"Git up both of yous." Tegan's sharp voice calls me out of my stupor. Her and her people got them guns trained back on us again. Frank ain't nowhere to be seen.

Ro is sittin' up, rubbin' his eyes. "What's going on?" He struggles to his feet.

What's goin' on is that while I've been busy neglectin' my guard duties, Tegan took it upon herself to become acquainted with the contents of our packs.

"Who are you?" Tegan gits real close to Ro's face. Her gun flashes silver in the lantern light. "And don't lie to me."

That's when I see what she got in her non-gun hand—a copy of Why the spread of the Desert Should Matter to You. She holds it real gentle, like it's liable to burst into flames if she ain't careful with it. One of her sons clasps the other copies to his chest.

Ro tries grabbin' at the one she's holdin'. "That's mine." Tegan waves it out of his reach.

"That might be the first truthful thing you've said today." She narrows her eyes. "Tell me, how is it that a pair of star-crossed lovers finds themselves in possession of ten whole copies of the most controversial piece of literature ever to make its way to light in this dark land of ours?"

I swallow hard, and Ro looks a mite shocked. "You're familiar with it?"

"Course I am," she snaps. "Ain't a trader alive that don't dream of comin' across one of these. The government's been destroyin' copies fast as they cain find 'em. And they've been confiscatin' presses even faster, just to make sure no one else gits to printin' more editions. Ain't too many of these left in circulation, which means each copy's more valuable than a whole carton of guns. But here you come with more of 'em then is believed to be unaccounted fer. So let me repeat my question. How is it that you have these?"

I look back and forth 'tween Tegan and Ro. Tegan's tremblin' a little. It's the first time she's appeared even remotely rattled. And that's when I realize it—that book means something to her. Ain't just its material value. She values its content.

"Cuz he's the author," I blurt out.

"May!" Ro is the cautious one now, not wantin' to reveal the truth of ourselves. But I don't see no way 'round it.

Tegan takes a step back. Her face scrunches up like she just ate herself a particularly sour pickle. "He wrote it." She laughs, but it don't sound too genuine.

"And printed it, too." I nod.

"I don't believe you." She spits on the ground.

"Good." Ro glares at her.

"Look here, Tegan." I let out a low breath to compose myself. "I'm trustin' you with the truth and that ain't no easy thing seein' as though the person who wrote and printed these booklets is a wanted man. If he gits caught, he'll be tried fer treason. Fer all I know, yer gonna march us out of here in the mornin' bound and gagged, drag us back to civilization and turn us in. So why would I tell you something that could git us killed, unless it was true."

Tegan looks us both over, and her eyes soften. "I always thought a desert dweller wrote it." She sounds a mite disappointed.

"His name was Amos Kennedy." Ro straightens himself up. Guess he figures now I've spilled the beans, ain't no point in denyin' his involvement. "Three of us co-authored the booklet, including Amos. He died trying to get the truth out."

"The press fire," Tegan whispers. Ro's eyes spark with surprise at Tegan's knowledge of that event.

He nods sadly. "The press fire."

"Well I'll be." She drops her gun, hands Ro's booklet gingerly to her son, and then does the most unexpected thing imaginable. She grabs both of Ro's hands, brings her head down to them like she's bowin' to a god, and murmurs, "Thank you."

#

Ro is a folk hero. Course, nobody who ain't seen the paper with its picture of him and the caption readin' "Wanted fer treason, Rordan Farnes, age 21" actually knows who the author of Tegan's favorite publication is. But still, as the booklet circulated, so have the stories. Some people say the writer is the nephew of a Counselor who's willin' to defy his powerful and corrupt aunt in order to enlighten the masses. Others say it's a poor girl come up from the desert who taught herself to read so she could author this piece of truth. A few figured it out though, more or less, that it's a whole group of folks, lucky and unlucky, rich and poor, but all brave, willin' to risk their lives fer the truth.

Eventually, the booklet made its way 'round to the northern Regions and down into the areas on the outskirts of the desert where traders, includin' Tegan, got wind of it.

