"Rabies?"
"Yes, sir," Bellam answered. "The Outlander's dog had a convulsion beyond the guard line and then almost attacked the three of us. That dog is mad."
"How do you know it was a convulsion?" Thane asked.
"You saw it, yourself," Bellam answered.
He turned his head to face Thane as he spoke and Thane saw his eyes for the first time.
They were the lifeless, staring eyes of a dead man.
He flicked his light over the faces of the other two guards. They were the same; all three were like walking dead.
"Did the monsters harm you?" he asked Bellam.
Bellam hesitated, seeming to tense with suspicion. "No." The dead eyes stared into his. "What makes you ask?"
He saw that Curry had noticed nothing different about the three guards. It was typical of Curry; to him subordinates were only automatons to carry out his orders.