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“It must seem lonely to you out here,” I say, remembering how when I was Eli’s age I moved to Oria and felt a different kind of loneliness—the loneliness of what seemed like too many people.
“How did the Anomalies get stuck in here, anyway?” Eli asks.
“The original Anomalies chose to be Anomalies, back when the Society came to be,” I tell Eli. I remember something else, too. “And the ones who live in the Carving don’t call themselves Anomalies. They prefer to be known as the farmers. ”
“But how could they choose?” Eli asks, fascinated.
“Before the Society took control, there were people who saw it coming and didn’t want any part of it. They started storing things inside the Carving. ” I point at some of the curves and bends in the sandstone walls. “There are caves hidden everywhere in here. The farmers had enough food to see them through until some of the seeds they brought could be planted and harvested. They called their settlement a township, because they didn’t want to use the Society’s words for that, either. ”
“But didn’t the Society track them down?”
“Eventually. But the farmers had the advantage because they came in first. They could cut down anyone who tried to follow. And the Society thought the farmers would all die off sooner or later. It’s not an easy place to live. ” Part of my coat has come unsealed and I stop at a pinyon for more sap. “They also served another purpose for the Society. Many of the people in the Outer Provinces were too afraid to try to escape to the Carving because the Society started spreading rumors about how savage the farmers are. ”
“You think they’ll really try to kill us?” Eli asks, sounding worried.
“They used to be merciless to any one Society,” I say. “But we’re not Society anymore. We’re Aberrations. They didn’t kill Aberrations or other Anomalies outright unless attacked. ”
“How will they know what we are?” Eli asks.
“Look at us,” I say. “We don’t look like Citizens or Officials. ” The three of us are young and dirty and disheveled, clearly on the run.
“So why didn’t your father bring your family in here to live?” Vick asks.
“The Society’s right about some things,” I say. “You die free out here but you die faster. The farmers don’t have the medicine or technology in the canyons that the Society has outside. My mother didn’t want that for me and my father respected it. ”
Vick nods. “So we’re going to find these people and ask them to help us. Since they helped your father. ”
“Yes,” I say. “And I’m hoping to trade with them. They have maps and old books. At least, they did before. ”
“And what do you have to trade?” Vick asks sharply.
“The same things that you and Eli have,” I say. “Information about the Society. We’ve lived on the inside. It’s been a while since there have been any real villages in the Outer Provinces, which means the people in the canyon might not have been able to trade or talk with
anyone for a long time. ”
“So, if they do want to trade with us,” Eli asks, sounding unconvinced, “what are we going to do with all those papers and old books once we get them?”
“You can do whatever you want,” I say. “You don’t even have to trade for them. Get something else. I don’t care. But I’m going to get a map and try to reach one of the Border Provinces. ”
“Wait,” Eli says. “You want to go back into the Society? Why?”
“I wouldn’t go back,” I say. “I’d go a different way than the one we came. And I’d only go back far enough to send a message to her. So she’ll know where I am. ”
“How can you do that?” Eli asks. “Even if you did make it to the Border Provinces, the Society watches the ports. They’d see it if you sent anything to her. ”
“That’s why I want the papers from the township,” I say. “I’ll trade them with an Archivist. They have ways to send messages that don’t involve the ports. But it’s expensive. ”
“An Archivist?” Eli asks, puzzled.
“They’re people who trade on the black market,” I say. “They’ve been around since before the Society. My father used to trade with them, too. ”
“So this is your plan,” Vick says. “There’s nothing more to it than what you’ve told us. ”
“Not right now,” I say.
“Do you think it will work?” Eli asks.
“I don’t know,” I say. Above us a bird starts to sing: a canyon wren. The notes are haunting and distinct. They descend like a waterfall down the rock canyon walls. I can identify the call because my father used to mimic it for me. He told me it was the sound of the Carving.
He loved it here.
When my father told stories, he blurred the line between truth and tale. “They’re all true on some level,” he’d say when my mother teased him about it.
“But the township in the canyon is real,” I’d always ask, to make sure. “The stories you tell about that are true. ”
“Yes,” he’d say. “I’ll take you there someday. You’ll see. ”
So when it appears before us around the next bend in the canyon, I stop short in disbelief. There it is, exactly as he said, a settlement in a wider part of the gorge.
A feeling of unreality settles over me like the light of late afternoon that spills over the canyon walls. The township looks almost exactly the way I remember my father describing his first visit:
The sun came down and made it all golden: bridge, buildings, people, even me. I couldn’t believe the place was real, though I’d heard about it for years. Later when the farmers there taught me to write, I had that same feeling. Like the sun was always at my back.
The winter sunlight sets an orange-gold glow on the buildings and bridge in front of us.
