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But they don’t know Xander

He stands in front of the village stone, alone

Xander will do anything for those he loves, whatever the cost But, looking at Xander now, I think the cost has becoh He looks like Hunter, I realize Like someone who has been driven too far and seen too h to deliver Eli safely to thetime, he did what he had to do to help others, but then he broke

I can’t let that happen to Xander

CHAPTER 50

XANDER

Who will stand with Xander?" Colin asks

No one answers

Anna looks at me I can tell that she’s sorry, but I understand Of course she had to use everything she had for Hunter He’s like a son to her, and it was right for her to have spent everything on him

But there is no one else Cassia has to stay in the infirive him the cure and make sure he wakes up Ky would stand with me: but he’s still

People shuffle their feet and look in Colin’s direction They’re i I’d like it to be over, too I close h up in the trees

Someone calls out: a voice I know "I will" I open h the crowd She ca

Solad that Cassia’s here and that the cure could be viable But all I can think about are the patients in the Provinces, and Lei when she went down, and I worry that it’s too late Will we be able to bring enough people back? Will the cure work again? Hoe find enough bulbs? Who will decide which people get the cure first? There are a lot of questions and I’h

I’ve never felt this worn out before

CHAPTER 51

CASSIA

People come up to take their stones back from the vote they cast for Hunter The stones are still wet and they drip a little onto the villagers’ clothes, leaving small, dark spots Some of the people roll the rocks in their hands as they wait

"This trough," Colin says, pointing to the one nearest him, "is for the maximum penalty The other," the one closer to Xander’s feet, "is for the lesser penalty"

He doesn’t specify what the penalties are Does everyone already know? Anna guessed that the worst sentence Xander would receive would be exile, because his crireat as Hunter’s No one died

But for Xander, exile would o He can’t live out here alone, and it’s a long journey through rough terrain back to Camas Perhaps he could find Hunter

But then what?

I look up at Xander The sun has crept through the trees and shines gold on his hair I’ve never had to wonder what color his eyes are, the way I did with Ky; I’ve always known that Xander’s are blue, that he would look at you froh the color hasn’t changed, I know that Xander has

"I’m lonely with you sometimes," he told me in the infirmary earlier "I didn’t think it could ever be that way"

Are you lonely now, Xander?

I don’t even have to ask

There are birds in the trees; there are stirrings in the crowd, and wind in the grasses and co down the path, and yet all I feel is his silence--and his strength

He turns to the crowd, straightening his shoulders and clearing his throat He can do this, I think He’ll s out over the crowd like the Pilot he could be soood he is and they won’t want to destroy hiather close to smile back up at him That’s how it’s always been with Xander Girls in the Borough loved him; Officials wanted him for their departments; people who became ill wanted him to heal them

"I promise," Xander says, "that I only did what Oker asked me to do He wanted the cures destroyed because he realized he’d made a mistake"

Please, I think Please believe hi the truth

But I hear how hollow his voice sounds, and when he glances back at me, I see how his s It’s because he has nothing left right now He took care of the still for o down He believed in the Pilot, then he believed in Oker, and they asked his Find a cure, the Pilot said Destroy the cure, Oker ordered

And I’ain I wanted a cure as much as anyone else, whatever the cost We all asked and Xander gave In the canyons, I saw Ky get healed Here in the mountains, I see Xander broken

A stone clatters into the trough next to Colin’s feet

"Wait," Colin says, bending down to pick it up "He hasn’t had a chance to finish speaking yet"

"Doesn’t matter," someone says "Oker’s dead"

They loved Oker and now he’s gone They want soht not be exile Xander receives It uards who brought Xander here and who let hiaze

Suddenly, I see the other side of choice Of all of us having it

So

"No," I say I reach into my sleeve to pull out one of the cures Xander made If I show them this, and the flower that my mother sent and Oker saw, they have to understand We should have done this first, before the trial even began "Please," I begin, "listen--"

Another stone rattles into the trough, and at the sa enormous passes across the sun

It’s a ship

"The Pilot!" someone calls out