Hollowpox The Hunt for Morrigan Crow - Jessica Townsend Page 0,95
Jack jumped in surprise as the door flew open and Fenestra pounced in front of them. She gave a low growl. ‘Don’t you know it’s rude to eavesdrop?’
‘Fenestra, just let them in,’ came Jupiter’s weary voice from inside the room. ‘They’re going to hear about it anyway.’
Fen gave a resentful, snuffling grunt and herded the pair of them into the parlour, pushing them forward with her great fluffy head.
‘Ow – careful, Fen!’ Morrigan protested as she stumbled into an armchair.
‘Are you two all right? Fen’s told me all about the gala.’ Jupiter sighed, and added in a dispirited mutter, ‘Shame, I could have had a lovely surprise when I read about it in the papers later.’
‘We’re fine,’ said Jack. ‘What are we going to hear about? What’s going on?’
Perched on the edge of the windowsill, Jupiter rubbed his face with both hands.
‘I spoke with Inspector Rivers last night. She has sources in the Wintersea Republic who believe that’s where the Hollowpox originated. A couple of years ago they had an epidemic that only affected Wunimals. They called it something different of course, but their eyewitness accounts are identical: agitation and loss of language followed by a reversion to unnimalistic behaviours, leading to violence and finally ending with the Wunimal in a comatose state. Or worse.’ Jupiter paused, taking a deep breath.
‘If it happened two years ago, why’s the Stealth only finding out about it now?’ asked Jack. ‘Don’t they keep an eye on everything that happens in the Republic?’
‘Do they?’ asked Morrigan. That was news to her.
‘They knew about the dwindling Wunimal populations,’ said Jupiter. ‘But they attributed it to other factors; Wunimals have been under attack across the border for a long time, and nobody had heard anything about a disease. And Wunimal groups in the Republic are small and scattered; they don’t really talk to each other.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Morrigan. ‘There are no Wunimals in the Wintersea Republic.’
Fenestra gave a derisive groan. ‘Of course there are! Just because you never saw them, doesn’t mean—’
‘Easy, Fen.’ Jupiter pressed the spot between his eyebrows, dropping a couple of headache tablets into a glass of water. It fizzed and bubbled and turned a cool, calming shade of lilac. ‘Yes, Mog, there are Wunimals in the Republic. Lots of them. But they don’t live the way Wunimals in the Free State live. They have their own communities, mostly in secret.’ He downed the glass of lilac water in one.
‘Why do they want to live in secret?’ Morrigan asked.
‘They don’t want to,’ said Fen. ‘They have to.’
‘The Wintersea Party doesn’t officially acknowledge their existence,’ Jupiter continued. ‘It makes life dangerous for them. There are some Wunimals living in the Free State who came here to escape the Republic. It’s possible one of them brought the Hollowpox with them.’
‘But the borders are closed,’ said Morrigan.
‘Yes, the borders between the Republic and the Free State are, officially, closed,’ said Jupiter, ‘but there are ways in and out if you know what you’re doing. They’re risky, but if somebody is in serious need of help, there are people in the Free State who are willing to take the necessary risks. And many Wunimals in the Republic are in serious need of help. Fen is part of a group that specialises in bringing them to safety.’
‘She’s … part of a smuggling ring?’ Morrigan said, just as Jack blurted out, ‘Fen, you’re a smuggler?’
Morrigan didn’t know why she was surprised. She knew the Magnificat well enough by now to realise she was capable of pretty much anything.
Fen casually clawed at the rug. ‘We prefer the term “rescue ring”.’
‘Hang on,’ said Jack. ‘Uncle Jove, are you saying the Hollowpox came from one of—?’
‘AS I have been telling Jupiter, it absolutely did NOT come from one of ours,’ Fen said fiercely. ‘Impossible. Every Wunimal we smuggle across the border stays in a safe house for a month before we find them somewhere permanent in the Seven Pockets. Any sign of sickness in that time and they go straight into quarantine and stay there until they’ve been treated. There is no way – absolutely no way – that Hollowpox Patient Zero came into Nevermoor through me.’
‘Fen, it wasn’t an accusation, it was a warning. Your safe houses better be airtight, because there’ll be raids before long. And tell your lot to be extra careful. The borders are being watched more closely than ever.’
‘I thought the Free State was supposed to be impenetrable?’ asked Morrigan.