"Nobody needs to go to the infirmary again!" I held up the thrushweed again. "I have three leaves left. Will anyone try one, as a test?"
"Don't you dare," Gossel warned me, raising his pistol.
I backed farther from him and shouted, "Resist them! They have to break you first! But they will never break me!"
Or maybe they would. A warden grabbed my waist and clubbed me across the back with his fist. Weevil yelled and reached for me, but a warden had him too.
I struggled as best as I could, but I was still feeling the effects from last night and the warden was stronger than me anyway. The thrushweed leaves were pried from my hand and crushed beneath another warden's boot. Weevil said he had searched everywhere. There were no other plants on this island. No way to help the Colonists now.
They were dragging us toward the yard, and I had a feeling that this time, my punishment wouldn't be as easy as being stuck in a cage.
So you refuse to be broken?" Gossel snarled as we arrived in the yard, beneath the vinefruit tree. Weevil was beside me, and Gossel looked at us both. "This friendship was supposed to have ended!"
"Sorry to disappoint you." Weevil looked at me, then back at the warden. "And by 'sorry,' I mean, we hope to disappoint you as often as possible."
Unamused, Gossel pulled out his rod again. "Only one of you will take the hits," he said. "Which of you will it be?"
"Me," both Weevil and I said at the same time.
"I'm stronger," Weevil said.
"You're healthier," I countered. "We're equally strong. Besides, this is my fault. You warned me not to say anything to the whole group and I did." I turned to Gossel. "What happened back there was my fault. It should be my punishment."
"No, it must be mine," Weevil said, and now his eyes filled with tears. I'd never seen any emotion like that from him before. "It must, Ani. I can't watch them hurt you. Don't make me see it."
"Then that is how we'll break you both," Gossel said. To me, he added, "Hold out your hand."
"Striking Ani with that rod will never break her." Desperation seeped through Weevil's words now. "She'll never let you see that it hurts."
"Let's compromise," I said. "Start by giving Weevil a full meal and a feather bed. I'll be so jealous it will put me into tears. Then, once you've broken me that way, you can give me the meal and the feather bed, which will break him too."
"Enough!" The lines on Gossel's face deepened. "You'll both get the rod, then."
"You won't touch either of them." It was Clement, the man from the caves, folding his arms and surrounded by a dozen others his size.
"Get to your chores!" Gossel shouted at him.
"My chores are at the treadmill." He pointed to me. "And that girl has treadmill duty also."
"She is being punished."
"For violating what rule?"
"She caused harm to you, or she will."
"She's done nothing but speak to the Colonists at morning meal. If dumping out the medicine causes us harm, then we did it to ourselves."
Gossel backed up, clearly intimidated by the many other men who had come to defend me. "All right, the girl can go. But this boy kept back plant leaves yesterday after being ordered to turn all of them in. That is a clear violation of his duties."
Weevil glanced at me with worry in his eyes. It was a violation. There was no doubt of that.
Then Gossel smiled as if he'd just had a great idea. That sent a ripple of anxiety through me. Anything that made him so happy was bound to be bad for us.
He said to me, "Yesterday, you promised to climb a mountain on that treadmill, didn't you?"
Cautiously, I nodded. "But it's in the water now, doing the climb for all of us. All we must do is keep the mill full of grain."
"The treadmill can still be climbed," he said.