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."
"And you've been drinking the water I brought?"
"Yes. We're almost out."
"I'll bring you more. Do you have enough to last until tomorrow morning?"
Elgin nodded. "I think so."
"We'll check back with you and bring you more in the morning."
"Thank you."
"We should check on the others, too." Eirik said.
They stopped at three more houses and got the same report. They still had fevers, but had improved since the onset of symptoms.
"This is good news," Sophie said. They were going to head back to her house when Ulriech stumbled down the front steps of the great hall and collapsed in front of them. She ran over and managed to roll him onto his back. "he's burning up! We need to get him inside his house,"
Eirik called several men over and they carried him to his house, laying him on his bed while Eirik ran inside the hall to find that his father was also very sick and burning up with fever. The men carried him to his house as well as Eirik ran to Sophie's house.
"Father's ill too!" he said, out of breath.
"Take a pitcher!" she said. "This one's been soaking the longest. Try to get him to drink at least a cup of it. And you should drink some too."
He nodded. "What about Ulriech?"
"I'll go take care of him myself." she said.
"You can't kill him!" he exclaimed. Then he smiled. "Thank you."
"Go!" she laughed. "They'll be alright." Picking up one of the pitchers of water, she carefully carried it to Ulriech's house. She found a cup and used it to scoop water, dripping it into his mouth. "It's amazing how much better I like you when you're silent," she muttered.
By the next morning, Cedrin's fever had broken and Elgin hurried to Sophie's house to tell her the news. Not finding her there, she asked around until someone said they had seen her go to Ulriech's house to take care of him. She hurried there and peeked in through the front door. "Sophie, are you in here?"
"I'm here!" Sophie called.
"He's okay!" she said from the bedroom doorway. "It worked!"
"Oh, thank goodness!" Sophie said. "I'm going to be stuck here for a while. Will you see if anyone else has come down with symptoms? There is plenty of medicine water at my house. Send a pitcher to anyone who needs it."
"Yes, I can do that!" she nodded. "A cup a day?"
"Yes," Sophie said. "I'm so glad he's okay."
"Thank you." she said.
Three days passed. Sophie refilled the pitcher twice in that time, making sure to drink plenty of the water herself too. When Ulriech's fever finally broke, he looked startled to find her in his house.
"Here, drink up," she said, helping him sit up before handing him a cup of the water.
"What it this?"
"It's what saved your life," she said. "Just drink it."
It was early that evening when Elgin knocked softly on the door. Sophie walked over and opened it. "Is everything alright?"
"The chief has pulled through," she said softly. "But Eirik has developed symptoms,"
"When?" Sophie asked.
"Just a few hours ago."
Sophie hurried back through the bedroom door. "Ulriech, do you feel well enough to drink the rest of that water on your own?"
"I guess." he muttered. "Even though I doubt that's what saved me. It was probably my own strength."
"Don't be stupid!" Elgin snapped. "She's already saved almost half the city! You wouldn't have recovered if it weren't for her!"
"It's alright Elgin," Sophie said softly. "Go home and check on Cedrin. And drink a little more, just in case."
Elgin nodded but she cast a glare in Ulriech's direction before she left.
"Where are you going!?" Ulriech bellowed as she picked up her things and made ready to leave.
"I'm going to save Eirik," she said. "Thankfully your father pulled through, but Eirik's sick and I'm going to take care of him. Drink the water, or don't drink the water. It's up to you."
"You can't just leave!"
"Watch me." she muttered, walking out the door and slamming it with a loud thud behind her.
Eirik had taken sick while caring for his father, so she found him there at his house. Chief Yjorgan was still weak and looked relieved when she stepped inside. "How is Ulriech?" he asked as she hurried to Eirik's side.
"He's okay. His fever just broke this morning." she said. "Do you know if Eirik drank any of the water I sent over?"
"I don't know." he said. He was too weak to get up from the chair and Eirik lay, looking deathly pale, on the bed.
She checked the pitcher and saw that it was nearly empty. "I'm going to refill this. I'll be back."
"Is he going to be okay?" he asked.
She nodded. "I'll do my best."
"Who have we lost?" he asked, expecting an entire list.
"We haven't lost anyone," she said, turning from the open doorway to look at him.
"Not even one?" he asked, obviously surprised.
"Not even one." she said.
He nodded and she hurried to her house to refill the water. She could tell that much of it had been taken as most of the barrels were very low, and she wondered how many more people had come down with symptoms since she'd been caring for Ulriech. Filling her pitcher, she carried it back to the chief's house and immediately began dribbling tiny amounts of it into Eirik's mouth.