Five of us, to test for the Scourge? Since we were isolated from the towns, so far the Scourge had not touched my people. We never mixed with the pinchworms except on the rare occasions when we needed supplies, and in those cases, we never went to towns where the Scourge had appeared.
So why was the governor sending wardens to test us for the Scourge?
"It may sound like a hefty punishment, but it's deserved," the second warden said. "Grubs always cause the worst uprisings."
What was he talking about? There was no uprising. The last trouble we'd caused happened when those men were taken for the exploration, and even that was minor. There'd been nothing close to an uprising since then.
A caw sounded off to my right. An angry, nasty caw that only could have come from the hecklebird. The hateful thing was back, but why now?
No doubt it smelled the vinefruit juice that had dried on my arm. It knew I'd disturbed its nest. It wanted revenge and would get it now, better than the bird could've ever expected.
That bird would expose me to the wardens below.
The wardens looked in the direction of the bird's warning cry. They instinctively ducked because such a foul sound would make even the stupidest people--such as the wardens, for example--crouch to protect themselves.
I used the moment to pluck a stick off a nearby branch, ready to take a swing at the bird. All I could hope was that the wardens would crawl away, like any pinchworm would, and then I could fend the thing off until I got free. It had been foolish of me to hang here while eating the fruit. Even if I got down now and even if I escaped the attention of the wardens, the rash that would soon appear on my leg from the vine would cause me a fair amount of itching.
Except the stocky warden heard the stick crack and looked up. He called to his companion and then shouted up at me, "You, girl, my name is Warden Brogg, in the service of Governor Nerysa Felling. I order you to come down."
"If you want me, come get me!" I shouted back. I could take a swing at the warden just the same as the hecklebird. They were equally ugly.
"I might," Brogg replied.
No, he wouldn't. Even the lowest branch wouldn't hold his weight, and I doubted he could climb to the top of an anthill without pausing to rest. Climbing required a special set of muscles that most pinchworms didn't have.
However, they did have axes, and the second warden, a tall man with legs too long for his body, pulled out his ax now, which he began using to chop at the tree.
"Stop that!" I yelled. "When this tree falls, it'll land on you. I don't care about that, but it'll crush me too."
"Then come down!" Brogg called.
"Can't you see I'm stuck?"
Even the hecklebird knew that. He dove directly at me, sharp beak open. I swung for it and missed, but it forced the bird out of my way. It came around again and pecked at my arm, leaving a small nick there. I swung a second time, and a few feathers fell before it flew away. I hoped I had injured it as much as it had just hurt me. Maybe the vinefruit hadn't been worth it.
The wardens below seemed to have traced the vine holding my leg to its root in the ground. Now they were chopping at it. I knew they had the right vine, because it shook every time the ax hit.
"Leave me alone!" I raised up my body and took hold of the vine, which would now leave a rash on my palms. Then I began working my leg free. Otherwise, I'd fall on my head, which from this height would leave me with the kind of headache that made people permanently stare off into empty space.
They kept chopping, cutting through the vine, which dropped me almost a third of the way to the ground before it tangled on something else. I cursed at the wardens, then pulled my leg free. At least I was right side up when the vine finally gave way and I fell the rest of the way to the ground.
I landed hardest on my right ankle, but I didn't think it was broken. It stung, though, preventing me from running away. One warden grabbed me, the taller man, who, it turned out, had an iron grip.
He pulled me to my feet and then said, "What's your name, girl?"
"What's yours?"
"Warden Gossel, in the service of Governor Ner--"
"Yeah, I already heard the rest." I grunted. "My name is Ani Mells. I've done nothing wrong, and I'm an honest citizen of Keldan. Let me go."
He sent a mocking look to his companion and held out one of my arms, the one with the vinefruit stain on it. "Look at this, Brogg--reddened skin. That's one symptom of the Scourge."
"It's fruit juice, you fool," I said, struggling against him. "The pit is somewhere beneath your feet, and the approximate size of your brain, I'd guess. Let me go and I'll find it."
"And look at that open wound on her other arm," Gossel said. "That's probably how she got the disease in the first place."
With my good foot, I tried to kick at Gossel, but only collapsed on my sore ankle. "The bird just did that to me," I said. "You saw it."