Bladder

-Wake up. Come on, wake up. We need to get out of here.

There was a certain urgency in the male voice that indicated something was wrong.

She slept soundly after the night full of surprises as they returned to the castle. The party had gone well into the early hours of the morning with lots of dancing and merriment.

-The children...?

It was all she could think of at that moment from the tension in the male voice.

-They are well. Mike is with Christina. Jake has already gone ahead with most of the luggage. We need...

This time she woke up fully awake from her previous sleep. There was something wrong he didn't want to talk about. She could tell from the strained breathing and the clenched jaw and annoying features.

-We need...?

The question remained in the air charged with tension. There was something wrong that he didn't willingly tell her.

-What happened?- She took a deep breath leaving the bed startled.

In the courtyard, there was a feverish movement of horses and riders even though it was still dawn. After returning to the castle, nothing could come to her mind to make her husband so agitated. Maybe the right word was almost panic. There was something very serious going on.

-I want you to take the children and...- he didn't quite know what to explain. – There is no time to tidy up many things. Just take the essentials... We'll arrange it later. We need to leave the city. The fastest...

Everything had happened very quickly. There were fires in the streets and outbreaks of small fights.

He sighed, still very tense, looking around for weapons and the sword. There was little ammo and...

-How do you leave? What's happening? RICK! Can you explain me?

Richard Morgan shook his head seriously and apprehensively.

There was war in the streets. The edict guaranteeing religious freedom for wolves was revoked. Some pack members had been slaughtered like simple animals by the sorcerers.

Worse than that was the warning left by the dragons in the streets. They were the most severe punishments meted out to criminals. dismemberment. The corpse had had its arms and legs dismembered and its parts scattered to the four most extreme corners of the city as a warning. They killed the man responsible for the attempt to assassinate the king... The hand that carried out the crime was burned with sulfur. And over the burns, a mixture of molten lead, boiling oil and resin was poured. After that, it was dismembered, and the corpse was burned.

There had been screaming and rioting through the centre of town since dawn. And it wasn't just that. They spoke horrors. The plague had barely finished its empire and they reported the suspicious death of a traveller who had just arrived in the city. There were deformations in the patient's skin. The evolution to death had been even faster. In about 12 days it progressed to vomiting, nausea and, in the end, a generalized infection of the entire skin, where blisters or pustules appeared, which left large scars called bladders.

The elders gathered in the square and front of the palace. They talked and complained. Many suggested leaving the scabs to dry in the sun, a great way to kill the virus with ultraviolet radiation – although they didn't know it at the time. The dried bark was pulverized and inhaled by people. Variolation. The Persians swallowed the husks. In Europe, people rubbed pus from wounds on the skin and inside the nose.

Cassie managed to capture for a split second the horror her husband's mind registered. There was almost a tone of panic.

-What do you mean sick? Hadn't the cases of plague patients improved?

Cassie could only think that after nearly three years of death, life would return to normal. The fields would be cultivated again, and spring would bring warm temperatures for a year full of growing the grains that fed everyone.

-Please... If you love life...- Richard was tense. There are rumours... They talk about the bladder. The disease that killed... There were already people nearby with symptoms of malaise, fever and headaches and backaches.

After about three days, rashes appeared on the arms, legs, and face. They started as little prickly heat and then became purulent blisters. The patient who was first found to have symptoms was dead within a week. He had bleeding in the mucous membranes and skin.

They were poorer popular centres where poor hygiene conditions and promiscuity brought more victims. Somehow the slave quarters arrived. And this was vital to stop the advances of abolitionists who fought for the end of black slavery.

Africans covered themselves with straw from their heads, hiding their faces, and brandishing xaxarás, a kind of broom, which represents the propagation and healing of the bladder.

They cried out to Sapona, lord of contagious diseases and the cure that sent smallpox to his enemies. Called Obaluaê, Lord of the Earth, or Omolu, Son of the Lord, he received popcorn offerings in the terreiros of the slave quarters where the former were already beginning to agonize with symptoms.

-There is nothing proven yet, my dear. They say it could be the bladder, but nothing confirmed. Husks of the corpse's wounded skin were left in the sun to be distributed among the nobility. - Richard still showed concern.

It wasn't just the traditional bladder as they knew it. It was something beyond her, perhaps influenced by the typical illnesses that also came with the severe winter cold and low temperatures and food shortages.

The population was in a panic after the plague scenario for almost two years. The authorities tried at all costs to contain the news that spread until the alarm had been raised by the port watchman when he found the corpse lying and abandoned in the gutter.

Cassie nodded vaguely in shock. Bladder? It was the disease that killed thousands. There would be no safe place for anyone.

-Do you intend to leave the city? - she managed to ask after a few moments when she found her voice.

-He won't leave the city! - Ayla stormed into the couple's room and complained at full steam. It was the arrival of winter and the great balls.

Rick mentally counted to a thousand, arming himself with infinite patience as he looked away from his foster daughter and stopped his gaze on his still dumbfounded wife.

-Ayla has all...

He rolled his eyes and let out a muffled curse.

- I know now that it is the plague. Did you two manage to agree on anything in life once? His frustration knew no bounds. He turned to Ayla, spitting out the words: I let you flirt with the damn boy with the promise that he would become a musketeer to the king, didn't I? Well, get moving and make it happen if you want to be married in the spring. Because if you delay our departure, you'll be single and go to an abbey or convent. I'm not asked. I'm giving orders.

The complaint made both Cassie and Ayla gape at each other. Richard didn't usually lose control that quickly or get carried away with irritation.

His pale, haggard face with dark circles under his eyes clearly showed that he hadn't slept. During the first hours, the nobles had been summoned urgently by messengers sent by the mayor of the city.

-Is the thing that bad? – Cassie managed to ask livid.

-Is bad. He shook his head with a deep sigh. - We'll fill up in Muir. I'm not going to risk having contaminated water in Gaia's basements and losing the barrels. Faith has managed to gather a stash of food provisions that are already on their way to the harbour.

-The wolves...- Ayla wanted to know for the first time with fear.

-Most decided to leave. Not all. Some will try their luck. But the queen has granted us safe conduct. – Rick explained tiredly. Those who wish to leave will have protection guaranteed by the Church. The leader of the sorcerers was murdered. The Order is at war. The Coven and the Black Order fight over the choice of a new leader. Victor Valerius was found murdered on the city streets.