The Scourge (18 page)

We take the ascending platform, and they lead me to a wide, sunny area wedged between the triangular points of three sturdy trees. Somehow it feels safer than the narrow walkways, and I relax. Ropes crisscross the space, giving me something to hang onto. My ribs barely ache now as I raise my arms to hang clothes over the ropes to dry. Other men and women join us, sharing news about their families as they work. They steer the conversation to other topics when I ask about the sick ones, but there’s no undercurrent of fear as there is at home. I’m struck by how easily the people of Koolkuna live.

Later, Kadee and I sit by the fire and eat our dinner. I tell her about my day, and that I’m worried I haven’t heard anything about Peree.

“You said he’s not one of your people, that he belongs to the other group. Yet you clearly have a connection with him.”

“I thought I’d hate him, before I met him. I
wanted
to hate him. Everyone despises the Lofties. But,” I struggle to put my feelings into words, “I feel different about him now, and different about the Lofties
because
of him.”

“I see,” she says, in a way that tells me she understands more than I’m saying, maybe more than I know myself. It makes me want to change the subject.

“So I’ve told you all about my family, but you haven’t mentioned yours.” I’m surprised she lives alone. She sounds younger than Aloe, but certainly old enough to have a partner, and children.

“I did have a family once, but I . . . lost them.” She hesitates. “You see, I haven’t always—”

The door bangs open, making us both jump.

“What is it, Kai?” Kadee says.

The girl speaks in a flat, clipped voice, the words spilling out like dried beans from a sack. “Nerang sent me to tell the
lorinya
to come quickly. Her friend is awake.”

“Peree? Nerang, is he okay?”

“Yes, young one, come in. I hope Kai didn’t alarm you. I wasn’t sure how long your friend would be awake. As it turns out, he’s refusing to ever sleep again until he sees you.”

“Fenn.” Peree’s voice is raspy, but lucid. I rush over to him. My fingers flutter over his face and smooth his hair. I blink back tears of relief. He catches my hand and pulls it to his lips.

“Well,” Nerang says with a small cough, “I’ll be outside if I’m needed.” He closes the door as he leaves.

“How are you?” I ask, pressing my hand to Peree’s cheek.

“Never better,” he croaks.

I kneel next to the bed, and feel him stiffen. “Who did that to your face?”

I sigh. “I did.”

He touches my forehead. “You look terrible.”

“And that’s a terrible thing to say to a girl.”

He chuckles. “You’re really here? I’m not dreaming?”

“Not unless I’m dreaming, too,” I say.

He shifts his body, and sucks in a breath through clenched teeth. “I sincerely hope your dreams aren’t this painful.”

My smile vanishes. “I’m sorry. What can I do?”

“Nothing. Reminds me I’m still alive . . . because of you.”

“Nerang saved your life, not me.”

“Who is Nerang? And where the hell are we?” Peree whispers.

“He’s an herbalist. Wait until you hear about Koolkuna, you won’t believe it. It’s protected. I don’t know how yet, but Wirrim said he’d show us soon.”

“Back up—who are Koolkuna and Wirrim? Start at the beginning. The caves are the last thing I remember. My head feels like it’s crammed with dandelion fluff.”

“I’ll tell you as much as I can, but we may not have much time. Nerang is big on resting.”

I describe our short, treacherous ride in the underground river—“Part water dragon, like I said,” Peree teases—and how Kora found us. I tell him the story of the
anuna
. He’s as astonished as I was to hear that Koolkuna is safe from the Scourge, and that the people live wherever they choose.

“Where are you staying, then?” he asks.

“On the ground, at Kadee’s. I hate to admit it, but I don’t think I like being in the trees. It scares me.”

“Something scares you? I don’t believe it.”

“What really scared me was thinking that you weren’t going to make it,” I whisper. Tears threaten to flow again.

“Fenn, we’re out of the caves. We’re alive. We’re okay.” He tries to push himself up, but falls back, stifling a groan.

