The Scourge

  I got to my feet, and Della stood beside me, though she was leaning on me to keep herself upright.

  "Please, Ani," Della whispered. "Please. Anything you want. Just tell them I'm not sick."

  Anything I wanted. What would I ask for? Money? There was never enough. My mother needed new shoes and a dress that wasn't made of patched-over holes. Food? I knew what servants for the wealthy carried out of the markets: breads and cheeses and sweets that made my stomach ache for how wonderful they smelled. The possibilities for what I might want were endless.

  Warden Brogg walked up to the cell with a young warden whom I'd spotted searching for me last night. While that man fiddled with his keys to find the one for our door, Brogg hefted his oversized belly over the top of his britches, looking at me first, and then his eye rested on Della. Her hand was pinched around my wrist. Based on the way her nails dug into my skin, I knew it must've been extraordinarily painful for her to even stand upright.

  "So," Brogg said, "how are you both feeling?"

  "Excellent," Della squeaked out.

  Brogg arched a brow and looked at me. "Ani, perhaps you can tell me."

  Della's nails dug in deeper, a reminder that the right kind of lie could change my life. If I told the truth, she would ruin it.

  The fair-skinned warden unlocked the cell door and held it open, though neither of us moved. Della was at serious risk of falling over if she did, and I was having trouble keeping my thoughts together. Her offer was more tempting than I wanted to admit.

  Brogg walked up to me. "How are you feeling?"

  "Perfectly well," I said. "I don't have the Scourge."

  His eyes brushed over me again. "You seem to be all right, though the physician must make the final judgment."

  That didn't worry me. Unless he was as stupid as a stone--always a possibility--he'd see that the drink in that cup had failed to produce any symptoms from me.

  Della, on the other hand ...

  "I'm fine too," Della said. "Tell him, Ani."

  She sucked a harsh breath of air in through her nose. Even if the wardens couldn't hear the pain in her voice, I certainly could.

  Brogg folded his arms and looked back at me. "She says she's fine, but her face is pale. You'd know if she was having symptoms, grub. Is she?"

  Surely he knew that Della was sick, so if he was asking my opinion, it was only to test whether I'd lie. My heart was pounding, but I lowered my head and murmured, "She has the Scourge. She's sick, sir."

  In rage, Della's nails clawed against my arm. I snapped my arm away and held it with my hand, waiting for the sting to pass. Now that she didn't have me to support her weight, Della fell on the ground and screamed with pain. "If it's the last thing I do, Ani, you will pay for that!"

  "Sir Willoughby has just finished meeting with the governor," Brogg told his companion. "He'll try to come back here for his daughter, so it's best if you bring her to the dock another way. Don't let her be seen."

  "No!" Della screeched. "My father promised to get me out of here! You can't send me to the Colony!"

  Considering how much pain she was in, she put up a fair fight before the warden scooped her into his long arms and carried her out of the cell, into another nearby building, one I now suspected led to a dock that would take her to the Attic Island colony.

  Brogg said to me, "I won't have to tie you up now, I hope. We'll go to see the physician. Maybe he can figure out why you're not showing symptoms."

  "I'm not showing symptoms because I'm not sick. You told me that I could go home now."

  "I can't release you without the physician's permission," Brogg reminded me. "Let's go to his examination room."

  I figured it was better to follow him than to fight. After all, there was no longer any reason to hold me. I'd passed the test. If I cooperated for a few more minutes, I'd be free. Even I could manage to behave for that long. Besides that, my ankle was still a little sore. Attempting to outrun him would only inflame the injury again or create new injuries for at least one of us. Hopefully him.

  We walked toward the large brick building at the far end of the courtyard. This was where the wardens had come from and where Della's father had entered to speak to the governor. As I got closer, I was surprised to see so much decay in the building's foundation. This place would surely collapse one day, and probably sooner rather than later.

  I stole a glance at Brogg, who was walking me forward like I was sure he must've done hundreds of times before with others who were suspected of the Scourge. That family of nine had passed the test. How many others had too? And how many had failed and were taken away just like Della?

