Firebrand (8 page)

I
stayed on the peninsula for most of the afternoon. It was hot, hard work, but Chief brought me food and a canister of water to drink. I'd have kept going even if he hadn't. All my life, I'd been told to leave the most important jobs to others. Now a relative stranger was leaving the fate of the colony's chickens in my hands.

With each passing strike, the tide fell. It uncovered more of the peninsula, mud flats that stretched a hundred yards to the south. Gulls pursued the receding waterline, eyes and beaks fixed on the turbulent water, and the fish caught in it.

“Can rats cross from over there?” I asked, pointing to the land beyond the mud flats.

“In theory, yes,” said Chief, taking a break. “But that land you're seeing is tidal. Spider Island, it's called. Mostly it's marshland. Only way rats are crossing from there is if they plan the whole thing out.”

I chuckled. “So we'll be fine, is what you're saying.”

“No.” Chief wasn't laughing. “Actually, I think it's inevitable they'll cross one day.”

“But you said—”

“I know what I said.” He fixed me with his eyes. “Times are changing, Thomas. Eighteen years ago, rats were as misunderstood as any native rodent. They were shy. They lived in human cities, but hid in sewers so they wouldn't be disturbed. But they needed humans in those cities. Needed food waste in order to survive. They're desperate now. And like any animal driven to desperation, they're overcoming their instinct to hide. It's not difficult to see where this is all heading.”

The tide was turning. I could tell by the way the gulls began to backtrack, one step at a time.

“What will you do to stop the rats?” I asked.

Chief was watching the gulls too, perhaps making mental calculations about the width of the channel that kept us apart from Spider Island. “I'll stand on this exact spot at every low tide, just as we're doing now. And the day they cross, I'll do whatever I need to.”

Chief turned to face me again. He looked as though he was prepared to say more, but then his eyes drifted past me. He wore a confused expression.

I looked too. Griffin was hurrying toward me. The ground wasn't entirely even, and his limp was pronounced.
Come,
he signed, before he even reached me.

Why?
I replied.

Rose. Element.

My stomach knotted. Why would she risk revealing her element to the Sumter colonists?

Chief cleared his throat, startling me. “Everything all right, Thomas?”

I gave a halfhearted nod. “Rose isn't feeling right, is all. I should . . . you know . . .”

Chief waved his hand, giving me permission to leave.

Griffin led the way. We passed the main gate and continued following the exterior wall. When we turned the corner to the fort's next flank, I saw her.

Rose was sitting on one of the large boulders at the base of the walls. Water swirled around her legs and up to her waist. The current was fast as the tide fell. Her tunic billowed around her. She held steady against the swell and kept her hands flat against the surface of the water.

I kept my voice low. “What are you doing, Rose?”

She didn't answer. Probably didn't even hear me. It was a stupid question anyway. We both knew what she was doing.

I glanced at the battlements to make sure that no one was watching. “We mustn't use our elements here. People won't understand—”

I broke off as a fish surfaced a few yards away from her. I'd seen her lure fish back on Hatteras, but I hadn't expected her to be able to do it here. Not with her element so weak.

Rose shut her eyes tight and grimaced as she channeled what little of her element remained. If anyone saw her, they would know that something strange was going on.

With the fish floundering a couple yards in front of her, Rose eased forward to claim her prize. But as she moved, her concentration must have waned, because the fish pulled away.

“Rose!” Marin's shrill voice filled the air. When she and Dennis pulled alongside me, she pursed her lips. “Did you and Griffin put her up to this?”

I tried to keep calm. “No. I've been telling her to stop.”

Rose was ignoring us both. Slowly, meticulously, she drew the fish toward her again.

This time, Marin stepped gingerly over the boulders and brushed by her daughter. The water came up to her waist and then her chest, but she kept moving forward until the fish was within reach. She slid her hand under it and grabbed tightly. The fish struggled, but Marin had done this many times before. She didn't let go.

As Rose's shoulders relaxed at last, Marin carried the fish back to the rocks. She paused beside her daughter. “No more, Rose. This is the last.”

The fish struggled, silver scales reflecting in the sun, but couldn't escape her grasp. Tunic slick against her, Marin raised the fish above her and brought it down sharply. She repeated the motion until the fish was dead.

Something high above us caught my eye then. I glanced at the top of the wall in time to see a flash of bright clothing slide from view.

Someone had been watching.

I hurried to Rose's side. “We mustn't use our elements anymore. We talked about it, remember?”

She wouldn't look at me. Even worse, she was already channeling her element again. She clearly wasn't content with just one fish, and wanted to feed the entire colony. But what would they make of that?

I pulled her around. “Stop it, Rose.”

She seemed to awake from a trance. “Let me be.”

“No.”

