|
|
|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Behind him, just outside the door, was the tall figure of the Weyrleader who
had conveyed Capiam and Lord Ratoshigan from Ista's Gather to Southern Boll.
"I sat down only for a moment, Lord Ratoshigan," Capiam lifted his hand in a
gesture of dismay, "to organize my notes."
"Well?" The third prompting was a bark of unequivocal displeasure. "What is
your diagnosis of these ..." Ratoshigan did not say "malingerers" but the
implication would have been plain enough even if the anxious infirmarian had
not repeatedly told Capiam that Lord Ratoshigan regarded any man as a
malingerer who took his bread and protection but did not deliver a fair day's
work in return.
"They are very ill, Lord Ratoshigan."
"They seemed well enough when I left for Ista! They're not wasted or scored."
Ratoshigan rocked from heel to toe, a thin man with a long thin, bony face,
pinched nostrils above a thin, pinch-lipped mouth and hard small eyes in dry
sockets. Capiam thought the Lord Holder looked considerably more unwell than
the men dying in the infirmary beds. "Two have died of whatever it is that
afflicts them," Capiam said slowly, reluctant to utter the terrifying
conclusion that he had reached before exhaustion had overcome him.
"Dead? Two? And you don't know what ailed them?" Out of the corner of his eye,
Capiam noticed that Sh'gall had stepped back from the doorway at the mention
of death. The Weyrleader was not a man who tolerated injury or illness, having
managed to avoid both.
"No, I don't know precisely what ails them. The symptoms, a fever, headache,
lack of appetite, the dry hacking cough-are unusually severe and do not
respond to any of the commonly effective treatments."
"But you must know. You are the Masterhealer!"
"Rank does not confer total knowledge of my Craft." Capiam had been keeping
his voice low, out of deference to the exhausted healers sleeping in the next
room, but Ratoshigan exercised no such courtesy and his voice had been rising
with his sense of indignation. Capiam rose and walked around the table,
Ratoshigan giving way before him, backing out into the close night.
"There is much we have forgotten through disuse." Capiam sighed, filled with a
weary despair. He ought not to have allowed himself to sleep. There was so
much to be done. "These deaths are but the beginning, Lord Ratoshigan. An
epidemic is loose on Pern."
"Is that why you and Talpan had that animal killed?" Sh'gall spoke for the
first time, angry surprise in his voice.
"Epidemic?" Ratoshigan waved Sh'gall to silence. "Epidemic! What are you
Page 33
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
saying, man? Just a few sick, "
"Not a few, Lord Ratoshigan." Capiam pulled his shoulders back and leaned
against the cool stucco wall behind him. "Two days ago I was urgently called
to Igen Sea Hold. Forty were dead, including three of the sailors who had
rescued that animal from the sea. Far better that they had left it on its tree
trunk!"
"Forty dead?" Ratoshigan was incredulous, and Sh'gall stepped farther back
from the infirmary.
"More are falling ill at the Sea Hold and in the nearby mountain hold whose
men had come down to see the incredible seagoing feline!"
"Then why was it brought to Ista Gather?" The Lord Holder was outraged now.
"To be seen," Capiam said bitterly. "Before the illnesses started, it was
taken from the Sea Hold to Keroon for the Herdmaster to identify. I was doing
what I could to assist the Sea Hold healers when a drum message summoned me to
Keroon. Herdmaster Sufur had people and animals sickening rapidly and
curiously. The illness followed the same course as that at Igen Sea Hold.
Another drum message, and I was conveyed by brown dragon to Telgar. The
sickness is there, too, brought back from Keroon by two holders who were
buying runnerstock. All the beasts were dead, and so were the holders and
twenty others. I cannot estimate how many hundreds of people have been
infected by the merest contact with those so contagious. Those of us who live
to tell the Harper will thank Talpan's quick wits," Capiam looked severely at
Sh'gall, "that he linked the journey of the feline to the spread of the
disease."
"But that animal was the picture of health!" Sh'gall protested.
"It was." Capiam spoke with dry humor. "It seemed immune to the disease it
brought to Igen, Keroon, Telgar, and Ista!"
Sh'gall defensively crossed his arms over his chest. "How could a caged animal
spread disease?" Ratoshigan demanded, his thin nostrils flaring.
"It wasn't caged at Igen, nor on the ship when it was weak from thirst and its
voyage. At Keroon, Master Sufur kept it in a run when he was trying to
identify it. It had ample opportunity to infect people and plenty of time."
Capiam despaired as he thought of how much time and opportunity. The healers
would never be able to trace all the people who had seen the rarity, touched
its tawny coat, and returned to their holds, incubating the disease.
"But ... but ... I just received a shipload of valuable runners from
Keroon!"
Capiam sighed. "I know, Lord Ratoshigan. Master Quitrin informed me that the
dead men worked in the beasthold. He's also had an urgent message of illness
from the hold at which the men and the beasts halted overnight on the way from
the coast."
Ratoshigan and Sh'gall at last began to appreciate the gravity of the
situation.
"We're in the middle of a Pass!" Sh'gall said.
"This virus is as indifferent to us as Thread is," Capiam said.
"You have all those Records in your Crafthall. Search them! You have only to
search properly!" Sh'gall had never had an unfruitful Search, had he?
thought Capiam, and suppressed his errant sense of humor. One day, though, he
meant to record the various and sundry ways in which men and women reacted to
disaster. If he survived it!
"An exhaustive search was initiated as soon as I saw the reports on the
Igen Sea Hold death toll. Here is what you must do. Lord Ratoshigan."
"What I must do?" The Lord Holder drew himself up.
"Yes, Lord Ratoshigan, what you must do. You came to seek my diagnosis.
I have diagnosed an epidemic. As Masterhealer of Pern, I have authority over
Hold, Hall, and Weyr in these circumstances." He glanced at Sh'gall to be sure
the Weyrleader was listening, too. "I hereby order you to announce by drum
that a quarantine exists on this Hold and the one your beasthandlers used on
Page 34
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the way from the coast. No one is to come or go from the Hold proper. There is
to be no travel anywhere in your Hold, no congregating."
"But they must gather fruit and,"
"You will gather the sick, human and animal, and arrange for their care.
Master Quitrin and I have discussed empiric treatments since homeopathic
remedies have proved ineffectual. Inform your Warder and your ladies to
prepare your Hall for the sick,"
"My Hall?" Ratoshigan was aghast at the idea.
"And you will clear the new beastholds of animals to relieve the crowding in
your dormitories."
"I knew you'd bring that subject up!" Ratoshigan was nearly spitting with
rage.
"To your sorrow, you will find that the healers' past objections have
validity!" Capiam vented his pent-up anxieties and fears by shouting down
Ratoshigan's objections. "You will isolate the sick and care for them, which
is your duty as Lord Holder! Or come the end of the Pass, you'll find you hold
nothing!"
The passion with which Capiam spoke reduced Lord Ratoshigan to silence.
Then Capiam turned on Sh'gall.
"Weyrleader, convey me to Fort Hold. It is imperative that I return to my Hall
as quickly as possible. You will wish to waste no time alerting your
Weyr."
Sh'gall hesitated, but it was not to speak to his dragon.
"Weyrleader!"
Sh'gall swallowed. "Did you touch that animal?"
"No, I did not. Talpan warned me." Out of the corner of his eye, Capiam saw
Ratoshigan recoil.
"You cannot leave here, Master Capiam," Ratoshigan cried, skittering fearfully
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plkwiatpolny.htw.pl
|
|
| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
|
|
