“A few things,” I hedged.

Then I considered the timeline of the plague. This spring would be five years since it began. It took two years to sweep through all fifteen Realms, and another year to reach the remote areas. Ryne’s castle was near the coast of the Ronel Sea, overlooking a busy port town. So why did it take so long to affect him?

“Belen, where was Ryne living when the plague broke out?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” He glanced at Kerrick, who had appeared to be sleeping, but now pushed up on his elbow. “Do you?”

“No, why?” Kerrick asked me.

“He contracted the plague late. I was just curious if he had been living in northern Ivdel or far from populated areas.”

“There weren’t many people living up near the wildlands,” Belen said. “Mostly just the border sentries on duty. People were afraid of being too close to the tribes.”

Who we had assumed also caught the plague and died in large numbers. But no sentries walked the border, guarding against attacks. No rumors of invaders, either. At least, not yet. If it had been transmitted from person to person, then perhaps the people of the tribes were all healthy. A scary thought.

I considered. “Before he became sick, was he with anyone who had the plague?”

Once again Belen met Kerrick’s gaze. “No.”

“Did anything happen to him? Where was he at the time?”

“One of the elite had uncovered a spy working for Tohon,” Belen said.

“We suspected he was loyal to Tohon,” Kerrick added. “He was being questioned when he broke free and wrapped his hands around Ryne’s throat. He was yelling in Ryne’s face, promising to kill Ryne when one of the elite sent a knife through his heart. We never confirmed who he had been spying for.”

“It was just a small group of us. Ryne always insisted on traveling light despite the danger. We were camped in the southern foothills of the Nine Mountains in Vyg,” Belen said.

It was possible Tohon had sent a sick spy to infect Ryne, but that still didn’t explain how he managed to survive so long. Did it matter? Probably not. But… “When he got sick, how long after that incident was it?”

“A few days,” Kerrick said.

“I need a number.”

“Didn’t we change locations after that?” Belen asked Kerrick.

“Yes. We didn’t know how long the spy had been watching us. Ryne ordered us to move east and we hiked through the foothills for two—”

“Three days?” Belen cut in.

“Two,” Kerrick said. “Remember, we stopped because of the spring?”

“How could I forget unlimited hot water?”

“Sounds nice,” I said.

“It was, but that night Ryne started vomiting and had stomach cramps,” Kerrick said. “We thought it was just a reaction to spoiled meat, but when it went on longer than a day, we knew he was in the first stage of the plague. At that time, there were still a couple victims.”

The first stage resembled a stomach bug, and once the person’s stomach and bowels were empty, the symptoms transformed into all-over aches, pains and a high fever, which was stage two. The final stage involved convulsions, delusions and large white blisters on the skin that itched at first, then burned. Many of the victims screamed nonstop in pain during the third stage. They reacted as if they were burning alive.

We didn’t know much about incubation periods, but the general timing of the illness had been four days for stage one, five for stage two and two for stage three. Eleven days to die. Healers took longer. According to Tara, the healers had lasted for twenty days before passing away.

It hadn’t been a surprise to learn many people who had known they had the plague killed themselves before entering the third stage.

“What happened when you knew?” I asked.

“I sent a message to Sepp,” Kerrick said. “We met up with him in the mountains and encased Ryne in stasis about five days after the first symptoms. Then we transported him to a safe location.”

It didn’t matter how far along Ryne was, I would start at the beginning if I healed him. Was he worth twenty days of suffering? I couldn’t say.

We headed north the next morning. Even though we had Estrid’s promise of safe passage to the Nine Mountains, Jael remained a threat. Avoiding the main road, Kerrick chose a route that paralleled it in Pomyt Realm. He kept to the wooded areas, which made sense, but occasionally we would pass through an abandoned town or skirt around a populated one.

As we drew closer to the foothills, all the towns we saw were empty. After five days on the road, we encountered towns that had been recently burned. Evidence of an attack marked the buildings and stained the ground.

Belen noticed my concern. “Marauders.”

“Like the ones who attacked Alga?” I asked.

“Yes. Except these live in the foothills. They invade a town, steal everything that’s worth anything, burn the place down and retreat back to the foothills. When they run out of provisions, they target another.”

“What about Ryne’s elite squads? What have they been doing all this time?”

“One is protecting Ryne. The rest are protecting the three northern Realms, keeping them safe while Belen and I searched for a healer,” Kerrick said. He quirked a wry smile. “We had no idea it would take this long.”

“In the meantime, Estrid’s been gaining momentum in the eastern Realms,” Belen said. “And Tohon has been creeping in from the west.”