"What if I need it?" I asked.
"Then it will motivate you into better behavior once you're released." He crouched down beside me. "To survive the Colony, you must be broken. You're a grub, so maybe you think you can outlast me. But I've broken your friendship, and now I will break you, just as we do to everyone else here."
"I'm not like everyone else." Now I stood and squeezed into the cage, which was even smaller up close than it had seemed while dangling in the air. Then, just to make him angry, I said, "It's a lucky thing that nobody will feed me. One meal, and I might not have fit so comfortably."
He said, "If withholding meals makes you comfortable, I'm sure we can arrange to make your stay in the Colony very comfortable indeed."
"It's pinchworm food anyway," I said. "No taste to it."
Then the door shut in my face, and the men began hoisting my cage into the air. Other than being cramped inside, it wasn't the worst punishment. The tree gave me some shade, and the cool breeze was a welcome relief from the heat. It wouldn't be pleasant, but I could endure this.
Once I was in place, I became aware of the Scourge patients wandering the Colony, turning their eyes to me. Likely, word was already spreading throughout the camp about what I had done to Della. Hopefully, at least a few of those words were the truth about what had happened. If not, being in this cage was probably the best treatment I'd get here.
"Be good, and you'll be out by tomorrow," Gossel said.
Of course I'd be good. What other choice did I have? My mind was already swirling with possibilities. The knife was still in my boot, for example. If I cut the rope ...
No, that was incredibly foolish. If I cut the rope, then the cage would fall.
"Where's my medicine?" I asked.
He draped the rope across a low-hanging branch. "Here, waiting for you. Try not to get any sicker."
Then he and the other men walked away, leaving me suspended in the aerial cage. I leaned my head against a thick wood bar and let the medicine work inside me. I wasn't sure how long it would last, but I figured if I remained calm, that would preserve its effects for a while longer.
Slowly, the pain eased, leaving me with only regret for what had happened with Weevil. Even after I'd hurt him, he still tried to take my punishment, and I knew his offer had been sincere.
I scanned the Colony for any sign of him. Had he gone inside the old prison to find a room? Had he gone to the beach to stare at the shoreline of Keldan, regretting his decision to come here with me? Well, of course he'd be regretting that right now. I just wondered where he was while he was regretting it.
Not here, that was certain. He wasn't here, beside me, making jokes, telling me everything would be all right, assuring me that I could fight this disease, just as I had fought everything else.
He wasn't here, so I would have to comfort myself. But no matter how I tried, I could never believe my own lies.
I'd always liked having Weevil for a friend. Indeed, he was one of the few people who seemed to understand me for the person I really was deep down.
Yes, I'd always liked Weevil for a friend. But now, I realized, I needed his friendship too. Only I realized that one conversation too late.
For the most part, I didn't mind the afternoon and evening in the cage. Yes, I was cramped and desperately needed to stretch my legs. The gnawing hunger within me was worse than ever, and I had yet to see Weevil anywhere. Thanks to the medicine, I was managing the pain all right, though it didn't take it away as well as it had done in Doctor Cresh's office.
I didn't care about the stares from the people on the ground, or at least I didn't mind the more sympathetic glances my way. I ignored the rest, and figured this was a rare opportunity to see the Colony from an angle few people ever would.
Unfortunately, I wasn't high enough to see past what I was calling the Colony's square, the main gathering area in front of the prison. Everyone seemed to pass through the square at one time or another, bustling about at whatever task they had been assigned. As the warden suggested, every Scourge victim did their part for the Colony. Many people worked in a large garden to the east, and several others seemed to be preparing food for the next meal, served under a wide tent. Six or seven men in an upper corner of the Colony were working behind a fence, walking a treadmill while other men fed wheat grains into the grinder below them to be ground into flour.
The treadmill caught my attention for some time. It was an incredible waste of energy. In the very same area, a river was flowing. Its current looked reasonably strong--I could see that from here. If they widened it enough for the entire treadmill to sit inside the water, the current would do most of the work in rotating the mill. That's how we did things in the river country.
Instead, they were using the far weaker human strength. The treadmill was a long, round tube with steps on all sides. As the men climbed it, the treadmill turned downward, forcing the men to step up again and again, like a never-ending stairway. Their work ground up the grains that had been fed inside the tube, but there were so many better ways to accomplish that. These were sick men, diseased men. It was wrong to make them do such difficult work, just to grind wheat.
Before long, I turned away. The wheat reminded me of Weevil.
As evening fell, I saw something that struck me as interesting. With the sound of a ringing bell from the food tent, most people headed that way. But not everyone. Some people disappeared behind the prison and never returned to eat. That made no sense to me. I probably wouldn't have even noticed their disappearance if I had been on the ground. But here, it was a curious thing. Maybe the Scourge left people without an appetite.
I frowned at that, wondering exactly how sick Weevil would have to get before he wasn't hungry anymore. As far as I could tell, he didn't go to the food tent either. It bothered me that he had disappeared so completely. Was he already sick too?
If that wasn't bad enough, I heard a caw to my left and saw a hecklebird headed straight for me. Miserable creatures--they were on this island too? I wanted to reach for my knife, but if I could see so many people, then all those people could see me as well, and this wasn't the moment when I wanted my knife revealed. So I hissed at the bird that pecked back at me, for no reason other than that I was there. If only the wooden bars of this cage were wider apart, I could reach through them and strangle that thing.
I finally shooed it away and, in doing so, rotated my cage to the opposite direction, with my back toward the Colony. I liked it better this way, where I didn't have to look at the passersby staring up at me. I didn't want either their sympathy or their judgment.
When I turned, I saw another building to the south that was more curious than anything else. It was only a single story tall but wide and unfriendly looking. Not