Chapter 74: The East Room

Lia's examination of Kael took an hour.

River wasn't in the room for it—she'd learned with Kael that he responded better when the authority figure wasn't present, so she'd sent Dara in with him and waited outside. She'd spent the hour going through the supply inventory with Efrain, who kept track of those things with the organized attention of someone who'd grown up in a world where running out of something meant dying.

The inventory was not as bad as it could have been, considering they'd had four new people arrive yesterday and a delegation of four out for a week.

"The grain allocation needs adjustment," Efrain said. He was walking her through the storage counts. "The new people—Kael especially—we need to recalibrate for a period of catch-up consumption."

"Do it," she said.

"The medical supplies—" He paused. "Lia gave me a list this morning of what she needs."

River looked at the list. It was careful, prioritized. Lia had marked items with *urgent*, *necessary*, *preferred*—three tiers, which was how Lia organized everything.

The items marked *urgent* were the pharmaceutical stock for Marcus.

She looked at the quantities.

"Can we source any of this," she said.

Efrain looked at the list. "The sealed pharmaceutical stock—there's a pre-Collapse medical cache in the ruins twelve kilometers northeast. I've been there twice. On my last visit eighteen months ago, most of it was still sealed." He paused. "It would take a dedicated retrieval trip."

"When," she said.

"Three days of preparation," he said. "Two days to reach it and back if the route is clear." He paused. "It should be one of the people who knows the cache location. That's me or Marcus."

"Marcus stays," she said. "You're going to be here for the next two weeks minimum."

"Then I need to brief someone on the location."

"Brief Gabe," she said. "He's done far route retrieval before."

Efrain made a note.

She folded the list and put it in her coat.

---

Lia came out of the examination room with Kael and Dara at midday.

Kael had the cautious look of a child who'd been studied in a way he'd found uncomfortable but hadn't been harmed by. He went directly to the food distribution table, which told her the examination was not ongoing.

Lia pulled River aside.

"He's underweight but not critically," Lia said. "Blood pressure is low but that's consistent with malnutrition and he'll correct with proper food. No sign of respiratory involvement." She paused. "The contamination exposure over six months—I don't know. I genuinely don't know. With children, the effects sometimes take longer to manifest. I want to monitor him." She held River's gaze. "My assessment is cautious optimism. He's young and he wasn't living in the worst of it—Henric kept him in the upper level of the farmhouse, away from the lower ground."

River thought about that. Henric, sick for months, still keeping track of where the child slept.

"And Henric," she said.

Lia's expression shifted.

"He woke this morning," she said. "We talked." She paused. "He's been in the hollow since September. He thought he was managing the contamination—he had some knowledge of it, he knew the worst areas, he was careful." She paused. "He wasn't careful enough."

"How much damage," River said.

"Extensive," Lia said. "More than Marcus. Significantly more." She held River's gaze. "He's been carrying this since at least November."

Five months.

"What does he have," River said.

Lia breathed.

"I'm going to try the same treatment I'm using for Marcus," she said. "The cellular support materials, the inflammation management. But—" She paused. "River, what I told you about Marcus—six months of supply at a maintenance dose. For Henric, the dosage would need to be higher. The damage is more advanced." She looked at her. "Using the supply on both of them means neither of them gets the full course."

River held still.

"The retrieval from the medical cache," she said.

"I don't know what's there," Lia said. "Efrain's memory of the sealed stock—I don't know if it's the right type, the right pharmaceutical class, if it's still viable after this many years." She paused. "I'm working from a lot of uncertainty."

River looked at the common hall. At Kael eating at the far end, Dara beside him. At the curtain to the east partition where Henric was sleeping.

"Start the treatment on both of them," she said. "Use what you have. Run the retrieval to the cache before you run out." She held Lia's gaze. "The split supply—use your judgment on the dosages. You know the medicine better than I do."

"If I split the supply," Lia said, carefully, "and the cache retrieval doesn't find the right materials—"

"Then neither of them gets a full course," River said. "I understand the math."

Lia looked at her.

"You're accepting that outcome," she said.

"I'm accepting the possibility of that outcome," River said. "I'm also sending Gabe to the cache in three days. The two things are both true."

Lia nodded.

She started to turn back toward the east partition.

"Lia," River said.

She turned.

"How did Henric seem," River said. "When he woke up."

Lia considered this.

"Calm," she said. "He knew what was wrong with him. He'd known for months." She paused. "He said he'd been trying to get Kael out since January but he didn't have the capacity to travel on his own. He needed someone to come through who could take the boy." She looked at River. "He said he'd been hoping for a long time that someone would come through."

River looked at the curtain.

"Can I see him," she said.

"He's awake," Lia said. "He'd probably like the company."

