by Antony John
“Why?”
“Probably because I was a doctor. I could heal people.”
“People with Plague, you mean?”
She flinched. “No, not that. None of us could cure that.” She dug her fingers into the cat’s fur and sighed. “What else did he say?”
“He said they’d be crossing the bridge today,” said Alice. “Which reminds me: When did you get rid of the plank?”
She smiled. “When you first went back to Hatteras.”
“And if we’d needed to cross the bridge, what then?”
“You had canoes. I was far more worried about the pirates crossing than you.” She began to walk away.
“Where are you going?”
“Outside. I’d like some fresh air. Is that all right with you?”
She placed the cat on the ground and it trotted ahead of us. We followed in a line, and one by one crawled through the hole in the door.
Outside, the wind was strengthening, the air charged with the threat of weather to come.
“We still don’t know your name,” I said. “Father used to call you Grandma T, but he never told us your actual name.”
“Everyone called me T, not just your father.” She filled her lungs with the fresh salt air, and raised her face to the sky. “My name is Tessa.”
Hearing that word—Tessa—dragged me back to the evening that Lora had died. I could still picture her wrinkled, sallow skin, and hear her rasping breaths. Why would Lora possibly have said my grandmother’s name over and over as her life slipped away?
Suddenly that dust-free circle on the shelf inside felt very important indeed.
“I forgot something,” I said quickly. “Carry on to the shelter. I’ll catch up.”
I slid back through the door and through the clinic. Once I was sure no one was following me, I made my way to the ladder, and climbed.
I crawled into the cramped attic space and saw the outline of the two sacks. As I pressed toward them, the ceiling below me shifted ominously.
I tried to spread my weight evenly as I dragged the sacks back toward the ladder. I was about to throw them onto the ground below, but thought better of it. Better not risk breaking anything. Instead, I swung my legs onto the ladder and opened the first sack. The light was low, but I could make out blankets and a spare tunic. Between them was the lantern I’d found a couple nights earlier; she must have picked it up from the street after I dropped it.
The other sack was heavier. There was a large sheaved knife inside, and various objects I didn’t recognize. It would be easier to see them in the light of the clinic.
I was about to close the sack when a white container caught my eye—hard and smooth, no larger than my hand. I removed it and held it close. ASPIRIN was written across it in large letters. Below, in similar but smaller letters, were two words: ARCHARD, LORA.
A faint sound from the clinic stopped me dead. I listened carefully, waiting for it to return, but there was only silence now. So I threw the container back inside the sack and pounded down the steps. I could see most of the building. It was empty.
I took a deep breath to collect myself. Before I could climb back up, I heard the sound again.
I spun around.
Tessa’s smile was icy. “Find anything interesting?”
CHAPTER 32
I tried to steady my breathing. “Where’s Alice and Griffin?” I asked.
Tessa didn’t even blink. “I told them to go on. Silly me, I forgot my sacks. Perhaps you’d hand them to me.”
There was no point in pretending I didn’t understand, so I turned and climbed. I felt her eyes on me with every step. I passed down one sack, then the other. Tessa took them without a word.
By the time I got down again, she was throwing more containers into the sacks. “It’s medicine,” she explained. “We’ll need it for the Guardians.”
“You’re sure we’ll see them again?” I asked hopefully.
“Aren’t you?” she replied, avoiding the question.
I stole away and crawled through the door. Along the road, Alice stood at the intersection, staring toward Hatteras. I ran to join her, pleased to leave the clinic behind. “What are you looking at?” I asked.
“Use your binoculars.”
I raised the binoculars and scanned the island. I couldn’t see a single pirate. But something else was different too: The ship’s mast that had been peeking over the trees for the past couple days was gone.
I swung the binoculars south. For a while I saw nothing but the tops of trees, and the ever-thickening clouds. But then I spied the ship’s mast. “They’re heading toward the Oregon Inlet.”
“Yes. It’s the only way for them to get here, now the bridge is impassable. Guess we owe Tessa a thank-you. She’s bringing the Guardians closer.”
Except for the one she helped to kill, I thought, picturing Lora. I wanted to mention it too, but Tessa was only twenty yards away now.
It could wait.
* * *
Griffin sat inside the shelter, piecing together pages from the journals. He faced the wall, and didn’t look around as we entered.
A part of me was surprised that he didn’t have questions for this woman—she was his grandmother too. But then, she had disappeared before he was even born. There were no miraculous images of the pair of them together. Why should he feel anything for a relative who’d chosen to leave?
On the other side of the room, Rose sat beside Dennis. She had finally changed into some of the new clothes: white shorts and white sleeveless top. I’d never seen so much of her skin before—smooth as the sound, and white as a breaking wave.
When she looked up, I turned red. Then she did too. At least, until she saw Tessa.
“Not a pretty sight, am I,” said Tessa, walking toward her. “But it’s not me you need to worry about. How long has he been like this?”
“Since the middle of the night.”
