Reached

them in the Society, they’d get even farther away than their families intended. For some, it was almost like revenge.” Then she puts her hand on his name, too. “But you say he used this name in the Borough?”
    “Yes,” I say. “It’s his real name.”
    “That’s something, then,” she says. “Many of them changed their last names. He didn’t. That means he didn’t want to erase the trail completely if someone wanted to look for him eventually.”
    “They had no ships,” I say. “So they would have had to walk all the way to the Otherlands.”
    She nods. “That’s why they don’t come back,” she says. “The journey is too long. Without ships, it takes
years.
” Then she points to the bottom of the stone. “There’s just enough space for the rest of our names,” she says. “It’s a sign that we should go.”
    “I understand,” I say. The stakes are high, almost impossibly so, for every single one of us.

    When I get to the infirmary, I tell Ky all about the stone. “It’s proof that Anna’s right, that he didn’t die in Oria,” I say, “unless there’s another Matthew Markham, but the likelihood of that is . . .” I stop calculating and breathe out. “I think it’s him. I feel it.”
    I try to remember Matthew. Dark-haired, older than me, handsome. He looked enough like Ky that you could tell they were cousins, but different. Matthew wasn’t as quiet as Ky; he had a louder laugh, a bigger presence in the Borough. But he was kind, like Ky.
    “Ky,” I say, “when we find the cure, I’ll take you to see the stone. And then we can go back and tell Patrick and Aida.”
    I’m about to say more when the door opens. Anna has brought Eli to see me at last.

    Eli has grown, but he still lets me hold him the way I hope Bram will when I see him again, pulled close and tight. “You made it,” I say. He smells like the outdoors, a scent of pine and dirt, and I am so glad he’s well that tears stream down my cheeks even though I smile.
    “Yes,” Eli says.
    “I lived in your city,” I say. “In Central. I thought of you all the time and wondered if I was walking on the streets where you lived, and I saw the lake.”
    “I miss it sometimes,” Eli says. He swallows. “But it’s better here.”
    “Yes,” I say. “It is.”
    When Eli pulls away, I look over at Hunter. He still wears blue markings up and down his arms, and his eyes are very tired.
    “I want to see Ky,” Eli says.
    “And you’re sure Eli’s immune?” I ask Anna.
    She nods. “He doesn’t have the mark,” she says, “but none of us do.”
    I step away from the cot so Eli can go around to the other side. He crouches down next to Ky and looks right into his eyes. “I live in the mountains now,” he tells Ky, and I have to turn away.
    Anna points to my datapod. “Are you any closer to a cure?” she asks.
    I shake my head. “I’m not helping,” I say. “I don’t know enough about the things on the lists. I can read the descriptions, but I don’t know what the plants and animals you eat
look
like.”
    “And you think that matters?” Anna asks.
    “I do,” I say.
    “I can draw some pictures for you,” she says. “Show me the items on the list that you’ve never seen before.”
    I pull out a scrap of paper and write them all down for her. It’s a long list and I feel embarrassed. “I’ll work on it right away,” she says. “Where should I begin?”
    “Flowers first,” I say. It feels right. “Thank you, Anna.”
    “I’m glad to do it,” she says.
    “And thank you for coming to see Ky,” I tell Hunter. He shakes his head as if to say,
It’s nothing.
I want to ask him how he is, to find out more about what his life has been like here in the mountains, but he nods to me and leaves. I should go, too. I have more sorting to do, always, until we find a cure.

CHAPTER 36
    KY
    E very time she leaves, Cassia always promises that she’ll be back.
    It feels like it’s been a long time since she was here, but I can’t really tell. Now that she’s gone, I hear other voices, like I heard Vick’s after he died on the bank.
    This time it’s Indie talking to me, but that can’t be right because she’s not here.
    “Ky,” she says. “I brought Cassia to Camas for you.”
    “I know,” I say. “I know, Indie.”
    I can’t see her. But her voice is so clear it’s hard to believe that it’s actually me, making this up. Because Indie can’t be here talking to me. Can she?
    “I’m