The Scourge - Page 27

We turned to see Warden Gossel hurrying toward us. Seeing him again left the same taste as a mouthful of mud. The bottoms of his trousers were still wet, so he could not have arrived long before us, though he had obviously gotten here on another boat. A real boat that went all the way to the shore.

The warden holding the rod acknowledged him with a slight tilt of his head, so I knew Gossel was the superior officer. But Gossel was also here as punishment of his own. If Gossel had disliked us before, getting sent here because of us would hardly make things better.

"These two were just competing for who should take the other's punishment," the warden said.

"Oh?" Gossel held out his hand for the rod and then curtly dismissed the other warden. Once he'd left, Gossel nodded at us. "I'm surprised to see such honor amongst grubs. But here in the Colony, you must live by a different set of rules. There is no room for such foolish loyalties here."

"Friendship is not foolish," I said.

Gossel stepped closer to me. "Here, it is. There is only so much medicine to go around. You'll have limited food, limited beds. There are ways to keep yourself alive a little longer." He glanced at Weevil. "But not if you're always looking out for someone else first. Before you can join the others, I will have to break the friendship out of you."

Weevil and I looked at each other. "You can try, but you won't succeed," he said. "Nothing can break a true friendship."

I believed that. I also believed that Weevil had always been the truest friend to me, perfectly loyal and good. But that didn't mean our friendship was perfect. If Gossel found the flaws, he could worm in between them and divide us.

"We'll see," Gossel said, turning the rod in his hands. "Here is how this works. If you truly want the other's punishment, then you must earn it. Whoever can prove him--or herself--to be the worse friend will receive the full punishment. The other one is free to leave." He looked from me over to Weevil. "So who is the worst between you?"

I immediately thought of the way the River People talked about me and Weevil. Everyone knew he was the better person and, thus, the better friend. I knew the truth of that better than anyone. It wouldn't take long before that was obvious to the warden too.

I spoke first. "I'm the worse friend, sir. And I can prove it."

Weevil immediately reacted to my words, jumping in with, "I want the whole punishment. Let her go free."

Gossel arched a brow. "The fir

st point is against you, grub. A sacrifice like that only proves you are a better friend."

I should have taken that hint and said if Weevil wanted the whole punishment, then he should get it. That would've proven I was the worse friend and, ironically, set him free. But I couldn't say it, because a part of me feared that if I agreed with Weevil, Gossel would still punish him, and maybe worse than just the rod. Did Gossel know what the governor had ordered for Weevil? I couldn't risk it.

So instead I said, "I am worse. A few months ago, Weevil was diving in the river for clams and ended up with a fish bite right on his nose. It swelled up to the size of his fist for two days. I couldn't help but laugh every time I saw him."

Weevil smiled at the memory. I'd left out of the story how hard Weevil had laughed at himself. We had joked that if the swelling never went down, his snoring would become the new worst sound in the world. But in hindsight, I shouldn't have laughed. The swelling had probably hurt more than I'd realized at the time.

"I'm the worse friend," Weevil said. "I make fun of Ani's singing every chance I get. You have no idea how bad it is, how it drives you to wish you were deaf, just to get away from it. A better friend would overlook her singing, but I never do."

He always did. Whether Gossel knew it or not, Weevil was proving again how great he was to me. Of course he teased me about my singing. Everyone else just covered their ears and tried to ignore me. I loved that he would tell me the truth and make me laugh about it at the same time.

"I'm much worse than that," I said. "My family has more food than his. There are only three of us, so it's easier to provide for ourselves. He has five younger brothers and sisters and no father in his home. Yet I never share from our table. Ever."

"I've never asked you to share, or wanted what you have," Weevil said, directly to me. "Even if you tried to share your food, we'd never accept it."

How well I knew that.

"Anyway, I can still do worse," Weevil continued. "There was this one day, a couple of weeks ago, when you looked really pretty. Not just pretty, but beautiful, like the angels in the heavens must look. I should've told you. That's the kind of things girls like to hear, right?"

"I don't care about that," I whispered. But I knew exactly which day he meant. I had dressed up in my very best to go down into Windywood to sing. He had caught me unexpectedly. Even if he'd wanted to compliment my looks, there had been no chance for it before I hurried him out the door. I didn't want him to know where I was going. I still didn't want him to know.

"I never tell you those things," Weevil said. "Such as how much I admire the person you are, your strength and your courage to do anything you believe is right. I used to think I wouldn't say those things because it might embarrass you. But that's not it. I don't say those things because it'd embarrass me. That's not a good friend."

"I don't say them to you either," I said. "And that never matters because we're friends. We already know that about each other."

"You seem to be a very good friend," Gossel said to me. "But when all is laid open, is he an equal friend back?"

"I'm not," Weevil said. "The other night, when we escaped the cell, I wasn't far away when Warden Brogg recaptured you. I would've helped if I could, but there was nothing I could do. A good friend would never have left you alone in that cell."

"I hoped you would go back home," I said. "I didn't want you back in that cell with me, and certainly didn't want you here now. I wish you had not come back."

And at the same time, it was my greatest wish to never have to be here without him.

Tags: Jennifer A. Nielsen Fantasy
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