“He didn’t say. If they weren’t aware of the virus, they wouldn’t have thought twice about letting her in so she could seek medical attention. But I’m thinking she could have been a carrier.”
“You mean, someone who’s survived the virus but can still infect others?” Lucien clarified.
Iain gave a nod. “Exactly. Or, she could have recently gotten infected, and wasn’t showing any signs until after she arrived. At that point, she may have contaminated everyone.”
“Excuse me,” Johna spoke up. “Are you saying you can be sick and not show any symptoms?”
“I’m saying that there’s an incubation period between the time a person becomes infected and when they begin showing signs of illness. In the case of this virus, it has a very short incubation. Normally twenty-four hours, give or take a few hours, depending on the person.”
“So, if the woman had been in that incubation period…”
“Then chances are she’d gotten infected while at one of the other compounds,” Iain concluded.
“Go on,” Yulen urged the doctor. “The woman infected the compound?”
“Yes. The majority of them fell ill. More than half died. It left the compound vulnerable. A month later, they were besieged by Bloods. Durrow says it took less than a day for the Bloods to overrun them. They ate those they killed, and imprisoned the rest. Every few days, they’d take away a couple of people, who never returned. It’s assumed those people were also eaten.”
“I think they were, too,” Atty commented.
Yulen agreed with her. “How was Durrow able to escape?”
“He and several others took turns chewing at each other’s bindings. Eventually Durrow’s came loose first. He told me he had hoped to escape sometime during the night, when the prisoners got wind of something going on. They had no idea what was causing the Bloods to get all worked up, but he saw it as his opportunity to make a run for it. He hoped to reach the next compound and let them know about their situation at Whiterock.”
“If all the prisoners were bound, how did they eat?” Johna asked.
“Like animals,” Atty told her, sadness heavy in her voice. “They put the bowl or bucket on the floor, and you’re expected to bend over and eat it that way. That is, if you’re lucky enough to have it served to you in a container. In a lot of cases, most of the time, the food is dumped onto the ground. And there’s only a small amount of it. Which means you have to fight others for whatever scraps there are.” She turned her head slightly, then added, “And don’t ask me about relieving yourself.”
Lucien felt a coldness go through him. From her tone, it was frighteningly clear that his mother had either gone through that kind of depravity, or was intimately aware of it for some other reason. Either way, he refused to let his imagination take hold. Fortunately, his father broke the awkward silence that followed her comment.
“Then it was our showing up that provided him with a diversion that enabled him to escape. Poor bastard.”
“No telling how many souls are still imprisoned inside that compound,” Johna noted.
“Don’t worry. Teeterson and his men will release them soon enough,” the battle lord promised.
For the next half hour they ate with no further conversation, other than an offhand comment about the weather or the food. When they were done, Yulen gathered up the dirty dishes to hand over to a soldier for cleaning. Lucien was snuffing out the fire when Iain approached him.
“Let me take a look at that head wound before we get back on the road. Been feeling any pain or dizziness?”
Lucien glanced over at where Johna stood, watching them. “No. Not a thing.”
The doctor gave him a pat on the back. “It’s dry, and there doesn’t appear to be any leakage or pus. You may have lucked out on this one, Luc.”
“Boys? Are you coming or not?” Atty called from atop her horse.
Chuckling, the threesome went to retrieve their mounts, and the army continued on its way toward Schutz Ridge.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Diagnosis
“Your doctor is very young. Surely he’s not the only doctor you have at your compound.” Her arms were re-wrapped around his waist. The warmth of her body penetrated through his armor.
Lucien smiled. “Iain’s father, Liam MaGrath, has been our compound physician since before my parents met.”
“Is he too old to accompany the battle lord and lady? Is that why he’s not with them?”
“That’s some of it. He suffers from arthritis, and these treks away from the compound are hard on him physically.” He glanced back at her. “By the way, Iain is my uncle.”
She gasped, making him chuckle. “How is that?”
“He’s my father’s half-brother.”
“What? No!”
He nodded, enjoying this exchange between them. “My grandmother, my father’s mother, married Liam. They had Iain.” He could almost imagine how she was justifying that information, and decided to add more information, if for no other reason than to catch her reaction.
“Iain is younger than my older brother, Mattox, but older than my sister, Mistelle. The three of them ran around together and caused all sorts of havoc when they were kids. Then after I came along, I became the brunt of a lot of their antics. They blamed so much crap on me, but fortunately my parents knew better.”
Johna laughed. The sound of it brought another smile to his lips. At the same time, he looked over to where his parents were riding together, yet apart from the rest of the group, to give them some privacy. They gave him a curious stare, but he didn’t miss the gentle smile his mother wore. Yulen made a shushing gesture, reminding him to keep the noise down. Talking was allowed, but anything louder might draw unneeded attention to them.
“Dad says we need to keep the volume low,” Lucien reminded her. She answered by tightening her arms around him.
“Sometime you need to tell me all about what your siblings did to you.”
“I will. Someday.”
Someday. In that single word a promise was made. A promise that he’d still be around if she wanted him to be. In addition, he realized that her strange eyes no longer bothered him. Maybe it was because his brother also had unique eyes. Or perhaps it was because he’d been around Mutah, with all their varying forms of physical abnormalities.