The Knowledge of the Hidden

Chapter 21

Though Wren gets her wish and keeps the identity of her father a secret from the camp, whispers still follow her and her brother wherever they go. Everyone seems fascinated by the two, everyone wanting to hear every detail about their controversial arrival. Erica, who seems to blame her son's trespass on the two, treats Wren and Kyle the way one might a particularly unpleasant rodent and scoffs condescendingly when the subject of Wren using her powers to create a garden is brought up.

"It was like she was offended that she even suggested it," Sienna says later, relaying the encounter to Josh and me. She had gone with Wren to bring the idea to Erica after several days passed without any mention of it by the leaders. "I was so sure Erica had just forgotten, but the second we got there, it was clear that she hadn't." She lowers her voice. "She said Wren thought herself to be more important than she actually was. Told us to run along. Just like that. I've never seen her like that before. Ever."

She chances a glance in Wren's direction, who's still in the serving line, waiting for her food. "I mean, I don't get it," Sienna says. "She has the life power, so why can't she use it to help the camp?" She glances down at her measly portion of fish, barely enough to count as a meal. I understand how she's feeling. I, myself, have pictured nothing but fresh fruits and vegetables for the past few days.

"Maybe..." Josh says, but he drops the sentence immediately, unable to come up with an explanation. "There's got to be a reason we aren't aware of," he says, his voice laced with frustration. "Some kind of explanation."

But we come up with nothing.

Things continue to get weirder when Wren confides to Sienna and me that night that she's been forbidden to use her powers around camp. "She told me I couldn't even tell anyone I had it," Wren whispers. "I couldn't bring myself to tell her I'd already told people. A lot of them."

Although Sienna insists Erica is more bark than bite, Wren is adamant against using her powers around anyone other than the two of us and her brother.

"It's just Josh," I say, after she pulls me aside for saying something to Josh about her conversation with Erica. "You can trust him."

"It's not him I'm worried about," Wren says, glancing over at where Josh is practicing with Maddie, Drew, Danielle, and Xavier.

"Who then?" I ask, but she's already gone.

With Erica's orders not to use her powers, Wren joins me and the other nonmagics for chores. I'm grouped with her occasionally, and it's always a relief to see a friendly face. Unlike me though, Wren instantly gets on with many of the nonmagics, even though most of them have heard rumors of her powers. She spends all of chores bouncing between them, talking and playing, and I even see her spending time with many of them before and after.

"She's cool," a middle-aged woman with dreads tells me, the first words we've exchanged in the several times we've seen each other. "Maybe she'll be the one to change things around here."

"Change what?" I ask, watching as Wren chats animatedly with an older woman with sleeves of tattoos across the stream.

"She's the first one to choose this," dreads woman says, continuing as if she didn't hear my question. "And with powers like hers..." She shakes her head.

I suddenly realize that she doesn't know, that none of them know why Wren is with the nonmagics. They think it's of her own accord. That she's making a statement, perhaps, or preferring them over the magic groups.

I imagine how I must look to them, choosing a group of magics despite my own lack of powers, accepted by them because of Josh and Sienna but never truly belonging among them. Most of the others don't have that choice, no one to invite them to sit amongst the powered at meals or to play games with them at practice or go swimming in the evening. And never once did I bridge that gap. I didn't even bother to learn their names.

"Yeah," I say, nodding softly. "She's something."

I'm the last one to finish my chores, so caught up in my own thoughts, it takes me nearly twice as long as everyone else to clean the pile of laundry assigned to me. I take the scenic route back to camp and see people scattered all over the area, basking in the breeze of one of the cooler days we've had in weeks. I come across Sienna at the edge of one of the hills surrounding the training area, standing at alert as she stares at something down below. She's so focused, the breeze gently blowing back her choppy hair, it looks like a scene out of a movie.

"Waiting for something?" I ask, making sure to sneak as close as I can before speaking. It has the desired effect as she nearly jumps a foot in the air at my voice. She recovers, then glares at me dramatically.

"Don't do that," she scolds, quickly trying to direct my attention away from whatever she was so intrigued by a moment ago.

"Don't do what?" I ask, trying to step around her to see what she was looking at. She steps in front of me, deliberately blocking my view.

"Startle me like that," Sienna replies. "Come on, let's go swimming or something, I'm sweating to death here in the sun." She nearly walks into me in an attempt to steer me away.

"Sienna," I say, holding out my hand to stop her. "What has gotten into you?" She sighs and allows me to step around her, so I can see what she was looking at. I frown, taking a moment to understand what I'm seeing. Wren and Xavier are sitting at the bottom of the hill. Xavier whispers something and Wren giggles. I turn back to Sienna.

"Really?" I ask.

"Shut up," she says.

"Xavier?" I ask. "I never noticed you taking a real interest in him before..."

"That's because I'm not interested in him," Sienna snaps. "Now come on. Let's go swimming." I shrug and follow her. It's rather cool for a swim, but something tells me it's not about where we go, as long as we go, away from here, now.

We make our way down the hill, taking the long way around the training area. I don't question it, though it seems wildly inefficient, and instead make small talk about my day. Sienna is barely paying attention though, her eyes focused somewhere off in the distance like she's not truly there.

"Earth to Sienna," I sigh after repeating the same question three times.

"What?"

"I asked you if you wanted to see the climbing tree I found. It's a little cold for swimming and..."

"Shut up," Sienna says suddenly.

I open my mouth to protest but before I can I hear what she does. Someone's screaming. A man. Down by the river. Without saying anything Sienna and I break into a run, heading toward the sound. When we arrive at the source of the commotion, at first I'm not sure what I'm seeing.

One of my shelter mates, a short, copper-skinned girl named Aliyah, stands on the bank, holding her palm out toward the water below. "You dare..." she spits, glaring down at something I can't see. "You dare..." She doesn't finish the sentence, but leans harder into her stance and as she does the screaming grows louder and more disjointed, mixing with coughs and gasps of air.

I step forward and look into the water to see a person, I can't make out who, with their head appearing and disappearing at the surface of the water fast.

"Aliyah," Sienna says, firmly. "Stop."

More people have started to arrive. Aliyah looks up, dropping her hand so the person collapses into the water below. He drags himself to the surface, coughing and wheezing. I get a good look at him for the first time. It's Donald.

No one moves to help him. I don't blame them. Personally, I want to hurtle him back into the water with my bare hands. But instead I just bite my lip, watching him clutch his chest, barely able to stand.

The crowd is already dispersing, bored by the sudden change of events.

"Come on," Sienna says to Aliyah. "He's had enough. Let's go." She steers Aliyah back toward the shelters and I follow suit, glancing over my shoulder as I go.

Donald meets my eyes and for a moment, I don't see the man who tried to grab me. I see fear, his eyes wet with more than water from the river. I keep on walking anyway.