Free Ebony Hill by Anna Mackenzie

that decision. It’s a costly lesson.”
    “Not that.” My hands fly out, batting the air as if I might slap answers from it. “I don’t understand who would do this. Or why.”
    Truso takes a shuddering breath. “None of us do. Not yet. But one way or another, I intend to find out.”
    When he looks at me again, his cheeks are wet. “Ness, I’m sending you and Ronan back to Vidya. As soon as the Scouts confirm that it’s safe to travel, I want everyone who can’t or doesn’t wish to be part of this to leave. The first jigger-load can take Jago, the youngsters, two of the women who are pregnant. After that, the older children and any of the adults who—”
    “I can fight.”
    We both turn to see Ronan, stiff and straight on the stairs. His left eye is swollen shut. Truso shakes his head. “Not against weaponry like this: rifles, we can match, explosives, we can’t. And there could be worse. This is a problem for Decon and Scouts.”
    “I’m not going back to Vidya,” he insists.
    “It’s not your decision, Ronan. It’s about what’s bestfor everyone. Now if you’ll excuse me.”
    Truso has a lot on his mind, but the set of Ronan’s chin suggests there might have been a more constructive way of presenting his views.
    “They’ve just found out that Ben’s dead,” I say, by way of apology.
    “I heard.”
    We stare at each other in silence. “Is there any food?” he asks at last. “I’m starved.”
    The normality of it brings a smile flickering over my face. One side of Ronan’s mouth lifts in reply, cracking his lip so that a tiny trickle of blood bursts brightly past the scab. “Does that hurt?” I ask.
    “A bit.”
    “There’s porridge,” I say, glancing into the kitchen, guessing by its silence that we’ll find it empty. “Do you want yoghurt or milk with it?”
    The mundane tasks – ladling porridge, pouring tea – settle my nerves, allowing me to shut out the memory of Esha’s dead-eyed face. Despite seeing her that way, I still can’t quite believe it. I wonder how the others can – perhaps that’s why Ben and Zeek ignored Truso’s  ruling. But now Ben’s gone as well, and that’s just as hard to believe. Death has no business being so sudden and finite.
    “How else can it be?” Ronan asks.
    I didn’t realise I’d spoken my thought aloud. I shrug. “When my mama died, then my aunt Bella and later my pa, at least they were sick. I wished I could make them better, especially Pa, because I was old enough tounderstand by then, but it wasn’t like Esha. They didn’t go from alive to dead in a single sound.”
    The crack of the rifle seems to echo around the kitchen. Ronan nods. “My mother and brothers too. I knew it was coming.”
    “Ronan, if you stay, I’ll stay too.”
    He looks at me and I feel something happen, some shift between us. When Saice comes to call us to a meeting, we go to face it together.
     
    “It was like … like one minute he was there, then he wasn’t. Just …”
    Zeek slumps into silence. Everyone in the community, save for sentries, is gathered in the hall. I look for Manet but she’s wrapped in a weaving of women’s arms.
    “Going against the decision we made last night has cost us a life,” Truso says. “Zeek, I don’t lay the blame on your shoulders. I know others supported you and we none of us expected this. All of you, though: no one acts on their own. Is that understood?”
    There’s no whisper of dissent. Not so when Truso lays out his plan – which in the short term involves pretending nothing has happened. First on his feet is one of the men who was vocal last night. He’s swiftly followed by others. “We can’t just plant potatoes and corn as if nothing has changed! What about our people at Summertops? What about my sister? And little Minka? What about—”
    “It might have been a mistake to go at night, but we know the terrain. If we—”
    “I’ll go. I’d like to teach those bastards a lesson or