Tessa knelt beside Dennis and felt his forehead. She lifted the legs of his shorts to reveal his upper thighs. When she pulled them down again, she seemed relieved.
“It’s not Plague,” I told her.
“You’re an expert, are you? What is it, then?”
“It’s his echo.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “So his element is wind. How old is he?”
“Nine,” said Rose. “But his element is amazing.”
“Naturally.” Tessa tried to get Dennis to open his eyes, but he wouldn’t.
“He says the light hurts.”
“That makes sense.” Tessa pursed her lips. “He has a migraine—a kind of headache. It’s common for anyone whose element is wind. We think it’s linked to atmospheric pressure—as a storm moves in, pressure builds—but who knows? Anyway, I have medicine that’ll help.”
Tessa removed a container from one of her bags and opened it. She tilted the container and two tiny white discs fell into the palm of her hand. Gently, she lifted Dennis’s head and popped them into his mouth. Rose leaned forward anxiously, but she didn’t stop Tessa. It was only when Dennis had swallowed the discs that I worried. There was still so much we didn’t know about Tessa. If she’d had a hand in Lora’s death, was it so impossible to think she’d do the same to us?
“We need to discuss a plan,” said Alice, interrupting my thoughts.
“A plan?” Tessa seemed amused. “The way I see it, you have two options: surrender, or hide.” She wound her hair behind her ears, but the ends still brushed against the floor. “Right now, Dare and his men are sailing south toward the Oregon Inlet. From there they’ll head into the sound and across to the southern end of Roanoke Island. There’s a ruined town called Wanchese down there. Dare will lock the Guardians up and then come for you.”
“You seem to know a lot about his plans.”
“I’ve lived in these par
ts my whole life. There are shallows off the southwest corner of Roanoke, and sailors avoid them. Besides, he’ll want the Guardians to disembark as far from here as possible.”
“Disembark?” repeated Rose hopefully. “You think he’ll set the Guardians free?”
“No. I think he’ll allow them to leave the ship, but he’ll keep them prisoner until they agree to his demands.”
“What demands?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” groaned Alice. She grabbed a map of Roanoke Island and spread it across the floor. “Ever since the Plague started, the pirates have been stuck at sea just like the clan ships. Now they’ve discovered this entire island is safe.” She waited for Rose to make the connection. “Dare intends to claim Roanoke Island for himself.”
Rose flashed Tessa a confused look. “And you want us to surrender?”
Tessa clicked her tongue. “The pirates are coming. You can hide, fight, or surrender. The first will be pointless. The second, deadly. Right now, your parents are alive. Your only hope is to join with them. You can’t imagine Dare is going to keep them prisoner forever.”
“No. He’ll kill us all instead.”
“If that was his goal, he’d have done it already.”
I stepped between them. “No. Rose is right. Dare said no one would be hurt until he found the solution.”
Tessa’s eyes grew wide, as though she recognized the word. It filled me with dread.
“You’ve heard of the solution,” I said. “Is it Griffin, or me?”
“I don’t know.”
“How can anyone solve the Plague?”
Tessa hesitated. “Honestly, it makes no sense. Maybe it’s a special immune system, or unusual metabolism. Even if you are both protected, I don’t see how it could help anyone else. But it doesn’t matter what I think. Dare’s a seer. People have followed him for years. They don’t do that unless they believe him.”
Rose swallowed hard. “Once Dare takes over Roanoke, he’ll just forget about the solution, right?”
Tessa shook her head.
“Why not?”
Alice reached for the other map—the one that showed the mainland stretching for thousands of miles. “These are Roanoke and Hatteras Islands,” she explained, pointing to the tiny outlines. “And this is the mainland.” She swept her hand across the map. “If Dare believes the solution can save him from the Plague, then the land is his. If he’s willing to kill for Roanoke Island, just imagine what he’ll do for all this.”
CHAPTER 33
Rose stared at the new map. She’d suspected that we were keeping things from her, and now she had her proof.
Alice held up the piece of paper she’d found between the maps. “This was in the lighthouse too—says the Plague started in the central states.”
“Yes,” said Tessa. “About a thousand miles west of here, in the middle of the mainland. Killed almost everyone.”
“Why didn’t people get away? Go back to the coasts?”
“Because everyone from the coasts was still converging in the middle of the country.”
“Was that the exodus?”
“Exactly. The focus was on getting people safely away from the coasts. Even when reports of the new strain of Plague started circulating, people still came to the refugee camps. But then the fuel ran out and they couldn’t leave. The Plague spread. People tried to stop the rats with wildfires, but the land was dry and the fires got out of control. And the rats kept coming. They’re scavengers, see—always searching for new sources of food. That’s what led them here to the coast. It was the only place left.”
“So what was the exodus?” I asked.
“An order for everyone living in coastal areas to head inland. It was a time of war—of terrible weapons and gases that turned the air to poison. We all knew such things could happen, and we ignored them. When the first attack came, it destroyed an entire region in half a day. So many dead. The next day, another city. After that, no one needed to be persuaded to leave.”
