The Humanarium.

Chapter 17. The Sick and Dying.

My illness worsens. Maybe all the excitement has taken its toll. I will push on with the plan no matter how much Karvac demands I rest.

They visited houses en route to the council tower only to find homes packed with the sick and dying. Sonora handed out potions from her satchel to those who she knew best and any with children. She gathered as much information as they could. Scarcity was everywhere, food being the hardest to come by, mostly due to people hoarding; but no one knew what the cause of the disease was and everyone hoped the council to sort it out soon.

A dull roar grew in to angry shouts as they neared the tall marble tower where the council presided.

Clustered around the imposing white building were dozens of figures pleading in chorus for help. Some of the people shouted at the two guards who stood silent and stone-faced by the entrance, barring the door with crossed spears. Others were forced to disperse by the guards patrolling outside, but by the time the guards had come full circle around the tower, the groups had returned.

'I don't like the look of this,' Harl said. 'We should leave before things get out of contr-.'

'Sonora!' Harl spun around at the voice to find Elaine, the sick woman they had met coming in to town, stumbling towards them. She tripped and collapsed to her knees, coughing blood onto the cobblestones as a fit of couching wracked her.

The crowd washed back from her like an outgoing tide, leaving a space around the helpless woman.

She stretched a frail, blackened hand up to Sonora. 'The medicine-' she croaked.

Sonora dug a hand into her bag and pulled out a vial. As she began to rush forward Harl seized her arm and she froze.

Dozens of faces had turned towards them and, like a gold coin in a street of beggars, their eyes locked on to the healer. Then the crowd surged forwards, stumbling over each other in their haste to reach Sonora. Elaine was trampled under the feet of the more energetic, who shoved their way towards them, scrambling past each other as they demanded the potions.

Harl tried to slide the bow off his shoulder, but it caught on his jacket so he reached for the knife in his belt instead.

A coal-black hand raked Sonora's dress, clasping the thin material and spinning her around. Harl grabbed the fingers and yanked them away, glad he'd brought gloves.

'Please can you help?'

'My daughter...'

'My family...'

Sonora rummaged in her bag and pulled out potions as fast as possible. They were snatched before she could hand them over as hands pawed the bag's opening. She strained to pull the satchel back as the straps became taught, threatening to split and scatter Gorman's valuables into the crowd.

'It is not a cure!' Sonora cried above the pleading crowd as she and Harl were crushed in on all sides by desperate faces, some blackening with the disease under their ragged hoods. When she had no more potions to give out the crowd still clawed at the bag. The stitches began to tear. Harl grabbed Sonora by the hand and pushed his way through the crowd, desperately shoving people aside as he made for the nearest guard.

A huge man, a head taller than Harl, blocked his path and glared down at him. The man's face was streaked with jagged black lines. Harl could see thin streaks within the man's eyeball, as if the blood vessels inside pumped black instead of red.

'The bag,' the man growled.

Fear clutched Harl, but with Sonora in danger he reacted. He tensed and jabbed a fist into the man's stomach, doubling him over before smashing an elbow into the face while hoping that the disease didn't transfer though his sleeve. The man crumpled to the cobblestones.

A sharp ringing of steel made the people closest to them stop pawing and grabbing at Sonora. The guard had spotted their predicament and had drawn his sword.

'Get back!' he shouted.

When only a few took notice and stopped, the guard strode forward and held his blade straight out at the crowd, giving Harl and Sonora a chance to break away. The big man had got to his feet and barged forward to the front. He scowled at Harl as if ready to rush him.

'Get back, Holden,' the guard said, wide eyed as he swung his sword left and right.

A group of guards stormed out from between nearby buildings rushed over to aid the lone soldier.

Harl kept hold of Sonora's hand as they broke for freedom and ran back across town to the stall, leaving the guards behind trying to quell the mob.

'That was too close,' Harl said, seeing their cart loaded and waiting for them beside the merchant and his bodyguards up ahead.

'They're just desperate,' Sonora said. 'The council should be out there explaining the situation and fixing the issues. Instead they hide inside their tower and behind their armed guards.'

'They're more than desperate,' Harl said, angry that she had ignored the danger in her belief that everyone there was innocent.

'If it was me needing the medicine,' she said, 'then I hope you'd try to get some.'

'You know I would,' he said, 'but the only medicine for that back there was to get you as far away as possible before they tore you to shreds.'

She shook her head. 'I'm sorry, it's just hard to see people, who one carried each others groceries home from market now trample each other to the dirt. These are not the same people.'

'It's all there,' Sanda said, as they came within earshot of his wooden stall. He tugged back a roll of thick cotton on top of the cart to reveal a jumble of supplies underneath. 'I'll throw in the cloth for free. But best keep it all covered until you're out of town.'

Sonora handed Sanda the satchel containing the payment and his smile widened as he poured the contents into a steel box beneath the stall.

'Take care,' the merchant said. 'Would you like one of my guards to see you to the gate?'

'You've done enough already, thank you.' Harl said as he gripped the cart's handles and heaved it towards the gate.

'Grandpa will be so pleased we got it all,' Sonora said when the stall was behind them.

Harl was glad they were on their way out. He grimaced against the weight and heaved the cart forward. If they survived the coming days it would be a long time before he came down from the forest again. The town sickened him.

A slur of raised voices came from between two houses on their left. Felmar and a group of guards stumbled out from an ally. Harl groaned at the sight. The men were staggering into each other, holding bottles and laughing among themselves as they tottered down the road oblivious to Harl and Sonora coming in the opposite direction. Harl kept his head down as they passed, pushing the cart ahead as he silently cursed the loud squeaking wheel.

'Should 'ave seen his face,' one said, waving a bottle at the others, 'when I told him his pretty wife deserved a real man. Maybe I should go back an make the point clearer.' He looked at Felmar, but the captain shook his head.

'Leave 'em be,' Felmar said. 'They'll all get what they deserve.' He lobbed his empty bottle over his shoulder and, as it smashed down on the cobblestones, he swiped a half-full one from a fat guard beside him.

'Hey,' the man said, but Felmar just glared at him.

The group paid them little attention and Harl thought they would slip past unnoticed. But then one of the soldiers caught sight of Sonora.

'She's a pretty one,' he said, his neck craning round as they passed to keep Sonora fixed in his gaze.

'Hang on,' Felmar said and Harl heard their footsteps falter then stop. 'Well, if it ain't pretty little miss Sonora!' Felmar said, spinning on them.

[I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please vote and comment. i do enjoy reading and responding.]