The Scourge (A.G. Henley) - By A.G. Henley Page 0,69
But it didn’t change what I experienced. It didn’t change my reality.”
Peree grew still beside me as Kadee spoke.
“Why are you different?” I ask.
“Nerang says some people, very few, are unaffected by the poison. He doesn’t know why or how. I only know I never saw them as monsters, and the divide between what I saw, and what others believed to be true, only grew with the years. Peree, when you were young, the Council sentenced me to a night on the ground. Do you remember?”
“It’s hard to forget your mother disappearing,” he says coldly. I touch his arm. When she speaks again, Kadee sounds like she's pleading. Pleading for Peree to understand.
“I wandered for days, frightened and lost, until I found Koolkuna. These people took me in, and showed me for the first time that what I knew in my heart, but never revealed for fear of what others would think, was true. It was very hard to return home, but I couldn’t be away from you any longer. I missed you terribly.”
Peree doesn’t respond.
“I was eager to share my good news with our people, but my hopes were shattered when I told your father. He thought the time I spent on the ground had driven me mad. He said if I told anyone else, he would take you from me. So I tried to forget what I knew, and to carry on with my life, even if it meant living a lie. Eventually, I couldn’t do it any longer. I was miserable . . . ready to harm myself. The night I left, I told Shrike I was returning to Koolkuna, and I wanted to bring you with me. He flew into a rage, and threatened to kill us both. So I came back alone.”
Peree scoffs. “Unbelievable. You blame Father, when you’re the one who abandoned us?”
“No, of course not. Your father is a strong-willed, brave man, fiercely loyal to his family and his people–” I can only imagine the look Peree gave Kadee when she spoke of loyalty. “But he’s human. I didn’t expect him to believe me right away, but I did hope he might trust me enough to come see Koolkuna for himself.”
“He wouldn’t go?” I ask.
“Like Groundlings, there’s little Lofties fear more than exposure to the Scourge. Walking through the forest only on blind faith is a journey not many would be willing to make. Shrike was afraid I would spirit Peree away, take him where he didn’t dare follow—here to Koolkuna. No, he wasn't willing to go.”
Peree was willing. It was through the caves, not the forest, but he came with me. I didn’t consider how daunting it must have been for him to leave the trees.
“Son, to see the man you’ve become is a joy I didn’t think I’d ever have, the answer to my prayers over the last ten years,” Kadee continues. “I’ve been content here, but I wasn’t happy until the day the men carried you into the village from the Myuna—the day I saw you again. And to know you have a caring, faithful friend is an added blessing.” She squeezes my hand, and I smile at her.
“Did you tell anyone else about Koolkuna, before you left?” I ask.
“No, stars forgive me, I didn’t have the courage after Shrike’s reaction.”
“But he knows you’re here now, or at least he knows Koolkuna exists,” Peree says slowly. “He may have told someone.”
I almost choke on my tea. “Do you think he told Aloe? She was more supportive of the idea of me searching for the Hidden Waters than I thought she’d be.”
“Shrike and Aloe have always been close,” Kadee says, a hint of something unexpected in her voice. Envy? Regret? “Or at least as close as a Groundling and Lofty could be. What did the Council say about you accompanying Fennel?”
Peree snorts. “What Council? We don’t have one anymore.”
“What? Why not?” She sounds genuinely shocked.
“Not enough of us left to need one.”
Haltingly, his voice pitched low, he tells her the story of the fever and its aftermath. As Kadee begins to cry, I excuse myself and slip out, giving them privacy. I need air, and time alone to think. My mind is overloaded with information and my body brims with pent-up emotion.
A steady rain finally falls as I wander toward the clearing where I heard the sick one. Was that only yesterday? I’m just now starting to consider the implications of what we learned. Almost everything about my community, where we