  "Sir," I said, "Della told me the Colony is not what the governor describes it to be. How is it?"

  His teeth were clenched as he replied. "She told you that, huh? Has she been to the Colony before?"

  "I'm sure she hasn't. But her father seems well connected. Perhaps he's heard things and shared them with his family."

  "Sir Willoughby is not to be trusted, nor any of his wild-eyed claims. Governor Nerysa Felling is saving our country from the Scourge, not him. Her decisions might not always be popular, but they are necessary. Besides that, our country has been doing much better in recent months--other than the disease, of course. But when Keldan flourishes again, like in the old days, it will be under Governor Felling's direction. She is saving us, not Sir Willoughby."

  That all sounded very nice, but it wasn't an answer to my question. And perhaps the fact that he had used so many obviously rehearsed words to not answer me was the answer. The Colony was not as pleasant as the governor would have us believe.

  He opened a door and directed me to walk down a dark and narrow hallway. Sconces were set into the wall, but few of them were lit, and the doors we passed as we walked were either closed or their rooms were bare. This could not be a government building, as I had suspected. If so, where was everyone?

  "To your right," Brogg ordered, and we entered a small examination room. A single table stood in the center, but it looked too much like a slab for a dead body, so I refused to lie on it, as the warden clearly wanted me to do. Instead, I opted for a chair against the wall. Near me was another small table with a tray of tools on it. A magnifying glass. Something like scissors, only without sharp ends. A knife. I'd remember that item, if it became necessary. Brogg took up a post at the door, crossing his hands in front of him and watching me.

  "Don't think your friend got away last night," he said. "We'll find him soon."

  "If you haven't found him by now, then he got away," I said. "You and I both know he never should've been in that wagon in the first place. You only grabbed him because you had orders from the governor to take five grubs." My eyes narrowed. "For what kind of punishment? Whose uprising?"

  Brogg's eyes widened. "You did hear us, then!" He started toward me, but stopped when another man entered the room. He was older, with graying hair and a stiff beard that came to a point below his chin. A pair of round glasses made his eyes look larger than they were, and he seemed to hum when he wasn't speaking.

  "My name is Doctor Thomas Cresh," he said. "I am in charge of all Scourge patients inside Keldan. You were given a cup of my formula over an hour ago, correct?"

  "Yes, sir. I don't have--"

  "Hush." He grabbed my face and turned it side to side, then pressed his fingers into my stomach. "Does that hurt?"

  "Well, you poke hard for an old man. Otherwise, I'm not hurting."

  "Before last night, have you come into contact with any person who has the Scourge?"

  "No, sir." Not as far as I knew. Was that good enough?

  "And you have no pain?"

  "None." Except for him. He was a big pain.

  "Then I suppose I have to let you go."

  "Wait a minute," a woman said, stepping into the room. "You're Ani Mells?"

  The doctor turned, and I looked around him to see a woman with dark hair dressed into an elaborate bun. Her eyes were wide, deep set, and intellige
nt. Her long dress was elegant, yet designed to show her as someone to be taken seriously. In every way, she evoked power, which I'm sure was exactly how she wanted it. This was the governor, though I'd never seen her up close. I'd sometimes been singing in towns where she came to speak, though.

  When I didn't answer her question, Governor Felling stepped toward me. "Ani, my name is--"

  "I know who you are," I said as I stood for her. "I've just passed the Scourge test. My parents don't know where I am, and they must be terrified for me. Please, can I leave?"

  Her smile was cold and empty. "River People certainly are short on manners." Now the governor looked to Warden Brogg. "You told me that this girl tried to escape last night. After she encountered Sir Willoughby's daughter, what did Ani say to her?"

  Brogg cleared his throat. "It wasn't meant--"

  "What did Ani say?"

  "She told Della Willoughby that she had the Scourge and that she was already half-dead from it."

  My heart slammed against my chest. "I only said that to be mean. Della had just accused me of theft and slapped me. I was lying, but only to scare her."

