“Yeah. They’re scared enough. Seeing your friends die and knowing that’s your fate...” He shuddered. “It would be cruel. At least when they reach that stage, they’re too sick to be aware of their surroundings.”

The voice of experience. Tohon had taken Danny’s childhood, and I wished I could send Danny to Alga Realm where he’d be safe and wouldn’t have to deal with the horrors of war. Where he could be a kid. And while I was wishing, I’d send Flea along, too.

A soldier sat up suddenly and flung his blanket to the ground. He yanked his sweat-stained shirt off and fanned his face. I poured him a glass of cool water and added a pinch of fever powder before hurrying over to him.

Catching sight of his back, I stopped. A black mark stained his skin. Dirt? I moved closer. When I reached his bedside, the mark was horrifyingly clear—a two-inch-long tattoo of a skeleton wearing a crown of bones.

Clamping down on my growing panic, I kept my voice even as I asked, “Danny, can you fetch Odd?”

“Sure.” Danny rushed away.

“Wash your hands first,” I yelled after him.

He returned and scrubbed.

“What happened to you before you got sick?” I handed the sergeant the drink.

He swept a hand out. “You mean before my whole squad started puking?”

“Yes, Sergeant...”

“Gylon.” He gulped the drink then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Nothing happened. We were out on patrol and didn’t encounter the enemy.”

“Did you see anyone?”

“We helped that guy out, remember, Sarge?” another man lying nearby asked.

“Oh, yeah. The man’s wagon wheel had broken and we helped fix it. No biggie,” Gylon said.

“Are you sure we fixed it?” A private pushed up on her elbow. “I don’t recall that.”

“That’s ’cause you took rear guard, Tyra, watching our backs,” yet another soldier added.

She frowned. “And I thought I saw...something before getting stung by a bee.”

A few of the others piped up. “I was stung.”

“Me, too.”

“Must have disturbed a nest.”

“Stung? Are you sure?” I asked Tyra.

Tyra pointed to her neck. I examined the area. A tiny red puncture marked her skin. Not a bee sting, but evidence that she’d been hit by a dart. I checked the others. All had puncture wounds. The squad had been ambushed and didn’t even know it.

“Where were you?” I asked.

“South,” Sergeant Gylon said. “Prince Ryne wanted us to sweep the area to ensure no one tried to get in behind Grzebien.”

My panic boiled up my throat. “How far?”

“Two days, but with everyone so sick, it took us twice as long to get here.”

The Skeleton King had been two days south of us four days ago. Bad, very bad.

Even worse, he had a powerful weapon. The new plague.

Kerrick

KERRICK