Elected (The Elected Series Book 1) (24 page)

33

It takes me much longer to
reach town than earlier, when I was pushing hard to catch Dorine. In fact, it’s my sickness, now back again in full swing, which really slows me down. I have to stop once along the way to throw up. I thought I was getting better, but now I have no doubt what’s happening to me. Dorine thought her slight doses of poison would inflict sickness, but she’s only partially right.

It happens to all of our people at some point. I just didn’t think radiation poisoning would catch up to me so young or that I’d be unable to use more of the pills to cure myself.

Weight loss, vomiting, dizziness, and chest pains. They’re all symptoms of the affliction.

Now that I recognize what I have, I vow to use the remainder of my time wisely. I need to help Griffin escape and find a way to defend against Mid Country. And if I can find my parents and bring them back to East Country, they’ll be able to unite the people in ways I haven’t managed to do. My father’s strong fist could silence the dangerous sections of the Technology Faction better than I’ve been able to do. I can accomplish all three agendas, if I just time my plans correctly.

The horse and I are both panting as we reach the prison. I hand the reigns over to a guard at the prison door. “Make sure he gets some water.”

“Yes, Elected,” the guard says and then immediately leads the horse to a bucket nearby.

I run into the prison and find a team of volunteers already hauling heavy sections of armor glass into the lobby. There’s thudding and scraping coming from all over the building as they tear out the glass for use on the hill. I dodge past the guards and the glass to get to Griffin’s room. It’s the only one where the armor glass hasn’t yet been taken.

“Are you both all right?” I ask upon entering.

“We’re fine. But how many people were hurt at the mines?” asks Vienne immediately, her hand pressed against her mouth. She and Griffin have obviously already been told about the explosion. Vienne is pacing around the prison room, while Griffin sits quietly on the cot.

“We’re not sure yet. Maybe ten were mining near the blast.”

“A travesty!” exclaims Vienne.

“It’s a good idea to use the prison’s armor glass until you can make more,” says Griffin. He points out the door toward men carrying thick sections of glass out to the lobby. His color’s returned, and a little part of me is jealous Vienne was able to comfort him while I was out dealing with the worst aspects of my position. I want so much to have time alone with Griffin, my heart aches. But instead I say, “Griffin, do you mind if I pull Vienne away from you for a moment?” I’m breathless with my requests. I can’t talk quickly enough.

“Of course.” He looks at me confused, his head cocked to one side. We lock eyes for a moment, but that’s all the time we have.

I think of his marriage proposal back at the abandoned house. The idea is just a wisp of smoke now. I won’t be around long enough to see my nineteenth birthday, let alone my child’s. So Griffin and I will never have a chance to legitimize our feelings for one another. I can’t help sighing, letting my lungs expel everything they have.

Vienne follows me, pursing her lips. “What’s going on, Aloy? You seem strange.”

At this, I cough so hard I have to place a hand on a nearby wall to steady myself. The dizziness is overwhelming.

Vienne exclaims, “You’re not well!”

“Shhh! I’m okay. Well, not okay. But we need to go somewhere private to talk.”

We duck into one of the rooms already disassembled of its armor glass. It’s empty and relatively quiet. As soon as we’re inside, I pull Vienne over to the wooden bench to sit with me.

“Mid Country is stealing our resources. They somehow stole the last supply of nirogene. And now they’ve bombed the hill’s entrance so we can’t harvest more, at least until we re-clear a path. I’m sure Mid was behind both events. Tonight is the scheduled time you were going to meet Margareath on the border, right? Once every two weeks?”

Vienne nods her head.

“I need her to lead me into Mid Country so I can see for myself what’s going on and perhaps negotiate a deal with their Elected.”

“It’s too dangerous!” Vienne gasps. “You can’t go!”

“I have to.” My voice grows lower. “I can take Griffin away too. We need to get him out of here.”

“Yes, I agree he needs to escape, but then leave him there with Margareath and return to East Country.” She leans forward, hands clamped together in a plea. Vienne’s face is knotted with worry. I hate to have to burden her further, but I proceed with the final explanation.

“Vienne, I’m not well.” To show this to her firsthand, I stand up, teetering a bit and find a corner of the room. Involuntarily, I spit up bile onto the floor.

