Renegade by Antony John Page B

“No way. She has Plague.”
    â€œSo have Rose and Dennis and Nyla. Are you going to throw
them
overboard?”
    The stench of dead bodies drifted up on the warm breeze. The pirates weren’t bloated yet, but they would be soon.
    Still Father hesitated. Being so close to Tessa was stirring up old memories—I could see it in his eyes. I understood it too.
    When the Guardians had decided to rewrite our colony’s history, Tessa had been the lone holdout, the only person who refused to hide from the ugly events of the past. But instead of fighting for what she believed, Tessa had left the colony, choosing self-imposed exile as if it were the noble thing to do. A few months later Griffin had been born, Dare had taken our mother away, and Father was left to raise his three sons without any help. How different things might have been if Tessa had swallowed her pride and stayed.
    Ananias and I began to drag Tessa up to the deck railing. Finally, reluctantly, Father joined us too. The rope slid easily over the metal. When Tessa was within reach, Father held her steady while Ananias and I heaved her on board. She collapsed onto the deck without a sound, skin bruised, clothes tattered, hair draped across her face like so much seaweed.
    We helped Alice up next. She crawled across the planking and knelt beside Tessa.
    â€œWhat are you doing, Alice?” cried Tarn. “She’s sick.”
    Alice glared at her mother. “Sick, but not dead. So what’s she doing on that raft?”
    Alice had always seemed suspicious of Tessa when we’d first encountered her back on Roanoke. Now she pressed her ear to the old woman’s mouth as though our survival rested on what the old woman might tell us. Finally Tessa mouthed something to her.
    â€œYes,” Alice encouraged her. “We know about the solution.”
    Tessa was clearly dehydrated, so I grabbed a water canister. Alice didn’t take it, though. Maybe she suspected that these would be Tessa’s last words, and we couldn’t afford to miss them.
    Again Tessa opened her mouth. This time, Alice’s eyes grew wide. She was perfectly still for several moments. Then she sat back on her haunches.
    I tipped a little water into Tessa’s mouth, but it dribbled out again. “We need to get her below deck. If we can’t get water and food into her, we’ll lose her.”
    â€œDon’t you think we’re already carrying enough dead weight?” grumbled Tarn.
    â€œI don’t think anyone’s
dead
yet. Although if it weren’t for Tessa,
you’d
be dead now. Or have you forgotten when you were trapped in the hold on Dare’s ship?”
    Tarn didn’t say a word. Neither did Father. Ananias watched the old woman from several steps away. He hadn’t seen Tessa since he was a small boy.
    â€œCome on,” said Father. “Let’s get her below.”
    Ananias and Father lifted Tessa from the deck as if she weighed nothing. I was going to help them when I noticed Alice. She hadn’t moved. Barely seemed aware of us at all.
    â€œWhat is it, Alice?” I asked. “What did Tessa say?”
    Alice was still following the old woman with her eyes.
    â€œWhat did she say?” I repeated, louder this time.
    Alice’s hands were shaking. “She said: ‘Solution is . . . death.’”
    Silence. Ananias and Father lowered Tessa back onto the deck.
    I waited for someone to explain what it meant, or better still, to dismiss the words as the ramblings of a feverish woman. But when Father said, “She’s delusional,” I could tell he was worried.
    â€œAlice,” I said softly, “are you all right?”
    She startled, as if I’d woken her from a trance. “We need to get moving again,” she replied, like she hadn’t even heard the question. “We’ll be at the bridge in less than one strike. We need to eat and drink. We must get ready