No one spoke. Someone should have been offering thanks for his life and blessings for his safe passage to whatever lay beyond. But what thanks could be offered for a life cut short? How could we hope for safe passage while his rust-red clothes reminded us how sudden and violent his death had been?
Rose knelt beside her father and whispered something to him. I couldn’t hear what she was saying. When she was done, Dennis spoke, and their mother, Marin. Finally, Rose and Dennis took Kyte’s hands and tried to lift him. His torso shifted a little, but that was all. Rose gritted her teeth and pulled harder. The body barely moved. In the moment before she let go, Rose let out a guttural cry that split the air.
It was Ananias who eased her away. It should’ve been me, but I didn’t know what I was supposed to say or do anymore. When Ananias told me to take Kyte’s other shoulder, I did it without thinking. Alice and Griffin took his feet, and together the four of us lifted Kyte from the deck.
I was dripping sweat, but also shaking despite the warm wind. When we heaved him onto the rail, I felt the full weight of him, the enormity of a life.
Kyte hit the water hard and disappeared beneath the waves. When he reemerged, he was already several yards away. I kept my eyes trained on the body, shocked at how quickly it disappeared from view.
“We should return to Roanoke,” croaked Marin. “You all heard what Kyte said: We’ll lose our elements if we continue on this course.”
I didn’t want to cross her, especially now that she’d lost her husband, but no one else seemed willing to speak either. “Other Plague survivors have managed without elements,” I reminded her. “We will too.”
She pressed her fingertips against her temples. “We’re not like other survivors, Thomas.”
“Until a week ago, I was exactly like them.” I signed so that Griffin would understand too. “We can’t take on the pirates. There are too many of them, and they have weapons. If they were willing to risk everything to get to the solution before, they’ll risk everything again now.”
“The solution isn’t real—”
“But the pirates think it is,” interrupted Alice. “Look, there’s a refugee colony near Charleston. We can get there in a couple days. It’ll give us a chance to rest. Maybe it’ll be better than what we left behind.”
I expected Alice’s father, Joven, to have something to say about that. The fact that Alice had suggested it would normally have been reason enough for him to forbid the plan. Now he was silent. He wasn’t even looking at her, but at Eleanor, several steps removed from the rest of us.
Alice’s mother, Tarn, gave a long sigh. “What if it’s deserted?” she asked.
Alice shrugged. “Then we’ll settle it ourselves. If it worked once, it can work again. Just like Skeleton Town.”
“And if there are rats?”
“Then we have the solution,” replied Alice, without hesitation. “Dare risked everything to get to Griffin. It has to mean something.”
I stopped mid-sign and glanced at Griffin. I wasn’t the only one either. As he looked from one to another of us, I was sure he was connecting our odd behavior to that word: solution. But either he’d already worked out that he was the solution, or he still didn’t understand. I hoped the latter.
I shot Alice an accusing look. She had no business revealing that Griffin was the solution. What if the Guardians didn’t already know, and turned on him? We’d risked everything to keep him safe. All I cared about now was finding somewhere that my brother could live normally. But as Alice stared right back, it hit me: She truly believed that Griffin might be a solution to the Plague. Even more surprising, I wasn’t certain that she was wrong. After all, we were the only people who could control the elements. Was it so difficult to imagine that we might do even more?
Marin interrupted my thoughts. “So how long do we stay in this new colony of yours, Thomas? A week? A month? Forever?”
“I don’t know.”
“Of course you don’t. How could you? You’re not even an Apprentice.”
I told myself it was her grief talking, but in truth, she meant every word of it. “Where we’re going, there won’t be Apprentices,” I reminded her. “Or Guardians.”
“Hmm.” She stared ahead, as if I didn’t really exist. “And that’s what this is really all about, isn’t it? It’s not about the solution, or finding a new colony. You just want us to know what it’s like to live without elements.” She reached for her children’s hands, but only Dennis was by her side. “It’d feel good, wouldn’t it, to take that away from us? To give us a taste of how life has been for you.”
“Stop,” cried Rose. She faced the Guardians. “Look at you. You’re so weak, you can’t even stand. And now you say we’re ready to face the pirates again.” She wiped spittle from her lips with a bloodstained sleeve. “But I’ve seen what they can do, and I’ll be happy if we never go home again.”
She didn’t wait for her mother to reply. With ten quick strides she reached the staircase. A moment later, she disappeared below deck, leaving an eerie silence behind her. Everyone kept quiet out of respect for her family’s loss. But as I looked around, I had no doubt that our recently reunited colony was divided yet again.
CHAPTER 6
We ate sparingly, pretending that we weren’t as hungry as we obviously were. Back on Roanoke, Rose had caught fish for us to eat. But now she didn’t eat at all, and no one dared to ask her to catch any. Alice handed out blankets and told everyone which cabins to use. I figured that her parents would argue with her, but they didn’t. It showed how weak they were. We’d be sailing the ship with a skeleton crew until they regained their strength.
Daylight streamed through the window when I woke the next morning. I’d put in a long shift at the wheel during the night, eyes fixed on the stars so that I’d be able to follow Alice’s southwesterly course. I rubbed my eyes, reached for the water canister across the tiny cabin, and drained it quickly. I was replacing the cap when I heard someone cry out.
I leaped up and ran from the cabin. Just along the corridor, Ananias and Eleanor were crammed around my father’s cage, combining their elements. With one hand they held each other, and with the other they shaped and concentrated Ananias’s flame into a white-hot glow aimed at the cage’s lock.
But something wasn’t right. The flame wouldn’t stay still. It didn’t look very strong, either, and yet they were both sweating profusely. Maybe their elements were waning just like Kyte had warned, but something told me it had more to do with the way Eleanor leaned away from Ananias, their fingertips barely touching.
The metal lock was bending, but the flame was weakening. I wanted to help, but I’d only distract them. I was sure that if their flame went out for even a moment, it might never come back.
My father had his back to them. I didn’t know whether he was asleep or if he was just protecting himself from the heat. But as the flame slipped closer to being extinguished, he stirred. He rolled over and forced a couple fingers from each hand through the metal mesh.
It took Ananias and Eleanor a moment to touch him—he looked as awful now as he had the day before—but when they did, he curled his fingers tightly around theirs. He gritted his teeth as the three of them joined. The flame grew suddenly larger and fiercer.
It was clearly Father’s element at work. He and I shared the same power. But if it was surging into Ananias and Eleanor, why did they look less uncomfortable now than before? At the briefest touch, Alice and Rose had pulled away from me. But no one was pulling away from Father now.