For weeks the weather had been close and still-plague weather, though usually itcame to Sanctuary later in the year. In a city whose sanitation system had beendesigned to move men secretly rather than sewage efficiently, epidemics were aninevitable sign of summer, like the insects that swarmed across the river fromthe Swamp of Night Secrets. But a dry spring had lowered the water table early,and without enough flow to flush them, the disease bred in the filthy channelsand spread swiftly through the town.
It began in the streets around Shambles Cross and moved like a slow fire intothe Maze and the Bazaar, where a few corpses more in the morning caused littlecomment, until the kisses of the drabs who plied their trade in the cul-de-sacsand doorways burned with more than passion's fire, and men began to fall fromthe benches in the Vulgar Unicorn with their mugs untasted. Soldiers drinking inthe taverns carried the plague back to the barracks, and servants going to theirwork in the great houses of the merchants carried it to the better quarters ofthe town. Only the Beysib seemed to be immune.
Molin Torchholder realized the danger when his workmen began to drop beside hisunfinished city wall and, returning to the palace, found the Prince in a panicand a full-scale crisis on his hands. That morning, the decapitated body of adog had been discovered in the ruined Temple of Dyareela, with "Death to theBeysib" scrawled in its blood on the altar stone.
Lalo turned, spattering blue paint from the plastered wall past the pillar asthe High Priest stormed through the Presence Hall with the Prince and the Beysahurrying along behind.
"They are saying that Dyareela is punishing Sanctuary because of our betrothal."Shupansea tightened her grip on Ka-dakithis's hand. "They say that your Demon