I turn back to her, wiping my arm across my mouth. Vienne is aghast as she stares at me.

“I have radiation poisoning. Cancer. And the one pill I swallowed before Dorine took the rest wasn’t enough to cure me.”

Vienne stares at me for a long time, both of us letting the news takes its effect. I give her a moment to take it all in.

“I don’t have much time. The best thing I can do for East Country is—” I start, but Vienne puts up a hand to shush me.

“No, stop a moment,” she says. She looks me up and down.

“What? What is it? I’ve got cancer. I don’t have long. I need to help the country in the best way I can before I’m no longer—”

Vienne cuts me off again. “Aloy, stop. There’s something you’re not telling me.” Her voice is calm. Much calmer than I’d expect given the news of my impending death.

I’m a tad annoyed at her lack of response. “Not telling you something? I’m telling you everything. Right now.”

“No, Aloy, you don’t have cancer.”

“Yes, I do.” I’m exasperated. Now I see what is going on. She’s in denial. She doesn’t want to think about this news and its implications. That I’ll die before the baby is eighteen. That East will have to hold another Election and she and our baby will no longer be part of the Elected family. I can’t help any of it now. I just need to serve my country as best I can before I fall too ill.

Vienne stands. She puts both of her hands on my shoulders. “Listen to me. You don’t have cancer. Do you know how I can tell?”

I roll my eyes now, frustrated she just won’t accept the truth. “Sure. How?”

“Because you and Griffin had sex.”

I blanch at her words. They’re true, but I don’t see how they have anything to do with the current situation.

“He told you?” I ask, incredulous.

“No, he didn’t.”

I just stare at her, uncomprehending.

“You’ve just told me, Aloy.”

I still don’t get her meaning. I told her no such thing. I’m sick. I’ve told her I’m dying of cancer. Not that I had relations with Griffin.

“Vienne... no, I...”

She stops me again.

For the third time she says, “You don’t have cancer.”

Vienne pauses again and looks me hard in the eyes so I’ll settle down and grasp her next words.

“You’re pregnant.”

34

For a few seconds I just stare at her, blinking.

“What did you say you felt? Dizziness? Vomiting? Those are symptoms of pregnancy too.”

I still look at her in disbelief. “It
can’t be. Vienne, I was only intimate with Griffin once, I swear. I... I... don’t even know how to get...” I’m finally admitting my indiscretion to her, and it tumbles out of my mouth too fast.

She stops me. “Apparently, he’s a very fertile man. You’re pregnant, Aloy.” She pulls out a thin stack of filmy litmus paper, replicas of the one she used to show me she was pregnant. “I carry these around to ensure that I haven’t miscarried.”

Vienne holds out one of the small papers in front of me and I obediently spit on its center. Instantly, the film turns neon green.

Vienne doesn’t comment further on my disloyalty to our marriage or my infidelity. But I stammer back a response to her about my symptoms. “Vienne, you’re pregnant, and you aren’t vomiting. You’re eating just fine. Better than fine, in fact. You’ve seemed ravenous lately. And I can’t eat a thing.” I think of Dorine’s poisoned meals, but it’s not only her food I haven’t wanted. I’ve turned away almost all food since a few weeks after that night with Griffin.

Vienne sits back down on the bench to my right and gives a short laugh. “Pregnancy affects women in different ways. You’re right, I don’t have dizziness or morning sickness, but many women do.”

I breathe in again. “But my chest hurts. It feels like the cancer is eating away right there.” I point to my torso.

Now Vienne really does laugh. It’s not cruel. If anything, it’s a sound of relief. She takes my hands in hers and touches one of my breasts. “Don’t worry. Your body is getting ready for milk production. Your chest is expanding. It has nothing to do with your heart whatsoever!”

Milk production? That’s why my chest hurts? I’ll be nursing like the rest of the women of my country? I think back to the milk bottles on the doorsteps and my jealousy over the female right to reproduce. I’ll have this opportunity now too? Me?

I don’t have cancer? I’ll live?

I lean into Vienne, the tension draining out of my body. I feel tears of relief welling in my eyes.

“And you’ll be more emotional,” she says, still holding one of my hands in a warm embrace. With her other hand she reaches up and brushes away a stray tear from my eye. “It’s the hormones.”

