Renegade (6 page)

W
e jumped up as one. I braced myself for discovering that Dare's ship was closer than before. Instead it took me a moment to see the vessel at all. It had changed course, and was heading due south.

“I don't understand,” murmured Ananias. He turned to our father. “Is there a different current out there? Something that'll help them close on us?”

Father shook his head. He ran a hand across his mouth, twisting the leathery skin. “No,” he said.

“Then why . . .” Ananias didn't complete the question. There was no point, no explanation, except the most obvious of all. “He's turning around. Dare's giving up.”

Father continued to stare at the ship. “He must've known he'd never catch us.”

“But he could've followed us to Roanoke,” I said.

“He doesn't know that's where we're heading,” Ananias pointed out.

“Where else would we be heading?” I was as confused as Father. Nothing in Dare's behavior so far had prepared me for the possibility of his giving in. “Anyway, why go back to Sumter? When we left, it was overrun with rats.”

“The other men's families are there,” said Jerren.

“But not Dare's.”

“Maybe they didn't give Dare a choice,” said Alice. “Maybe they didn't want to wait for their families to die before turning back to help them.”

“Or maybe Dare wasn't alive to offer an opinion,” suggested Ananias, looking at me.

“He's a seer,” I protested. “Who risks his life if he knows the crew is out to get him?”

“We're a long way from Roanoke,” said Father. “His visions would've been foggy, at best.”

The binoculars still hung from a cord around my neck, so I raised them to my eyes and focused on the ship. I took a deep breath to prepare myself for the familiar sight of Dare standing at the prow, arm raised. Even in defeat, I expected him to be defiant. But he wasn't there at all.

I struggled to process everything. All my life Dare had been a living, breathing reminder that nothing was certain or safe. His legend had cast a shadow over our colony. Now we were emerging from that shadow, and I didn't trust the light.

That's when it hit me: No one around me was cheering either. Gulls swooped low, picking scraps of food from the deck, but we were still. Waves crashing against the hull sounded louder than ever in the face of our silence. Were we too cautious to celebrate, even when victory seemed assured?

Or was it more than that? Deep down, I'd wanted a chance to confront him, to make him pay for everything he'd done to our colony. Maybe Alice was right—maybe he'd suffered on that ship, and was suffering still, but it wasn't by my hand or Alice's. Or any of the people whose lives he had ruined. Didn't we deserve the chance to exact revenge?

I checked out the ship's deck again. The Sumter men were busy adjusting course, all their energy concentrated on returning home as quickly as possible, as if they'd forgotten that the solution even existed.

We returned to the food. Birds had been picking at it, so Alice gathered up the plates.

“Need help?” I asked her.

She didn't answer. Just took off alone for the stairs. A few moments later, I followed her. I needed to see Rose.

There was a small tub of white ointment beside Rose's cabin door. Alice had probably found it and put it there. I opened the door quietly. Rose was sleeping. Or so I thought.

“You coming in?” she whispered.

I closed the door and knelt beside her. Outside, the sun was low in the sky, and a warm orange glow lit her face. Rose had always been so calm and thoughtful and . . .
untouchable
. But the past few weeks had changed all that. Her long blond hair was gone, chopped short and pressed into a matted bundle beneath her head. Her flawless skin bore scars that would last a lifetime. I tried to tell myself that she was lucky to be alive, but there was nothing lucky about what she'd been through.

“The other ship has turned around,” I said. “Dare's gone.”

She managed a smile. “Good.”

“I guess so.”

“You
guess
so? This is what we've been waiting for. We needed a sign. Well,
this
is our sign.”

She waited for me to agree, even stopped breathing momentarily so that she might hear me better. But I still couldn't get things straight in my mind, so I opened the lid to the tub instead.

“Please don't take this the wrong way, Thomas, but we've got to move on. It's our
destiny
to get back to Roanoke and start over. Can't you see that?”

“No, I can't.” I dipped a finger into the ointment. I wasn't sure what it was for, but figured it couldn't do any harm.

