Free Walking the Tree by Kaaron Warren Page B

everywhere, and will be less inclined to plan hurt against people they have known."
      The mother blinked. Her face reddened, and Lillah felt frightened. This woman was, after all, a mother, albeit a seemingly weak one. Lillah stood up. "I'm sorry I made you angry," she said. "But if you expect him to marry, he needs to go away to school. No girl would choose a boy without experience of the Tree. That's just how it is."
      Rhizo stood up. She stepped over to Lillah and took hold of her wrist. She leaned close and Lillah tried not to recoil from the smell of her breath.
      "I'm going to tell you something, Lillah. This is a deathly, deathly secret. Can I trust you?"
      Lillah nodded, but she wasn't sure. Already she was thinking of how she would tell Melia this story.
      "Everyone thinks we smell because we don't wash," Rhizo said. Lillah laughed in embarrassment, then covered her mouth.
      "Sorry," she said.
      Rhizo smiled. It lifted her face for just a moment. "I know that's what people think, and I don't care. I want them to think that, Lillah. Because it keeps them from seeing the truth."
      The woman sat down again. "Bring us tea," she called. Her husband Pittos, the Birthman, stepped into the room. Strange how shy he seemed when he wasn't working.
      From the day they married, he had quietened. Rhizo came from an Order where people liked to be quiet, which made the whole Order quieter. People said she had married him for his loudness, but then hated him for it. He had learnt to speak in a whisper.
      "Tea and something sweet," he said. Lillah thought he was the kind of man she wanted to choose. Though she wouldn't quieten him.
      "Yes, nice," Rhizo said. "I'm going to tell Lillah."
      "Are you sure?"
      She nodded. "I can trust you, can't I, Lillah? I would tell the fathers, but they are not the ones going with him."
      "So you will send him?" Lillah said.
      "Well, I have to. If he's got any chance. I can't keep him here."
      "So what's the secret?" Lillah said. Rhizo closed her eyes. "I think I'm sick, Lillah. Very sick. I have terrible pain, now, in my lungs and my stomach. Nothing will help it. I've tried jasmine in all its forms, camomile; I've tried everything I ever heard about, anything the teachers brought with them. I don't know if it's Spikes, if it's catching. The others aren't sick. It's just I'm worried. If I die when Morace is away, what will happen to him? If they decide I am contagious. What will they do?"
      Lillah had some idea but she hated to be the one to say it. There had been three sick children passing through Ombu, in her memory.
      These children did not continue with the school. They were treated.
    They disappeared.
    "But if he stays with you he might get sick."
      "If he goes with you and I get sicker, they will be after him. They will watch him for the slightest sign. Lillah, I'm telling you because I want you to care for him. Keep him well."
      "I can care for him like I will the other children. But I can't stop him from getting sick."
      "You can hide his illness from the others. Particularly those of the Order you are in."
      "You can't fool the Tree, Rhizo. The ghosts. I can't do anything about that. Once he sickens, the ghosts will start to eat his bones."
      Rhizo squeezed her eyes. Squeezed a tight smile. "You are a great believer, Lillah. As you say, you can't affect that. You can affect the people around you, though. If news comes that I have died…keep him safe. I will try to pay the messengers not to bring true news of me. Please, Lillah. Please. I will give you everything I have. My smoothstone; I will give you that."
      "I don't need you to give me anything." The older a stone, the smoother it was, the more value it had.
      "Take it anyway," said the mother. "Take anything. You deserve the earth if you will keep him safe."
      "I need to think," Lillah said.
      "I don't want Morace to know how sick I am. I don't want him to