“No. One of the founding members of the colony was deaf, but he passed on many years ago.” He turned around to face the main gate. “Those cave-like rooms inside the perimeter wall are casemates. The ones to either side of the main gate are used for storage now. You’ll see a few of the old cannons too, still dotted around the place. They used to take out ships as they entered Charleston Harbor.”
“Not a very friendly welcome.”
He laughed at that. “What can I say? Times have changed.”
“Not completely,” said Alice, eyes narrowed. “Your men still carry guns.”
Rose’s mother inhaled sharply. I wondered if Tarn would make Alice apologize, but one look at her daughter’s defiant expression and she wisely let it pass.
There was a brief hesitation, and then Chief acknowledged Alice with a slight nod. “That’s true. We’re committed to the preservation of humanity at all costs. Human life is fragile, and I’ve sworn to do whatever it takes to protect those in my care.” He cleared his throat. “If I’d found Plague on your ship, I would have asked you to leave. Had you resisted, I would have ordered my men to make you leave. However, you were honest with us, and you’re under our protection now.” He signaled for Kell to join us. “Tell the men to store their weapons. We’ll have no need of them anymore.”
Kell turned abruptly and the men fell in line behind him. They marched straight for the battery, following a shallow channel worn into the dirt, kicking up dust clouds with every step.
Meanwhile, Chief watched Alice from the corner of his eye. “She was your sister . . . the girl who died?”
Alice nodded.
“And your daughter,” he added, turning to Tarn.
“Yes,” she said. “How do you know?”
“Grief looks the same everywhere, I think. And there’s been so much of it over the past eighteen years.” Chief bowed his head. “I am so sorry for your loss. There’s no explaining the world we live in now. There’s only the vague hope that we can make the future brighter than the past.”
Kell and his men were climbing one of the staircases that hugged the walls. They entered a room with no windows.
Chief followed my eyes. “It’s an imposing building, the battery, but you’ll get used to it. We sleep in dormitories, although it’ll probably take us a day to clear out a room for all of you. In the winter months, we stay inside more—store tools there; eat inside too. But fall has barely started, so you’ll be all right for one night outdoors, right? The casemates have roofs. You can sleep in one of those.”
“They all look as if they’re being used,” I said.
“Most of them are, yes. But we’ll find space for you. It’s just one night, Thomas.”
I hadn’t meant to sound critical or ungrateful. I needed to watch my words. I was going to have to let someone else speak up too. Even though Marin and Tarn were there, Chief was addressing me as if I were in charge, not the Guardians.
“Here, let me show you,” Chief continued, softer now.
As several Sumter colonists carried my father to a casemate, Chief led us to the north wall. Some of the casemates here were so deep that parts of them were totally dark. Every now and again I’d catch a flicker of movement. I tried to make out faces but couldn’t. Even the people who risked a glance our way gave awkward smiles, as if they weren’t used to seeing strangers.
“Look over here,” said Chief. “This is one of our vegetable gardens. Rainwater is collected above us and sent through pipes to the barrels against the wall over there. Talking of walls, they help us regulate how much direct sun the plants get. They protect everything from the salt breeze too. In the winter, the bricks absorb the sun’s heat, and keep the area unseasonably warm. One frost and we’d lose the plants, but we’ve never had a problem with that. We can grow kale, collard greens, yams . . .” He broke off. “Forgive me. I’m getting ahead of myself. You’ll have time to learn all this.”
As he spoke, a small group of men filled jugs from one of the barrels. They added a precise amount of water to a series of plants arranged in a row. When they were satisfied, they emptied the leftover water back into the barrel. Nothing was wasted.
“So your diet is mostly vegetables?” asked Ananias.
“No. We fish too: flounder . . . red drum, if we’re lucky. We mostly stick to the harbor, so there’s less risk of attracting sharks.” He pointed to the south. “There’s also a piece of land outside the fort walls—the peninsula, we call it. We keep chickens, and there’s an enclosure with goats. We have eggs and milk. We make cheese. This isn’t paradise, but I’d be amazed if there’s another colony that runs halfway as well as ours.”
