“Would you…Would you be able to help me get back to the citadel? I think I’ve hurt my ankle and shoulder.”
She pauses.
“What’s your name?” she asks with an extra lilt of kindness.
“Fliss.”
“I’m Pigeon,” she says, and motions to the ankle I’m gripping. “Can I take a look?”
I nod and let her inspect my foot.
“I think it might be sprained, perhaps a tiny fracture,” she says, then glances at the cliff. “You fell fromup there?”
“Yes.”
Pigeon chuckles, strands of hair falling from her braid. “Who knew the citadel folk could be so hardy? I thought you were all dull and stuffy.”
What does she mean? Perhaps some aren’t as used to the outdoors as Pigeon, but…Wait, come to think of it, I’ve never met anyone who lives outside the citadel before. (Besides Willoh Vane, who does not count.)
A thrill of excitement runs through me. That means Pigeon doesn’t know I’m cursed. I’m a clean slate.
“Why do you think that?” I ask.
Pigeon roots around in one of her satchels again and brings out a roll of bandages. She peels off my shoe and sock and starts to wrap the fabric around my foot.
“I mean, those tall walls, the big, tough guards at every entrance. You live in a cage.”
“Oh…I’ve never thought about it like that.”
She sighs, her hands working swiftly. “It didn’t use to be so bad, but those musty uptight royals share less and less with us as time goes on, believing we’re a bunch of miscreants who bit the hand that fed them. Anyway, it means I have to come up here to hunt or head over to the coast to get by. That’s why I’m here today—lucky for you, I guess!”
Hesitation grips my throat. She’s from the north. If what the rumors say is true, then shouldn’t Pigeon be corrupted by the tree? Shouldn’t she be threatening and hostile? Isn’t that what they say all the northerners have become?
The discrepancy brings to mind a man in the town square, not long after the incident first happened. I’d been thirteen at the time, coming home from school with Card, when we’d noticed guards detaining a man, perhaps in his forties, with graying hair and dirt-splattered clothing.
“Tell us what happened!” he’d yelled, struggling against the grip on his arms. “Tell us why the land is turning barren! The harvest— We can’t—”
I had grabbed Card’s hand in surprise. The queen herself was in the mix, chin raised in refusal to meet the man’s eyes and flanked by guards. At that point, she’d summoned me to her chambers only a few times, but it was enough to have me petrified of her.
“We sent you aid. Food. Supplies,” she declared, a slight tremor to her tone, and took a step away.
“We can’t rely on handouts forever—we’ve told you this! We need to stop the spread and restore the land. It’s making people sick, it’s— My wife— She—”
The man had lunged at the queen in desperation, and before the guards could subdue him, he ripped a tear in the queen’s sleeve. Immediately, the guards hoisted him away, probably to the dungeons, and the man’s shouts had turned to sobs. His pleas had turned to accusations. “Isn’t anyone coming to fix it? Won’t anyone tell us what happened? You’re murderers! Murderers!”
Around me, whispers were already spreading.What a scene. Did you see him attack the queen? There must be something wrong with him. How violent! Gods, those northerners are ungrateful. After all the help they’ve been given…
It was the last time the queen had been seen outside the castle walls.
And it was the reason behind the citadel changing sympathies toward the north.
Despite witnessing that, and despite all the rumors I’ve heard, Pigeon doesn’t seem dangerous to me.
“Do you live in the mountains, then?” I ask her.
With my ankle snug in her bandages, she puts my shoe back on and smiles.
“We live wherever we want. When the land started to wither, the citadel shared plenty of food with us at first, but they never wanted to investigate further and resolve the root of the problem. Maybe they can’t resolve it. It’s some pretty dark magic, after all. But either way, more transparency would have been nice, and having to live off limited rations instead of being able to fend for ourselves, well…hungry people make angry people. Generations of farmers had their entire livelihoods grind to a halt. It was devastating, and we were told by the royals to be satisfied with the provisions they gave us and not ask questions. Anyway, after some of the villagers started to get sick too, people abandoned their homes and moved farther south. A fewof us stayed. Mostly we camp in the forest. I don’t mind it actually, but it’d be easier if we had enough to go around.”
