A day or so later, the desert around the mesa was completely empty. The winds had even erased the tracks as the wagons were wheeled away. Huge groupings of footprints were gone, and even their scent had burned away in the sun.
Sarah and Aru had departed in the plane, to fly out to the Torgan Republic. Where they would land, or what they would say, was beyond me, but I wished them luck all the same. Maybe the arrival of a flying machine would be another show of strength that the Torgans could appreciate.
We were preparing to leave as well. I’d told Rust the truth, and he’d been amazed. Grateful, too, that I hadn’t distracted him just before the fight. He was still… adjusting to the news, but I took it as a sign that he would give up his personal quest, in favor of another personal quest.
“Thank Wollunka!” Jack exclaimed, when I mentioned it. “Keeping secrets is hard. I almost told him like thirty times, and that was just since yesterday! You know, back home, there’s a celebration for things like this. You should come with me! You can eat witchetty, like mama makes. I think you’ll like it.”
I’d never heard of that, but I saw Rust swallow hard, and leaned closer to him. “They’re grubs,” he whispered, and I smiled. We’d eaten all sorts of creatures back home, including grubs; they were just part of our everyday life. It seemed that Rust drew the line there, though.
He still hadn’t taken the shot, but I described the distant sights from the top of the mesa. We’d be leaving as soon as the sun went down, and then resting a few hours later to avoid the cold. The desert just didn’t keep enough heat in the air during the night, because it was so dry. Jack ran downstairs for the moment, but he would be traveling with us, at least most of the way. “You know, there’s another reason we should go there,” I put in softly.
“Hm?”
“I heard from Jack’s mother. She didn’t put all of that liquid into the jars before the attack. She has some left over there in her home village. Enough for a couple of injections, maybe. Sarah taught me how to refine it into a few doses. How would you like to finally have your sight back?”
He gave a slight smile, leaning against me. “So much is changing, isn’t it? With the Republic, and with the two of us. Maybe it’s all right for me to change too, just a little.”
It wasn’t much, but I could work with that. “Maybe.”
“I’d like to see your homeland, too. Meet your people, in the Pino Islands.”
I felt my eyes widen. “You’d like to do what now?”
“It’s not that farfetched, really,” he went on. “When you first got here, you mostly spoke the same language I did. I could adapt to yours easily enough. Your boat wasn’t built for two people, but I can help you build another. With your experience, we can cross the ocean. We can even bring a radio, so we can keep in contact with the people here, right?”
“We’ll, uh, discuss it,” I said uneasily. Hopefully we’d never discuss it again. Sure, I missed my parents, and especially my brother, but a little bit of exposure to them went a long way. I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to introduce Rust to any of them.
Still, we could bring the medicine. Maybe my parents would ease off a bit, if they could see.
“Come on,” I said, pulling Rust to his feet, and guiding him back to the way down. I checked to see if his leg was still causing him problems, but it seemed all right for now. “Let’s go.”