She slapped the water, showering both of us. “We need to do something, Thomas. You haven't seen the way these people look at us, like we're a burden on them.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Of course you don't. You've been with Chief all day. I'm pleased you two get along so well, but unless the rest of us can prove we're useful, they'll never welcome us. And then how long will we last?”

“They want us here, Rose.”

She gave a wry smile. “Are you sure about that? Seems to me that only Chief really wants us.” She glanced at the dead fish in her mother's hands. “If I can provide fish, we'll be useful to them. We'll be equals.”

“Our elements don't work as well here.”

“So let's combine—”

“No!” The word came out loud and scared. “If someone sees us—even if they suspect something—they're going to panic.” I reached for her hand, but stopped myself. I was tense and it wouldn't feel good to either of us. “Everything is going to be different here. We're more than our elements.”

“No, Thomas.
You
are more than an element.” She lifted her hands and watched the water drain between her fingers. “But I'm not.”

Suddenly I saw the scene through her eyes. We'd left a small, familiar colony on an expansive island for a large, strange colony in a tiny fort. Her father was dead. And now I was forcing her to give up the very thing that had always made her indispensible.

“I'm sorry, Rose,” I said quietly. “We'll make this work, though. I promise.”

She kept her eyes closed and gave a slight nod. I couldn't tell whether she was agreeing with me, or simply giving up fighting.

It was only then that I became aware of Marin, still standing behind us. “Rose stopped listening to her father when he was on his deathbed. But it seems she listens to you, Thomas.” She gripped the fish tightly, face twisted in contempt. “I hope you'll offer her sage advice now that she no longer has any use for mine.”

I
hadn't meant to fall asleep. I'd just wanted to take a portion of food to my father. One moment, I was leaning over his bunk—one of only three beds in the room—listening to the steady in-and-out of his breathing, the next I was dreaming of pirates and Plague, Fort Sumter's imposing walls and Kell's crossbow.

It was a relief when Rose shook me awake. “Thomas, come,” she whispered.

I stumbled across the room after her, hoping I wouldn't wake anyone. It was dark outside and the parade grounds were empty. Rose crouched down and pointed toward the harbor. A faint glow was coming from one of our ship's portholes.

“Who'd want to check it out in the middle of the night?” she asked.

I didn't have an answer for that.

“Come on.” She took my hand. “We need to find out what's going on.”

“Wait. Not without help.”

“You mean, more people to make noise.” She gave a dismissive snort. “I say we go alone. I'm the strongest swimmer here.”

“But your element's not the same—”

“I don't think I've forgotten how to swim, thanks.” Rose let go of my hand. “You said I couldn't use my element anymore, not that I couldn't do anything at all.”

“I just figure we could use some help.”

“You mean Alice, don't you? Have you even seen her since this morning?”

I shook my head.

“She's not herself, Thomas. She was crying earlier. Ananias was holding her. They're not ready for this new world. They haven't let go of the old one yet.”

“And you have, I suppose?”

Rose stared at the ship again. “If you and my mother won't let me be who I was, then at least let me decide who I'm going to be from now on.”

She padded along the walkway toward the steps. She didn't even stop to see if I was following. When she got to the bottom, she headed for the main gate. No one was around to see her, and no one would be around to make sure she returned safely.

Muttering a curse, I kept my footsteps light and quiet and followed her.

Outside the main gate, the harbor wind felt fresh. It took the edge off the stifling, humid evening. Rose stood at the end of the jetty, watching the ship.

“What happens if it's someone we don't know?” I asked.

“I'm certain it's someone we don't know. But then, I'd like to know what they're doing on
our
ship.”

She dangled her legs over the side of the jetty. So did I. Before she could slip into the water, though, I touched her arm. “Why are you doing this, Rose?”

She looked confused. “Don't you want to know who's out there?”

“That's not what I mean.” I ran my foot through the water. “What you said just now . . . about deciding who you want to be from now on. What do you mean?”

She breathed in and out slowly. “Look, I never much liked Alice,” she began. “I always thought she made easy tasks complicated. If a Guardian said one thing, Alice would want to do the opposite. I thought . . . if only she'd be more like me, her life would be so much simpler.”

“But not anymore.”

She shook her head. “I made it possible for my father to lie to us, Thomas.
Me
. If I'd questioned him, argued . . . things might've turned out differently. Maybe we'd hate our parents. Maybe we'd want to escape from Hatteras. But at least we'd know who we really are.” She found my hand and squeezed it. “From now on, I want to know the truth. I want to search for it, and if that means taking risks, then I'll live with it. Because then I'll know I'm alive. I'll know it's all real.”

She slipped into the water fully clothed and waited for me to join her.

The truth is, I already knew it was real. I'd known it from the moment the pirates burned down our colony.

I slipped into the water too. I couldn't leave my tunic behind on the jetty in case someone found it. My clothes stuck to my sides, heavy and cumbersome.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Ready.”