“How else do you explain everything? Changing ships today. Escaping from Fort Sumter yesterday. Even the way Nyla got the ship moving out of Charleston Harbor in the first place.”

“You didn't help her?”

“No. She raised the anchors by herself, if you can believe that. When she came back, I was almost asleep. I don't think we even spoke. She just held my hand, and . . . well, that's the last thing I remember.”

Destiny.
Maybe she was right. It would certainly have been easier to attribute everything to fate. But fate hadn't come to our aid in the gunroom on Fort Sumter—Dare had. And if there was one person who I was sure would never believe in fate, it was Dare.

Seeing the ointment on my finger, Rose lifted the hem of her tunic. The knife wounds were hideous—dried blood mixed with deep purple bruising. She gritted her teeth as I applied the ointment in small, slow movements. When I paused, she released a long, low groan.

“I just want you to know,” she said breathily, “that if anyone else was doing this to me, I'd scream at them.”

I dipped my finger in the tub again. “I figured you'd be screaming at me too.”

“Actually, so did I. Guess I really don't want you to go.”

She raised her left hand and ran a finger across the back of my wrist. Her touch was feather light, but it sent tremors across my body.

My pulse grew faster. I knew the effect it would have on her as my element grew stronger, so I tried to direct the flow of energy back on myself. For a while, it worked, and the dull ache of my echo was inflicted on me. But not only me—Rose's eyes narrowed as she fought to block out the pain.

I pulled away.

“Don't,” Rose pleaded. “It's all right.”

“No, it's not. Not yet, anyway. You need to save your strength.”

“That's all I've been doing for the past fourteen years. Maybe it's time for me to toughen up.”

“You sound more like Alice every day.”

“Is that such a bad thing?” Rose peered at me from the corner of her eye. “Clearly it is. Has something happened between you two?”

I almost laughed at that.
Something?
So many things had happened that I'd lost track, but Rose didn't need to hear them. “I just like you as you are, is all,” I told her.

“Then hold me.”

I groaned. “You'll be better soon. I'll hold you then.”

“That's all? You'll just hold me?”

“Maybe . . . kiss you too.”

Rose raised her eyebrows. “Oh really?”

She probably expected me to go red, but for once, I didn't. “Yes, Rose,” I said, tending once more to her wounds. “Really.”

• • •

Later that night, after a turn at the wheel, I selected an empty cabin and fell asleep. I was exhausted, but sleep didn't come without nightmares: of Plague, and Dare, and the pirates we'd have to face when we reached Roanoke Island.

Someone shook me awake. I batted the hand away and rolled over without opening my eyes.

“Thomas.” Alice's voice. She grabbed a flap of my tunic and yanked it hard, rolling me toward her.

I snapped my eyes open. The cabin was filling with the dull gray light of a cloudy morning. “What are you doing? What's the—” I stopped the moment I saw her. Gone was the familiar defiance, the narrowed eyes, the pursed lips. Now she appeared cautious. Scared, even. She opened her mouth, and closed it again.

“What is it, Alice? What's going on?”

“Something's happened. Something bad.”

An image of Griffin—bloodied, broken, and now Plague-ridden—filled my mind. I'd known it was possible that he would contract the disease, but the news still caught me off guard.

“How is he?” I asked.

“He?”

“Griffin.”

She shook her head. “This isn't about Griffin. Or Nyla,” she added after a pause.

“What is it, then?”

“A rat must've gotten on board the ship before it left Sumter. Maybe more than one.”

“How do you know?”

It seemed an eternity before she answered. “Because Dennis and Rose shared a cabin last night, and both of them were bitten just before sunrise. They've been exposed to the Plague,” she said, spelling it out for me. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.”

I
flung the blanket aside and pushed past Alice. She grabbed my arm, but quickly let go again. “Be careful, Thom. Your element has gotten stronger since yesterday.”

“Are you afraid of me?” I demanded, blind with anger.

“No. I'm afraid for Rose.”

