The Scourge - Page 42

His eyes narrowed. "What did you do?"

"Nothing! I'm not hungry. Now go eat before it's all gone."

"You lost meal privileges. How, Ani?"

I turned to him, using as much anger as possible to make him go away. "Maybe I'm not hungry because the Scourge has taken my appetite! Maybe I'm not like you, someone who begins thinking about his second meal before he's even finished his first. Maybe I don't like the food here! Not everything happens because I'm in trouble!"

Weevil looked taken aback at first, then nodded at me with a smile. "You must've really done something wrong. All right, I'll go eat. Can you at least manage to stay out of trouble until I finish?"

No, I thought. That was definitely not my plan.

"Yes," I said.

He casually raked a hand through his hair. "I'll save some of my supper for you."

I sighed. "Go eat, Weevil. Go eat as much as you can."

He winked at me and ran back to the food tent. The minute he disappeared, I left too. I made it look as if I were headed to the old prison, then cut from there down to the beach and went southward, back to the barracks.

I studied the barracks for several minutes, making sure no one remained inside. If they were planning an accident for me tomorrow, then getting caught here would save them the trouble. I could think of few things that would warrant a greater punishment than for me to be caught inside the wardens' living quarters.

Finally, I snuck up to the barracks door and pressed my ear against it, listening for any sound inside. Nothing.

I knocked. "Sir," I said. "Did you not hear the supper bell? The other wardens sent me to get you."

No answer.

Taking a deep breath, I looked around to be sure no one was watching me, then opened the door and slipped inside.

The barracks weren't fancy, but the room was clean and orderly. It had beds for twelve men, all of them stacked in twos. A table in the center served as a sort of desk, and each man had a trunk for his personal possessions. A window was in the far wall, over one of the beds. If necessary, that would be my escape. Just like the laundry in the prison.

I glanced at a half-written letter on the table, addressed to Governor Nerysa Felling. My name was on it, near the top, but thanks to the conversation I'd overheard earlier, I already knew what it said. I was a problem and might cause an uprising here if I wasn't stopped. No need to waste time reading it. I knew everything I'd done, and it was far more than what was written in that letter.

No medicine flasks were hanging from the men's bunks, and no wardens carried medicine over their shoulders, as Scourge victims did. So their medicine must be in the individual trunks.

I searched the one closest to me, as quickly and carefully as I could. There was a change of clothing, stacks of letters, probably to that man's family, a holy book, and some personal grooming items. But no medicine.

The second trunk was nearly the same. Clothes, letters, books, and grooming items. No medicine.

I started into the third. This one might've been Warden Gossel's or maybe even his commander's. Beyond the same items as the others, it held a thick key, letters from the governor, and lists of names. Scourge victims' names perhaps?

Suddenly, I heard voices approaching the barracks. It was time to leave. I quietly closed the trunk, then climbed up to the bed and looked for the latch to open the window. Where was it? River People didn't have windows in our homes, so I didn't have much experience with them, but the prison windows opened wide. How did this one open? Did it open?

It had to! The voices were getting closer. Even if I escaped now, they'd see me running away.

I jumped off the bed and looked beneath the lower bunks for the best place to hide. How long would I need to stay in here? Not through the whole evening, I hoped, but I would if necessary.

In my panic, a pain shot up my side, the first time I'd felt sick all day, but returning with a vengeance. Doubling over from the pain, I got to the floor to crawl under the nearest bed, hoping against reason that this would work.

The barracks door opened. I wasn't yet all the way under the bed, and nothing else was down here to help me. Not unless I could hide behind tiny grains of sand and someone's missing sock. Thinking about the punishment surely headed my way made my brain want to explode.

Then I heard a voice. "Pardon me, sirs, can you help?" That was Weevil.

Weevil? He must have followed me here.

"What is it?" one warden answered. Hopefully the other wasn't Gossel, who'd be more suspicious.

"I f

Tags: Jennifer A. Nielsen Fantasy
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