He was right about that. It wasn’t just their ingenuity but also the way the colonists worked together. Kyte had kept strict control of everything on Hatteras, but that wasn’t the same. Where we’d been at odds for at least a year, these people acknowledged each other with respectful gestures.
While I admired their togetherness, Dennis continued to take stock of the fort itself. “What was this place?” he asked.
Chief gave a tight-lipped smile. “A long time ago, a civil war began right here in Fort Sumter. Such a large country ours, and so many people, all forced to choose a side: north or south. By the end, six hundred and twenty thousand people had died; two out of every hundred people.” He paused to let the words sink in. “And it all started here.”
We were silent then. It wasn’t hard to imagine the ghosts of men who had stood on this exact spot, wondering if things would ever be normal again. Or to imagine that someone might be standing here in another hundred years, wondering the very same thing.
“Our rules are simple,” Chief continued. “Everything is shared; everyone is equal. We bore witness to the end of the world, but those words have kept us alive. We welcome those who wish to count themselves survivors too. But we cannot make room for any who put themselves above the whole.”
A snapping sound to my right made me jerk around. Kell stood there, a wooden crossbow raised in line with his eyes. But there was no arrow. As he lowered the weapon, I followed his line of sight to a gull bleeding onto the ground about twenty yards away. The timing of his shot didn’t feel coincidental, either. It was as if he was warning us what might happen if we couldn’t follow the colony’s simple rules.
“You’ll clean that, Miriam,” commanded Chief, finger pointed at a young woman walking nearby. “Our guests will be hungry.”
Miriam hesitated. “But Chief, we shouldn’t—”
He raised a hand, silencing her. “They are malnourished and weak. We won’t prolong their suffering when we have the means to fix it.”
Miriam bowed deeply and walked briskly to the gull. By the time she reached it, Ananias was already there. He grabbed the bird by the neck and pulled out the arrow in a sharp movement. When he handed the bird to the woman, she wrapped it in a fold of her apron.
Ananias admired the arrow. He ran a finger across the tip and cleaned blood off the shaft with his tunic, leaving an angry red streak across his chest. “You waste nothing, right?” He held out the arrow, forcing Kell to come to him.
Like an animal sizing up its prey, Kell approached slowly, eyes fixed on Ananias. “I think we’ve just found us a hunter, Chief,” he said as he claimed the arrow. He nodded to himself, over and over. “Oh, yeah. Him and me are going to have some fun.”
CHAPTER 12
We ate dinner together in a giant circle. Chief made sure that the Sumter colonists left gaps for us new arrivals. He wanted to integrate us, starting now.
“Over here, Thomas.” Chief patted the ground beside him. “Sit down. We’ve got so much to talk about.”
Dinner was a stew of fish and shrimp and seaweed, cooked in several pots arranged over an open fire. The food was prepared and eaten outside so there would be less cleaning up to do.
The children who served
the food stared at us, wide-eyed.
I sat cross-legged and accepted a bowl gratefully. My mouth watered at the smell of the fish. In that moment, everything seemed perfect: food, warmth, safety, and a spectacular orange-purple sunset over the fort’s main gate.
Beside me, Chief picked at the fish in his metal bowl. “You should slow down,” he whispered.
My hand hung in midair. I’d been gobbling steaming hot mouthfuls without even realizing it. “Sorry.”
“No apology necessary. It’s just important to eat slowly when you’ve gone without food for so long.”
I looked at the stew. I hadn’t eaten so well in days. “How did you know?”
He gave me a sad smile. “I know you’ve been through hell, Thomas. But you’ve landed now, and things will turn around.” He swept his hand through the air, indicating the circle of people eating peacefully in the twilight. “Ananias and Kell seem to have a lot to talk about. Your younger brother’s made a friend too, by the looks of it.”
