Thrown Through Time

Chapter 15

Sophie came down the steps from her house the next morning and walked towards the great hall. She saw a few men standing in front of it, speaking with Eirik, Ulriech and their father.

Eirik spotted her before she reached them and waved her over. "We have three more sick this morning," he said.

"Three?" she hadn't expected it to spread quite so fast, but supposed that's why they referred to it as a plague. "I checked the berries this morning and I have four more trays that I can use."

"Berries!" the chief snapped. "Do you have any idea what we're facing here? And you want to treat it with berries?"

"No, it's not the berries," Sophie said. "It's-,"

"Why don't you go back to your house and let the men handle this?" Ulriech spat.

"You don't understand!" she tried to argue. 

"No, you don't understand!" Ulriech snapped. "This isn't something you can help with. Just go home!"

"Father," Eirik said, but his father held up his hand, showing that he wasn't going to discuss it further. When he tried to argue, his father turned and told him he didn't know what he was doing and that he and Ulriech could handle things without him. So he took Sophie by the hand and led her back to her house. "What can we do. It's going to spread through the whole city and it's going to happen fast." He'd heard how quickly some villages had been wiped out by it and he wasn't about to leave it up to his father and Ulriech.

"The mold is starting to grow quickly now," she said. "I just need pitchers or barrels so that I can start adding it to the water. The more we can get soaking now, the faster we can give it out. And the longer it soaks in the water, the better it will absorb."

Eirik nodded and hurried from the house. He found several men coming out of their homes and he instructed them to bring as many empty barrels and pitchers as they could find, to Sophie's house.

Once the house was filled with vessels, they brought water and filled them all, while Sophie ground up mold and berries, praying it would work. Praying that all this effort would make a difference.

By that afternoon, six more were ill and the men carried the medicinal water to them. And Sophie kept working.

By the following morning, nineteen more were sick. Then another twelve. And Sophie kept working.

"You have to rest." Eirik said.

"I can't!" she exclaimed. She'd been up since before dawn, grinding moldy berries. She'd even taken a trip back to the berry patch to pick more in case what she had wasn't enough. "We have to stay ahead of this!"

"We don't even know if it's working!" he said. "What if you get so worn out that you catch it and can't recover from it because you're too weak?"

"Eirik, we have to save as many as we can," she turned to face him. "You've probably never seen what happens with the plague, but it's gruesome. People die horribly. And if this can save them, we have to try! I have to try!"

He rubbed his hands over his face. "I know!" he admitted. "I just.....I just wish we could tell if it's working or not!"

She nodded, wiping her stained hands on her apron. "Let's go check on Cedrin and Elgin." she said.

They walked quickly to the other side of the city center and knocked on the door, knowing that if there was no answer, the people inside were probably dead. Elgin opened it a moment later and Eirik realized he'd been holding his breath.

"How's Cedrin?" Sophie asked.

"He seems to be better," she said. "He still has a slight fever, but it's very mild and he's eating and drinking."