When I got home, Goben was seated next to the big bed. Ma huddled on top of the covers, eyes bloodshot and skin sallow. He looked at me when I walked in and said, "Sember, Ma doesn't look so good. Do you think it might be . . . what those other people have?"

Ma convulsed into a coughing fit, then settled back into her pillow. I came closer. A sheen of sweat covered her face, and her eyelids were heavy when she looked at me. "Sember," she said with a weak smile. "Sweet Sember . . ."

"I'm going to find Ruba," I told Goben and rushed out the door.

I headed straight for the cabin where the quarantine had been set up. Ruba hardly left it now, so chances were good I'd find her there. When I got there, the table that used to sit inside was now outside. I peeked through the doorway and found bedrolls laid across the floor from one wall to the other. The bed had been pushed against the wall next to the front door. A pungent, rank smell made me crinkle my nose.

Ruba was wiping a damp cloth across the brow of one of her patients when I knocked. When she looked up, I could tell she was exhausted. "You shouldn't be in here," she said. "Whatever this is . . . it's spreading."

"Ruba, how does this sickness start? I think my mom may have it. She has a fever, and started coughing today."

When her face fell, I already knew the answer. Her voice was thick with sympathy when she said, "I'm sorry, Sember. That's exactly how it starts."

I rubbed my arms and glanced around the room. "Has anyone gotten better?"

"I'm afraid not."

Six—soon to be seven—people lay on the floor. Some were sleeping, some were groaning, but they all had sickeningly pale skin with rashes in varying degrees of severity. The one in the far corner was the worst, with rashes that had turned black. My chest tightened, squeezing at my heart as I thought about my mother getting worse.

"What can we do?" I continued rubbing one arm.

"Nothing I try seems to work. We need Siena."

I deflated, hating the feeling of being helpless. Useless. There was no way to reach Siena. She always came back, but the amount of time she spent away often varied, depending on how many tribes needed her help.

A sudden fit of coughing and wheezing erupted from the corner. The man with the black rash doubled over on his side, blood oozing from his mouth.

My stomach turned.

"Can I keep Ma at home? I don't have to bring her here, do I?"

Her lips pursed with doubt.

"Just tell me what to do, and Goben and I will take care of her."

She hesitated a little longer, then relented. "Try to keep her fever down. And give her soup. She needs to keep her strength up."

I nodded, then bolted out the door.

I hate getting sick. Let's vote for getting better! ;)