I finished quickly and wandered out to a large rock. A trio of colorful lizards scattered as I sat to empty my boots of soil and pebbles. This particular oasis had to be an anomaly. Something about its location, nestled between two mountainous rock ranges, made it more verdant than the oases described in library books. It supported one main species of tree, foreign to me. Their trunks were tall and thin. In lieu of leaves, round crowds of needles vied near their tops, bunched at the end of spindly limbs that tangled together high above us. Through them, I saw the sun. We were headed north, still, toward the Obi Forest.

Hosea’s voice startled me. “I told you not to go far, Cobane.”

I studied him. His mouth was pulled in at the edges.

I rubbed my aching forehead. “I was thinking. I didn’t realize how far I’d gone.”

Concerned, he stepped forward, but I held him off. “I’m fine, Doctor.”

“You worry too much,” he retorted.

I flexed my foot and shook my boot. “If I’m worrying, blame yourself,” I said. “If what you told me last night is true, then we live in dangerous times—worry is inevitable.”

“You’re going to make yourself sick,” he said. “Nothing is worth your life.”

“Nothing?” I challenged. “Not even the Kongo?” I pressed my fingers into my temple and stood, feeling like an old woman. My doubt had not dissipated overnight as I’d hoped. Instead, it grew stronger every hour. The damning picture of Obi Solomon haunted my thoughts. I told myself that his disloyalty was all the more reason to focus on escaping. However, instead of plotting my own freedom, my mind continued to ponder the unsolvable mystery of the man. If the father of our nation was a traitor, then nothing could be trusted. Not the Teachers, or the Assembly, or the Compromise. How would the Kongo survive? I looked at Hosea. “Don’t you care about the Kongo?”

Instead of answering, Hosea sighed, placed a hand on my back, and shuffled me back toward the horses. “What you need is water. This way, Senator,” he teased.

I smiled reluctantly. With William scouting most of the time, the canopy of trees created an illusion of privacy. Under it, Hosea and I enjoyed a tentative armistice. We were not friends, exactly. But, as the miles had passed, neither were we Cobane and captor. The ease had revealed a pleasing playfulness in Hosea’s nature. I found he could make me laugh, however grudgingly.

Back at our temporary camp, I accepted a skin of water, drank thirstily and set the skin aside. A while later, I gnawed on my bottom lip as I thought. According to the Teachers, the boiling seas to the west of America were uninhabitable and impassable. But, I knew now, the Teachers couldn’t be trusted.