I ran along the corridor, following the sound of Marin's crying. Rose and Dennis lay side by side in the same small, sweltering cabin as Griffin and Nyla. Dennis drummed his fingers against the floor impatiently, still feeling too well to understand how serious this was. Even Rose appeared more comfortable than she had the previous evening. Seeing the four of them together was heartbreaking, as if the Plague had already claimed them all.

Rose greeted me with a wan smile. “You came,” she said, like I was the first person she'd seen all day. Maybe that's how it felt to her, as if her mother weren't there at all, or only there for Dennis.

Sure enough, Marin was kneeling beside her son. She ran the backs of her fingers across his forehead comfortingly. But what Rose couldn't see was how Marin's eyes constantly drifted to her daughter too. Maybe, like me, Marin was comparing the girl before her to the Rose we'd known back on Hatteras. If so, she must have been as disturbed as I was to see Rose's swollen right leg, and the angry red bite mark.

I wanted to tell Rose that there was still hope. I wanted to hold her hand. Instead I remained disconnected, unwilling to lie and unable to touch her without causing pain. The future was as clear to me as if I were a seer: Rose growing sicker, and dying. Rose must have seen it too—her cheeks twitched from the effort of pretending that everything was all right.

“We need to find the rats. Need to destroy them,” I said. But the truth was, I just needed to get out of there before I broke down.

“I'll help,” said Alice.

Jerren and Ananias were waiting outside the cabin. They knew what was going on, and were as helpless as me to do anything about it.

“How many do you think there are?” I asked.

“More than one,” said Ananias. He lowered his voice. “Rose and Dennis were bitten at the same time. They woke up together. Neither of them saw anything, though, so it's hard to believe there's an entire pack of rats. Plus, we would've heard something before now, right?”

I strode along the corridor and pushed open the door to the cabin where I'd seen Rose the previous evening. It was so different from the cabins on the other ship—here the walls were perfectly straight, and there were no gaps between the floorboards. Unless the rats were tiny, it was hard to imagine how they might have gotten into the cabin at all.

Jerren moved a small wooden chest to one side, revealing a rectangular hole in the wall. It was about the size of a hand, easily big enough for a rat to crawl through. “Vents,” he explained. “The ship would have had a system for circulating warm and cold air.”

“So these vents are in every cabin?” I asked.

“Probably, yes.”

Alice pressed her ear to the hole and raised a finger to her lips, demanding silence. For several moments she listened for the telltale sounds of rats, but heard nothing.

As she pulled away, Jerren joined her. “Let's combine,” he said. “If there's a sound in there, I'll draw it toward us.”

They could have settled for touching arms, but held hands instead, fingers twined. It was only a moment before Alice's eyes grew wide. She'd heard rats, all right.

“They're that way,” she whispered, pointing to the front of the ship.

Ananias peered around the cabin door and along the corridor. “How far? There's only one more cabin between here and the galley in the ship's bow.”

Alice and Jerren exchanged glances. “If I had to guess, I'd say they're hiding out between the galley and the other cabin,” she said.

“So how do we trap them?”

“We don't. Jerren and I will go to the galley and block the ductwork. You and Thom head to the cabin next door and combine. One big flame in such a small space will kill them for sure.”

“What if that's not all of the rats?” I asked.

She passed by me and began walking along the corridor, eager to begin. “They move in packs, remember? I think they'll be together.”

Ananias and I slipped into the neighboring cabin and located the vent in the wall. This one had a cover, but it was easy to remove. We stared at the dark space behind, and waited for Alice's signal.

Jerren joined us almost immediately. “We've jammed a piece of wood into the duct. They won't be able to escape.”

As he spoke, the sound of skittering paws echoed faintly along the duct. Frightened by activity in the galley, the rats were heading our way. Ananias stood before the hole, palm raised, poised to unleash fire. I held my hand just above his.

A moment passed. Then another. “Is Alice giving us a signal?” he asked, turning to face Jerren. “Can she hear—”

With his back to the hole, Ananias didn't see the rats appear. They were side by side, frozen in the sliver of light that penetrated the darkness. There wasn't time to warn him either. I grabbed his hand and poured my element through him.

