The Scourge - Page 53

Della shook her head, obviously confused. So was Weevil, for that matter, which was odd. By now, I expected him to know where my thoughts were long before I'd opened my mouth.

"Well, char beans taste a lot like the back-end business of a bat, and they don't look much different either. I wouldn't eat them, not ever. Nobody should have to eat anything that looks like it was left behind by another animal."

Weevil giggled. "Or that left the behind of another animal."

I rolled my eyes. Honestly, some days I wondered if he was permanently six years old.

"Anyway," I said, "my mama and I used to fight about it all the time. She insisted char beans were healthy for me, that they would give me nutrition like nothing else could, and make me stronger if I ate them. I thought they were disgusting." Now I leaned in to Della. "Who was right, me or my mama?"

Della shrugged. After a moment of consideration, she said, "If they really would make you healthier and stronger, then your mother was right. You should do what she wanted, even if you didn't like it."

Gently, I placed a hand over Della's. "I agree. So please don't get upset." And I turned her flask over and dumped out all the medicine.

Della screeched and lunged for me. Who'd have thought that as sick as she looked, she would still have so much energy? Weevil got between us and took Della by the shoulders.

"It's poison," he said to her. "The medicine is poisoning you."

"It's my medicine!" she screamed. "What have you done, Ani?"

She screamed it loud enough that we now had the entire Colony looking. Wardens were on their feet and moving toward us. There was no choice now but to explain what I'd done.

I scrambled to my feet and held up the flask high enough for everyone to see. "The medicine contains a plant called spindlewill. Townsfolk don't know the plant because it's rare in Keldan. Spindlewill is a poison. In small doses, it will numb you, but as the numbing effects start to fade, it leaves you feeling worse than before. So you think you need more medicine."

"It's better than feeling the Scourge!" a woman shouted out.

"No, what's better is if we try to cure it!" Now I held up the thrushweed leaves Weevil had given me last night. "This is a plant from the river country. I think it can help us!"

"You think?" a man shouted. "What if you're wrong, grub?"

Weevil pulled a few spindlewill leaves from his pocket. "I gave one of these to Ani last night, thinking it would help. Instead, it almost killed her. It would have, if I had not given her some thrushweed right away. We think there's a chance thrushweed will help with the Scourge."

The wardens were eyeing one another, trying to figure out what to do. Would they pounce on me and Weevil at once, making the other Colonists wonder if there really was something to our claims? Or would they wait until we had finished speaking and then quietly drag us off? For now, they were motioning for other wardens to come up to the food tent. Something was about to happen--I just didn't know what.

"These are lies!" a boy shouted. "I remember it was grubs who first brought the Scourge to Keldan hundreds of years ago."

He remembered hundreds of years ago, really? If he was even a year older than Weevil and me, I'd be stunned.

"Governor Felling wants us to take the medicine," an older man said. "If your grub leaves could help, she'd give us those instead."

I held up the leaves again. "Maybe she doesn't know about thrushweed. Or maybe she doesn't know what's really in the medicine. But I will not take one more drink of it, and I don't think you should either."

The wardens definitely didn't like that. They began closing in on me. I looked for Della too, but couldn't see her anymore.

"You're a grub!" a woman yelled. "Why should we listen to you?"

"There are no grubs here in the Colony," I said. "And no pinchworms. No River People, no townsfolk, and, for that matter, no victims. We are Colonists, all of us who have the Scourge. We are one people, me and you. And if we work together, we can defeat this." I pointed to the wardens. "We can defeat them!"

Now the wardens moved forward, but the people had gotten to their feet around us and they were having trouble pushing through the crowd.

"Just stop taking it for three days," Weevil said. "After three days, the

medicine should be out of your system. Then you can decide if you feel better or worse."

One of the men who had been on the treadmills stood and held up his flask. "I can tell you right now what I'll do." And he poured his medicine out onto the ground.

Another man next to him did the same thing. Then another woman across the tent did, and then several more people all at once.

"You have just doomed yourselves!" Warden Gossel shouted. "Fools, the grubs have tricked you! You will be screaming with pain tonight! And there is nothing you can do about it! All of you will beg to go to the infirmary, just to be rid of the pain!"

Tags: Jennifer A. Nielsen Fantasy
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