For those of you who are wondering what that question was last chapter – how many witches and wizards are there in the world – was all about, that will be in the next part of the series, if I write a second part.

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Chapter 14

"We didn't misread the runes. They are devices intended to transport people or objects from one set to the other. However we performed the magic backwards." Nyacahalia explained to the two vampires and one mortal seated in front of them. It had taken three months but the four sorcerers had finally gotten back to them about going home.

"We can send you back, we searched the runes and they still carry your magical signature. All we need to know is how many years into the future you need to be." Kalahimran explained. "Once we know that we have to wait one year, until the same day at the same time you came here. Then we activate the rune backwards again. You have to mark off how far apart the two rings are by using the sand in the center, you draw in the distance. We didn't do that last time. Now we know. Rather than drawing in the symbols to represent distance we'll draw in the symbols to represent years."

Rahkesh and his two companions traded looks. All of the wondering how the sorcerers had managed to miss something like that the first time around. But it didn't really matter. They could go home, in nine months.

"Who are your astronomers?" Daray asked carefully pronouncing their word for astronomer. The language potion had been an especially powerful one and it had worked wonders. In three months they had a basic grasp of the language. They hadn't learned to read or write it, but it seemed that since they only had a year speaking it would be enough. They had occasional trouble with words they hadn't heard yet, and there were plenty of them. And they still spoke fairly slowly, having to search for each word. But the memorization potions had helped a lot and they were steadily progressing. They still messed up, causing much hilarity among their companions, but they could carry a conversation well enough.

The astronomers seemed to be part of the group that had been at the runes during their arrival. Most of them wore white robes that looked shockingly Grecian and silver and gold ornaments. Like with everything else the Chachapoyaro were amazingly advanced. They may not use glass on windows or anything else, but they did have an excellent. If a little odd looking, telescope. And highly sophisticated star charts.

The head astronomer, Illimnhiro was a bald elderly man who seemed very excited about trying to find the time period the visitors came from. He explained that after several centuries of study they had learned to guess with near perfect accuracy what the stars would look like in the future. The first astronomers had made predictions that were confirmed centuries later by their descendants. He took Rahkesh's drawings and distributed copies among the others.

"We have star charts of what we think the stars will look like at any given time, so all we need to do is to find the charts that most closely fits these, and then calculate how many years it is. However we have no idea when to look so it may take a while." He said apologetically. "But we'll find it, never fear."

"That man seems like a very dedicated academic, three days I think." Rahkesh guessed.

"No, it'll take four days." Daray disagreed.

"Oh please, I think he found it to be personally humiliating that he couldn't figure it out right then, tomorrow evening at the latest." Silas said.

Silas must have had a better handle on Illimnhiro, because sure enough during the noon meal the excited chief astronomer came running, in a rather undignified fashion, down the steps and into the courtyard where they were eating with the other students.

"Ha ha! Told you we'd find it!" He cheered, tossing Rahkesh his charts back and pulling out another star chart from under his arm. "One thousand and five years!"

The others gathered around to compare the two star charts, and found that they were exactly the same. Feeling that the old astronomer was getting over excited waiting for them to reply Rahkesh handed him his chart back.

"Amazing, really amazing. I'd never have guessed it was that long." Illimnhiro grinned so wide Rahkesh thought his face would split.

"I'll go tell the sorcerers, ha! Got one over those silly staff wavers! And they didn't think we'd be able to find it!" The old man practically sprinted from the courtyard.

"I didn't know he could run." Nic commented, "in fact, I've never seen him leave the astronomers wing."

"How long until you can go home?" Xeri asked.

"Nine months." Rahkesh replied. "You think we can learn your staff fighting in that time?" The instructors and other students grinned. Nicodemus tossed them all staves.

The instructors, Rahkesh mused, really were very clever. Ever since he and the vampire's had announced their wish to master as much of the Chachapoyaro fighting as possible the instructors had gotten the other students to teach them. The two months since that day had been a training marathon for everyone. The drive to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible had been contagious amongst the students and soon everyone was showing up for twice the usual time allotted for lessons. Seeing the success the other teachers had done the same. Once Daray and Silas had placed anti-scent charms on themselves so that they didn't have to suffer from the smell of so much blood they had joined the potions class in the healers wing. The potions teachers had decided that it was their duty to send the three back with as much knowledge as possible. And again the rest of the class picked it up. The three had done their part by writing everything down. Each one of them working on finding the properties and harvesting methods of different ingredients. And the recopies for different potions, memorization could come later, for now they were just trying to record as much as possible.