What happened next was a blur. A giant flame shot out from his fingers and incinerated the rats. The metal duct melted instantly. And from next door came an ear-splitting scream.

Jerren sprinted back to the galley as Ananias pushed me away. My brother staggered back against the wall, petrified, both hands raised as if he was fending off an attack. “What did you do to me?” he yelled.

I shook my head uselessly. I didn't know what he was talking about.

Footsteps pounded in the galley. “Help!” shouted Jerren.

Ananias kept a wide berth as he slid around me and out of the cabin. I had to follow, but hesitated as I recalled the expression on Ananias's face. It showed more than just anger. Ananias had been
frightened
.

Ananias's was the next voice I heard. “Oh no,” he cried. “Get her water. Now!”

I could barely make my legs move, let alone carry me to the galley. I hadn't even made it to the door before Tarn rushed by. “What's going on?”

Step by agonizingly slow step, I made it into the galley. Alice was trying to touch her face, but Ananias was holding her hands back. “Check her eyes,” he shouted.

Tarn leaned over her daughter and stared into Alice's eyes. Alice blinked several times and gave a slow nod.

“What can we do for the burns?” asked Jerren.

“Cold damp cloths,” said Tarn. “Then ointment, if there's any left.”

Alice's face was red and blotchy. There was a long cut across her cheekbone where an object must have hit her—probably the charred piece of wood beside her.

“I thought it would hold,” said Jerren, pointing to the wood. He looked at Alice. “How can she be burned? She's got the element of fire.”

“It's lucky she does. Otherwise she might not have any face at all,” said Ananias. He breathed in and out through his teeth. “What just happened, Thomas?”

Again, I had no answer. “We . . . combined?”

Alice coughed gently. “Thom did it to me too, when we were changing ships. He took out the four Sumter men. I wasn't ready to combine, but the fire came anyway.”

“What's going on?” I demanded. “Just tell me what I did!”

Maybe Ananias was swayed by seeing that Alice was going to be all right, or by the fact that I had no clue what was happening. Either way, he grew calmer. “You took over my element.”

“That's impossible.”

He wouldn't even look at me. “Clearly not.”

I scanned the room for any sign of support. Only Tarn was watching me, and as our eyes met, she looked away quickly. “Did you already know?” I asked her.

She licked her dry lips. “You should speak to your father, Thomas.” It was as close to yes as I would get.

I wanted to get out of that room, and I wanted answers, so I ran to the stairs and went up on deck. Father was at the wheel again.

My entire body was shaking, but not from fear or confusion. I was furious. “They say I can take over their elements. What are they talking about?”

He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, probably so that he wouldn't have to look at me. “This isn't the right time, Thom—”

“It's
never
the right time. You've had sixteen years, Father. So tell me, when do I get to know who I am?”

There were several sets of footsteps on the stairs. We were about to have witnesses. That suited me fine—why shouldn't everyone else discover that I'd been lied to yet again?

“Right now you're too angry,” Father said. “You need to—”

I didn't let him finish. Just grabbed his arm and gave him a taste of that anger. He whipped his head around, eyes wide. We shared the same element and I could feel him pushing back against me. But he was weak. He was swimming against a riptide, and the current favored me.

There was a flash of blinding fire. I choked on the hot air and collapsed to the deck. Ananias towered over me, tears welling in his eyes. “I can't let you hurt him, Thomas.”

Father was on the deck too. Wheezing, he clasped his hand to his chest. With the anger shocked out of me, I couldn't believe what I'd done to him.

Ananias crouched down between us. “Tell Thomas what's going on, Father.”

“You already know as much as me,” Father said.

“He took over our elements, don't you get that? He
possessed
us.” Ananias was fuming again. “Why didn't you warn him about it? Why didn't you warn
us
?”

Alice emerged at the top of the stairs, a cloth pressed against the left side of her face. She stomped over and glared at us. “Why do you think?” she snarled. “With his element, Thomas doesn't just control machines and instruments. He controls
us
.” She let the words sink in. “He can take over any element he likes. And there's nothing we can do to stop him.”