The Scourge

In the fictional country of Keldan, a marginalized group known as the River People lives along the rivers, scorned by the wealthier townsfolk. The two groups share mutual contempt: Townsfolk call River People "grubs," while River People call townsfolk "pinchworms." Keldan is poor, its unpopular governor, Nerysa Felling, struggles to maintain power, and the neighboring country of Dulan eyes Keldan's borders. A deadly plague called the Scourge, which devastated Keldan 300 years ago, has returned. Victims are sent to the Colony on Attic Island, a remote former prison from which people are believed never to return. The River People, long blamed for originating the Scourge, have so far been untouched by the new outbreak.

Ani Mells, a young River Person, is climbing a vinefruit tree to find food when two wardens, Brogg and Gossel, arrive below. Stuck in a vine, Ani overhears them discussing Governor Felling's orders to seize five River People for Scourge testing as punishment for an unspecified uprising. A bird exposes her position, and the wardens chop the vine, causing her to fall. They misidentify her vine rash and vinefruit stains as Scourge symptoms and throw her into an isolation wagon. Ani's best friend, Weevil, arrives with a knife to demand her release, but Gossel knocks him unconscious and throws him in too. Weevil's father was among the men the governor forcibly recruited for a doomed northern exploration over a year ago, leaving Weevil to help support his family.

Using a hidden knife, Ani frees herself. The wagon delivers them to Marisbane, a town far from home, where they are locked in a cell. Weevil picks the lock with quilting needles and they escape but become separated in the dark. Ani encounters Della Willoughby, a wealthy girl stranded in a boat on the river. When Warden Brogg arrives, Della falsely accuses Ani of stealing the boat, and Ani is recaptured. Because Della touched Ani, she is also taken for Scourge testing. Both girls receive a drink that supposedly reveals symptoms within an hour. Della collapses; Ani feels nothing. Governor Felling insists on a second test, claiming thrushweed, an herb River People commonly consume, may have blocked the first. Doctor Thomas Cresh, the Scourge physician, slices Ani's forearm and presses a treated rag into the wound. Ani develops sweating, stomach pain, and blurred vision, and Cresh confirms she has the Scourge.

Semi-conscious, Ani overhears the governor order the wardens to find Weevil and kill him. At the dock, Weevil unexpectedly appears and claims to be sick, insisting on joining Ani at the Colony. His return inadvertently saves his life. Ani and Weevil rescue a drowning fellow Colonist named Marjorie, but when Della refuses to let Marjorie into her boat, Ani tips Della into the water.

On Attic Island, Warden Gossel devises a cruel game: Whoever proves to be the worse friend takes the full punishment. Ani reveals that she has been singing in town each evening to earn coins, which she used to buy wheat she left anonymously at Weevil's door. She confesses she likely contracted the Scourge from one of those coins. Weevil is devastated. Gossel declares Ani the worse friend and confines her overnight in a wooden cage suspended from a tree without her medicine. That night, Weevil climbs the tree, picks the lock, and forgives her, acknowledging she saved his family from starvation.

Marjorie directs them to hidden caves on the north shore where some Colonists claim to have recovered. In the caves, they meet Jonas Orden, a worker in Della's household sent to the Colony weeks earlier. Jonas reveals he is secretly a River Person and shows them a thin red scar on his forearm, the mark of recovery. He warns that previous escapees who returned to Keldan were turned in and sent to the infirmary, a building people enter but never leave. Ani and Weevil resolve to recruit Della as an ally, knowing her father's political influence could aid their escape.

Weevil, assigned as an herb gatherer, sneaks Ani leaves of spindlewill, a plant the wardens want collected. She chews one and collapses, recognizing the plant as fifeberry, a species that nearly killed her as a child. Weevil saves her with thrushweed, which counteracts the poison. They realize the medicine given to all Colonists contains spindlewill: In small doses it numbs pain but slowly poisons the body, creating dependency and hastening death. Della brings devastating news that their fathers formed a joint rescue plan, but the governor discovered the plot, and both men are now fugitives.

Ani survives the wardens' attempt to kill her on the treadmill, a human-powered grain mill, by rallying workers to drag it into the river, where the current powers it automatically. She publicly denounces the medicine as poison, and many Colonists dump their flasks. The wardens seize Ani and Weevil, and Governor Felling arrives on the island. In a private confrontation, Ani reveals the full truth: There is no Scourge. The entire epidemic is manufactured through spindlewill poisoning. River People's habitual thrushweed consumption blocks the poison, explaining why Ani passed the first test. The wardens never get sick because there is nothing contagious to catch. The governor does not deny it.

A violent storm strikes, and Ani escapes the governor's custody. She returns to find her friends but is captured with Jonas and dragged to the infirmary. There, Ani discovers that people brought to the infirmary are healed with thrushweed, not killed. Gossel drops her into a grated pit of venomous Dulanian vipers in rising floodwater. Using her knife and Weevil's quilting needles, Ani picks the lock from inside and escapes by setting the snake pit on fire. Weevil, Della, and Jonas fight past the wardens and reach her. Brogg lowers his pistol and lets them pass. The four swim beneath the southern fence to the forbidden half of the island.

There they discover a Dulanian ship and the full scope of the governor's betrayal: Citizens are poisoned to create fake Scourge symptoms, broken in the Colony, healed in the infirmary, and sold to Dulan as slaves, keeping Dulan from invading and filling Keldan's treasury. Jonas poses as a guard to get Ani and Weevil aboard, where they find Weevil's father alive in chains. He was captured during the northern exploration and enslaved, and his attempted uprising weeks earlier triggered the governor's order to seize five River People. Ani and Weevil commandeer the ship's cannons and force the Dulanian crew to abandon ship. The freed prisoners sail for Keldan.

They arrive at the town of Windywood, where Governor Felling is publicly calling for expanded Scourge testing and the execution of Ani's father and Sir Willoughby, Della's father, who are chained on the platform. Ani, Della, and Weevil climb onto the stage and embrace the governor, "exposing" her to the Scourge by her own rules. Cresh confesses that the Scourge was fabricated using spindlewill. The governor admits she traded citizens as slaves in exchange for peace, but the crowd rejects her justification. Della declares that River People and townsfolk are now one people.

In the aftermath, Sir Willoughby becomes governor, abolishes laws restricting River People, and grants them property rights, equal market access, and the right to vote. Felling, Cresh, and complicit wardens receive life sentences. Weevil reunites with his father, and Ani reunites with both her parents. Over time, the red scar on Ani's forearm fades but never fully disappears. She and Weevil grow closer and eventually recognize their feelings as love. Jonas and Della marry and settle on Attic Island, transforming it into a genuine place of healing.