All day was spent learning, most of the night spent recording the potions they'd learned and the properties of the ingredients. Pepper up and other energizing potions kept them going as they gathered plants and animals and stored the ingredients in their backpacks, which had been enchanted to be bigger inside than outside. Now that they knew when they would be going back they began to work even harder, exhausting even the vampires in their pursuit of all the knowledge the Chachapoyaro could give them.

"After all none of this knowledge is available in our time, not that we're aware of. Knowing stuff that no one else does could be very useful." Daray had said when they started.

The group spilt into pairs and began working with the staves. Rahkesh found that he really liked these weapons, better than he liked the fencing anyway. Which was fortunate since the Chachapoyaro didn't use swords much; they preferred blowguns and darts, long bows, staves, and knives.

"Watch your foot." Nic warned him as Rahkesh nearly smacked his own ankle. Rahkesh ignored the advice and swung anyway, whipping the staff around and lifting his foot out of the way just in time. With the foot gone his body fell forward, moving in perfect connection with the blow. He planted the foot and turned, coming in for a second blow; Nic knocked both aside, moving quickly to keep up. Rahkesh smirked as the other young man had to dodge his initial attack rather than counter. He really liked these staves.

Unfortunately Nic had many years more experience and promptly landed a painful blow on Rahkesh's side. Rather than take a minute to shake off the pain Rahkesh continued his attack, again startling Nic who'd assumed he would pause once hit. He still managed to knock the staff aside and swung at Rahkesh's feet, Rahkesh neatly sidestepped and attacked again.

As the groups sparred the vampires drifted into the shadows cast by the surrounding buildings. The sunlight was a problem for them. The potions room was indoors, and gathering ingredients wasn't an issue since it was all down under the thick forest canopy where very little light penetrated. Fighting classes were a problem, the courtyard was mostly sunny. However they had learned to stay in the shade and found that it helped. Xeri and Nic had persuaded Rahkesh to stop wearing the arm guards and go shirtless as they did, but the vampires refused. Too much sunlight made them ill and the Chachapoyaro seemed to shut down at night, forcing the vampires to be up and around only during the daylight. For them the less skin exposed to the sun's harsh rays the better they felt.

Fortunately both of them had found the time to complete the next two parts of their blood magic in the three months they'd been with the Chachapoyaro. Nic had shown them a cave in the mountains that they'd modified for the blood magic rituals. Rahkesh had completed his set of night vision runes and the next parts of his speed and strength runes. He was pushing himself hard, knowing that if the sorcerers were right there was a good chance they'd arrive back in their own time to find that no time had passed. Therefore it made sense to get as much bloodmagic done as possible. Bloodmagic was time consuming and if he could finish several pieces then it would put him even farther ahead, which meant that he could start necromancy and soul magic sooner.

XXX

The stranger was led into the city by one of the patrol that ranged through the forest below the city. He was not a Chachapoyaro, he didn't speak their language and he stared in awe at the massive buildings. They came in at dawn, and so missed most of the populace. But Nicodemus had been on guard duty that morning and had come to wake them as soon as the next guard relieved him.

Still half-asleep Xeri, Daray, Silas, and Rahkesh gathered in the dining room to listen. Nicodemus was agitated, pacing continuously.

"I'm telling you he was Inca." He said for the fifth time.

"Nic you must be mistaken, they wouldn't bring an Inca here." Xeri disagreed, again. Finally getting tired of not understanding what they were talking about Rahkesh broke in.

"What is an Inca and why does it matter?" When Nic just kept pacing Xeri sighed and explained.

"The Inca are a largely non-magic people who have been invading the area for a few years. They can't get to Vailape of course, the walls are too strong-"

"What walls?" Daray asked, Vailape (the city) didn't have walls.

"The walls…you've never seen them. At the edge of the forest, you know how it drops away sharply? It does that because there's a cliff there. There didn't use to be a drop off like that, we dug into the earth until we hit bedrock, than hacked a cliff out of it. Smoothed it out with magic you can't climb it." Xeri explained. Not far away from the city the forest dropped off suddenly, flattened out, then dropped off again, like tow stairs.