I think back to when I’ve wanted to cry over the last few weeks. So it wasn’t just me being weak-minded, after all.

I don’t say anything, just lean into Vienne more heavily, letting the worry I’ve carried with me over the last few days melt out of my body. At once the pain in my chest feels lighter. I’ll have a baby. My own to run the nation. Between my and Vienne’s baby, there will surely be a child who can take the reins.

“But I see you’re right, Aloy.” She speaks quietly, breaking my reverie. “You’ll have to leave.” I look up at her, not contemplating her meaning. “If you want this family to hold onto the Elected position you must leave now. No one must know you’re pregnant. You must maintain your image as a man. If you rip apart the Technology and Fertility Accords simultaneously, there will be hysteria. It’s too much change all at once. The people won’t accept it.”

She’s right. “In my absence, you’ll have to run the country.” I take her face in my hands and she lets me. “I promise I’ll be back after the baby is born, but you have to take charge now.”

She thinks about it for a moment. “No, I must focus on the pregnancy, as the Fertility Accord states. What about Tomlin? He can take office.”

“Vienne, it has to be you, otherwise people will see it’s too easy for someone outside the Elected family to take over. You just have to say you’re making a few decisions until I return shortly. By the time people realize I’ve been gone for many months—that my time away isn’t short—they’ll already be accustomed to your authority. If Tomlin took office, we wouldn’t be able to hold off a coup. The Technology Faction is splintering into two groups. One that is more mild in their actions and one that will take any opportunity for power. You have to hold them off long enough for me to have the baby and bring home my parents.”

“But I... I never...” Now it is Vienne’s turn to look anxious.

“You can. You’ve been trained for this role, better than anyone else. You have all the qualities of an excellent leader. Empathy, resolve, intelligence.” For once, I’m bolstering up Vienne, turning the tables on our roles. “I have to go, Vienne. I’ll find out what Mid Country intends to do. If they plan to take us over or wipe us out.”

My words hang in the air, like a dreadful omen.

“And I’ll get Griffin away from here,” I say at last.

Vienne stares hard at me for this last part. I can’t determine whether she’s mad at me or if she agrees with all the reasons for my plan. Then she softens and brings her cheek against mine.

“You love him, Aloy. I know you wish you could have married him instead of me.”

I can’t deny her claim. “You’ll find someone you wish you could marry one day too. When the country is in a more stable position—when we’re free to be our true selves—you’ll also be free to find someone to love. Someone you love as more than just a duty.”

Vienne is quiet for a moment but then says, “I never thought of the Madame Elected role as just a duty. I wanted it. When I was alone and Tomlin took me in to be your intended mate, that’s when my life got its purpose. I cherished my duty. It was never a burden to me.”

“But it was never a
choice
,” I say, realizing I’m talking about my situation. “Your love was decided for you. It may be different when you finally get the option of choosing your mate. Once you get a taste of real love, you’ll feel what a burden it’s been catering to my every desire just because of who I was.”

“Maybe...” She breathes. “But Aloy, don’t you know? I wasn’t forced to take the Madame Elected role. Tomlin told me I could walk away anytime over the many years I prepared for the position—if I didn’t want it, they’d find you another wife. But I wanted to be with you. You looked at your arranged marriage as a burden, but I never did. I thought I was the luckiest girl in all of East Country.”

I stare at her with wide eyes. All this time I suspected Vienne had more conviction for this role than me, and now I know I was right. On top of that she truly loved me.

“Vienne, I’m the one who’s been lucky to have you as my wife. Please, just do this last thing for me. Stay and be East Country’s Elected, at least until I return with my parents.”

She reaches toward me and hugs me hard, the soft locks of her hair falling around my cheek. “I will do what you ask.” A moment later Vienne releases me and asks, “How will you break Griffin out of prison and rescue him without getting yourself caught? We can’t rely on me to wake him up while I perform the ritual dressing of the body, as we’ve done in the past. I’m being watched too closely now. There will be guards around me.”

“We’ll need to move him fast so the guards don’t realize he’s still alive. And we need to get him out in time for the meeting with Margareath.” I tell her the plan I’ve been hatching in my head for the past few hours. “We have to do it now.”