next i opened the letter from spink. the first few lines made my breath catch.

the speck plague has come to bitter springs. epiny has become very ill and i fear for her life.

the pages fluttered from my hand to the floor. heart hammering, i snatched up the envelope from epiny and opened it immediately. there was her familiar handwriting, perhaps a bit more scrawling than usual, and the first line read,

i do hope that spink's letter did not overly alarm you. the spring water treatment proved nothing less than amazing.

heart still pounding, i gathered up the scattered pages of spink's letter and took all of my mail into the parlor. i opened the curtains to let in more light, and sat down on a cushioned chair. i spread out my mail on a low table and pieced together the puzzle. spink's letter had arrived at the academy days before epiny's had, but they had been sent on together. relieved of the worst of my fears, i sat down to read the missives in order.

spink's letter was wrenching, and not even epiny's letter that proved her survival could eliminate all his bad news. he had no idea how the plague had come to their little settlement at bitter springs. no one had reported seeing any specks, or even any ill persons. he himself had continued to make a slow but steady recovery from the illness, despite occasional bouts of night fever and sweats. he had thought he had left the dread disease far behind in old thares. a small group of plainsmen who lived near bitter springs had succumbed to it first. it had devastated their little settlement, swiftly reducing it from seventeen families to seven. before anyone had realized they were dealing with speck plague, it had spread. two of spink's sisters had caught it. epiny had insisted on nursing them, saying that as she survived the plague once, she was probably immune to it. she had been wrong. when spink had mailed his letter to me, both his sisters and epiny were severely ill and not expected to recover. his mother was struggling to care for them with spink's help, but he feared that she would exhaust herself and also fall to the sickness. he strove to nurse epiny just as faithfully as she had cared for him in his time of sickness.

it is a terrible irony that the disease that helped bring us together may now part us forever. it was so hard to write to her father and warn him of her decline. i tell you truthfully, nevare, that if she dies, the better part of me will die with her. i do not think i will have the courage to go on. in a last effort to save them, we will resort to practices that my mother deems "little better than superstition." i will take her and my sisters to bitter springs and their supposedly healing waters. pray for us.

so his letter ended.

i set his heartbroken letter aside and eagerly took up epiny's missive. it was written in her usual rambling style, very frustrating to someone who simply wanted to know how everyone fared there. nevertheless, i forced myself to read it slowly and carefully.

my dear cousin nevare,

i do hope that spink's letter did not overly alarm you. the spring water treatment proved nothing less than amazing. having had the plague before, albeit in a much milder form, i was perhaps more aware than anyone else of how severely it had stricken me this time. my cousin, i did not expect to survive! i do not even remember the wagon journey to the springs, nor even the first time they immersed me. i am told that spink carried me bodily into the water, and putting his hand over my nose and mouth, pinched them firmly shut, and then carried me under with him, where we remained for as long as he could hold his breath. when we emerged, he gave a similar treatment to each of his sisters. others from the family settlement had journeyed with us and were similarly treated.

then they set up a camp for us, unfolding cots under the wide blue sky and making of the meadow near the springs an open-air infirmary. on the first evening i awoke there, i already felt a lessening in my disease. nonetheless, i was quite willful and difficult, and poor spink was obliged to hold me down and force me to drink a large quantity of the spring water. oh, it tasted foul and smelled worse! my fever was not entirely abated, and i called him names and scratched his poor dear face for his troubles with me. then i fell again into a sleep, but it was a deeper, truer sleep, and when i awoke, feeling ever so much better, the first thing i demanded to know was who had scratched him so, that i could take revenge on her! i was so abashed to be told i had done it!

we remained encamped by the springs for almost a week, and every day we forced ourselves to drink that noxious water, and most of our food was cooked with it. when i realized how much i was recovering, and how swiftly, i demanded that spink join me in this water cure. nevare, you cannot imagine the change it has wrought in him! i will not say he is his old self, but he has begun to eat more heartily, to walk with more confidence, and most important to me, the light is back in his eyes and he laughs often. already he speaks of returning to the academy and his studies and career. oh, if only that dream can come true for him!