I walked around the circle, placing a piece of meat in each bowl. Rose smiled. Griffin signed thank you. Ananias bowed his head. Alice scowled at Jerren. I was certain everyone felt awkward about eating food that had been denied to others. Everyone except Tarn ate it anyway.
I got to Dennis and his mother last, and the pot was almost empty. When I put more in Dennis’s bowl than Marin’s, she craned her neck to see how much was left. She was Rose’s mother too, and I wanted her to trust me, so I split the remainder between their two bowls. She didn’t even reward me with a smile.
I returned to my place and put the empty pot on the ground beside me.
“How was it?” asked Chief.
“Oh. Yes, good,” I said. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Alice was standing now. It wouldn’t have been so surprising except that she was the only one. She threw some bones into the fire and walked around the perimeter of the circle, stopping beside Jerren. “Why are you staring at me? See something interesting?”
The corner of Jerren’s mouth turned upward. “Interesting . . . yes.” He stuffed more stew into his mouth. “At least, I think so. Am I wrong?”
Everyone had fallen into a hushed silence. I didn’t want Alice to ruin things for us on our first night here, but Chief placed a hand on my arm before I could stand. “Don’t do it, Thomas,” he murmured. “They need to work this out for themselves.”
Usually I would’ve agreed. But Alice had just lost her sister. Her father had attacked her. She was unpredictable on a good day. Today, she might try anything.
I couldn’t go against Chief’s wishes, though, so I stayed seated and finished my stew. Across the circle, Tarn seemed just as conflicted as me. She rocked forward as if she planned to intervene, but she didn’t rise and she didn’t say a word. In the quiet, I was certain that everyone was watching Alice.
If she’d expected an apology, Alice was out of luck. Jerren didn’t seem embarrassed at all. So she walked straight to our casemate, and didn’t look back.
“I’m sorry,” I told Chief. “She’s just tired.”
He waved it off. “I told you Jerren is intense. Sometimes he just does stuff to annoy us. Like the way he was staring at Alice. He’s like a son to me, which is probably why he feels this need to cause a scene.”
I was confused. “But Alice went over to him, not the other way around.”
“Yes. Just like he wanted her to.” He seemed amused. “Don’t worry about it. I think it’s going to do him good to have you all here. And in the meantime, I’ll get him to apologize to Alice tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure that’ll go down very well. Alice can be”—I tried to find the right word—“prickly.”
He laughed at that. “Which is precisely why Jerren must apologize. And if we’re lucky, we’ll be around to watch the sparks fly.”
»«
The air was humid and still within the casemate. We bedded down on threadbare blankets, and waited for the rest of the fort to fall silent. I took inventory of the figures lying around me, but my thoughts always returned to the three people who would never be with us again.
“Alice.” Tarn whispered her daughter’s name, but the sound carried anyway. There was no reply.
I propped myself up on one elbow just as Alice batted her mother’s hand away. Tarn hovered a moment longer, and then rolled away. After what had happened to Eleanor and Joven, I’d figured they would take comfort in each other. I was wrong.
Marin was sitting cross-legged, watching me. “I know you’re all awake,” she said, voice low and even, “and so I hope you’ll listen. We have suffered great losses. We have no leader to turn to for advice. And our only hope is to become one with our new hosts, to let go of everything we were and accept the limitations of our new lives.”
Rose sat up. “We don’t need to let go of our elements, though.”
“That’s exactly what you need to do.”
“Why? Because mine still works and yours doesn’t?”
Marin inhaled sharply. “You call those water funnels you made an element?”
“The people here may have a use for what we can do. Maybe we should tell them about our elements.”
“Don’t be naïve, Rose. They’re not going to trust something they don’t understand and can’t control. They’ll be scared. And what do you plan to say about Thomas? He’s only combined once, yet it cost Joven his life. You think the Sumter colonists want that?”
“Thomas is the reason we’re here now,” said Ananias in a monotone. I couldn’t tell if he was taking my side, or holding me responsible.
“So why don’t we ask Thomas what he thinks?” pressed Marin.
Everyone was silent then, but I didn’t answer straightaway. I was thinking that Alice hadn’t said a word in my defense. And that a weaker element meant I’d be able to hold Rose. But above all, I was thinking that if we were going to forge a new life on Sumter, our best chance was to be just like our fellow colonists.
“I think we need to adapt to our new life,” I said. “We need to let go of the past.”
No one spoke. I got the feeling everyone was considering what those words meant, and exactly what they were letting go. Too late, I realized that I probably shouldn’t have said anything. After all, just about everyone had lost more than me.
Only Marin was still sitting up now. I watched her watching me, and though it was dark, I would have sworn I saw her smile triumphantly at the lingering silence.
As I lay down and closed my eyes, I thought of Griffin and Ananias, and Rose and Alice, and whether we would be as safe here as I hoped. Or if misfortune, like Plague-carrying rats, simply migrated to wherever it could find an easy target.
CHAPTER 13
I was the last to wake. The sun was already high, but we were shaded in the casemate.
Griffin knelt beside our father, tilting a water canister. Father’s eyes were closed, his cuts and bruises still angry and raw, but he swallowed as the water trickled into his mouth.
Alice, Rose, and Dennis were there too. “Where’s Ananias?” I asked.
“He left with Kell,” said Rose. “Our mothers have already gone to work. But Chief told everyone to let you sleep.”
I didn’t need to ask what everyone had thought of that.
A shadow fell across the space. Jerren was standing against one of the large stone pillars. “I’m supposed to help you move your stuff,” he said.
“Move where?” asked Rose.
“To your new room. I don’t see how you’re going to fit in there, but it’s all we’ve got.” He picked up the bag nearest to him, but Griffin snatched it back. Jerren laughed. “So that’s where the hidden treasure’s kept, huh?”
Griffin threw the strap across his shoulder.
“Oh, that’s right. You can’t hear a thing I’m saying.”
“He’s deaf,” snapped Alice.
Jerren gave a salute. “That’s the word I was looking for. Thanks.” He cocked his head to the side. “Wait. I didn’t notice you at dinner yesterday. Were you there?”
Alice picked up a bag and threw it at him, almost knocking him over. Jerren kept hold of the strap and slid it onto his back. The corner of his mouth twisted upward in a smirk. “Guess I’ll take this one, then.”
We traipsed after him. I wanted to bring Father along too, but I’d need Ananias’s help for that. At least we were leaving him in the shade.
We climbed a set of steps in the middle of the battery and stopped at the second floor. Jerren turned left and followed a metal walkway to the end. From here the parade grounds spread out before us. “You coming?” he shouted to us.
He led us into a corridor with flaking white walls. There was a corrugated metal door at the end, which Jerren pulled open. “There are no windows in this room,” he warned us, “but we’ll leave a lantern for you. Actually, it’s a pretty good room, all things considered. Faces north, for one thing, so it stays cool.”