Jack was neighing, somewhere far off. He sounded panicked and frantic.
Mens' voices surrounded her. What were they saying? Hands squirmed under her body, lifting her.
Cool air rushing past her burning cheeks. Her skull throbbed with every jarring stride of the horse. Was it Jack? She didn't remember mounting him.
The world wouldn't stay still. Everything kept tilting, spinning, going topsy-turvy. It made her want to vomit. She groped for the peace of the darkness and tried to stay inside it.
Mens' voices again. Scattered and disjointed. They felt like hard, wooden blocks in her hands. Every voice was a different color.
"Is there nothing about her by which we might discover who she is?"
"Has she spoken at all?"
"Where is the physician? Tell him to come back in here, I need to ask him a question."
"She has a strong constitution, but it is impossible to tell how long she was there before you found her. I cannot say if she will live."
"The child at the farm did not make it. The other crofts nearby are already affected. Perhaps it is something in the river?"
The bed was hot. Her hair was sticky with sweat. It wasn't her own bed, and the strangeness of it frightened her. She felt it poking at her spine with hard edges. The mattress had hands. It kept jabbing at her skin.
A small room. A candle on a table. She didn't know the room, nor recognize the face of the man who turned to look up at her as she toddled in on tiny, wobbling steps like an infant. She didn't remember getting out of bed.
"No, no," said the man quickly, the whites of his eyes flashing in alarm as he stood. "You should be laying down, my lady."
"I had to come out here." It was her voice speaking. It sounded odd and slurred. "It told me to touch your shoulder..." The words made no sense. She knew she sounded mad.
The man looked at her with worry and pity. He was not quite as old as her father, but his scalp was bare and the hair around his ears was silvered. "Come," he said gently, as a father would to a child, taking her by her arms and carefully guiding her back the way she had come.