  "So you admit that you are a liar and have shown a willingness to threaten our citizens." She tsked with her tongue.

  "I have no symptoms, Governor Felling. They promised I could go home."

  "Tell me, Ani. The River People have an herb they often use to flavor their stews. It's got long, thin leaves, and it's almost unheard of in Keldan, except in the rivers near your home. What is its name?"

  "Thrushweed." I knew it well, in fact. Flavoring stews was the least of our uses for thrushweed. The leaves could be boiled until soft and used to make creams to cure skin conditions, or dried and crushed for teas that could help a person sleep. All women kept a bottle of thrushweed oil in their homes in case of food poisoning, though Weevil's mother had given it to him once and he swore the cure was worse. Most infants spent their first year sleeping on bedding filled with thrushweed leaves rather than feathers. We believed it made us stronger from birth.

  "Ah yes, thrushweed." She turned to Doctor Cresh. "Didn't you once tell me that the problem with testing River People is they often have too much thrushweed in their systems?"

  His eyes widened behind his glasses. "Oh yes, indeed. Thrushweed masks Scourge symptoms from my test."

  As fiercely as possible, I shook my head. "I've eaten no thrushweed for over a week. I've eaten nothing at all for almost a day. There's nothing in my system."

  The governor smiled at me with the sort of sympathy that could only be faked by a bad actor. "Is that true, Ani? Or another lie?" She moved closer. "You see, I don't think you're telling us the whole truth. Let's start with the question of how you were exposed to the Scourge."

  "I was never exposed!" I said. "River People don't socialize with pinchworms."

  The governor raised her hand, and I flinched, fully expecting her to slap me. But she stopped herself and only said, "How dare you insult us? To have such a limited vocabulary lowers you and all your filthy people. Besides, it is townsfolk who have no interest in socializing with you." To the physician, she added, "Isn't there another way to determine for sure whether this girl has the Scourge?"

  "There is the old way of testing," Doctor Cresh said. "But I'd rather not--"

  "Yes," the governor said firmly, "give her the older test." Her eyes sharpened as they returned to me. "I'm sorry, Ani. This test is not as pleasant as simply drinking from a cup. But obviously the doctor's formula does not work on River People."

  I stepped back from her. "The test worked. It showed I'm not sick."

  "It should have done something to you. Raised a mild rash or a slight fever. Something to show it reacted with your body. But it did nothing. That means it didn't work. Thrushweed is a very strong herb after all."

  "I won't do another test." I pointed to Warden Brogg. "He promised that if I didn't show symptoms, I could go home. He promised!"

  The governor lifted her chin. "Yes, well, the River People promised they would not cause any trouble for Keldan, didn't they? And now you're here."

  I had no idea what she could possibly be talking about. No matter how Keldan had pushed us, our people had stood firm on the idea that fighting back would only make things worse for everyone. But I didn't have time to ask what she'd meant. Brogg darted toward me. I backed away from him and grabbed the knife from the doctor's tray.

  "I'm leaving," I said, wielding the knife in the way my father did when wild boars got into our garden. "None of you had better dare try stopping me."

  Governor Felling remained calm as she took a single step toward me. "Someone has to be the first of the River People to get sick. What if I'm right, Ani, and it's you? Would you return home with even the slightest question in your mind that you might spread the disease? If you knew your return would kill them all?"

  "I'm not sick," I said, though her question was already nagging at me. The slightest question in my mind? Yes, I did have questions, just as I had secrets, and they weren't slight.

  The governor advanced another step. "If you leave, I will have to figure out whether you've already spread the disease. You will force me to bring your family in, and your friends, and their families, and put them through these tests. I will go through the River People one by one to figure out who is infected"--she leaned in to me now--"and who is simply a useless grub."

  "No!" I slashed the knife through the air, with no intention of touching her, but simply to warn her away. In that moment, Brogg grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back, then forced me to drop the knife.

  "Leave us alone," I said. "We are not sick!"

