Page 70

A woman, then. “A lady of leisure?” I pried, increasingly curious as his lips tightened. “Come on. It can’t be top secret, can it? Is she a noble? Does she have a skill set? What does she do?”

He bowed his head. “She rests in peace.”

I choked back the rest of my questions.

The grave. The one I’d trampled over.

That’s why he’d reacted with vitriol when he found me accidentally vandalizing the plot. The grave belonged to his wife. Even in the darkness, if I’d taken a second to actually read to tombstone inscription that night, I might have known.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

To say the least, that feeble set of words fell short. Balancing them on my tongue felt heavy, like they might need reinforcement. Or even more words.

But I didn’t have any. And he didn’t want any.

“We met at eighteen,” he shared. “That year, friendship branched into courtship. We married at nineteen, and another year hence, she passed. It has been two years.”

The stream trickled below, spilling through the community.

He’d abridged the story, speaking to these woods as though demanding an explanation. In the crevices between, private memories and inaccessible moments burrowed. I wondered what pain and grief felt like to him, if it had the same texture as my thoughts of Mother.

Then I stopped dwelling on myself and only considered him. What would it be like to lose someone forever? To lose them to an unseen place, where they could no longer hear you, nor you them?

There was more to the tale. There always was.

I wanted to know. Badly, I wanted to know.

Liquid fire churned inside the box lanterns. Unless Lyrik had bothered to blaze each one, these lights seemed to know when night fell, when to do their jobs, when to flare.

Another example of the rogue’s roguish genius.

The knight and I swayed. I watched his knees contract from the movements, flexing under the sleep hose. If we swung high enough, would he fly away to seek the spirit of his wife?

I twisted toward him and wondered, “Whyareyou here?”

Around the group pit, he hadn’t taken his turn answering. I’d done the speaking for him.

He flung out a response for the leaves and me to catch. “Why do you ask this of me?”

“Because we’re alone, I guess?”

Aire said a lot, and he was obsessed with the truth, but I doubted he vocalized everything he wanted to, and I wanted to know about his own demons. To know that even the most candid people had them.

“The sky is big enough to hold both of our answers, you know,” I broached. “Little known secret.”

He glanced from the woodland to the tips of his boots as they scrubbed the planks. “It is as you’ve said: I am here for others.”

For Nicu and me. Or maybe for someone else in particular.

Did this place carry memories of his wife? Had they traveled here once?

It would explain his reply and haunted expressions since arriving. And in that case, those feelings were my fault. I’d brought him to this colony.

I’d said it before, but I needed to try it again. “Thank you for coming here.”

He nodded. “You’re welcome.”

“You’re here for others, but what do you want for yourself?”