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"I know you can do the right thing," the Pilot says The break in his voice is gone, and now he sounds coaxing, gentle "Your father , but your grandfather worked for us You are, of course, the great-granddaughter of Pilot Reyes And you’ve helped us before, though you don’t re he says because--

My great-grandmother She was the Pilot

She was the one who sang the poerandfather, even when the Society had told her she could only choose a hundred She was the one who saved the page I burned

"I never met Pilot Reyes in person," the Pilot says "She came before my predecessor But as the Pilot, I am one of the only people who knows the names of the Pilots who caht Pilot at the right tiathered e needed to know to take action later But one thing is the same for all Pilots: We have to understand what it randmother understood that if you don’t save, you fail And she knew that the sreat as the Pilot who leads She didn’t just believe that She knew it"

"We haven’t done anything--" I begin, but the ship drops suddenly, down, down

Ky loses his balance and slaainst the wall Both Xander and I move to help him

"I’m fine," Ky says I can barely hear hiround hard My whole body snaps with the ioing to run We’ll get away"

"Ky," I say, "wait"

"We can get past him," Ky says "There are three of us and only one of hi"

Ky stares at Xander in astonish at all?"

"Yes," Xander says "The Pilot wants a cure So do I I’ll help him however I can" Xander looks at me and I see that he still believes in the Pilot He’s choosing the Pilot over everything else, in this at least

Why wouldn’t he? Ky and I left Xander behind; I never taught him to write And I never asked Xander for his story because I thought I already knew it Looking at him now, I realize that I didn’t know it all then, and I certainly don’t know it all now He has traveled through canyons of his own and coht All that ht for now

I’m the vote in the balance They both wait for me And this time, I choose Xander, or at least, I choose his side "Let’s talk to the Pilot," I tell Ky "Just a little more"

"Are you sure?" Ky asks

"Yes," I say, and the Pilot opens the door to the hold I follow Ky up the ladder, Xander co after, and I hand the Pilot the datapod with my parents’ pictures on it

"The Gallery was a place forand poetry," I tell him "The blue tablets were an accident We didn’t know they killed We used the wiring in the Carving to seal off the cave so that the Society wouldn’t take the villagers’ stores The poisoned streanature, and we are not the Society, nor do we sy is as quiet as it can be in a ship in the mountains The windof those of us who are not still, not yet

"We’re not trying to take down the Rising," I say "We believed in it All ant is a cure" And then I realize who the other person the Pilot trusts ether when he couldn’t spare the time or the risk "You should listen to Indie," I say "We can help you"

The Pilot doesn’t seeured it out

"Indie," Ky says "Does she have the mark?"

"No," the Pilot says, "but we’ll do our best to keep her flying"

"You lied to her," Ky says "You used her to bring us all in"

"There is no stone I won’t overturn," the Pilot says, "to find the cure"

"We can help you," I tell the Pilot again "I can sort data Xander has been working with the sick and has seen the mutation firsthand Ky--"

"May be the most useful of all," the Pilot says

"I’ll be a body," Ky says "Just like in the Outer Provinces" Ky walks away from me, closer to the door He moves slower than usual, but with the same fluidity that I’ve always associated with his to hiht that it ht have to stop, be still

"You don’t know that, yet," I say, ht not be sick" But Ky’s expression is resigned Does he know ? Can he feel thehim ill?

"Either way, Ky’s been exposed to the virus," Xander says "You don’t want to risk hi on the cure to the mutation"

"There’s no risk," the Pilot says "The villagers are i here for a cure," Xander says, and he smiles His voice fills with hope "There is a chance we’ll find it"

"But if you knew about the redsome of those who had it out here earlier?" I ask the Pilot "Maybe our data could be useful" If I’ers from the mountain

The moment the words leavemy own question, "because our data is compromised All the imroup to find the cure"

"Yes," the Pilot says, looking atexpression "We can only use those who have lived outside of the Society since birth Others can help us work on the cure, but we can’t use their data"

"And you est outside of the Society," I say "For second-generation, and third-generation villagers Their inforreater importance"

"We’ve come by soroup of villagers has also proved to be ih they only arrived in theIt must be I remember the small dark house, the symbol for settlement, thatmarked on the mountains of the fare or if anyone still lived there, but that here the farer safe