Reached

in my vision as the villagers lift me onto a stretcher. I have another thought.
What if you give in to the exhaustion, let yourself go still, and then the pain comes
back
?
    Cassia touches my arm.
    We were free in the canyon. Not for long, but we were. She had sand on her skin and the smell of water and stone in her hair. I think I smell rain coming. When it arrives, will I be too far gone to remember?
    It’s good to know that Xander’s here. So that when I go down, she won’t be alone.
    “You walked through the Carving to find me,” I tell Cassia softly. “I’m going to walk through this to reach you.”
    Cassia holds on to one of my hands. In the other, I can feel the flower she gave me. The air in the mountains is cool. I can tell when we pass underneath the trees. Light. Dark. Light. It’s almost nice to have someone else carrying my body. This damn thing is so heavy.
    And then the pain gets worse. It turns red all through me and that’s the only thing I can see—bright red in front of my eyelids.
    Cassia’s hand disappears from mine.
    No,
I want to shout.
Don’t go.
    Xander’s voice is here instead. “The important thing,” he tells me, “is that you remember to breathe. If you don’t clear your lungs, that’s when pneumonia can settle in.” A pause. Then he says, “I’m sorry, Ky. We’ll find a cure. I promise.”
    Then he’s gone and Cassia’s back, her hand a softer pressure now on mine. “What the Pilot was saying on the ship,” she tells me, “was a poem I wrote for you. I finally finished it.”
    She speaks to me gently, almost singing. I breathe.
     
    Newrose, oldrose, Queen Anne’s lace.
    Water, river, stone, and sun.
     
    Wind over hill, under tree.
    Past the border none can see.
     
    Climbing into dark for you
    Will you wait in stars for me?
     
    I will.
    And no matter what, she’ll remember me. No one, not Society or Rising or anyone else, can take that from her. Too much has happened. And too much time has passed.
    She’ll know that I was here. And that I loved her.
    She’ll always know that, unless
she
chooses to forget.

CHAPTER 27
    XANDER
    T he village isn’t still at all. People are everywhere. Kids run the paths and play on an enormous stone in the center of the village. Unlike the sculptures in the Society’s greenspaces, this stone isn’t carved smooth. It’s rough and jagged where it broke away from the side of the mountain years ago. You can tell the people built the village around it. The children turn to look at us as we come past, and their eyes are curious, not afraid, which is nice to see.

    The infirmary is a long wooden building across from the village stone. Once we’re inside, we carefully transfer Ky from his stretcher to a cot.
    “We need to take both of you back to the research lab and interview you,” Leyna says to Cassia and me. Around us, the villagers’ versions of medics and nurses take care of the still. I do a quick count and see that Ky is the fifty-second patient. “We need Xander’s information about the Plague and its mutation, and we need Cassia to take a look at the data we’ve gathered. You’ll be more useful there.” Leyna smiles to ease the blow of what she’s saying. “I’m sorry. I know he’s your friend, but really the best way to help him—”
    “Is to work for the cure,” Cassia says. “I understand. But surely we have breaks now and then. I could come visit him.”
    “That’s up to Sylvie,” Leyna says, gesturing to an older woman standing near us. “I’m in charge of overseeing the cure as a whole, but she supervises the infirmary.”
    “I don’t mind as long as you scrub in and wear a mask and gloves,” Sylvie says. “It might be interesting to see. None of the others here have anyone to visit them. Maybe he’ll recover more quickly.”
    “Thank you,” Cassia says, her face bright with hope. I don’t want to tell her,
Actually, talking to them and staying with them seems to make no difference at all.
I kept talking to the patients myself. It’s instinct. And maybe the right person
could
make a difference. Who knows? I hope someone back at the medical center is talking to Lei. Would it have been better for me to stay there?
    The door slams open. Cassia and I both turn, startled, and a man comes through the entrance. He’s tall and rail-thin, staring at us with shrewd dark eyes that peer out from under shaggy white eyebrows. His head is brown and smooth and bald. “Where is he?” he