The Scourge (A.G. Henley) - By A.G. Henley Page 0,97
grip of the sick one, grasping my arms.
My temple cracks against something on the ground—something hard and unforgiving—and pain rips through my head. Blood flows into my ear, and the sounds of the clash garble and begin to fade.
I slip from consciousness quickly. But not before I hear Kadee scream Peree’s name, her voice strangled with grief.
Chapter Twenty
I become aware of my surroundings slowly. I’m in the caves, stretched out on some sort of lumpy pallet, and my head’s bandaged with cloth—again. A headache cleaves my body like a well-aimed ax. Low voices echo around me, and someone is holding my hand. I squeeze the thin fingers.
“Fenn?”
“Eland,” I whisper. I push myself up, but the movement causes the ax to burrow deeper, so I lay down again. Eland puts his arms around me instead. I can feel the outline of every rib in his bowed back, but he’s alive and whole-bodied as far as I can tell. And he smells of fresh air and soap.
I smile, my lips cracking. “You’ve been outside . . .”
“The Lofties let us go home.”
He sounds older somehow, more mature than he did even a few weeks ago. The innocence that was already beginning to fade in his twelve-year-old voice is gone. I feel like a mourner who not only didn’t get to say good-bye to the deceased, but also missed the funeral.
A soft sound escapes him, half hiccup, half sob. “I didn’t think you were coming back.”
“I’ll always come back for you, Eland.”
There’s a screech from nearby. “Fennel! You’re awake!” Calli leaps on me, her long, wispy hair pooling in my face as she hugs me. “How do you feel?” Her voice has the same childlike quality as before, but like Eland’s, it’s changed, too. There's a hard edge.
“I’ve been worse,” I answer, thinking of my most hopeless moments in the pit.
“Where were you?” she asks. “Before you strolled into the middle of the negotiations, I mean. I was in here helping Marjoram, but I heard all about it.”
The time is coming when I’ll need to tell everyone my story, but for now I sidestep her question. “What happened with the Lofties? I don’t remember anything after I hit my head. And where’s Aloe?”
Eland’s hand stiffens in mine. Neither of them speaks. A spear of apprehension jabs into my gut.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Marj did everything she could . . . but Aloe had bled too much,” Calli says softly.
“We buried her yesterday,” Eland mumbles.
My chest tightens and my limbs feel strangely useless, like limp strands of waterweed. Something inside me crawls into a small ball, refusing to acknowledge their words. Aloe’s not gone, I tell myself, she’s just busy getting things sorted outside. She’ll come to me soon. As if I tell myself that enough times, my wish will come true.
“What happened?” I whisper.
They tell me everything. After I left to find the Waters, Adder grew increasingly distracted and paranoid. If anyone questioned a decision of the Three, he accused them of being spies and traitors, calling them Lofty-lovers. He was furious when he found out I’d been in the Lofty trees on the night of my punishment, especially because he didn’t hear it from Aloe. She should have told him, as a fellow member of the Council. He became suspicious of her motives.
Adder threatened Aloe. If he found out she was speaking to Shrike or any other Lofty while she collected the water, if she disagreed with his decisions, if she sided with Sable over him—if she went against Adder in any way—Eland would have an unfortunate accident. Accidents happen in the caves.
Eland said Thistle’s third son, the one whose name I could never remember, began hanging around him all the time, even sleeping near him. He never did anything overt that would rouse the suspicions of others, but he also never let Eland out of his sight. He just sat nearby, playing with a small knife used for gutting animals. It was enough to terrify Eland and Aloe both, and to buy her cooperation. As Sable’s health failed by the minute, Adder cloaked himself with the power of the Three.
He ordered the attack on the trees, believing the Lofties planned to hold them in the caves indefinitely. The people were desperate and afraid. Many were sick from a stomach ailment. They would agree to do anything to get out, even something perilous and ill-considered. And with Aloe and Sable’s continued silence, there didn’t seem to be another alternative.