Without Assenomi and the other attendants, the kitchen felt larger somehow. An enigmatic smile touched Suohl’s lips as he looked at Van and Sae. “Suppose it ain’t so nice of me to get rid of ’em like that, is it?” he said. This remark seemed so like him that Van could not help smiling.
Suohl looked to Yuna and cleared his throat. “Was it really Nakka who took her?”
“Yes, under orders. He couldn’t refuse.”
“Under orders? From whom?”
Van gazed at the Echo Master. “If I tell you, it might cause you trouble. There are a lot of tangled pieces involved. Although I suppose you’ll be all right, if you don’t tell anyone else.”
Suohl’s lips quirked upward. “Well, I won’t press you, but if you weren’t gonna tell me the particulars, why’d you come all this way to see me? You musta had some business with me or you wouldn’t be here, right?”
Van shook his head. “Well, actually, no, I don’t, but if you remember, we were interrupted the last time we spoke. You were in the middle of telling me why you asked me to come, and I never got to hear you through.”
Suohl’s jaw dropped, and then he laughed sheepishly. “So I had business with you, then?” He scratched his head. “And just how far did I get last time?”
“I think you were talking about rabies when that young man was carried into the room,” Van said.
Suohl nodded. “Ah, yes. I remember now. You said a rochai bit you, and I was just thinkin’, ‘That explains it.’ You and the rochai. There had to be some kinda connection for that to happen, you see.” Suohl shook his head slowly. “What an incredible sight. Dogs and humans, all turned inside out and runnin’ in a pack.”
“What?”
Suohl flipped his hand upside down. “That night, when you were racin’ across the snow, you were all completely inside out—you, the girl, and those dogs. That ain’t normal for rochai, either.”
Van’s eyes widened. He’d never even considered that possibility, simply assuming that the Kinma dogs were always like that. Was there something that pushed them into that state, too? If so, what?
“Y’know,” Suohl said, “after you guys left last time, I saw another strange thing. I thought it was just a dream, but now I think it mighta been the rochai.” He gazed off into space. “It happened when I was so tired that I fell asleep at sundown. When I’m that wiped, my soul occasionally slips into the other world. Granny Crow used to suck my soul inside and take me to the night forest to keep me from wanderin’ into strange places.”
The kettle bubbled softly on the hearth.
“When I looked down, I saw lights flowin’. A pack of dogs. Dogs’re livin’ creatures, so of course they give off light, but those dogs, theirs weren’t normal. Lights whirled up from their bodies like sea sparkles. And they ran funny, too. They’d be runnin’ straight ahead, then veer off in another direction, weavin’ through trees and leapin’ over thickets, then change directions again. I thought they must be chasin’ down some animal, but there wasn’t any prey in front of ’em.”
He paused and looked at Van. “No prey, but there was a leader. What do you think it was?”
Van frowned. “A man?”
Suohl shook his head. “Nope. Not a man.” His eyes flashed. “Get this, will ya? A wolf was out in front.”
Van blinked. “You mean they were chasing a wolf that invaded their territory?”
Suohl waved his hand back and forth. “Nope. Told ya, didn’t I? It was leadin’ the pack. A wolf with beautiful fur. It was givin’ off an odd light, leadin’ the rest as though it was pullin’ ’em along on a string.”
“A black wolf?”
“Coulda been. I just remember it had the prettiest coat of fur.”
Suohl’s eyes gleamed as he looked at Van. “And that wolf, it was inside out, too. Y’see?”
Silence filled the kitchen when Suohl finished speaking. Van gazed at him. “Was there a man controlling the wolf?” he asked.
“There mighta been, but I wouldn’t know ’cuz I only flew for a bit. I was so surprised to see a wolf leadin’ the pack that I woke up.”
Van looked down at the fire in the hearth. The story was woven of multiple threads, but he couldn’t see how they were intertwined. Van would have to unravel them carefully, or risk missing something critical. First of all, what did it mean to turn inside out? And how was that related to being controlled by someone else?
Stroking his chin, Van said, “You told me before that by ‘turning inside out,’ you mean the body and the soul switch places. The soul is usually in control, but when inside out, the body takes over the mind.”
“That’s right.”
Van continued, eyes training on the fire. “An Otawalle nobleman recently told me something similar. He said that disease agents try to survive and multiply, so they take over my brain and control my body.”
Suohl’s eyes shone. “That’s it! That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, and why I summoned you here in the first place.” He caught Van’s gaze. “You, Yuna, and those beasts, you all carry the livin’ spirits of disease inside you. Everyone does, in some form or other, but yours’re extraordinary. I mean, look what they do, turnin’ you inside out like that. They must be incredibly strong to restrain your soul and possess your body.”
Van frowned. The overpowering urge to bite—it was certainly theirs, not his. But…
Just as a thought began to take shape in his mind, Suohl cleared his throat and said, “I called you here before ’cuz I wanted your help.”
Van’s brows shot up. “My help?”
Suohl stared at him intently. “Yeah. I wondered if there wasn’t somethin’ we could do ’bout that disease.” His face paled slightly. “Tell you the truth, I’m scared. Livin’ spirits of disease can cause a lotta mischief. Twice, I’ve seen dogs and humans with rabies turn inside out. Once someone gets it, they’re done for. Nothin’ I can do to help. They’re gonna die.”
He scratched his cheek. “But black wolf fever, that’s another matter. It’s similar, but different. You and the rochai, even though the spirits of that disease’re inside you, you go on livin’ just like normal till suddenly you turn inside out, all at once. For dogs and humans to flip like that together, now that’s extraordinary.”
He drew a deep breath. “Black wolf fever destroyed a whole kingdom, so maybe it’s got some unusual feature not found in common diseases.”
Suohl peered at Van with a dark expression. “When I heard that this sickness broke out in the salt mine, I wasn’t worried ’cuz I thought it’d never reach us. But settlers live here now. Some fools rejoice when Zolians are bitten. They call it the Curse of Aquafa. What a load o’ nonsense! A life’s a life. Doesn’t matter who you are. If you get sick, you’re gonna suffer. I wanna help ’em. But I don’t know how, ’cuz we never get that disease.”