"Any better?" Deilayni asked, the Lady's strong perfume making Zulyeva want to cough. "Is her fever going down?"
Zulyeva shook her head sadly. "No better, mam. I'm sorry. I'm doing all I can. I can't tell you what it is, I only know what hasn't been working against it."
Deilayni put her head to her daughter's forehead, frowning at the heat. "I know you are. But Zulyeva, you must save her. She's my only daughter. Probably only one of my sons will survive after their father dies and I need a daughter," Deilayni pleaded, looking back at Zulyeva.
"I can only do my best," Zulyeva reminded her. "There is only so much even the most talented of healers can do. Especially for one so young."
"Do you mean she's dying?" Deilayni asked, voice hardening, it's almost metallic tone making Zulyeva wince inwardly though she outwardly maintained her nuetral expression.
"I only mean what I said. I'm limited in my treatments, but I haven't tried all of them. It is too early to say whether she will die," Zulyeva explained in as calm a voice as she could manage.
"I see," Deilayni replied with a curt nod of her head. "Well, then do what you can. We are all depending on you to pull her through this, Zulyeva."
Before Zulyeva could answer, Deilayni strode from the room and down the hall. Zulyeva examined Reive for a few more minutes before rising to make yet another broth. She had tried at least a dozen different medicines to combat Reive's fever but nothing seemed to ease it even slightly. This one, however, was a very strong medicine and if it didn't work there was most likely nothing that would.
Reive, however, was showing no signs of improvement. Zulyeva left the infimrary late that night exhausted and frustrated. The fever was certainly not just any fever, but it was not any disease Zulyeva had ever seen. If there were any other symptoms, they were well hidden.
Usually, she tried not to take her work out of the infirmary, but Zulyeva lay awake, staring at the ceiling and going over everything that could be done for a fever and all the diseases she knew of in her mind for an hour before lack of sleep caught up to her and she drifted off to sleep.
She didn't know how much later it was, but Zulyeva awoke to find someone trying to shake her awake. "Wake up healer! Wake up!" someone whispered.
"What in Faranth's name do you want this late at night?" Zulyeva hissed, pulling the covers to her. "I'm not the on duty healer!"
"Lady Deilayni has requested you specifically, journeywoman," the young woman, who Zulyeva could now see was a drudge, replied. "And she wants you quickly. Reive's getting worse."
"Shardit," Zulyeva swore, leaping from bed and pulling on trousers and relacing her tunic. "When'd she start getting worse?" she demanded as she raced down the hallway to the infirmary, the drudge a step behind her.
"Less than a minute," the drudge replied. "I was sent almost immediatly."
Reive had indeed gotten much, much worse. Her skin was a sickly yellow color and cold and clammy to the touch. Her fever was higher than ever and her breathing shallow and breaths far between.
Zulyeva panicked. She must have had a reaction to the medicine. A medicine that had been her only hope of surviving. Zulyeva quickly mixed the antidote and managed to get Reive to swallow it but the usually fast acting medicine had no effect. Reive's breaths got shallower and shallower and further and further between until they were so far apart that Zulyeva was sure many times that she had died. Reive gave one long, raspy sigh and then her small chest rose no more.
Zulyeva mechanincally reached out a hand to feel for a pulse. Nothing. Zulyeva sat back in her chair. "I'm sorry," she told a horrified Deilayni. "I couldn't do anything. She had a reaction to some strong medicine I gave her, which was probably her last hope, and that combined with her weak condition killed her."
Deilayni shook her head. "No, she can't be," the Lady whispered. "She can't be. She just can't be!" she sobbed, throwing herself onto the bed and shaking the lifeless body of her daughter. Suddenly Zulyeva couldn't take it. She just got up and left, the sound of Deilayni's sobs following her down the hall and back to her quarters.