"There's two cliffs, they surround the city. There's one staircase going down. But there's enough land up here that we don't nee dot go down. The road to the other cities is back in the mountains behind us, and the Inca can't get into these mountains." Nic said.

"So the Inca have been invading, and the patrol brought one into the city?" Rahkesh asked.

"YES! I can't imagine what they were thinking. Bringing one of them here. No Inca has ever seen one of our cities, that's part of our advantage." Nic said.

"Sit down Nic. They probably just brought him in to interrogate him. In a few weeks they'll send him on to Xuelhuala." Xeri said. Xuelhuala was one of the cities f warriors hidden deep in the mountains that ran on slave labor. Nic sat down and picked at his breakfast.

"I don't like knowing that one of them got in here, prisoner or not. And why couldn't they interrogate him outside the city?"

"Maybe they'll just execute him." Rahkesh said.

It turned out that Rahkesh had been right. After a rigorous interrogation session, that could not have been pleasant, the prisoner had been decapitated in the city center. Everyone had turned out to watch and nod with approval.

But all Rahkesh saw was that the prisoner smiled as they did it. And he started to worry.

"You're just feeling Nic's temper. He's still pissed at that patrol." Silas had said. The patrol in question had been one of students, who had been banned from future patrols for a while. But Rahkesh still felt that something was very, very, wrong. Even after Nic had calmed down he couldn't sleep, couldn't think of much besides that prisoner.

"Rahkesh he's dead. The Inca aren't magical and they have no chance of getting in here." Xeri told him.

"Yeah, try to relax, there's no reason to be so worried." Silas told him. But Rahkesh could not relax, he was too worried. And it didn't escape his notice that Daray wasn't faring any better.

"You sense it too?" He asked once the others had left the courtyard.

"Yes. Something is going to happen, and I don't like it." The vampire said. "Not that anyone's going to listen. Heck, what would we do if they did? I don't even know what's wrong, just that something is."

"An attack?" Rahkesh asked.

"No, not yet," Daray said thoughtfully, "not a violent danger, not now. I don't know what it is."

"I agree, not an Inca attack then, not yet. Some form inside the city I think." Rahkesh said.

"Traitors?"

"No. Something else." Rahkesh shrugged and the two followed their companions to the potions classes.

Their worries were confirmed when people started falling ill. Rahkesh first noticed one day while one of the healers was teaching him to heal internal injuries wandlessly. It seemed unusual that thirty people came in in one day, all with the same symptoms.

The next day fifty more got sick. And the healers isolated them in the room with a black X on the door. They told everyone to stay isolated as much as possible. That night the city elders met.

In spite of the isolation of everyone who had gotten sick there were fifty new cases within three days.

On the sixth day the healers called them to the hospital, hoping that their visitors might recognize the illness.

The scene inside the hospital was one Rahkesh knew he'd never forget. First there was the smell, it wasn't a nice smell. It was gross, sickening, and frightening. The whole building reeked.

"Smells like death." Silas finally said.

"Yes, it does." Daray agreed.

People lay in every available bed. The first one was a young girl, who couldn't have been more than ten. Her skin was a sickly gray color; her eyes bloodshot and the floor beside her had dried vomit all over it.

The others were no better. In many cases they seemed to be changing color, turning purplish, while open sores oozed blood.

"What are the symptoms?" Rahkesh asked the head healer. A tall gray haired man named Chalvari.

"What aren't the symptoms!" The exhausted looking healer asked. "Sorry, I haven't slept in days." He added. "Headaches, muscular aches, blurred vision, trouble with the various senses, high fever, vomiting, vomiting blood, coughing blood, open sores around face and most limbs, seizures, partial paralysis in some cases, and then they go into a coma and die. Usually in that order. One hundred and thirty one." He said before they could ask the exact numbers of dead. "Happens in anywhere from three hours to four days it seems."

"93 mortality rate." Another healer said, "and two more just died."

"That prisoner," Daray said, "brought some disease with him." Chalvari nodded.

"We assume so. No other way really. And it is probably airborne; there aren't enough rodents or insects to spread this so fast. We're very careful about that. An they've all been falling sick at the same time."

"What about the water?" Rahkesh asked.

"Don't know. There's been no changes in its taste or color. And a few of the people who've gotten ill drank more fruit juice and wine than water anyway. Others drank just water. So it isn't the fruit, it isn't the wine and it isn't the water." Chalvari told them. Rahkesh had to admire how well organized they were. It had only been six days since the first case.

