VI.

The morning dew brought a chill to the air for the men to wake up to, their fire burnt out and the sun barely peeking over the horizon. In the night one of their horses died leaving them with only four, two per carriage if they wanted to travel at a decent speed.

Since their provisions for the journey were beginning to become exhausted and there was less of a need for the furs of their winter clothing, the men ditched much of their clothes and chopped the carriage down for its metal for selling and wood for burning. Two of the men dragged the horse into the woods where they butchered it for its meat before returning to the others to prepare a meal.

Once the men set off on the road towards the nearest village they could find, they realized that the sick guardsmen was no longer murmuring and barely breathing. They knew that he would die if he didn’t receive help by the end of the day.

By the time they reached the small, chanty town it was already passed midday and the horses were becoming exhausted from the constant riding. The locales looked at the men in the carts with looks of awe, both towards their attire and the abruptness of their visit on this town. Being so far away from any other major institute of civilization, the town was still quite civilized and most of the buildings were made of either brick or wood. The sight of civilization brought about good odds that the band would find an apothecary for their diseased companion.

The convey split up in order to get as much work as they could done, such as stocking up provisions and finding a safe passage to get to the south. Markus, Aotrys aided Zoran in carrying the poisoned guardsmen, who they decided to name Sully in case anyone asked, to an apothecary if there was one.

Townspeople turned at the sight of the two large men, Markus and Aotrys as they carried Sully in their arms while Zoran ran around the town asking anyone for help with his companion. After an hour Zoran managed to find information regarding a retired apothecary who resided at the edge of the town to work on his studies.

The apothecary’s manor was resting outside of the town’s walls and was slatted with grime from the years that it sat there. Aotrys banged on the doors of the manor and was greeted with no response, not until a curtain was pulled back in the window above them and the sound of chatter behind the door. An opening in the door opened up and revealed the face of a old man who was covering his face with a ragged cloth.

“What do you want, are you diseased? Only the diseased come to visit my domain.” Said the older apothecary.

“It is true, my companion is close to death’s door with an unknown affliction that’s consuming his life.” Spoke Zoran in response to the apothecary’s question.

The old man was staring at Sully who was still being carried by Aotrys and Markus in their arms. The apothecary asked the men to;

“Show me this affliction that you speak of.”

Markus pulled the linen shirt from Sully’s chest and revealed the spiderweb, frost structure that spread across the man’s chest from the disease. Sully’s eyes were white and his veins with ashes from the color of the disease.

The apothecary was silent for a moment, then closed the opening of the door before retreating into his manor. After a few minutes the wooden door opened and revealed the apothecary in an outfit that reminded them of the monsters they heard about in fables. He wore a mask with two large, glass eyeballs and a long beak reminiscent of a bird’s. He wore a long leather coat and gloves that went to his elbow. Not a single inch of his skin was exposed and made the men wonder what exactly he planned on doing. A muffled voice came from the figure,

“Bring him into the house, but follow my exact direction.” Spoke the voice of the apothecary.

The men carried Sully into the building and followed the apothecary into the manor where he led them down stairs in a torch lit basement, which made their skin crawl at the sight of the dark brick and bed which sat right in the middle of the basement.

“What do you plan on doing with him?” Asked Markus as they entered the basement.

“Place him on the table so that I may examine him,” demanded the apothecary.

Aotrys wasn’t understanding exactly what was going on here,

“What’s with the outfit?” asked Aotrys.

“To protect me from whatever is plaguing your friend.” Responded the apothecary.

Markus looked at Aotrys and gave him a nod of reassurance, then the two placed Sully on the table and were further instructed to remove the man of all his closing so that the apothecary could examine him. The three others were instructed to stand away from the operation and wait until he could draw results.

The procedure lasted the remainder of the day where the apothecary examined the tissue, brought a fire in contact with the Sully, filled a vial with his blood and made notes on the patterns that the disease took. By evening Markus, Aotrys, Zoran and the apothecary met upstairs in his study to ask about any conclusions he was able to draw from the procedure.

The study was crowded with books and pages that spread from the bookshelves on the walls to the floor around them, his desk had a collection of books with covers ranging from any color. This domain was something that Markus envied, almost endless amounts of knowledge accumulated from hundreds of scholars around the world who wrote in the common tongue of the continent. The apothecary approached his desk wearing now red robes and collected a series of books before sitting at his desk to study. The three men gathered around the room and examined the endless amounts of books around them, before the apothecary interrupted their curiosity.

“Before we continue I must know how you are and where you hail from.” Asked the apothecary.

Zoran spoke first, “I am Zoran from the South where the sands meet the sea and so is my companion, Sully is his name.”

Then the apothecary turned to Markus and Aotrys, “and how about you two, judging by your size and bear pelt attire you must hail from the North.”

Markus and Aotrys nodded in agreement to his question, then introduced themselves.

“Pleasure to meet you all, I do not get many visitors these day, but my name is Gabriel and I was once a prominent member of the Holy order where I studied the cures for deadly diseases.” Said Gabriel the apothecary, “that was before they were dismantled and died off.”

“And what has your knowledge concluded about our friend, Sully?” asked Zoran.

Gabriel stared at the books in front of him, “Absolutely nothing, I have never seen anything like this before not even in the South nor the North.”

The apothecary continued, “I was able to find that the disease reacted defensively to fire and spread equally throughout the body, latching onto the host like a parasite while it spreads.”

Most of these words were lost on Aotrys who had a limited knowledge of any such things, but Markus understood where the apothecary was going.

“If it’s a parasite, is there anyway to kill it? To stop its spreading in the host’s body?” asked Markus.

“Give me a few hours find a solution in my books, come back in the morning and leave your friend here for the time being.”

The men left to rejoin the convey that sat parked around the main gates of the town. The seed in Aotrys’ mind began its first sprout. 

Next Chapter: Chapter 7