Nothing happened during my inaugural shift. It was simple to guard a single door. However, the few hours alone, breathing in the crisp night air and watching the snow sparkle in the moonlight, was a much-needed respite from the pressure. Even when no one talked about Ryne, I felt their gazes on me and their hopes weighed on my conscience. Worry for Noelle clung to me as well, but out here in the quiet stillness, I could pretend for a little while that all was right with the world.

Eventually, Kerrick arrived to take the next shift, and all my problems rushed back. Reluctant to join the others, I lingered at the top of the stairs.

“What’s wrong?” Kerrick asked.

Nothing. Everything. “Will…Jael hurt my sister?”

“I wish I could say no, but you’ve seen what she’s capable of.” Kerrick stared out at the snow. “As long as your sister is useful to her, she should be fine. Jael’s probably hoping that you’ll return to rescue her. Once Ryne is healed, at least Tohon shouldn’t bother you anymore.”

In that particular case, I would have taken myself off the chessboard. “Unless there is another reason he wants me. He did change the bounty so I’m captured alive.” I paused, considering. “Which is better than being dead.”

“You told me before that some things are worse than death. Do you remember?” Kerrick’s gaze now focused on me.

Surprised he had, I nodded.

“Do you still feel that way?”

I searched my feelings. “No.”

“Good.”

We camped in the record room two more nights. During those days, we searched the entire room. No one spotted another crate that might hold information about the plague. Dejected, we gathered around the campfire until Belen returned from his final sweep. He carried a crate labeled Olaine Poisoning.

“Thinking of learning the assassin arts, Belen?” Loren asked.

“Isn’t that a rare flower? Maybe he wants to get into gardening. I hear that’s what older people do when they reach their dotage,” Quain teased.

Belen shook his head. “Two brains and not a bit of intelligence between them. Good thing the monkeys are entertaining or I’d have left them back in Ryazan.”

Before they could defend themselves, Belen held the crate up. “Olaine poisoning is what the healers thought was wrong with the people before they realized it was the plague.”

I remembered Tara’s consternation over how the symptoms matched, but no olaine plants could be found near the patients. It had been one of many diagnoses suggested during that chaotic time.

“Another deadly plant?” Quain asked, looking a little green.

“In this case, it’s the pollen,” I said. “Anyone living downwind of the plant when it flowers sickens. But they recover about ten days after being exposed to the pollen.”

“Why haven’t we heard of it?” Loren asked.

“It’s a very rare plant that only grows in the foothills on both sides of the Nine Mountains,” Belen said.

Which was why Belen knew about it. However, olaine poisoning had been quickly ruled out. I took the crate from Belen. We’d found nothing else. It might be useful.

That evening, I sat close to the fire and sorted through the crate. Most of the contents detailed the cases of olaine poisoning over the years. There had been twenty-two confirmed sufferers the last year that had been recorded. A map of the foothills of the Nine Mountains had been marked with the location of each case. The majority had been on the northern side in Ivdel, with six in Alga and one on the southern side in Vyg.

Shoved in the back of the crate was another map. This one showed all the Realms. Red dots also marked the map, but the concentration of them were located in Vyg, Pomyt and Sectven. The page had been titled, Recent Outbreak of Olaine Poisoning. However, it had been crossed out and First Plague Victims had been written on top in a different hand.

I dug a little deeper into the records and found a list of dates and locations that matched the red dots.

I borrowed Belen’s stylus and ink. Using dates to link cases, I connected the dots for each date. When I finished I had a series of concentric circles that grew bigger with each date.

They resembled the target Belen had painted on the tree during our knife-throwing lessons.

A finger of ice slid down my back as I stared at the target.

The bull’s-eye hovered right over the Healer’s Guild.

Proof that the plague started at the heart of the Healer’s Guild.

Chapter 17

Breathing became difficult. The first victims of the plague had lived within ten miles of the Healer’s Guild. And like ripples in a still pond, the disease radiated out in circles. Whoever had marked the map stopped after a couple months so the last circle crossed through the border between Pomyt and Casis down through Tobory, sweeping past Lekas—my hometown—going up through Sectven, Sogra, Zainsk and Vyg and past the Nine Mountains, touching on Alga and Ivdel.

I calmed my emotions and viewed the information with a clinical eye. What did these circles tell me? The plague hadn’t been an airborne virus or else the marks would have been concentrated downwind of the prevailing wind direction. Since it had been the spring, the winds would have been from the west.

The plague must have been transmitted person to person. The marks were centered on the more populated areas, which supported that theory. I checked the date of the circle near Lekas. It matched when Noelle said she had sent those letters.

“You’ve been staring at those papers for hours,” Belen said. “Did you find anything useful?”