"How quickly do they die again?" Silas asked.

"Three hours to four days, only a handful have lived longer than that." Chalvari said.

"Can you heal them?"

"No. No luck at all. None of our magics work." That got their attention. Magic didn't work. There weren't many diseases magic didn't work on. And what magic didn't work on muggle healing did.

"Oh crap." Silas said.

XXX

The city went into an immediate quarantine. The people from the other cities who usually came up the stone road through the mountains were turned back by the patrols and guards who had been caught outside when the city shut itself off. They were the ones who had been away when the prisoner came in, and they hadn't come back until after the illness started. They set up a guard post across the road and refused anyone entrance to the city. With the stone doors locked shut no one left.

The warrior city of Xuelhuala sent down one hundred warriors to surround and protect Vailape, and to keep everything and everyone away while the disease ran through the city.

The dead were buried in a massive communal grave just outside the city. The guards kept to a good distance while groups from within the city carried the bodies out and dumped them into the grave. They covered it over and went back in, taking their shovels with them. After they left the guards used their own shovels to dig a new grave, then moved away again as the body carriers filled it.

Inside those not yet sick were sent into a different part of the city, as far away from the hospital as possible. Only those helping the healers were admitted, and many of them came in through a back entrance to brew potions, then pushed the potions through a tunnel that ran from the lab to the healers rooms, and left. As little contact as possible.

The three vampires were immune, and being vampires they couldn't even carry the disease on their bodies for log enough to transmit it. They were the only safe contact from with in the hospital to the rest of the city. The three of them kept the lists of the dead and escorted new cases into the hospital.

Deciding that the healers needed his help Rahkesh moved into the healers wing. In the following few weeks he saw more death then he would have ever seen battling the death eaters.

The 93 mortality figure quickly went up to 98 mortality. Rahkesh took on the task of helping Xeri and Nic to brew potions from medicinal plants in hopes of slowing or stopping the illness.

The worst, Rahkesh decided, was the children. Children as young as two came in, alone and confused and sick. Most of them died within a day. The slightly older children died fast too, coughing and choking on blood and vomit. The adults held out longer, being very healthy, but they too succumbed to the disease. The hospital smell so strongly of death that many people had panic attacks upon entering, or starting vomiting from the smell.

With the facilities overwhelmed even the front waiting room became filled with stricken people lying on pallets on the floor. The mess was beyond even the magic-wielding healers to keep up with and the floor became stained with blood and vomit.

One problem was that they had trouble telling when someone was in the early stages of the plague decimating the city, or if it was just a headache and something minor. Here Rahkesh's growing telepathic magical abilities came in useful. He taught himself to sense whether or not it was the plague, since the deadly disease had a distinctive feel to it. And more than one person was quickly moved to a separate room when it was realized that they didn't yet have the plague and should be kept separate from the hundreds who did.

It was Rahkesh who came up with the idea of injecting a potion into the blood stream. And it was he who decided that blood from a survivor (of which there were very few) might be able to cure the sick. Several days of practice were needed but he and his two new friends quickly learned to send pulses of magic into the blood taken from the survivors, enchanting it with all the healing energy they could.

"The only problem is that cutting someone open and poring blood on a bleeding wound doesn't sound like it is going to help." An exhausted Chalvari told him when they discussed the idea.

"We don't do that, we need to inject it into a vein." Rahkesh told him.

"How do we do that?" The healer asked.

"I have no idea." Rahkesh admitted.

It was Nic who found the answer. While sorting potions ingredients he came across the thorns of one of the rain forest plants. Thorns that when dried in the sun became hollow as the toxins in them drained out. Daray and Silas were quickly dispatched with a message for the Xuelhuala warriors to find as many of the thorns as possible.

"Will that work do you think?" Nic asked as they examined one of the hollow thorns.

"Possibly." Rahkesh said, picking up a hollow vine and magically sealing it to the hollow thorn. The other end of the vine was place in the bottom of a larger clay container of magically enhanced blood. Rahkesh eyed the thorn doubtfully and then transfigured it to be thinner. It was much too thick for a vein naturally. Chalvari directed them to one very sick man.

He didn't even notice as they slid the thorn into his arm. Rahkesh and Nic let the more experienced healer do this. Not practiced at hitting a vein they wouldn't know even if they did get it right. Rahkesh used the charm designed to show injury to track the foreign blood, which showed up bright red on the glowing skin with the charm. It was in the vein and was quickly moving. Not sure how much to give him Chalvari decided to risk too much rather than too little.