I wince. “I’m so sorry. I wish I’d done so many things differently. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened. You might not have been hurt at all, if it wasn’t for me.”

He smoothes away a tear. “I didn’t know you were such a martyr. Please stop blaming yourself.”

“Who can I blame, then?”

“How about that Nerang guy? Let’s blame him.”

“Peree!”

The door opens. “I hate to interrupt, but I must change his bandages. And he needs his rest.”

I flash a grin at Peree, and mutter, “Told you.”

He takes my hand again. “Come back soon? I’ll need someone to show me around when I get on my feet.”

I grimace at him. “Go easy. You’ve been unconscious for days.”

“And I’m not going to waste any more time lying around.” He sounds so confident; I can’t help smiling again.

I squeeze Nerang’s arm as he walks me out. “You’re wonderful, Nerang.”

“I thought you might be surprised at how well he sounds.”

I nudge him. “Maybe he won’t need my strength after all.”

“Don’t be too sure,” he says, suddenly serious.

I want to ask what he means, but he steps back inside, leaving me standing alone in the soft spotlight of the moon.

Dew wets my feet as I walk back to Kadee’s. She stayed up waiting for me the night before, to hear how Peree was doing. I appreciate her concern. And she’s the only one who calls Peree by name, instead of by “your friend.”

Kadee and I are cleaning our breakfast dishes when Kai comes again, to tell me Peree’s awake. I wonder why she’s Nerang’s messenger. Maybe they’re related, or she’s his apprentice or something.

“Your friend certainly has his appetite back,” Nerang says as I duck into Peree’s shelter a few minutes later. “This is thirds, is it not?”

“You said I needed to eat to get my strength back. How else can I do it?” Peree mumbles from the corner of his mouth.

“I said get your strength back, not make yourself sick,” Nerang says.

“Right now I’m only sick of being an invalid. It’s time for me to get up.”

“Are you sure you’re ready?” I ask.

“Give yourself time,” Nerang urges.

“I still have one good leg. The other one will have to find a way to keep up with it.” I hear him set the dish down and push himself off the bed.

I step closer. “Peree, maybe you should–” Too late. He collapses, and shrugs away from my hands. “Will you stop being such an idiot? Let me help you!”

I put my shoulder under his like I did in the caves, and we stagger around the shelter. I can hear his teeth grinding in pain, but he refuses to stop until we’ve made a complete circle back to the bed. After a minute of rest, he’s up again. The second time around seems a little easier for him. As we walk, I notice a few little differences, like his shirt. It’s clean, for one thing. He must have had a change of clothes. He’s too thin, but he smells really good—his familiar honeyed scent mingled with mint. Nerang probably used the same wash that he used to clean me up. I lean in a little closer, inhaling it.

After a few more laps around the cramped room, Nerang insists Peree rest. Peree insists he rest outside. “I need some fresh air after all that incense,” he mutters.

“Pigheaded, isn’t he?” Nerang says to me.

“You have no idea.”

Nerang leaves us with a warning that he’ll be back soon to wrestle Peree to bed if necessary. We sit down outside, our backs against the trunk of an impossibly wide, furrowed greenheart tree. He describes how the village looks from here.

“Petrel would love to see this,” he says. “Those platforms they use to carry people up and down, the intricacy of their walkways—it’s spectacular.”

“So are their gardens,” I say. “They’re so much more developed than ours! They have all the vegetables and flowers we do, and more. Then again, they don’t have to abandon their crops every time the sick ones—I mean the flesh-eaters—come.”

“Sick ones? Is that what they call them?”

“
Runa
, in their language. And they call the caves the Dark Place.”

“They got that right.” A bird screeches, and Peree startles. “I can’t relax, stuck on the ground and barely able to walk. My ears kind of tingle all the time, listening for the Scourge.”

My mouth curls with the irony of a Lofty experiencing for the first time what all Groundlings feel, practically from infancy. “I know what you mean.”

“I guess you would.” His voice is tinged with apology.

