Chapter 48
“Lilian is upstairs resting,” he says. “I told her I’d talk with you. Will you have a seat, please?”
I carefully lower myself into Gran’s favorite chair.
“Jarek’s father was Harvested within weeks of his birth,” Augustus says, choosing the last subject on earth I expected.
“His mother sank into the blues after, though none of us noticed until it was too late. She fed Jarek just enough to keep him alive.” His facial lines seem to deepen.
“There’s a good chance she never touched him except to change his diapers and carry him to chapel.
She raised him alone until he was five and started school.
That’s when she started making her own pruno, drinking every day. ”
I gasp. A community failure of that magnitude is difficult to imagine. I think of all the people who would’ve had to look away, starting with her own family and the other Guardian Houses.
Augustus seems to read my mind. “We’ll never forgive ourselves.
The method she used to make the pruno wasn’t safe.
She accidentally poisoned herself. Jarek was cared for by his uncle and aunt after that, but he never found his place.
When he was fourteen and caught spying through someone’s bedroom window, we offered to support him through a traditional Circling, reminding him why we loved him, but the boy refused.
He’d broken no law, so the choice was his.
I wish we’d insisted. That’s about when he began focusing on your mother. He loved her an unhealthy amount.”
I shift my weight, wincing as the stitches pull.
“It was the vines that attacked you?” he asks.
I gasp, my hand flying to my side. Of all the secrets inside the Wall, this is the betrayal that hurts the worst. “You knew we’re being hunted by a plant?”
He drags in a deep breath. “Not for long. I saw it come alive in the quarantined area the day before your wedding. Scooped a bird from the air and sucked it dry.” He shudders at the memory.
“I told Henrietta, but she asked me to sit on the information until she spoke with Jarek.” He spreads his hands. “The next day, she was dead.”
A cold, searing shock floods my veins. “You think this is your secret to keep? Then what makes you better than Jarek? Two more citizens died today, Augustus.” I spit his name like a curse.
His face sags. “I know you’re upset, girl, and it’s fair, but don’t let your temper get the better of you.
After your mother’s death, I shared what I knew with some others.
We kept it quiet to protect everyone—including you—until we had a plan.
And for all their faults, Jarek and his Guardians are trying to deal with the green beast. Sure you’re right, maybe we should’ve brought it to the whole village.
” He sighs, turning his palms upward. “That’s the trouble with this Valley.
We spend our lives avoiding the ugly truths and calling it kindness. It’s a tragedy.”
“A tragedy,” I say, trembling with barely contained rage, “is continuing as we have, supporting a system that favors the few and removes choice from all. We have to tear this rot out by the root, and we need to start by Harvesting Jarek.” I blink, shocked by my own words.
He straightens abruptly. “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
I stand too quickly, my stitches tugging, and wince. How dare he try to parent me. “I don’t want to make a right! I want to save Jonas.” I realize I’m shaking. “I want to protect my gran and aunt and uncle.” I want revenge for my mother and brother.
“I, I, I,” he growls. “Do you hear yourself?” I feel heat rise to my cheeks as he continues.
“I don’t mean to shame you, Rose. Your passion is in the right place, and you’re right—I wish I’d spoken up earlier.
Before Peter”—his voice hitches on the boy’s name, but he continues—“but you’re forgetting something important: Noah’s Valley is a community. We only work when we work together.”
“Jarek wants to harm us! There’s no time to waste changing people’s minds.”
“Says who?”
I twist my lips in frustration. He hasn’t seen the plant devour people, hasn’t heard Jarek deny it while the corpses of his comrades lie at his feet.
Augustus tsks. “You think I’m a foolish old man, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s this: If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.” He steps forward, walking toward me more softly than his bulky frame should allow.
“Consult with your friends, then gather evidence of the killer vines that cannot be denied. And remember: never fight only for yourself, not when others are waging the same battle.”
He’s so close that I can see the few white hairs in his black eyebrows. I don’t know how I’d have responded if not for the Crier outside the door.
“Feast in an hour! The Guardians have meat to share! Gather your families for a feast in an hour!”
My throat tightens as I think of the pink flesh served last night. Is it more of that? And if so, where is it coming from? I’m surprised by the sudden desire I feel to find Gryphon and curl into his arms. He’s the only other person who’d understand.
“I need to go. Tell Gran I’ll bring her food.”
Augustus stares at me as I slip out the door, his expression worried.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Sounds like something my dad would’ve said. But he’s no longer here, is he? I shake my head and hurry toward the Tzu cottage, intending to clean myself up. As I go, I catalog what I now believe to be true:
At some point, Jarek discovered the plant was hunting us.
He evacuated the area where it killed those first Guardians, telling us we were under attack by wild animals.
He must have discovered the roots in the industrial area near Eden’s Gate and tried to fight back with an herbicide left by our ancestors in the Record Keepers’ secret room.
In poisoning the plant, though, he accidentally poisoned villagers.
Rather than confess, he let us believe it was a mystery illness and allowed the quarantine of that area.
When my mother found out the truth, Jarek had her murdered with a weapon only his loyal Guardians would recognize.
He got that from the Record Keeper, too, having manipulated the pathetic David Seingalt to his whims. Though that still doesn’t explain why the Harvest basket was down on my wedding day.
Did Jarek always intend to frame my brother, and if so, why?
I squint up at the sky. Judging by the pale light, I was unconscious for one, maybe two hours.
The village is bustling with news of the feast. As I near the square, I catch the scent of roasting animal flesh.
It’s different from the too-sweet, fatty smell of the meat cooked in the Tzu kitchen last night, and I thank the Wall for that.
I think of Gryphon, tenderly carrying Gran home after dinner, and it makes me wonder what it would feel like to have someone by my side during these terrible times—a partner I could really trust.
I turn down a lane, and there he is, as if my thoughts have led me to him.
My heart soars. Gryphon stands in front of the Record Keeper cottage, his back to me, his hands pressed against the wall like he’s holding it up.
I realize that despite my best efforts, I’m falling for those hands.
Imagining them threaded through my hair, pulling me close.
I shake my head. Stop it, Rose. There isn’t time for that now.
The world’s on fire, and anyhow, you’re leaving Noah’s Valley soon.
“Gryphon?”
He steps away from the wall and turns, revealing…Marina Seingalt.
She opens her eyes slowly, her expression blissful. When she spots me, a devilish grin curls her mouth. “Guess we got you twice.”
It’s the betrothal ceremony day all over again.
He begged me to kiss him, you know, Marina had said.
It explains why she was so desperate to know how my first night with Gryphon had gone.
And Eero’s joke from the other day, too.
It had rung true. I stumble backward, choking on humiliation.
My heart is scorched. I fall against the Minstrel cottage.
“Rose?” Angus, the Minstrel husband, comes to the doorway. He’s holding a lyre. “Are you all right?”
Gryphon steps toward me, his expression tight—guilt? It better be—but I’m already racing to the village center.
The size of the cooking fire in front of the stage disorients me, as does the crowd gathered around it.
I press my hand to the stitches at my side.
Why is everyone so early? The people, the sounds, the smoke, all of it makes me lightheaded.
That’s why it takes me a moment to notice who is standing on the stage.
Meryl, Sal, Oscar, and Eero.
They look terrified.