rash closely. It wasn’t a solid mass of red, as it first appeared to be. It was more like a collection of deep red spots that were growing together to form a confederacy. It sure wasn’t worms.
“Say ah.”
The boy had a hard time swallowing the bread so he could open his mouth. His mouth was red and swollen inside, particularly around the soft palate and the little lobe of flesh hanging at the back of his throat, which were covered with a viscous secretion.
“Has he been complaining of a sore throat?”
The woman shrugged, as if she were worried about opening the door to that possibility and letting in another burden.
“Any vomiting?”
“Sure, but I thought it was the worms.”
“Convulsions?”
“Huh?”
“You know, any uncontrollable twitching, fits, attacks, seizures, that sort of thing.”
“No, thank God.”
“Does he have any pain in his legs?”
“Oh my God, yes,” said the mother, her eyes widening. “He was just complaining about it on the way over here, but I figured he was just whining as always. What is it? What has he got?”
“What about his urine?”
“What do you mean, his urine?”
“Is he peeing normally? What color is it?”
“No, the fever must have taken it all away. The few drops that came out this morning were as red as that rash.”
Oh, dear God. It was the scarlet fever, which no doctor on earth could cure. Despite all her knowledge, the best she could hope for was treating some of the symptoms, which might give the boy an even chance of surviving.
“How long has he had this fever?”
The woman hesitated. “I don’t need any more trouble.”
“There won’t be any trouble. Now tell me how long.”
“A couple of days,” she finally admitted.
“All right. The first thing you need to do is give him cold baths to keep down the fever.”
“Cold baths? What about spiderweb?”
“That’s an old legend. It won’t bring down his fever. I don’t keep any around.”
“You don’t? What kind of a healer are you? Not even to stop bleeding?”
“Cloth works just as well,” said Kassy. And in case you haven’t heard, people associate spiderwebs with witches. “What about his brothers and sisters?”
“What about them?”
“Do they show any signs of having the same symptoms?”
“Not yet.”
“Good. You need to keep him away from them, or they might catch it, too.”
“What do you think he’s wearing this for?” said the woman, holding up a pouch around the child’s neck.
Kassy gently eased the pouch out of the woman’s grip, loosened the draw-string, and opened it up. She sniffed the contents, and almost got a noseful of peony root—a deadly poison.
“Did you get this from another curist?” she said, covering her nose and waiting a couple of heartbeats to see if she felt its toxic sting.
“Of course I did. He said it would protect him from evil.”
“Yes, it works like a charm, doesn’t it?”
That is, if you want to kill someone. Peony root, for Christ’s sake. But Kassy didn’t feel any burning yet, which meant that she might actually live to see the sunrise on Easter morning, as she had been planning to do. So she simply said that this dosage of the herbal charm had become too dry to be effective, and replaced it with some flowering hops sprinkled with alcohol, which would at least help the boy sleep.
“That’s fine for keeping down the fever, but what about getting rid of the rash?” asked the woman.
“I’m going to give you a couple of doses of an infusion made from the bark of the aspen tree, which comes all the way from the northern Americas. It’s been highly recommended for bringing down fever.”
“I didn’t ask you about bringing down the fever, I asked you about curing the rash.”
“Keep giving him water with sweet herbs that’s been boiled and cooled, and with God’s help, the rash might go away before long—”
“It might go away? There’s a man down the block who says he can cure it in three days flat.”
Well, he’s lying, Kassy thought.
She said, “I’m sorry, but I’ve never seen anyone actually cure the scarlet fever.”
“Don’t you want to help my child? Or are you out to harm him? I don’t know what your game is, missy, but we’re not staying here another minute.”
The woman wrapped her shawl around her son as if she were protecting him from a sorceress’s evil gaze, then she picked him up and stormed out.
“Don’t forget to give him the cooling baths!” Kassy called after her.
Some days are like this, Kassy thought. Sometimes the ignorance was just too strong. She