Mother Morevna paused, considered this. I began to back away.
“Sallie,” Mother Morevna said. “Come out here. I’d like to talk to you. Jameson, you may go.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Mr. Jameson said. “But just think about it, ma’am.” He tipped his hat as he passed me in the hallway.
Mother Morevna stood there in the light, her eyes and cheeks looking more hollow than ever. When she spoke, it seemed that even her voice creaked with weariness.
“After the events of the dust storm, I must admit, I am not all that I should be,” she said. “I suppose it is fortunate that you have been taking matters into your own hands up until now.”
My heart gave a single jackrabbit jump. Was she admitting that she had been wrong not to really train me? But I could tell by the steeliness of her eyes that this was a very serious matter. She went on.
“I have heard all about this Asa Skander business,” she said. “How he finished the spell for you after I fell unconscious. I must admit, I did know he had a bit of magic power when we interrogated him—sometimes this happens with men, though it is rare—but I did not estimate it to be to such a degree, and this troubles me. Have you spoken to him since?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said. “People are hounding him now. They won’t leave him alone. He’s locked himself in the Robertson house and won’t come out.”
“A bit fed up with celebrity, is he?” Mother Morevna said. “A shame, I’m sure. But this young man is proving to be more trouble than he’s worth. We cannot afford for production to drop lower than it has already.”
We, she was saying. We and not I. “I think I found a way to solve everything,” I said. Nervously, I told her about the duel, about our plan to have him throw the duel in my favor. And, surprisingly, Mother Morevna listened intently. When I reached the end of my explanation, I could see that cunning spark she usually wore in the place of the weariness that had been there before.
“And you’re certain that he’ll go through with it?” she said finally.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said. “I think he’s prepared to do anything right now. If we made it a big event, maybe we could make the whole town believe.”
She was trusting me. Despite the fact that Asa had been the one to cast the spell, she was finally trusting me. I wanted to do more, to prove that I could be everything she ever needed, to prove that she did need a Successor. That she did need me. Then a sudden, dangerous thought came to me.
“We could use the same event to catch the thieves,” I heard myself say. She turned to me and I faltered. “I—I couldn’t help overhearing that we needed to give them a reason to come. And since they last came during a big, public event, I thought… why not kill two birds with one stone?”
Mother Morevna raised her cold gray eyes to mine, her expression unreadable.
“That is brilliant,” she said.
My heart thudded in disbelief. “It is?” I said, still reeling. “Th-thank you.”
“Yes.” She rose, a fire in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before. “Go to the Robertson house and inform Asa Skander that the two of you have approval for your duel,” she said. “And don’t tell him about the trap element. That is to remain between us, do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said. And feeling as though I was walking on air, I headed to the Robertson house.
The sun was setting over the walls as Lucy Arbor sat on the steps of the hospital. The rest of her family was inside, standing around Aunt Lucretia’s hospital bed, but Lucy couldn’t make herself go in. She couldn’t see her aunt like this. She had seen Dust Sickness take its grip on many people since the walls went up, and it was always jarring and terrible. But never was it so terrifying as when it bent the features of someone you loved, when they coughed and their handkerchief came away covered with bloody mud. She knew now how Sal must have felt. How she still felt, because now that she had gotten a taste of this pain, there was no forgetting it.
She pulled out the water rations Sal had given her. Five trips to the Dowsing Well in all, and still Dust Sickness had crept up and grabbed her aunt by the throat.