"I never saw no official copy till now, but I did git to read an unofficial one once." Apparently, cuz of the crackdown on printin' presses, people have been takin' it upon themselves to hand copy the booklet. "A trader from up north showed it to me. That's how come I knew fer sure what yers was."

Ro is a little beside himself by this point. He never imagined his little booklet made its way outside of the capital city, nor that it'd had sich an impact on folks. He's rightly proud, but it's emotional fer him as well, seein' as though all his friends died cuz of those twenty-six pages. I put my arm over his shoulder and he rests his head against me.

"You done a wondrous thing, young man," Tegan tells him. Ro squeezes his eyes shut real tight, like he cain't bear a compliment at this juncture. "This book is hope that things cain change. Everyone who hears about it, and the lucky ones who git to read it, they know that to be true."

There it is again—the lucky ones. Only now we ain't talkin' about the luck that comes from riches. No, this is the luck that comes from knowledge. And not just knowledge of the facts and figures laid out in Ro's booklet, but the understanding that people care about what's happenin', that with each new person this booklet touches, there's one more soul who don't want our world to be undone.

I take one of the copies and turn it to the very last page, the part Ro calls the conclusion. It's a passage I'm particularly fond of, havin' read it over several times since the day Ro first showed the booklet to me. I hand it to Ro and ask him to read the last few paragraphs out loud. After a minute's hesitation, he complies.

"Can the spread of the desert be stopped before it reaches the Regions' boarders?" His voice is clear and vibrant as he reads. Then he closes the booklet and continuing on from memory. "Can it be stopped before it overtakes our towns, our capital, our fertile valleys? Can we call it back, hold it in check and maintain a world that is both livable and alive?

"That depends on you. Our minds here in the Regions have grown as dry and inhospitable as the desert. We've ignored the human consequences of desertification so long that we've become accustomed to viewing those affected by it as inhuman. But if we do not create in ourselves a fertile mind filled with good will and tolerance for our desert dwelling brothers and sisters, if we are not willing to see beyond our own indifference, then the human consequences will be felt by us all.

"It doesn't have to be so. The common people whom you have been taught to ignore and loath have more knowledge of this crisis than you have. This is because they have lived it. Their knowledge is lost on us because we find no value in knowing the hardships of the poor. As a result, the class distinction we have fabricated to malign those who live outside the Regions has created a paradox in which we are blind to potential lifesaving solutions.

"We, the authors of this treatise, call forth the following—give up your prejudices. Leave the false security of your homes and visit the poor. Listen to their stories. Learn from them. Befriend them.

"Then, when you have united yourselves with the same ideals, rise up together, all of you, and battle against those that would keep you ignorant of your own inevitable demise.

"Live in hope. For if you can end ignorance, surviving the desert will be the smallest of obstacles to overcome by comparison. The desert may be stopped, or there may be a way to reopen the portal that brought our ancestors to this world so that we can escape it. This secret... these solutions may lie within the minds of a commoners. Don't overlook their capacity to save us all."

Ro lays the booklet down on his wool blanket. The cave is silent fer a moment.

"Live in hope." Tegan nods. "Them words changed me the first time I read them. Changed a lot of folks, I recon."

"I had no idea." Ro shakes his head. "I thought after the fire, people would think it was too dangerous to care about this."

Tegan gives him her hawk-eye look again. "It's too dangerous not to care."

A/N: Admit it: a lot of you thought Tegan and company were going to be bad news for May and Ro. In a world filled with bad, I thought our heroes deserved a bit of something positive. But luck does seem to run out fast for them. Do you think the traders will help them or have they done their part simply by letting May and Ro live?

Votes! We have a new charity: the Revolutionary Book Dissemination Fund. All proceeds will go towards the supplies and manpower needed to get Ro's booklet into the hands of as many people as possible. Remember, knowledge is power!

Today's dedication is for ConstantSound, brilliant author of the World of Magic Series. She has a standalone spinoff story called SACRIFICE and it doesn't fail to disappoint. If you like your paranormal fiction with a heavy dose of magic, astral projection, curses and beautiful writing, this book is for you!