We listen as people walk by, chattering to each other in the first language, followed by a group of children, playing some kind of chase game. Their excited screams remind me of the night of the Summer Solstice. It seems like seasons have gone by since then.

“So, how are people treating you?” Peree asks. “When he’s not babying me, or trying to suffocate me with incense, Nerang seems nice enough.”

I jab him with my elbow. “Peree! Nerang’s been amazing! Neither of us were in great shape when we got here, and now look at us.”

He snorts, and a second later I get the joke. My head is still horribly bruised, my ribs are wrapped, and part of his leg is missing.

“Yeah, we look great, like a couple of patched-up corpses.” He presses his shoulder to mine. “But I’m grateful to him for taking care of you, when I couldn’t.”

I flush. “Really, everyone’s been wonderful. Kora and her family, and especially Kadee. I want you to meet them. You’ll like them.”

“Sure,” he says absentmindedly. “The people here—they’re different.”

“What do you mean?”

“The way they sound. How they look,” he says.

The people do sound different, because of their accents, but I wasn’t aware they looked any different. I ask him what he means.

“Some look like me,” he explains, “with fair hair and light eyes, light skin. Others are darker like you. Some have dark skin and light hair. Some have skin as black as the night sky.”

“I guess it doesn’t surprise me. Wirrim said plenty of
lor
–, I mean strangers, have come over the years. And if the Exchange proves anything, it’s that children don’t always look like their parents.”

“It’s a lot to take in,” he says. “One minute I’m pretty damn sure I’m about to die, the next I wake up in a village of survivors, and they’re protected, and they’re living here like one big happy family. I don’t know what I expected when I came with you to find the Waters, but it wasn’t this.”

I hesitate, chewing on my lip. I’m not sure this is the right time to bring this up. “Peree? Do you remember how you told me in the caves, that there are less of you?” I remember what else he told me in the caves, about watching me, and my face heats up again. “It seems like Koolkuna might be what you were looking for, for your people. There’s still a lot I don’t know about it, but I do know it’s safe, and the people are kind.”

He nudges me again. “Trying to get rid of us, Groundling?”

I smile. “With you Lofties gone, we could stay in your trees when the Scourge comes, and not have to hide in the caves. Less
accidents
with arrows, too.”

“I thought you hated the trees.”

“Let’s see,” I tap my finger to my lips, “stay on the ground with the flesh-eaters and hide in the caves, or live safely in the trees? I think I can get over my fear of heights.”

“So you wouldn’t mind if I left home for good?” He’s still joking, but there’s a serious note to his question.

“I’m thinking out loud, that’s all.”

“Well,” he pushes himself to his feet, using the trunk of the tree for support. “I want to take a closer look at the village, especially those walkways. And since that will involve actually being
able
to walk, I’m going back to the shelter, completely unassisted.”

“Peree, be careful.” I jump up and follow uselessly behind him as he hobbles across the grass.

“I’m good, it’s no prob–” He stumbles.

Nerang catches him. “Pigheadedness may help you heal, but stupidity will not. It’s time to rest now.”

Peree mutters something that sounds like, “I take back the nice part.”

We finally get him settled back in bed, grumbling all the way, and he’s still asleep when I come back to visit him later that afternoon. Nerang laughs, saying pigheadedness can only take you so far.

“That one rolled!” she says.

“No, it didn’t,” Peree says.

“It did too, cheater!”

“Are you kidding? I don’t have to cheat to win a child’s game.”

“Cheater,” the girl says again, her voice teasing.

“Fine. As proof of my noble nature, I’ll take the high road. Take your turn.”

“You bet I will.”

Somehow I feel like I’m intruding as I step into the doorway.

“Fenn!” Peree sounds startled, and something else . . . guilty? “Do you know Kai? She was showing me a game they play here. It’s called,
uh,
spill sticks.”

“And you were cheating,” she murmurs to him.

“We met,” I say, wrestling a smile onto my face.

“I’m going,” she says to him. “You better practice. I won’t be so easy on you next time.”

Next time?