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and Hishn? Is it you who's protecting Hishn, or Hishn who's protecting you from the
plague?"
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284 Tara K. Harper
"Wolfwalkers rarely get as sick as other people, Rhom. You know that."
"Except when they do Ovousibas." He shrugged. "Thenask yourself this: What do you and
Tyrel have in common that is keeping you from being as sick as the rest of us? What is here
that could possibly harbor a virus for eight hundred years without spreading it over all five
counties?"
She stared at him. "You're saying that Diok itself must harbor the virus. Well, the legends
claim that's true, anyway."
"But we're not worried about legends anymore. We're worried about lives. What here
could have helped a virus live that
long?"
"Plants, animals." She paused, considering the images she had sifted from the wolves. ' 'I
think the virus mutated, attacked other creatures over the years. I don't think we're
dealing with a single strain of it anymore.''
"Does it matter?"
"Yes. Yes, it does. There's something I'm missing. Some link
I just don't see."
'' Look, Dion, there's not that many things you can make links out of. Hells, twin, the only
things in this dome anymore are cobwebs and steam heat. So now, if you look at the
complete pic . . ." His voice trailed off as he saw her face change.' 'What
is it?'
"I looked at the dust, I studied the molds, but steam heat ..." She was incredulous, ready
to slap herself for her own stupidity.' 'Of course. The domes were all built over steam
vents. They have hollow walls."
He frowned. "I told you yesterday that Gamon and I'd found the vents and traced them to
the hot springs. You weren't listening as usual."
"But a virus could live in steam," she said excitedly, "Especially in subterranean hot
springs that stay at a constant temperature. And a virus that lived in the hot springs from
this mountain wouldn't be able to migrate because the steam vents and surface tunnels
run only as far as the lava flows they're unique to Diok. The virus couldn't cross valieys or
mountain ranges the temperature changes would be too drastic for it to survive."
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He shivered violently, and she grabbed him. "Stop it!" She shook him as the tremor
weakened his legs. "Don't you dare
WOLFWALKER
285
die on me now!'' He clutched weakly at her, and that scared her even more, to see Rhom,
her brother, who had always been so strong, leading her, helping her, rescuing her from all
those childhood scrapes, groping and trembling on the floor like a night bird out in the
light too long, his convulsing body racked with chills that left him as weak as a dying man.
"Rhom, please!" she cried out. "Don't get worse. Stay with me. Stay strong."
"Dion," he said hoarsely, gripping her fingers weakly. "Don't let yourself get sidetracked."
He cleared his throat and clenched and unclenched his hands to relax them from the
fever's grip. "If the virus is in the steam, then why aren't you and Tyrel affected? What do
you and he share that the rest of us don't?"
She took a deep breath, and when she answered, it was in a voice calm and barren of fear. '
'I don't know. We eat the same things, drink from the same water you bring us "
"There has to be something," he said more forcefully. "Think, Dion. Think."
She tried to concentrate on his words and not his taut expression. "It can't be Hishn,
because she's only with me. Tyrel can't feel her at all. Only Aranur seems to hear her well,
and he hears her twice as well as you but is just as sick. It can't be the boy's physical
strength, because he's too weak from the rastin poison I've been sucking out of his
wounds. Rhom, the only thing Tyrel and I do "
"Say that again, Dion, the part about rastin bites."
"What? The boy's legs are healed over now. Have been for two days."
"No, the part about you sucking the poison out. What about the rastin bites the poison?
Shilia never helped you with those, did she? You and Tyrel you're the only two who've
been exposed to that stuff."
"But Rhom, that's toxic by itself it inhibits the body's immune system already. If
anything, it should make Tyrel and I weaker, not stronger against the virus."
He slumped back. "Dion, I just don't know, then."
But she was hesitating, thinking back. What if the poison had changed Tyrel's metabolism?
What if the toxin had forced his body to produce antibodies? Antibodies that were
chemically similar to those which would attack the virus? She had sucked
286 Tara K. Harper
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enough poison into her mouth that she could have gotten some of it in her bloodstream, as
well. It could have inoculated her like a vaccine before she was ever exposed to the flu.
"Rhom," she said slowly. "You may be right. If the fever lives in the steam, then weVe all
been exposed. If the virus is stopped by antibodies like those which counteract the poison
from the ras-tin, then Tyrel and I won't get sick weVe already built up an immunity or
at least won't get as sick, or . . ." She paused, following the thought through. "At least will
take longer to get as sick as everyone else."
"But that means you have the key to a cure, right?" "I don't know." She twisted her hand in
Hishn's fiir. The Gray One kicked her legs and snorted in her sleep, and Dion stared down
at the thick fur that brushed against her hand. "There's just too many ifs, Rhom. If it's the
toxin that's protecting Tyrel and me, how can I reproduce it without having the fish here to
take the poison from? Even if I find a way to force your immune systems to create
antibodies against this fever, how do we protect all the people you come in contact with
later on? There are too many questions ..."
Rhom, seeing his twin already lost in thought, walked slowly to the door. She needed time.
He just hoped they had enough to give her.
Aimlessly at first, then more purposefully, she paced the stone-chilled balcony, trying to
think her way inside the plague. Tyrel seemed immune. But Dion had chills like the
others it just did not seem to take hold in the form of convulsions as it did with everyone
else. Was it a mild taste of rastin that was protecting her, or was it the wolf? Perhaps
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