Cael's mouth tightened, but he did not argue.
Perhaps he was just as concerned as others here in the camp. But he would be lying if he said he wasn't scared of this mysterious sickness.
Even so, it was Cael, in the end, who raised the question that nobody else had dared to. "If any of us is carrying it," he said, "and we send someone to Rootrest, we could bring the sickness straight to Kael's door."
Nobody answered for a moment. The fire crackled, and somewhere in the lodge behind them, a child began to cough.
"Then she does not go in," Valen said finally. "She will stop at the edge of the fields. She will wash in boiled water, and burn the clothes she wears now, and speak to Kael from upwind and out of reach. He can send people to her with whatever he decides to send."
He turned to Tessa. "You can tell him everything from the edge of the field."
"Standing in a ditch like a beggar," Tessa muttered.
"Shouting like a mad crow," said Braka.
