The boy of six died on the seventh day.
Lysander heard the news from Antiphus, who came to the supply office in the grey light before dawn, his mask hanging loose around his neck, his face hollow with exhaustion. The boy had been the first new case—the child who had been playing near the harbour on the morning the plague ship arrived, the one whose grandmother had died in the fires. He had fought for seven days, his small body burning with fever, his lungs filling with fluid. In the end, he had simply stopped breathing.
"His father was in the next cot," Antiphus said. "He caught the fever three days after his son. He survived. When he woke this morning and asked about the boy, Reos told him. He didn't speak after that. He just turned his face to the wall."