I did a double take. Sitting directly across from me, partially obscured by the smoke from the fire, Griffin was signing to the dark-skinned girl who’d watched us from the battlements.
“Her name’s Nyla,” said Chief. “When you asked earlier if anyone was deaf, I couldn’t help thinking of her. When she first arrived at the colony four years ago, I wondered if she heard a word we said. Everyone needs time to adjust, but some need longer than others, I suppose.”
Having finished his food, Griffin was turned toward Nyla. She mimicked him as he produced one sign after another. On Hatteras, everyone but my family had been reluctant to learn his language, but Nyla seemed fascinated by him. When she repeated his signs, she was so clear that I understood her.
“The wheels are always turning with that girl. So much going on inside her head.” Chief rubbed his gray beard; it was cropped unevenly, the look of a man who didn’t feel the need to impress anyone. “Tell her something once, she’s got it. Same with her brother, Jerren.”
It didn’t take me long to spot Jerren. He and Nyla looked so different from everyone else. He rested his hands on his knees, staring at someone across the circle: Alice, it looked like. His expression was serious, as if he was trying to crack a particularly challenging problem.
Alice had noticed him too, that much was clear. From time to time she’d glance up, but she wouldn’t hold his gaze. He smiled every time.
The woman called Miriam handed Chief a small pot.
“Ah, the bird,” said Chief. “Have you eaten gull before, Thomas?”
“No.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Hmm. Well, you haven’t missed much. Such fat birds, and yet so little meat. Not the most pleasant thing, but you’re starving.”
“Me?”
“All of you. Tomorrow, we’ll fish. But for today, this’ll have to do.” He passed the pot to me and tapped the metal rim. “I’d appreciate it if you could distribute this among your clanfolk. But only them—everyone else here has less need of this than you.”
I felt all eyes on me as I stood. The Sumter colonists would have known what was in that pot, and they were probably hungry too. But there wasn’t much meat, and I wasn’t willing to disobey Chief’s instructions after such a generous offer.
I walked around the circle, placing a piece of meat in each bowl. Rose smiled. Griffin signed thank you. Ananias bowed his head. Alice scowled at Jerren. I was certain everyone felt awkward about eating food that had been denied to others. Everyone except Tarn ate it anyway.
I got to Dennis and his mother last, and the pot was almost empty. When I put more in Dennis’s bowl than Marin’s, she craned her neck to see how much was left. She was Rose’s mother too, and I wanted her to trust me, so I split the remainder between their two bowls. She didn’t even reward me with a smile.
I returned to my place and put the empty pot on the ground beside me.
“How was it?” asked Chief.
“Oh. Yes, good,” I said. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Alice was standing now. It wouldn’t have been so surprising except that she was the only one. She threw some bones into the fire and walked around the perimeter of the circle, stopping beside Jerren. “Why are you staring at me? See something interesting?”
The corner of Jerren’s mouth turned upward. “Interesting . . . yes.” He stuffed more stew into his mouth. “At least, I think so. Am I wrong?”
Everyone had fallen into a hushed silence. I didn’t want Alice to ruin things for us on our first night here, but Chief placed a hand on my arm before I could stand. “Don’t do it, Thomas,” he murmured. “They need to work this out for themselves.”
Usually I would’ve agreed. But Alice had just lost her sister. Her father had attacked her. She was unpredictable on a good day. Today, she might try anything.
I couldn’t go against Chief’s wishes, though, so I stayed seated and finished my stew. Across the circle, Tarn seemed just as conflicted as me. She rocked forward as if she planned to intervene, but she didn’t rise and she didn’t say a word. In the quiet, I was certain that everyone was watching Alice.
If she’d expected an apology, Alice was out of luck. Jerren didn’t seem embarrassed at all. So she walked straight to our casemate, and didn’t look back.
“I’m sorry,” I told Chief. “She’s just tired.”
