AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No,” he says. “Camassia. It’s a plant. We haven’t done much with that one yet. ” Now he’s muttering, as if he doesn’t remember that we can hear him. “It’s edible. Nutritious, even. It tastes like potatoes, only sweeter. The flower is purple. It’s where Camas Province gets its name. ” His eyes snap back into focus and he looks right at me. “I’ll go dig some. ”
“Camassia is not ranked very high on the sorters’ list,” Leyna says.
“This isn’t the Society,” Oker growls. “We don’t have to go by the numbers. We have room for intuition and intelligence in this village, don’t we? We can find a cure faster than the people in the Provinces, but only if we stop thinking the way they would. ”
Leyna shakes her head. I know she must be trying to decide on the best way to deal with this, and she’s asking herself the same questions she’s had to ask before: Is Oker a valuable enough asset that she can let him do what he wants, even when it’s in direct opposition to what she thinks is best?
“How about this,” Oker says. “You gather the other ingredients and I’ll make the cures you want, too. ” He looks at Noah and Tess. “You stay and keep the bags going. ”
“We have extra,” Noah points out.
“We’re going to need a lot more,” Oker says impatiently. “Do not let any of the patients run out, especially that newest one. ” Then he turns to me. “Come on. You can help me dig. ”
“We only have seven patients available for trial now,” Leyna says as Oker points out things he wants me to put in a bag—clean burlap straps, canteens, and two small shovels. “The other patients still need time to get the most recent cure trial out of their systems. ”
“Then we’ll only use seven patients,” Oker says, barely able to control his frustration.
“The Pilot will need more evidence than a few cured patients—” Leyna begins.
“Then give them all my cure,” Oker says. He pushes open the door. “We’re talking in circles. I’ll make the cures. You decide who gets them. Just make sure someone takes mine. And that I get the one most recently still to try my cure. ” Then he glances over his shoulder at Leyna. “You should ask the sorters to calculate the odds that we’re going to figure this out before the people back in the Provinces do. We’re not the Pilot’s best hope. He’s throwing everything he can into the air on the chance that something might take flight. And we’re the smallest, weakest bird. ”
“Your medications made a difference,” Leyna says firmly. “The Pilot knows that. ”
“I didn’t say we couldn’t still be the ones to figure it out,” Oker says. “But only if you let me do what I need to do. ”
“We have camassia in our stores,” Leyna says, one final protest. “You don’t need to walk all the way to the camassia fields. ”
“I want it fresh from the ground,” Oker tells her.
“Then I’ll send someone out to glean the field,” Leyna says. “That will be faster than you going yourself. ”
“No,” Oker says. “No. ” He takes a deep breath. “I don’t want anything to compromise this cure. I’ll see it through from start to finish. ”
Now that sounds like something a real Pilot would say. I follow Oker out the door.
I don’t trick myself that Oker’s picked me to come with him because he trusts me the most. He can count on Noah and Tess to prepare the medicated nutrient bags for the patients, but he can’t trust me to manage that yet without supervision. He just needs someone to dig for him.
And he likes to talk to me about the mutation because I’m the most recent person to work firsthand with the still. I’ve seen the
mutation up close. Of course this would all be intriguing to him. He’s the one who came up with the first cure. He knew about the Plague before almost anyone else.
“How far are we going?” I ask.
“A few miles,” he says. “The field I want isn’t near here. It’s closer to the other stone villages, toward Camas. ”
I follow him. It all looks like grass and rock to me. Nothing stands out as a pathway. “People must not go to the other villages often anymore,” I say to Oker.
“Not after this last gathering to Endstone,” Oker says. “We’ve sent people out to harvest different wild crops since then, but it doesn’t take long for the mountain to reclaim the path. ”
Every now and then we pass a round stone pressed flat into the ground. Oker says the stones indicate we are on the right track. “I walked all the way out here,” Oker says. His voice sounds peaceful, contemplative, but he moves as fast as he can. “Back then, the pilots often flew you as far as the first stone village and then it was up to you where you went after that. I decided on Endstone since it was the farthest away. Thought I might not make it, since according to the Society I was old enough to be dead, but I kept going. ” He laughs. “I walked through the day of my own Final Banquet. ”
“That’s what my friend tried to do,” I say to Oker. “He tried to keep walking through the mutation. He was convinced that if he kept moving, he wouldn’t go still. ”
“Where’d he get an idea like that?” Oker asks.
“I think it’s because Cassia walked through a blue tablet once. She took one and kept on going. ”
I expect him to say that’s impossible, but instead he says, “Maybe your friends are right. Stranger things have happened. ” Then he smiles. “Cassia is an unusual name. It’s botanical. The bark is used as a spice. ”
“Is it any relation to the plant we’re looking for now?” I ask. “The names sound so similar. ”
“No,” Oker says. “Not to my knowledge. ”
“She helped with that list,” I say. “You should look at it again after we’re done with the camassia. ” I don’t bring up the fact—yet—that she, not Oker, should be the one who decides which cure Ky gets.
Oker stops to get his bearings. I could go faster than this, but he’s in excellent shape for someone so old. “The camassia should be near here,” he says. “This is where the villagers come to harvest. But they won’t have taken it all. Always have to leave some to grow for next year, even if you hope you won’t be here. ” He leaves the path and starts down through a stand of trees.
I follow him. The trees on the mountainside are pines and some others I don’t know. They have white bark and thin green leaves. I like the sound when we walk under them.
Oker points down. “See it?”