But the man died anyway. And so did the next dozen test cases. No amount of magic or potions seemed to make any difference. Two weeks into the plague half the city had died and of the remainder half were sick.

The Chachapoyaro had an excellent communication system of massive drums placed in small citadels atop the mountain ridges. A message in drum code was sent from one city's drum to the nearest ridge-top drum and from there the sound carried, bouncing off the mountains to the next station where a drummer listened, recorded the message, and then sent it out again to the next drummer. The citadels were built in the mouth of each of the valley's heading away from the city, so that depending upon which valleys the message traveled through it would reach a different city.

With the news that one of their cities had been hit by an incurable plague the drums were busy constantly, messages from healers and city officials from all of the other nineteen cities thundering through the mountains continuously. It sounded like a massive continuous thunderstorm or dynamite going off deep in the mountains. Soon enough people were complaining of headaches from the sound as well as the plague.

Every night the messages from the other cities would pause and the messengers from Vailape went up to the drum tower atop the highest building at the back of the city up in the mountains. For hours the drums on the mountain citadels pounded out the day's death toll to the other cities. From city to city the increasingly bad messages were spread.

The desperate healers tried everything to save their patients. Sharahak even tried drinking infected blood, trying to filter out the sickness and drink only that, but it didn't work. They tried bleeding the sick and then giving them blood from those that survived or hadn't gotten sick, with no success. The sorcerers tried every magic they knew, but nothing could stop the sick from dying.

"If it continues this way there'll be only a hundred or so of us left." Nic said anxiously as they watched another procession of bodied being removed. "Of course, it will mean that the survivors are immune, and their descendants will be too, so this disease won't be a problem anymore. I suppose that's a good thing."

"If we can keep it from spreading to the other cities that's enough." Rahkesh said calmly. "I doubt that this disease survives long outside the human body. Once it is over and we're sure that no one is carrying it then people from the other cities and move here."

"I suppose. I just wish there was a way to cure people. Everyone starts to panic at the slightest headache now. And why haven't we gotten sick? We've certainly been around the dying long enough." Nic asked.

"No idea. Some people might be naturally immune. And you're studying magic and fighting and healing right?" Nic nodded. "The physically fit are healthier, and with all the healing magics you've been doing, added to the other magics, you've probably got enough magic in you to fight it off." Rahkesh theorized.

"Probably not that. The second in command of the healers died yesterday." Nic replied.

"Have any of your family fallen ill?" Rahkesh asked, abruptly feeling a little guilty, he knew nothing about either Xeri or Nic's families. Nic shook his head.

"My parents are two of the Xuelhuala warriors." He explained. Well, at least he didn't have to worry, Rahkesh thought, his parents were probably among those outside the city right now.

"What about Xeri?"

"Her aunt died, her mother is fine." Nic said.

On the third week, around mid day, all drum activity ceased abruptly, halfway through an incoming message. Those that understood the drum code stopped what they were doing in the hospital to listen.

"What is it?" Rahkesh asked Nic.

"They cut off halfway through. And I can hear faint drums, someone is cutting in, only the warrior cities can do that, or emergency messages to them. Their messages take precedence over everything else." Nic replied.

Suddenly the air was filled with the thunderous booming of drums. From the three valleys that ran back into the mountains the drums sent out the same message. The Inca had attacked Huerlap, a city twelve days journey south of Vailape.

That afternoon orders came in by drum from Xuelhuala. To remove the staircase that led down the wall into the rainforest. The Xuelhuala warrior patrols had spotted Inca armies on the move, packing up, everyone, the entire civilization, and starting up into the mountains.

Armies did not move very far from home. Getting supplies was too hard. Instead the entire civilization went. Now several thousand Incas were on the move towards the mountain cities. The vanguard made up of the best fighting force the Inca could muster was traveling several days ahead of the general populace. They were supplied by llamas and carried enough supplies for a long siege and to start a new settlement. They had already hit Huerlap and where they went next would depend upon their success there. Guarded like Vailape was with the same type of massive unassailable wall Huerlap was not a promising target. Xuelhuala had dispatched four hundred warriors to Huerlap to aid in the battle and expected to be successful.