He waved it off. “I told you Jerren is intense. Sometimes he just does stuff to annoy us. Like the way he was staring at Alice. He’s like a son to me, which is probably why he feels this need to cause a scene.”
I was confused. “But Alice went over to him, not the other way around.”
“Yes. Just like he wanted her to.” He seemed amused. “Don’t worry about it. I think it’s going to do him good to have you all here. And in the meantime, I’ll get him to apologize to Alice tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure that’ll go down very well. Alice can be”—I tried to find the right word—“prickly.”
He laughed at that. “Which is precisely why Jerren must apologize. And if we’re lucky, we’ll be around to watch the sparks fly.”
»«
The air was humid and still within the casemate. We bedded down on threadbare blankets, and waited for the rest of the fort to fall silent. I took inventory of the figures lying around me, but my thoughts always returned to the three people who would never be with us again.
“Alice.” Tarn whispered her daughter’s name, but the sound carried anyway. There was no reply.
I propped myself up on one elbow just as Alice batted her mother’s hand away. Tarn hovered a moment longer, and then rolled away. After what had happened to Eleanor and Joven, I’d figured they would take comfort in each other. I was wrong.
Marin was sitting cross-legged, watching me. “I know you’re all awake,” she said, voice low and even, “and so I hope you’ll listen. We have suffered great losses. We have no leader to turn to for advice. And our only hope is to become one with our new hosts, to let go of everything we were and accept the limitations of our new lives.”
Rose sat up. “We don’t need to let go of our elements, though.”
“That’s exactly what you need to do.”
“Why? Because mine still works and yours doesn’t?”
Marin inhaled sharply. “You call those water funnels you made an element?”
“The people here may have a use for what we can do. Maybe we should tell them about our elements.”
“Don’t be naïve, Rose. They’re not going to trust something they don’t understand and can’t control. They’ll be scared. And what do you plan to say about Thomas? He’s only combined once, yet it cost Joven his life. You think the Sumter colonists want that?”
“Thomas is the reason we’re here now,” said Ananias in a monotone. I couldn’t tell if he was taking my side, or holding me respo
nsible.
“So why don’t we ask Thomas what he thinks?” pressed Marin.
Everyone was silent then, but I didn’t answer straightaway. I was thinking that Alice hadn’t said a word in my defense. And that a weaker element meant I’d be able to hold Rose. But above all, I was thinking that if we were going to forge a new life on Sumter, our best chance was to be just like our fellow colonists.
“I think we need to adapt to our new life,” I said. “We need to let go of the past.”
No one spoke. I got the feeling everyone was considering what those words meant, and exactly what they were letting go. Too late, I realized that I probably shouldn’t have said anything. After all, just about everyone had lost more than me.
Only Marin was still sitting up now. I watched her watching me, and though it was dark, I would have sworn I saw her smile triumphantly at the lingering silence.
As I lay down and closed my eyes, I thought of Griffin and Ananias, and Rose and Alice, and whether we would be as safe here as I hoped. Or if misfortune, like Plague-carrying rats, simply migrated to wherever it could find an easy target.
CHAPTER 13
I was the last to wake. The sun was already high, but we were shaded in the casemate.
Griffin knelt beside our father, tilting a water canister. Father’s eyes were closed, his cuts and bruises still angry and raw, but he swallowed as the water trickled into his mouth.
Alice, Rose, and Dennis were there too. “Where’s Ananias?” I asked.
“He left with Kell,” said Rose. “Our mothers have already gone to work. But Chief told everyone to let you sleep.”
I didn’t need to ask what everyone had thought of that.
A shadow fell across the space. Jerren was standing against one of the large stone pillars. “I’m supposed to help you move your stuff,” he said.
“Move where?” asked Rose.
“To your new room. I don’t see how you’re going to fit in there, but it’s all we’ve got.” He picked up the bag nearest to him, but Griffin snatched it back. Jerren laughed. “So that’s where the hidden treasure’s kept, huh?”