace and knew there was no hope of containing this fear with a tidy announcement tomorrow as Cassandane had hoped. The quiet hadn’t so much as lasted three days.
Numb, she transcribed as Kadra delivered his judgment in favor of Junia—only insofar as making Lucanus pay for a healer. Fatigue worsened her hand tremors. Steadying her wrist with her left hand, she told herself that this was the last of it. She could return to Aoran Tower and perhaps even sleep before Edessa descended into paranoia once more.
A white-hot streak flashed above, sending her hand across the parchment in a splotch of ink. She stared at the steel-lined sky with consternation while Kadra’s vigiles darted into motion, herding people away from the marketplace and into the vigile station, only a street away.
Rolling up the half-finished judgment, she glanced askance at Kadra when he didn’t move. Foreboding coiled in her gut at the familiar ice solidifying in his black gaze even as a deafening clap of thunder made the ground throb beneath their feet.