The next day another message came through, the Inca had quickly been soundly defeated, but a second, larger, army was headed for Vailape. With an elite Xuelhuala patrol keeping watch over their progress. Rahkesh, stuck in the hospital, didn't get to the meeting the surviving city elders held. Daray and Silas stopped by afterwards to give everyone in the hospital some idea of what was happening.

"I have to say, that those Xuelhuala warriors know what they're doing. They're responsible for the security of ten of the twenty cities and they really take that seriously." Daray began with real admiration. "They designed all of the defenses and have forced each city to maintain them. The area below the wall is cleared of all growth, always, right down to the rock. You can't get within two hundred feet of the wall without being seen. The ground is cut sloped so that dragging a ladder up is not a good idea. But not sloped enough to provide any protection from the archers up top. The forest below is filled with enough traps to kill off several hundred. There's the darts rigged in the trees to kill when the tripwires are snapped. Pit traps filled with poison tipped stakes, shards of glass coated in poison waiting in sacks to fall when someone cuts the ropes holding them, which can be done with an arrow from atop the wall. They've even cut the foliage in the front nearest the wall so that you can't hide in the trees and they've got sacks full of venomous insects and snakes ready to dump on anyone who attacks."

Rahkesh considered his options, then wiped his hands off and turned to the two vampires.

"I can help with that. Tell the city elders that I can tell the snakes to attack and kill as many as the Inca as they can." Rahkesh said. He was surprised when neither vampire looked at all startled about that revelation.

"It's nice you finally decided to tell us. We already told them you that can speak to snakes." Silas said.

"It's okay Rahkesh, we figured that out a long time ago. And you ought to know that vampires don't consider anyone dark because of something as silly as a language." Daray told him, Rahkesh nodded and sighed.

"I know. It's just that I've gotten used to hiding that ability from everyone. What did they say?"

"They want you to wait until the Inca show up, then they'll release the snakes." Daray said.

"Wait, you can speak to snakes?" Nic asked, incredulous.

"Yes. It's a very unusual magical ability." Rahkesh explained. Dropping his eyes as the healers seated around the table where they were eating stared at him.

"Wow." Xeri said.

"Which is why that snake never bites you." Chalvari said, nodding slowly. "Glad you're on our side Rahkesh. Speaking snakes. I wish I could." Rahkesh smiled, relieved that they had taken it so well.

"We've got eighteen to twenty-four days. The Incas are below us and can't use the mountain roads. Xuelhuala is dispatching a larger force to join us. They'll be here in fifteen days." Silas said. "In the mean time the guards and warriors who are outside the city are going down into the forest by a back route to set up more traps. We're going with them tomorrow"

"I'll come with you then." Rahkesh said.

"You could be carrying the disease." Chalvari said, shaking his head, "you'll have to stay here." Rahkesh thought about that.

"I don't think so, I can feel the disease telepathically, and I don't have it." Chalvari already knew that Rahkesh had proved several times that he could tell if someone was sick with the disease or something else. So he just nodded. Then Rahkesh got an idea.

"Silas, Daray, can you tell by the taste of someone's blood if they're sick?" He asked.

"Of course…oh…why on earth didn't we think of that?" Daray asked, realizing what Rahkesh was thinking.

"Everyone healthy could be moved to separate quarters so they don't get sick." Silas said softly, "why didn't we think of that? We're the ones who drink blood."

"You're a genius. Sharahak?" Chalvari asked.

"We could. We'll begin with everyone in the city." The older vampire decided, "Daray you go through everyone in the hospital, there are probably people here who are sick with things other than this disease, we'll need to separate those from the rest. And check the healers." He and Silas swept out the door, Xeri went running to tell the other healers. Rahkesh, knowing that if any vampire drank from him they'd know who he was, left quietly to get his weapons. It didn't matter if the vampire was trying to read his mind or not, they'd still notice how powerful his blood was. And it would be fairly obvious who he was. And if they didn't already know (and he suspected that they might suspect who he really was, and he wouldn't be surprised if Daray had known for months and just not told Silas) then he wasn't going to give anyone the opportunity to find out.

Another drum message came thundering in through the mountains. The elite Xuelhuala patrol had reported in, the Inca were nearing the river where the guards of Vailape were planning on leaving their traps.

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Okay, less boring chapter.

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No this is NOT the black plague or any variation there of. Since I made up the symptoms and the black plague isn't airborne.

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Please review. Lets see if we can have a review from everyone who reads this, including all the lurkers out there.

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