Pony believed that Roger and Dainsey would accept the offer-certainly Dainsey had shown great excitement when Braumin had called it out to them through the newly constructed portcullis backing St. Precious' main gate. And, in fact, Pony had hoped that her friends would accept: that they, at least, would become insulated, somewhat, against the darkness. For her, it was never a question. Something within her recoiled against the thought; she could not run and hide in the abbey while so many suffered and died.
And yet, there was nothing she could do to help them, she had come to painfully realize over the few months she had spent in Palmaris. First Colleen and then a succession of others had died in her arms; and so many times Pony knew that she had barely escaped her encounters with the plague with her health intact. After one devastating defeat after another, she wanted only to go back home, to Dundalis.
She felt a combination of pleasant surprise and trepidation when Roger and Dainsey had opted to go north, though only as far as Caer Tinella, rather than retreating into the abbey.
They found that the plague had not come strong into Caer Tinella, though one man had contracted it and had died out in the forest somewhere, for he'd understood his responsibility to the community when the rosy spots appeared and had walked away into the wilderness to die alone.
Colleen's house was still deserted, and so Roger and Dainsey, with the blessing of Janine of the Lake and the other town leaders, claimed it as their own.
'You are certain you will not come to Dundalis with me?' Pony asked them soon after they had settled into the place, with Pony getting restless for the road home.
'Dainsey has friends here and so do I,' Roger answered, and he wrapped Pony in a great hug. 'This was my home, and I feel the need to be home, as do you.'
She pushed him back to arm's length and looked him over. 'But promise that you will return and visit me and Bradwarden,' she said.
Roger smiled. 'We'll both go north,' he answered, 'perhaps before the end of the season, and in the fall, surely, if not before!'
They shared another hug and Pony kissed him on the cheek. That very night, under the cover of darkness, she rode out of Caer Tinella on Greystone, with Symphony trotting along beside them.
She made Dundalis in five days, on Greystone, for Symphony had run off into the forest to, rejoin his herd. His departure reminded Pony of how extraordinary the stallion's arrival beside her on the road south had been. What had brought him to her? How could a horse so perfectly understand the needs of a human being?
Perhaps it had something to do with the turquoise gemstone Avelyn had put into the horse's breast as a gift to both Elbryan and Symphony, she mused, or perhaps there had been something special and extraordinary about Symphony even before that. Whatever the case, Pony knew well that had it not been for the stallion, she and Colleen and likely Greystone, as well, would have died on the road between Caer Tinella and Palmaris in the snowstorm.
Word had reached Dundalis of the rosy plague, Pony discovered as soon as she rode in, for she found herself assaulted by anxious questions from every corner, a group of men rushing out to meet her.
'Yes,' she told them all. 'The plague is thick in Palmaris.'
They all backed away from her at that answer, and Pony merely shrugged and rode to Fellowship Way and Belster O'Comely. Other than the growing fear of the plague, Pony found that things had not changed much in Dundalis. She found Belster busily wiping the bar, and how his smile widened when he saw her!
He rushed around the edge of the bar and wrapped her in a great hug and bade her to tell him of all her adventures.
His smile disappeared, of course, when Pony told him of Colleen, but he managed another smile at the thought of Roger and Dainsey together, for Belster loved both of them dearly.
'I thought ye dead, girl,' the innkeeper admitted, 'when the season turned and ye did not return.' He shook his head, a tear growing in his eye. 'I feared the weather or the plague.'
'Fear the plague,' Pony admitted, 'for it grows thicker with each passing day, and none of us, even up here in the Timberlands, is safe from it. And once it has you…' Now it was Pony's turn to shake her head helplessly. 'I could do nothing for Colleen but hold her while she died.'
Belster reached back over the bar and brought out a bottle of his strongest liquor, and poured Pony a large shot. The woman didn't normally drink anything stronger than wine, but she took the glass and swallowed its contents in one gulp.
It was going to be a long and difficult time.
Pony went out to the grove that night, to be with Elbryan, to wonder if he would be there for her when death called to her. After her encounters with the rosy plague, Pony was feeling quite vulnerable, and she honestly doubted that she'd find her way through this plague alive.
Those grim thoughts held her fast through most of the quiet night, until a familiar song drifted on the evening breeze: the harmony of Bradwarden.
So familiar with the forest about Dundalis, so at home out here on a warm night, Pony found her way toward the centaur easily enough-until the music abruptly stopped.
'Bradwarden? ' she called, for she knew she was close to him.
She waited a few moments but received no answer. She reached into her pouch and sifted through the gemstones Braumin had given her, finding a multifaceted, perfectly cut diamond. She called out the centaur's name again and brought up a tremendous light, filling all the area.
'Ow!' came a yell from the brush to the side. 'Well, there's a good one for me eyes, now ain't it? ' Bradwarden added.
Pony focused on the voice, and finally managed to sort out the silhouette of the centaur's human torso lurking in the shadows.
Pony smiled and decreased the light, and started to move toward Bradwarden. But so too did the centaur move, one step away for every one Pony took toward him, and she sensed immediately that there was something terribly wrong here.
'What is it? ' she asked, and she stopped, turning to get a better angle to see her friend.
'Twenty strides away, that's the rule,' Bradwarden remarked, 'centaur strides and not yer little baby human steps.'
Pony considered the words for just a moment, her face screwed up in confusion, but then she got it. 'The plague,' she said evenly.
'Thick in the south, I'm hearin',' Bradwarden confirmed.
Pony nodded. 'Palmaris is in turmoil,' she explained. 'So is Ursal, by all reports.'
'Dark days,' the centaur remarked. 'Can't be runnin' to Aida to blow up this enemy.'
Pony increased the diamond's light again subtly, trying to get a better view, concerned suddenly that her friend might not be well.
'The plague's not found me,' Bradwarden explained, catching on.
'I do not know that it can affect a centaur,' Pony said.
'Oh, but it can!' Bradwarden replied. 'Nearly wiped away me folk time before last, and so we found the rule: twenty strides and not a step closer.'
'From anyone who has the plague,' Pony finished.
'To anyone at all,' the centaur corrected firmly, 'except the horse, o' course. Horses can't catch the damned thing and can't give it to others.'
'But if someone is not afflicted-' Pony started to say.
'How're ye to know? ' the centaur demanded. 'Ye can't know, ye know. Ye might have it, or ye might not. Ye'U not know for sure until ye sicken or ye don't.'
Pony paused, sorting it all out. 'So you are saying that you will not come within twenty centaur strides of anyone at all? ' she asked. 'Of me? '
'It's the way it's got to be,' the centaur answered. Pony caught the slight quaver in his voice, but just a slight one, and one that did little to diminish his firm resolve. 'Have you joined the Abellican Church, then? ' Pony asked sarcastically. 'They lock their doors and hide in their abbeys while the world outside dies.'
'And if one o' their own gets it, they send him out, not to doubt,' the centaur added.
'They do,' Pony answered. 'Cowards all!'
'No!'
