Page 130 of Moon Chosen

“It’s not your fault.” Nik felt as dead as his voice sounded. “And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this will kill me, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. It’s called the blight, and it has been cursing the Tribe for many winters now, and taking more and more lives with each passing season.” Nik met Mari’s gaze. “Would you help me get home? I want to see my father before I die.”

Mari put both hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed stubbornly. “I’m not taking you anywhere until you tell me exactly what the blight is and how you caught it.”

“The only thing we know for sure about the blight is that it’s a type of fungus. It can infect us when our skin has been broken.”

Mari’s eyes widened. “Anytime you get a scratch you can catch it?”

Nik nodded wearily. “Yes, there’s a possibility of catching it whenever our skin is broken, but the truth is the deeper the wound, the better chance of catching the blight.” Now that the first shock had passed he felt tired and sad and sick, and he just wanted to crawl inside another mug of Mari’s sleeping potion and sleep forever.

“Your Tribe is dying?”

Nik looked at Mari. She didn’t seem to be gloating. She also didn’t seem to be upset. She only seemed curious.

“Actually, the Tribe is growing, but the blight is getting worse. It used to infect only the very young or very old. And it used to infect only about a third of everyone who was injured. That’s been changing, though. More people get the blight. My mother died of it just after my tenth winter.”

“I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to lose your mother,” Mari said.

“Thank you. Will you help me get back to the Tribe before this kills me? I don’t have long. Once it starts to stink and ulcerate it’s in the blood. It’ll take over my body soon. If I’m lucky the spear wound is close enough to my heart that it’ll kill me fast.”

“Nik, I haven’t given up on healing you,” Mari said.

“I appreciate that, Mari. Truly I do. But you don’t understand. Our Healers have been trying to cure the blight for generations. They can’t even slow it down. It’s why we started capturing your people and making them tend our crops. Too many of the Tribe were dying of blight after small injuries in the fields.”

Mari stared at him as if he had just sprouted a tail and begun to bark at her.

“You enslave us because your Healers can’t figure out how to cure a disease?”

“Well, yes. Or mostly yes. That’s why we started taking, ur, Earth Walkers captive. And then once they became our captives it was obvious that they were unable to care for themselves.”

“Only because we die if we’re enslaved!”

“We—we didn’t know that. None of us knew that.” Nik didn’t add that today he wasn’t so sure that was the only reason for keeping them slaves. He thought about Thaddeus and Claudia and even Wilkes, and couldn’t imagine them plowing and planting, weeding and harvesting.

“That’s just ridiculous, and it’s going to end now. No wonder Rigel led me to you. Nik, I’m going to change your world,” Mari said. Then she strode to the closed curtain that sectioned off the back rooms of the burrow, pulled it aside, and called, “Sora! Don’t get comfortable in there. We have work to do.”

36

“I’m really sssssleepy!” Nik’s shout was slurred.

Mari and Sora exchanged a look. From the medical pantry, Mari called, “Good. Being sleepy is good. Just don’t fall asleep. Yet.”

“Not ssssure I’m in control of that,” he shouted again.

Mari went to the doorway to the front room of the burrow and stuck her head through the curtain. “Nik, I’m right here. You don’t have to yell. I told you that I’m going through Mama’s journal to find a way to cure you. And you need to stay awake.”

“But I want to sssssleep.”

Mari rolled her eyes. “You can sleep afterward.” She glanced behind her where the young canine was sitting, as usual staying close to her side. “Rigel, go to Nik.” As the pup padded to his pallet, Mari said, “Pet Rigel. Or talk to him. Or whatever. Just stay awake.”

“Okay!” he said, and then he saluted her.

Mari rolled her eyes again and disappeared behind the curtain. She hurried back to her mama’s chest where she and Sora had been sitting as she searched through Leda’s medical journal hunting for cures for anything that sounded remotely like Nik’s blight.

“Why don’t you let him sleep? He makes too much noise when he’s awake,” Sora said.