Reached
writing to?”
I point at her and her face lights up.
I’m trying to think of the best way to ask her.
In the Carving, I said we should try to run away from all of this. Remember? Let’s do that now.
If Indie agrees to come with me, maybe we can find a way to get Cassia and escape with the ship. I only get one word written down—
In
—before a voice fills the cockpit.
“This is your Chief Pilot speaking.”
I feel a little jolt of recognition, even though I’ve never heard him speak before. Indie draws in her breath, and I shove the charcoal and paper back into my pocket as if the Chief Pilot can see us. His voice sounds rich and musical, pleasing, but strong. It’s coming from the control panel, but the quality of the transmission is much better than usual. It sounds like he’s actually on the ship.
“I am also the Pilot of the Rising.”
Indie and I turn to look at each other. She was right, but there’s no triumph in her expression. Only conviction.
“Soon, I will speak to everyone in all of the Provinces,” the Pilot says, “but those of you taking part in the initial wave of the Rising have the right to hear from me first. You are here because of your decision to join the Rising and your merits as participants in this rebellion. And you are also here because of another important characteristic, one for which you cannot take credit.”
I look over at Indie. Her face looks beautiful, lit up. She believes in the Pilot. Do I, now that I’ve heard his voice?
“The red tablet doesn’t work on you,” the Pilot says. “You remember what the Society would have you forget. As some of you have long suspected, the Rising did this—we made you immune to the red tablet. And that is not all. You are also immune to an illness that is even now overtaking Cities and Boroughs throughout the Provinces.”
They never said anything about an illness. My muscles tense. What does this mean for Cassia?
“Some of you have heard of the Plague.”
Indie turns to me. “Have you?” she mouths.
I almost say
no
but then I realize that I might have.
The mystery illness that killed Eli’s parents.
“Eli,”
I mouth back, and Indie nods.
“The Society intended the Plague for the Enemy,” the Pilot says. “They poisoned some of the Enemy’s rivers and released the Plague into others. This, combined with continued attacks from the air, completely eliminated the Enemy. But the Society has pretended that the Enemy still exists. The Society needed someone to blame for the ongoing loss of life of those who lived in the Outer Provinces.
“Some of you were out there in those camps. You know that the Society wanted to eradicate Aberrations and Anomalies completely. And they used your deaths, and the information they gathered from them, as one last great collection of data.”
Silence. We all know that what he says is true.
“We wanted to come in and save you sooner,” the Pilot says, “but we weren’t ready yet. We had to wait a little longer. But we did
not
forget you.”
Didn’t you?
I want to ask. Some of my old bitterness against the Rising fills me, and I grip the controls of the ship tightly, staring out into the night.
“Back when the Society created this Plague,” the Pilot says, “there were those who remembered that what is water in one place becomes rain somewhere else. They knew that releasing this disease would come back to us somehow, no matter how many precautions were taken. It created a division among the scientists in the Society, and many of them secretly joined the Rising. Some of our scientists found a way to make people immune to the red tablet, and also to the Plague. In the beginning, we didn’t have the resources to give these immunities to everyone. So we had to choose. And we chose
you
.”
“He chose us,”
Indie whispers.
“You haven’t forgotten the things the Society wanted you to lose. And you can’t get the Plague. We protected you from both.” The Pilot pauses. “You’ve always known that we have been preparing you for the most important errand of all—bringing in the Rising. But you’ve never known
exactly
what your cargo would be.
“You carry the cure,” the Pilot says. “Right now, the errand ships, covered by the fighters, are bringing the cure to the most impacted cities—to Central, Grandia, Oria, Acadia.”
Central is one of the most impacted cities.
Is Cassia sick? We never knew if she was immune to the red tablet. I don’t think that she
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