"I've done nothing wrong, Governor." Since the moment I was put in that isolation wagon, I'd only tried to do what I thought was right, yet my words still sounded hollow. Here in the Colony, right and wrong were all mixed up.
"I got a letter from Warden Gossel, warning me that you were stirring up trouble. From the looks of things, I got here just in time."
"You did, but not because of me." I leaned forward. "Do you know the medicine is a poison? It's made from the spindlewill leaf, which in high enough quantities will kill a person. In low quantities, it still kills, only more slowly."
"Of course I know, but it's all we have against the Scourge!" she snapped. "Do you think you are more compassionate than me, urging the other victims here to stop taking their medicines? Perhaps you believe that you can manage the pain of the Scourge now, but what about when it gets worse? It will, you know. It will get so much worse for you, and for everyone here!"'
"It doesn't have to get worse!" I said. "If you bring in thrushweed, I think it can help. My people--"
"Grub medicine is not the answer!"
"It might be the only answer. If you would listen to me--"
"There is no cure for the Scourge."
"When a person is healed, the Scourge leaves a scar behind, up the forearm." I raised my arm to demonstrate where it would be and gasped. A thin red scar ran up my arm. It hadn't been there the last time I'd checked, before getting on the treadmill. I held it up to show her. "This. They call it the scar of health. I'll grant you, it's odd to name a scar, but they have, and it's a sign the Scourge has left the body." When the governor failed to answer, my eyes narrowed. "I know you've seen this before. Some people escaped the Colony and returned to Keldan, all of them bearing this same scar. You had them executed, didn't you?"
"They violated the law," the governor said. "No one can leave the Colony, ever, whether or not they believe they're cured. The Scourge can always be passed to someone else."
"Will you leave the Colony?" I asked. "Will you be tested for the Scourge too? Isn't it possible that you're infected now?"
"I am not infected!" she yelled. "What is it about grubs that compels you to fight everyone and everything?"
"You should want fighters!" My temper was rising, and I wasn't doing much to control it. "You should want the entire country of Keldan to resist the Scourge, just as we would resist Dulan if they ever invade."
"Dulan will not invade," she said. "I have seen to that. I have protected us in ways that a stupid grub like you could never understand."
"Stupid? I turned a human-powered wheel into one powered by water. I probably have a cure for the Scourge. I even found a faster way to collect the laundry here, though I admit, there were some flaws in that last idea."
A crack of thunder sounded outside and the governor froze. "What was that?" she asked Warden Brogg.
I already knew. I'd seen the dark clouds before, even if they had not.
Brogg opened the door, then shut it again. "A storm is coming this way and fast. We warned you not to come!"
Governor Felling's mouth pinched together. "I only came because Warden Gossel's letter was so urgent." She glared at me. "It's the grub's fault I'm here
."
Brogg looked out again. "The storm looks pretty serious. The Colonists should be ordered into the prison early tonight, before supper. You should get to safety too, in case this results in flooding. They have a barracks on higher ground that will be safe for you."
"Not yet," the governor said. "Not until we finish with this grub."
"Ani," I said. "You keep calling me grub, but my name is Ani."
Her eyes narrowed and she leaned into me. "Your name is grub. Your name is servant. Your name is Scourge. That is what you must accept while you are here."
"My name is Ani," I repeated, leaning in toward the governor. "I am one of the River People, and I serve no one but myself. As for the Scourge, I am healed of it!"
I raised my arm again, ready to give Governor Felling an extra-close-up look at my arm, but Brogg grabbed it, protecting my fist from accidentally hitting the governor's nose. Well, accidentally, more or less.
Another crack of thunder rolled above us, immediately followed by a flash of lightning. Rain began falling as it usually did in the river country, with no early warnings of light rainfall, but suddenly, with fat, heavy drops. So much that it immediately began leaking through these thin wooden walls.
Still, Governor Felling ignored all that and only raised her voice above the storm.
"How can I send more River People here if this one can't even be controlled?" she asked. Brogg shrugged in return. Any other answer would either get him in trouble or get him sent here permanently.
"There is no Scourge amongst the River People!" I said. "But you don't care about that, do you? You told me yourself, that you believe the River People are the true Scourge of Keldan! You only want to send them here, hoping they get the disease, and to wipe us out that way!" My eyes widened. "That's why the wardens took me out of that tree. I overheard them saying you had ordered them to get five River People for testing. You didn't care which five, any of us would do."