Even without the full use of her element, Rose swam faster than me, the water sliding around her with only a slight ripple. It was a clear night and the ship appeared larger than ever as we neared it. The only sound was the water as it lapped against the curving wooden hull.

Rose waited for me beside the ship. We climbed the rope ladder, careful not to let it bat against the hull and alert the intruder. At the top of the ladder, I swung a leg over the rail and planted one foot noiselessly on the deck. I remembered that some of the planks in the middle of the deck squeaked, so I chose a long route to the stairway.

We took the stairs below deck on all fours. My heart was pounding—not just because of the intruder, still moving about in the nearby cabin, but also the memories of everything that had happened on the ship. As if she sensed it, Rose reached out and touched me, fingers glancing my bare arm.

The sounds coming from the cabin had stopped now. For a few moments, there was silence. I held my breath, wondering who it was, and how they'd react to being found.

The movements started again.

I shuffled forward, hugging the wall. When I got to the doorway, I took a deep breath and peered around the corner.

Jerren sat against the far wall, eyes fixed on the door. “I thought you were going to wait out there all night,” he said.

Rose and I entered the cabin. A tiny lantern rested on the floor.

“Lantern's waterproof,” he explained. “My most valuable possession. They let me plug it into the solar panels once a month. When the charge runs out, I have to wait until the next month for it to work again. Better hope it doesn't happen now, or we'll be in the dark.”

Tessa had explained solar panels to me, but I still didn't understand the concept of an object absorbing and retaining energy. I wasn't about to ask, either. “What are you doing here, Jerren?”

He nudged the lantern with his foot so that it shone brighter on us, leaving him in shadow. The only part of him I could see clearly was the white of his eyes. “I've never seen your clan before,” he began. “And I guess you could say I'm curious.”

“About what?”

“About how a group as sick and disorganized as yours has stayed alive so long. And how no one seems to know anything about your colony.”

There was a challenge in every word. He wasn't willing to take things on trust like Chief.

“Where's your cutter?” asked Rose.

He adjusted his position. “What?”

“You're wet,” she said. “Seems odd for you to swim out here in the middle of the night when there are cutters tethered to the jetty.”

He smiled. His teeth were white too. “And what about you? Any reason
you
decided to swim?”

Rose didn't miss a beat. “The cutters aren't ours. We don't want to be accused of stealing. But you see, this ship
is
ours. And you still haven't really answered Thomas's question. So why are you here?”

He rested his arms on his knees and clasped his hands together. “I wanted to know where you came from. The world's a big place, what I've seen of it.”

“What do you mean?
What I've seen of it
.”

Jerren studied his hands, weighing up how much to tell us. I was surprised when he continued: “Word is, there's maybe five island colonies still surviving. When I got here four years ago, there were twelve, but some of them have died out now. Normally it's a disease—wipes everyone out real quick. Plague isn't the only killer, you know.”

“So where were you before you got here?” I asked.

“Fort Dauphin, just off the coast of Alabama.” He picked up on our confused expressions. “It's a long way away, let's just leave it at that.”

“Why did you leave?”

“My mother thought the other colonists were going to kill her.” He shook his head. “Scratch that. She
knew
the others were going to kill her.”

Rose inhaled sharply. “How could she know that?”

As Jerren pressed his hands tighter together, the muscles in his arms flexed. He wasn't as tall as me, but he looked powerful. “Because they told her so. Whenever the food was about to run out, they'd make everyone draw sticks from a barrel. Whoever got the painted stick died—plain and simple. No other way to keep the colony going.” He closed his eyes and mouth, and seemed to disappear entirely. “My mother pulled out the stick.”

The name Fort Dauphin was a mystery to me. Alabama too. “What did you do?” I asked.

“We escaped in the middle of the night. My father stole a sailboat and we set out on the ocean with almost no food or water. I figured we'd all die the moment we got caught in a storm—earlier if the water ran out—but we were rescued by a clan ship. It was a miracle. They brought us here and we joined the refugee colony.”

I'd thought that nothing could be worse than our journey here, but now I realized that wasn't true. “Chief said your parents died from the Plague,” I told him.

He nodded grimly. “Yeah. And now it's up to me to look after Nyla. Which is why we have to—”

He stopped speaking as Rose's open palm shot out. Slowly she lowered her other fingers until only one finger remained pointed at the deck above us. That's when I heard it too: the unmistakable sound of planks creaking.

Rose closed the door silently. We shuffled across the floor until we were as far from it as possible. Jerren turned out the lantern as multiple sets of footsteps came below deck.

I held my breath as the steps drew closer. The glow from the visitors' lantern slipped through the gap at the bottom of the door, and grew brighter until they were standing right outside.

Then they stopped moving.