Excerpt: The Longest Day

"He explained that in his life as a "warm blood" he called it, he had been an apprentice to a cleric. His master was employed by the Medici family, and Marie de Medici had once looked upon him with kindness, offering him a stay in one of the servants quarters of her large home (along side his master.). Louis explained the terrible sickness that had swept France, and of his family's demise. His sister, who had been recently betrothed to a merchan'ts son, had escaped her death only by the grace of God. She had been very sick. His story told of the day that he had been plagued with illness and had been confined to a bed in a room with many other people. He was there for many days before he forced himself to leave. It was his own desire to get well that saved him from the plague, but not from the change from warm blood. One night he had been in an alley, trying to find warmth against a doorway when a beautiful woman approached him. She had a blanket for him, and also fed him grapes. But he was in such a delirious fever that he hardly understood the kindness. She pulled him up and told him she would take him to a place that was safe, and tend to his illness. He allowed himself to be carried by the small woman. He could remember this still because those last hours of warmth had haunted him so often since his change. She delivered him to a building with a great glowing hearth, and a sofa in which he might lay. She told him stories which he could not understand, in a language that was not his own, and he cried. It was the last time he'd cried. He fell asleep that night cradled in her arms, and remembers only awaking to her being gone. His illness had left him, and he himself felt rejuvenated. His strength was much greater than it had been, he realized, after he tried to open the door to leave. The door had fallen off it's hinge and to the floor next to him, as if thrown by a juggernaut. This was surprising to him. Also, he had been about to leave when his hunger hit him. He realized that he had not eaten since the woman had rescued him. His hunger was so strong that he doubled over in pain. But how could he feed himself? He did not even know where he was. It was then that he found a large bowl near the sofa he'd been sleeping on. In it was a dark substance (perhaps broth), and it smelled sweet. Much sweeter than the grapes he had eaten. He drank this nectar until it was gone, and felt himself strengthen. "