Her smile was cold and empty. "River People certainly are short on manners." Now the governor looked to Warden Brogg. "You told me that this girl tried to escape last night. After she encountered Sir Willoughby's daughter, what did Ani say to her?"
Brogg cleared his throat. "It wasn't meant--"
"What did Ani say?"
"She told Della Willoughby that she had the Scourge and that she was already half-dead from it."
My heart slammed against my chest. "I only said that to be mean. Della had just accused me of theft and slapped me. I was lying, but only to scare her."
"So you admit that you are a liar and have shown a willingness to threaten our citizens." She tsked with her tongue.
"I have no symptoms, Governor Felling. They promised I could go home."
"Tell me, Ani. The River People have an herb they often use to flavor their stews. It's got long, thin leaves, and it's almost unheard of in Keldan, except in the rivers near your home. What is its name?"
"Thrushweed." I knew it well, in fact. Flavoring stews was the least of our uses for thrushweed. The leaves could be boiled until soft and used to make creams to cure skin conditions, or dried and crushed for teas that could help a person sleep. All women kept a bottle of thrushweed oil in their homes in case of food poisoning, though Weevil's mother had given it to him once and he swore the cure was worse. Most infants spent their first year sleeping on bedding filled with thrushweed leaves rather than feathers. We believed it made us stronger from birth.
"Ah yes, thrushweed." She turned to Doctor Cresh. "Didn't you once tell me that the problem with testing River People is they often have too much thrushweed in their systems?"
His eyes widened behind his glasses. "Oh yes, indeed. Thrushweed masks Scourge symptoms from my test."
As fiercely as possible, I shook my head. "I've eaten no thrushweed for over a week. I've eaten nothing at all for almost a day. There's nothing in my system."
The governor smiled at me with the sort of sympathy that could only be faked by a bad actor. "Is that true, Ani? Or another lie?" She moved closer. "You see, I don't think you're telling us the whole truth. Let's start with the question of how you were exposed to the Scourge."
"I was never exposed!" I said. "River People don't socialize with pinchworms."
The governor raised her hand, and I flinched, fully expecting her to slap me. But she stopped herself and only said, "How dare you insult us? To have such a limited vocabulary lowers you and all your filthy people. Besides, it is townsfolk who have no interest in socializing with you." To the physician, she added, "Isn't there another way to determine for sure whether this girl has the Scourge?"
"There is the old way of testing," Doctor Cresh said. "But I'd rather not--"
"Yes," the governor said firmly, "give her the older test." Her eyes sharpened as they returned to me. "I'm sorry, Ani. This test is not as pleasant as simply drinking from a cup. But obviously the doctor's formula does not work on River People."
I stepped back from her. "The test worked. It showed I'm not sick."
"It should have done something to you. Raised a mild rash or a slight fever. Something to show it reacted with your body. But it did nothing. That means it didn't work. Thrushweed is a very strong herb after all."
"I won't do another test." I pointed to Warden Brogg. "He promised that if I didn't show symptoms, I could go home. He promised!"
The governor lifted her chin. "Yes, well, the River People promised they would not cause any trouble for Keldan, didn't they? And now you're here."
I had no idea what she could possibly be talking about. No matter how Keldan had pushed us, our people had stood firm on the idea that fighting back would only make things worse for everyone. But I didn't have time to ask what she'd meant. Brogg darted toward me. I backed away from him and grabbed the knife from the doctor's tray.
"I'm leaving," I said, wielding the knife in the way my father did when wild boars got into our garden. "None of you had better dare try stopping me."
Governor Felling remained calm as she took a single step toward me. "Someone has to be the first of the River People to get sick. What if I'm right, Ani, and it's you? Would you return home with even the slightest question in your mind that you might spread the disease? If you knew your return would kill them all?"
"I'm not sick," I said, though her question was already nagging at me. The slightest question in my mind? Yes, I did have questions, just as I had secrets, and they weren't slight.
The governor advanced another step. "If you leave, I will have to figure out whether you've already spread the disease. You will force me to bring your family in, and your friends, and their families, and put them through these tests. I will go through the River People one by one to figure out who is infected"--she leaned in to me now--"and who is simply a useless grub."
"No!" I slashed the knife through the air, with no intention of touching her, but simply to warn her away. In that moment, Brogg grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back, then forced me to drop the knife.
"Leave us alone," I said. "We are not sick!"
The governor's smile turned wicked. "Three hundred years ago, your people first brought the disease to Keldan, spreading it without having the decency to let it kill you off."
"Those are old stories," I said. "We were never responsible for the Scourge."