A week later, the atmosphere in Sareth had changed completely.
The rumor was no longer a rumor in the fragile sense.
It had become a pattern.
Too many people had heard the same thing from too many different directions for it to remain a tavern invention.
The Liberators had appeared in the West.
And they had brought the cure.
That knowledge moved through Sareth in different ways depending on who heard it.
Among the desperate, it spread like fire through dry grass.
Those already suffering from the miracle drugs clung to the news with a kind of frightened hunger. Some prayed it was true. Some distrusted it on instinct. Some hid the rumor even from family, afraid that speaking hope aloud would somehow ruin it.
Among merchants, the reaction was more complicated.
