The Scourge - Page 32

"There's no shortage for me, not anymore."

By then, she had finished emptying my flask and sealed up the container, letting it fall back against the tree. She took a swallow of her flask--filled with my medicine--making sure I saw it.

"I'll stop the pain before it comes back," she said. "That'll keep my body strong enough to fight off this disease."

I grabbed the bars of the cage, wishing I had enough strength to break them. "That medicine is mine!"

"It would've remained yours too, if my medicine wasn't fish food right now." With that, she skipped out of the yard below me. Literally skipped, as if she didn't have a care in the world.

I wished I could say the same. Because with the knowledge that I no longer had any medicine to fight off this disease, the pain in my gut suddenly returned. Worse than ever.

The Colonists had long settled in for the night before I fell asleep. I'd learned from watching the people that a curfew was strictly enforced, though the wardens didn't need to be strict. The people worked hard all day--very hard--and seemed almost grateful to be ordered into the prison for a night's rest.

As I drifted off, I wondered what awaited them inside the old prison. It couldn't be anything that nice, certainly not the place of peace the governor had assured us of in her many speeches.

In those speeches, she never mentioned that the sick were shoved into the water, without care for who could swim or who was too ill to get themselves into a boat. She never discussed Scourge victims having to labor for their own welfare or being punished by hanging them in a wooden cage for public scorn. When she described the shepherds who offered love to the victims, she might've forgotten that church volunteers didn't carry pistols and wear the cocked hats of the wardens. Somehow, between praising herself for her compassion and expressing love for everyone in Keldan but the River People, she'd left all those things out.

Those were the last thoughts in my head as I fell asleep that night. It had been too warm in the day, but now, without the sun, the sea breeze sent a chill right through me. I'd even sneezed a couple of times and smiled at the irony that I'd probably catch my death of the cold before the Scourge got me.

At first, I thought the sounds I heard next were only part of my dreams, so it took a while to pull my senses together. Everything around me had become very dark, though thanks to the stars, it didn't take long for my eyes to adjust. I was glad to see the stars. It meant there'd be no rain tonight, which was a possibility I had dreaded.

But there--the sounds came again. The groan of a branch beneath someone's weight. I was not alone in this tree!

That worried me. If anyone released the knot for this cage, I'd go crashing to the ground with no way to slow the fall. Maybe Della had returned, this time with a far deadlier revenge than simply stealing my medicine. I couldn't imagine she was capable of that, but someone had their reasons for coming up here.

I felt for the knife hidden inside my boot, but was too cramped now to get it out. If I had been smart, I'd have found a way to get it out earlier. Of course, I couldn't have predicted someone would break curfew to climb a tree in total darkness to rob a person who had nothing to her name.

While I struggled to get the knife out of my boot, I also faced the problem of the sea breeze that, with occasional gusts, rotated my cage. It was doing that now, sending me slowly spinning to my right, and then the rope correcting itself to spin to the left. I was already dizzy and now unable to get a fix on whoever was climbing this tree.

I closed my eyes to let the dizziness melt away, then opened them and saw a face staring back at me. My first instinct w

as to scream. The face came closer, revealing Weevil's bright eyes, glowing in the starlight.

"Shh," he said, pressing a finger to his lips.

Suppressing a squeal of happiness, I clutched at the bars. "What are you doing here?"

"I just happened to be in the area."

"But I thought ... the wheat ..."

He sighed. "You kept my family from starvation, Ani. If that makes you a terrible friend, then you must promise to continue being terrible."

"What good are any promises after I lied to you? I promised never to share our food with you, and began ignoring that promise the very next night."

The corner of his mouth turned up. "Well, that's a relief! Had you broken your promise the same night, that would be unforgiveable. It's a good thing you waited a whole day."

"I'm serious, Weevil!"

"So am I." Now his eyes met mine. "You said it yourself. Sometimes friendship is doing what's right for a person, even if it's not what they want." He grabbed the bars to keep my cage from rotating away from him. "Earlier today, I began thinking about a time eight or nine months ago when we were fishing. There was something you wanted to tell me. Was this it?"

I nodded. That day was perfectly clear in my memories. "I started to tell you about the wheat, but then you interrupted with a story about a woman upriver who had brought your mother a meat pie and how that upset you. That was only one meat pie, Weevil, just given as neighborly kindness. I knew how angry you'd be if I finished my story."

"I would've been angry--that's true."

"I tried to tell you other times too. I did try."

"I know, and I'm sorry for being so stupid at times. I owe you more than I can ever repay."

Tags: Jennifer A. Nielsen Fantasy
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