"We have to get him out of that tree," I said to Jonas, and immediately started back down the stairs.
Jonas grabbed my arm. "We have to find Della."
"Weevil will die up there!"
"And Della will die in this prison. Your friend knows what he's doing, and he's trusting us to do our job too."
My lips pinched together. "Fine, but let's hurry."
We both searched on the second floor, and I quickly realized it had been wise to keep my face in the shadows before. Because those who saw me weren't exactly offering me cheers and good wishes. One woman even welcomed me by throwing her pitcher of water at my face when I looked into her room.
The third floor was even worse. People there had heard the commotion and those shouting out my name below. Many were already out of their rooms when we walked up.
"We were wrong to listen to you, grub!" one woman shouted at me. "Until this morning, I could do my work assignments. I could manage the Scourge pain and feel I was living an almost normal life. But now I've lain here all evening, wishing the storm would just strike this building down and end all this moaning."
"If there was one thrushweed plant on this island, then there must be more," I said. "When we find it, I'll personally bring you some and let you try it. The Scourge isn't--"
"The Scourge is going to take us anyway!" a man yelled. "At least before today, it took us more gently."
"You've all been poisoned!" I called back. "That is the Scourge--a poison. But it can be cured!" Even if there was no more thrushweed on this island, I knew where it grew in Keldan. I could return here and help these people. "If you give me a few more days, I will bring you the cure myself."
"We might have a few more days," another man said, advancing toward me and Jonas. "But you don't. The wardens promised that if we turned you over to them, we'd all get new flasks full of medicine. So that's what we'll do." He snarled at those around him. "Get the girl!"
As the third-floor Colonists moved closer to Jonas and me, we backed toward the stairs, but more people were coming up, so we couldn't get out that way. I looked out the window, still cracked open from when Della and I had dumped out the laundry. Too bad the laundry wasn't there anymore. It might've cushioned our fall if we decided to jump.
Because as risky as that idea was, jumping out of a third-story window seemed safer than where we now were.
"You're going to have a bad night!" I yelled at the growing crowd. "It'll be one of the hardest nights you've ever had to go through. I know, I've done it. But morning will come and we'll start to fix things tomorrow."
"We don't have to wait out the night," a man said. "Not if we turn you in."
He started to lunge for us, when a voice behind everyone shouted, "I forbid you to touch her!"
Hearing Della's commanding voice, the crowd turned. With so many people between us, I couldn't see her, but I was certain that everyone around us had heard. "All of you know me and you know my father, so you know that he would've done everything possible to save me from this disease. None of it kept me from getting sick, and none of it has saved me from being here in this Colony. If all that money can't save me, what hope do any of you have? Did Governor Felling save any of you from this disease? No, she only gave you a medicine that can numb you for a while, even as it makes us sicker. There is only one person who has given us any hope of survival, and she is standing there before you. Look at Ani. She was as sick as me when we came here on the boats. Now she looks as healthy as we all used to be."
"I am healthy." I raised up my arm to show the thin red line running up my forearm. "This is evidence that I've recovered. The Scourge is not a disease. You were poisoned, and thrushweed can cure it."
"Rubbish," one woman muttered. "The governor has no reason to make us sick. The Scourge is real."
"Whatever the Scourge is, I recovered from it too," Jonas said, holding up his arm. "But it wasn't because of the medicine."
"Jonas?" Della called. I saw where she was pushing through the crowd, and suddenly, she was running to her friend. She gave him a warm embrace, and then he kissed her. I felt embarrassed to look at them, but happy too.
And I wondered if one day, Weevil might ever want to kiss me. I thought if he did, I'd probably be all right with that. One day.
When they parted, he whispered something to her. Della nodded and turned to the crowd. "I demand that you let us pass."
They parted for her in a way they never would have for me or even Jonas. And as we turned and started to leave, I checked out the window again.
I wasn't one for cursing, but I did now. Weevil had made it to the highest, thinnest branches of the vinefruit tree and was looking around in all directions.
Without waiting for the people to move, I pushed through them and ran to the main floor. There, right beside the entry, was a half-filled laundry bin, probably abandoned when the storm hit. I grabbed it and pushed it with me out in the rain toward the tree. Weevil didn't see me coming. He was facing southward, looking out over the wall behind the infirmary. He was so intent on whatever he was watching that he might've forgotten all about the storm overheard.
River People understood storms better than anyone. Water from the heavens was drawn to water already on the earth, and when storms hit, we felt the worst of it. Weevil knew better than to be up in that tree.
But he had also promised to find us a boat within one hour, and this was the only way.
I charged for him, determined to get that laundry bin beneath him before he either fell in the rain or was struck by lightning. Jonas wasn't far behind me, though Della was with him and much slower than me, so the gap between us widened.