---

She pulled a stool to the side of the pallet. Sat. Not perched on the edge—back settled, coat on, staying.

Henric looked better than he had in the early morning, when he'd been unconscious and the gray of him had been alarming. Awake, he had color in his face—not much, but some. His eyes were the dark brown of someone who'd been watching the world carefully for a long time.

"The girl with the medical manual," he said. "She's good."

"She's very good," River said.

"Taught herself," he said.

"From a manual, yes."

He thought about that. "Before the Collapse, that would have meant nothing," he said. "Now it means she probably knows more than most." He breathed—a careful breath, managing something in it. "How's the boy."

"Eating," River said. "Lia says he's okay."

The relief that moved through him was visible. Not a dramatic expression—just something that had been held let go.

"I was trying to get him out since January," he said.

"I know," she said. "Lia told me."

"He kept the hollow going after I got too sick to manage it," he said. "Twelve years old and he was running the water collection and the food stores and keeping me fed." He looked at the ceiling. "I didn't want him to have to do that."

She looked at the gray-thin hands on the blanket.

"Where did you find him," she said.

"He found me," Henric said. "October. He was moving through the eastern valley—he'd come from a settlement that had burned in September, the Linden settlement." He paused. "He was alone. He found the farmhouse." He paused again. "I should have moved him out before winter. I should have gotten him somewhere safe before I got worse." He held River's gaze. "I told myself I had more time than I did."

She looked at him.

"You're here now," she said.

"I'm here now," he said. He held her gaze. "The medic—Lia. She said there's treatment."

"There is," River said.

He was quiet.

"I know what the treatment does," he said. "And what it doesn't."

She held his gaze.

"Then you know what we're working with," she said.

"Yes," he said. He breathed again, the careful breath. "I'm not afraid of it. I want you to know that. I've had time to—" He stopped. "I've had the winter to work through it." He looked at her. "What I want now is for Kael to have somewhere."

"He has the Station," she said.

"For how long," Henric said.

She held his gaze.

"For as long as the Station stands," she said. "Which is as long as I can make it stand."

He looked at her. The careful study of someone who'd been reading people's reliability for years.

"What's your name," he said.

"River," she said.

He breathed.

"You built this," he said. Not a question.

"Some of it," she said. "We built most of it together."

He looked at the ceiling again.

"Okay," he said. "That's—" He stopped. "That's good." He held her gaze once more. "Will you send the boy in. When he's done eating."

"I'll send him," she said.

She stood up.

She pulled the curtain behind her and stood in the east building for a moment.

Outside, through the single window in the east building, the high valley in the afternoon light. The spring green starting—the first true green she'd seen in the month she'd been here, the kind of green that meant the worst of winter was behind them.

She thought about Henric's hands.

She went to find Kael.

---

That evening Cal brought two cups of something hot to the south wall, where she'd been standing for half an hour watching the approach road.

"Efrain made it," he said. "I don't know what's in it."

She took the cup.

She drank what was in it. It tasted like something that had once been tea and had been processed into something adjacent, bitter and warming.

"Gabe's ready to run the cache retrieval," Cal said. "He and Efrain worked the route this afternoon. He wants to leave in two days—before the weather changes."

"Three," she said. "Give Lia time to write a complete supply list so Gabe knows exactly what he's looking for."

"Three," he agreed.

They stood at the wall.

"How's Marcus," he said.

"He let Lia start the treatment today," she said. "He spent the afternoon in the common hall. He taught Kael how to sharpen a blade."

Cal looked at her.

"He's good with children," she said. "Always has been."

"You didn't know that before," he said.

"No," she said. "He doesn't show it unless there's a child in the room." She drank the rest of the cup. "Kael asked him how many people he'd traveled with and Marcus said he'd lost count of the number. Kael asked if that was sad." She paused. "Marcus said it was the wrong question. The right question was whether the traveling had been worth it."

Cal was quiet.

"Kael asked if it had been," she said.

"And," Cal said.

She looked at the approach road in the fading light.

"Marcus said that was still being decided," she said.

Cal looked at her profile.

She felt it—the way she always felt it when he was looking at her and not saying something.

"Don't," she said.

"I'm not saying anything," he said.

"You're thinking something that looks like saying something," she said.

He handed her his cup. It was still half full.

She drank it.

The approach road was empty. The valley quiet. The first stars coming out.

"Tomorrow," she said, "I need to think about Cain's response."

"Tomorrow," he agreed.

"Not tonight," she said.

"Not tonight," he said.

She leaned against the wall and felt the cold stone through her coat and the weight of a day that had been long without being resolved.

Not tonight.

Tonight, the stars and the cup and the man beside her who didn't say the things he was thinking.

That was enough.