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“And the closest river is too far away,” I say. “We can’t escape that way. ”
“Then how?” Vick asks.
“We’re not going to go across or down. We’re going to go through. ”
Vick turns. “Through what?”
“The canyons,” I tell him, pointing to the Carving near us, miles long and cut with little openings impossible to see from here. “If you hike in far enough there’s fresh water. ”
“The Officers always tell us that the canyons in the Outer Provinces are crawling with Anomalies,” Vick says.
“I’ve heard that, too,” I admit. “But some of them have built a settlement and they help travelers. I heard that from people who’d been inside. ”
“Wait. You know people who’ve gone into the canyons?” Vick asks.
“I knew people who had been there,” I say.
“People you could trust?”
“My father,” I say, as if that ends the conversation and Vick nods.
We walk a few steps more. “So when do we leave?” Vick asks.
“That’s the problem,” I say, trying not to let him see how relieved I am that he’ll come. Facing those canyons is something I’d rather not do alone. “To keep the Society from hunting us down and making an example of us, the best time to go is during a firing when there’s chaos. Like a night firing. But with a full moon, so that we can see. They might think we died instead of escaped. ”
Vick laughs. “Both the Society and the Enemy have infrared. Whoever’s above will see us run. ”
“I know, but they might miss three little bodies when there’s plenty more right here. ”
“Three?” Vick asks.
“Eli’s coming with us. ” I hadn’t known until I said it.
Silence.
“You’re crazy,” Vick says. “There’s no way that kid will last until then. ”
“I know,” I tell Vick. He’s right. It’s only a matter of time before Eli goes down.
He’s small. He’s impulsive. He asks too many questions. Then again, it’s only a matter of time for all of us.
“So why keep him around? Why bring him along?”
“There’s a girl I know back in Oria,” I say. “He reminds me of her brother. ”
“That’s not reason enough. ”
“It is for me,” I say.
Silence stretches between us.
“You’re getting weak,” Vick says finally. “And that might kill you. Might mean you never see her again. ”
“If I don’t look out for him,” I tell Vick, “I’d be someone she didn’t know, even if she did see me again. ”
Chapter 6
CASSIA
Once I’m sure the others sleep, their breathing heavy in the room, I roll over onto my side and slip the Archivist’s paper from my pocket.
The page feels pulpy and cheap, not like the thick cream-colored sheet with Grandfather’s poems. It’s old, but not as old as Grandfather’s paper. My father might be able to tell me the age; but he’s not here, he let me go. As I unfold the page carefully it makes small sounds that seem loud, and I hope the other girls will think it is the rustling of blankets or an insect singing its wings.
It took a long time for everyone to fall asleep tonight. When I came back from my outing they told me that none of us have received our transfer assignments yet; that the Officer said they would tell us our destinations in the morning. I understood the girls’ uneasiness—I feel it, too. We’ve always known the night before where we’d be sent the next day. Why the change? With the Society, there’s always a reason.
I slide the paper into a square of spilled-white light from the moon outside. My heart pounds quickly, a running beat though I am still. Please let this be worth the cost, I think to nothing and no one, and then I look at the page.
No.
I push my fist against my mouth to keep from saying the word out loud into the sleeping room.
It’s not a map, or even a set of directions.
It’s a story, and I know the moment I read the first line that it’s not one of the Hundred:
A man pushed a rock up the hill. When he reached the top, the stone rolled down to the bottom of the hill and he began again. In the village nearby, the people took note. “A judgment,” they said. They never joined him or tried to help because they feared those who issued the punishment. He pushed. They watched.
Years later, a new generation noticed that the man and his stone were sinking into the hill, like the setting of the sun and moon. They could only see part of the rock and part of the man as he rolled the stone along to the top of the hill.
One of the children became curious. So, one day, the child walked up the hill. As she drew closer, she was surprised to see that the stone was carved with names and dates and places.
“What are all these words?” the child asked.
“The sorrows of the world,” the man told her. “I pilot them up the hill over and over again. ”