“But you didn’t leave.”
“No.” She looked at the map on the floor. “I’m a seer. I knew . . . things. That the future was here, on this island.” She gave a tired smile. “I wish I could’ve made everyone stay. Saved everyone.”
Rose wasn’t looking at any of us now. This was so much for her to take on. The fact that Alice and I already knew some of it must have made it even harder to hear.
Meanwhile, Alice was nodding in agreement. The only kind of puzzles she liked were those that had been solved, and Tessa seemed to have all the answers. But there was still one puzzle Alice didn’t know about.
“What about Lora?” I asked. “Do you wish you could’ve saved her too?”
“She was old. Everyone dies eventually.”
“Some sooner than others.” I walked over to her sacks and emptied them onto the floor: the clothes, lantern, and containers. “You’re a seer. You knew Lora sent me out that night, and you knew why. Why did you hide the aspirin container?”
“What are you talking about, Thomas?” Rose asked softly.
“The night she died, Lora sent me into Skeleton Town to find a container. But Tessa had hidden it.”
Tessa’s face hardened. “I also helped you find your way back to the shelter in the storm. Or have you forgotten that?”
“But you killed Lora.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. A heart attack killed her. Nature killed her. I just stopped her from using aspirin to slow the process.”
“Why?”
“Lora was a drain on all of you. She would’ve died one way or another. It just would’ve taken longer.”
“Your name was the last thing she said.”
“Oh.” Her mouth twisted into a smile. “Good. I’m glad to think she may have had doubts at the end.”
“Doubts about what?”
“Everything. Lying to you all. Exiling me because I wouldn’t promise to stay quiet about the past: the exodus, Plague, pirates.”
“That’s why you left?”
“Of course. They’d constructed a perfect bubble for you. Just you and Nature and the elements. Fairy tales of shipwrecks and a brand-new colony. But I wouldn’t play along.”
“If it was so important for us to know the truth, why didn’t you tell us?” demanded Alice. “You’ve been living six miles away.”
“I couldn’t risk the Guardians finding out. There are worse fates than exile, you know.”
“Like what you did to Lora,” I suggested.
“Hmm. Something tells me nothing could’ve saved her.”
“Why?”
Tessa flared her nostrils. “The pirates land under cover of a storm, and Lora dies the same night—quite a coincidence, don’t you think? Every Guardian should’ve been in danger except her. Did something else happen that evening? Was someone else in trouble?”
“Griffin had a vision,” said Alice. “Of his father, we thought.”
“And how was Griffin afterward?”
“He was in shock . . . sat against the wall and drew.”
Tessa began to return the containers to her sack. “And what exactly did Griffin draw?”
“A portrait of Guardian Lora,” I said. “Why?”
“No reason.” She closed the first sack and opened the second. “I’m sure it’s a beautiful portrait. A tribute befitting a hero. Which is more than Lora deserved.”
“Why did you hate her so much?”
Tessa looked up sharply. “That miserable woman made you risk your life, Thomas. How could she do that and still call herself a Guardian?”
I knew what she was saying, but I still felt guilty for having failed Lora that night. “She was sick. She didn’t even seem awake.”
“She was awake enough to choose you to run her errand.”
“I was just nearest.”
“No. You were the most dispensable.”
I swallowed hard. “What are you talking about?”
“You think she couldn’t have called out to Ananias or Alice?”
“She was suffering.”
“She could’ve told you to wake them, then. Right?” She gave me a moment to respond. “Lora chose you because if someone was going to risk injury or death, she wanted it to be you.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Now that you know who you are, you must realize how hard she’s worked to hide the truth from you. Her and all the Guardians.”
“What truth? Are you talking about the solution?”
“No.” Tessa scanned the room. As she did, the others cast their eyes down.
My stomach flipped. “What’s going on?”
“You must know. How could you be here on Roanoke Island and not . . .” She shook her head in disbelief. “How can you still be nothing?”
That word again. I’d overlooked it in the past—it was part of being me—but not anymore. And certainly not from her.
My hands balled into fists and I couldn’t unclench them. I felt more awake than I had in days. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“You think I haven’t spied on you all these years? Seen you hiding behind dunes, in woods, instead of fighting every last one of them? And what of the lantern?” She lifted it from the ground.
“It broke when I dropped it.”
“And when you picked it up?”
“I didn’t pick it up.”
“Why not?”
“Leave him alone,” shouted Rose. “At least he’s been here for us. Which is more than you can say.”
Tessa turned to Rose and tilted her head. “You know, don’t you?”
Rose opened her mouth but didn’t respond.
“Know what?” I yelled.
Tessa’s expression was full of pity. “That you’re nothing.”
Griffin turned around at last. Had I stamped my foot? Smacked my palm against a wall? I wasn’t sure what had alerted him, but he looked frightened.