  The governor's smile turned wicked. "Three hundred years ago, your people first brought the disease to Keldan, spreading it without having the decency to let it kill you off."

  "Those are old stories," I said. "We were never responsible for the Scourge."

  "That's where you're wrong, Ani. River People are the Scourge."

  Then with a slight nod of her head, Brogg pressed my arm to the table while holding the rest of me in his grip. Doctor Cresh picked up the knife off the floor and stepped toward me.

  "Do not move," he warned. "I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt."

  And he pressed the knife into my flesh.

  The knife didn't go deep, but it hurt enough to raise a well of tears in my eyes. I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out--either from fear or the pain.

  It sliced along my forearm, instantly drawing blood. I didn't mind the sight of blood; I wasn't squeamish in that way. I was more concerned about what the doctor would do next.

  While Brogg continued pinning my arm to the table, Doctor Cresh turned behind him to pull a rag from a jar. It was wet, and he handled it with only the tips of his fingers.

  "What's on that rag?" I asked, panicked now. "Don't do this!"

  "Calm down," he said. "It's the same ingredients that were in the cup you drank. But they go directly into your blood, so it bypasses any thrushweed in your system. We'll also see a quicker reaction."

  That should have calmed me. I had passed the test with the cup; surely I would pass this one as well. But I was more frightened than ever. There was a slight sting in my arm when he tightly wrapped the rag around the wound he had made. At least it would stop the bleeding.

  "How long?" I asked. "Until you see a reaction, how long?"

  "Within minutes," Cresh said. "Can you feel any difference now?"

  "No," I said.

  But that was a lie. Blood was already rushing through my veins, sending a deep ache inside my head. Was that because of the wound, because of the fight I'd just put up? Or was the wet rag doing something to me?

  "You're beginning to sweat," Cresh said.

  "It's warm in here," I said.

  But he shook his head. "It's not."

  I looked from the governor to Cresh to what I could see of the warden's face from this position, searching for even a bead of sweat on them. It shouldn't have mattered to me.
After all, the warmth I felt could be explained by my fear, and the fact that the warden had been so rough on me.

  Or it could be the start of symptoms. What did sweat mean? The governor had said everyone should have some reaction to the test. Was this simply one of those reactions, innocent and meaningless? Because if so, I wanted to admit I was warm, to prove to the governor that this test had worked on me and that I still had no sign of the Scourge.

  Or was this the Scourge beginning to show itself? Della had complained of the heat, and if she had been thirsty before, then it could not possibly compete with the thirst that parched my throat now, as if all that stood between my life and death was a single drop of water.

  "Let her sit down," Doctor Cresh said to the warden. "She looks like she needs to sit."

  "I don't," I said.

  But I did. My legs were shaking beneath the weight of my body, as if I had suddenly turned to lead and was standing on only twigs. Brogg pulled me away from the table and pushed me onto the chair. He didn't need to. I would've fallen just fine on my own.

  Doctor Cresh grabbed my face again, turning it from side to side as he had done earlier. But whatever he had been looking for then, he found now. His thumb rubbed up the side of my head along the outside of my eye.

  "See that vein?" he asked the governor. "The way it's darkened? That's our sign."

  "A sign of what?" I grabbed his hands, forcing him to look at me. "I feel--I felt perfectly fine. What have you done to me?"

  "I only brought out symptoms that would've appeared anyway, in time. Without this test, the Scourge would've destroyed Keldan by now. Hopefully, we caught this before you could spread the disease to anyone else."

  "I don't have the Scourge," I said, and the tears flowed. Because I was only saying it now as something I wished could be true. The way I felt, I knew something was terribly wrong.

  The pain in my stomach hit me next, coming on like being blindsided by a rogue wave. I clutched my side and tried to swallow my scream. Was this how Della had felt? If so, then I had been wrong to stand back when she begged for my help. This was horrible.

  Cresh wiped my sweat-drenched hair from my face, and his tone turned kinder. "I have medicine, Ani. It can't cure the disease--nothing can do that--but it can dull the pain. Do you want some?"