Gathering Blue: Chapter 17 Summary & Analysis

It is midday, the day after Thomas and Kira unlocked Jo’s door. Kira has just finished eating lunch with Thomas in his room; she suggests that the two of them take a walk outside. As she suggests this, she notices that Thomas has been working on the Singer’s staff. Much like the robe, the staff has intricate carvings, but also an empty area at the top. Kira asks Thomas what he’ll carve on the empty area, and he replies that the guardians will tell him.

Kira asks Thomas to go to the Fen with her. Thomas is at first skeptical, since he finds the Fen dirty and disgusting. Kira says that she wants to see where Jo lived. She adds, nervously, that she hasn’t seen Matt in two days. Thomas agrees to go the Fen, suggesting that they’ll probably find Matt on their walk over.

Kira and Thomas walk through the village toward the Fen. As they walk, they ask women and workers if they’ve seen Matt, but everyone says that they’re glad not to have seen him. A woman asks Kira when she’ll return to the weaving shed, but another woman points out Kira’s clean clothes, and says that Kira doesn’t need the shed anymore. As she walks away, Kira hears a growl. She turns and sees Vandara imitating a beast and laughing at her.

Thomas asks a group of boys if they’ve seen Matt. The group tells him that Matt’s mother threw a rock at him to punish him for stealing food, and he left to go on “a journey.” They add that Matt can’t be sick, since he’s very strong and healthy. Kira is worried by this news, but Thomas assures her that Matt can take care of himself. They walk away from the village, into the Fen.

As they reach the Fen, Kira and Thomas notice various details of the place. There is a disgusting-smelling river, a mass of cotts, and a constant sound of tykes crying. In many ways, Kira thinks, the Fen is like the village, except that it’s darker and dirtier. Kira wonders aloud why people have to live in such a place, and Thomas tells her, “It’s how it is.” Kira remembers from the robe that this is not true: there were times when people lived in better conditions. She tells Thomas that perhaps they are meant to fill in the blank spaces on the robe and staff themselves. Thomas says that he does not understand what Kira is trying to say; Kira thinks to herself that perhaps he never will.

As they walk through the Fen, Thomas and Kira hear a voice asking them what they want. Kira locates the voice from within a cottage; she’s relieved to see that it belongs to a woman holding a tyke, and thinks about the unpleasant men she encountered on the day of the hunt. Kira asks the woman if she knows where Matt is, and the woman asks for food in return. Thomas gives her an apple he was saving for lunch, and the woman points them toward a cott with a fallen tree outside it. Kira also asks about Jo; in response, the woman’s face lights up with joy for a split second, and then looks sad again. She tells Kira that “they” took Jo away. She then retreats into her cott and gives the apple to her young children, who begin to fight over it.

Kira and Thomas reach the cott with the fallen tree outside. They knock on the door of the cott, and a woman opens it. Thomas asks where Matt is, and the woman suspiciously asks why they want to know. Kira notices that the woman has other children, and lives in a state of squalor: there are insects crawling everywhere, and the woman spits on the floor as she talks. The woman tells her and Thomas that she doesn’t know where Matt is, but that she’s glad he’s gone. She shuts the door.

As Thomas and Kira turn to walk away from Matt’s cott, a tyke, Matt’s brother, runs out of the cott and tells them he knows where Matt has gone. He demands payment in return for the information. First, he asks for Kira’s pendant. When she refuses, he asks for the leather cord she uses to tie her hair. Kira gives this to him, and he explains that Matt’s mother beat him. Afterwards, Matt and Branch left the Fen to live with his friends. Kira realizes that she and Thomas must be these “friends.” When she presses the tyke for more information, he tells her that Matt went to find his friends a gift. The tyke defines “gift” a something that makes its recipient like the giver “best of all.” Kira brushes this aside, and asks the tyke what Matt’s gift was to be. The tyke says that Matt was searching for blue. With this, the tyke’s mother calls him inside, and he runs away.

Kira and Thomas walks back to the Edifice and talk about what they’ve learned. Kira tells Thomas that she was afraid the Council has kidnapped Matt the way it kidnapped Jo. Thomas replies that Matt has no skills that make him worth kidnapping. Kira says that Matt does have skills: he can make others laugh and smile. She wonders to herself where Matt could be.