Page 137

“It’s alright, Binder. The BloodLetter has always been better at games than me, from skipping stones to shooting bows.

I rarely beat him when I was a child, and now, as an adult, never.

He’s willing to sacrifice pieces and make plays that I am not.

He’ll probably skip the silly thing fifteen times if he gets it to skip once. ”

Shrugging, I reach out a hand and rest it gently on his shoulder.

“What we are willing to give away says more about us than the things we are willing to keep, sometimes.” Glancing back at Axton, I throw the rest of my handful of stones into the water all at once, smiling faintly at the raindrop sounds they make when hitting one after the other.

Then, raising a dubious brow at the BloodLetter, wave a hand at the lake. “Show me, then, if you’re so perfect.”

He’s been knocked off-balance somehow, something about our interaction, my lack of response against Teo’s more emotional one confusing him.

Grabbing a flat, oily colored piece from the shore, he turns to the lake without a word and sends the rock jumping across the mirror-surface.

Twelve times it hops, ripples upon ripples ruffling out from the brief moments it hits the surface.

It goes so far that the mist covers it just as it finally sinks beneath the surface.

Axton makes a small, almost child-like sound of delight before catching himself.

“ That is how you play, Binder. With unwavering purpose. If I had hesitated, doubted myself, I would have pulled back at the last moment and it would have sunk. Even in something as small as this, it’s important to know oneself. ”

“Isn’t it fortunate then, BloodLetter, that I know exactly who I am,” I reply flatly.

He hums a low sound deep in his throat, some hint of savageness and anger swirling in its music, and studies me carefully.

“You believe you do, Binder. You certainly believe you do. Kyla!” The sudden, snapped command has us all straightening; though she steps forward immediately, her hand doesn’t drop from the hilt at her waist. “Since the Binder here and my Rider have formed such a bond, perhaps she doesn’t need her bone eyes anymore.

She’d need them removed before the boundaries of the Crimson Walls in any case; this will give them a chance to practice.

My Rider seems unaccountably interested in her survival, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

” Mouth twisting into a mirthless grin, he jerks his head towards Teo.

“Perhaps you can be her eyes and ears,” he commands his Rider, a strange emphasis in his words that passes me by, but it strikes Teo like a punch, his face draining of color.

“Whatever you direct, BloodLetter,” Teo replies cautiously. “I’m at your disposal entirely.”

“Are you.” There’s no question in the statement, but Teo answers anyway.

“As much as I’m able.”

Axton ignores his response, turning to Kyla. “The bracelets? And, as a courtesy, her blade as well. For safekeeping, of course. We should have taken it before, come to think of it.” There’s a censure in his tone, which she acknowledges with a brief inclination of her head before approaching me.

“Binder, your things.” There is no apology flavoring the demand; Kylabet obviously doesn’t disagree with her brother on this, or, if she does, perhaps she’s simply wise enough to hide it.

Sighing heavily to cover my worry, I start untying my vertebracelets.

I haven’t removed them since I’ve been with the People of the Blood, so when I try to take them off, they almost peel away from me, the scars of smooth skin they leave behind nearly shimmering in the morning sun.

Kyla stares down at them, at the way the bones pull from my forearms, at the grooves that whisper my secrets to her, telling the tale of how long they’ve been a part of me.

Questions fill her mouth but she swallows them back, simply holding out a small leather bag for me to drop my bracelets in.

“The earrings,” she prompts quietly once my bracers are off.

“And the hair…I don’t know what you call them.

” It takes several minutes to divest myself of the sesamoids curving on my ears, to untangle the knuckles and carpals from my braids.

When I’m done, my hair is wild around my head, loose and unbound, the rising morning wind twisting and knotting it.

Axton is watching us with a strange, almost hungry expression from the far side of the small clearing just on the edge of the trees.

“Is that all of it?” she asks, and I nod; I’m not sure if he can taste deception in actions or if it’s only words, so it seems safest to not speak.

“Is it?” he calls, and I nod again. “A verbal answer, Binder.”

Ah, I think, and bite out,“ Yes! ”, trying to be firm. His face twists, and he spits to the side.

“Lies.”

Kyla looks back at him, then turns to me again, considering, before her expression clears. “Your blade,” she demands.

“I—” Almost panicked trepidation consumes me. I may not like the Guiding Knife, the way it absorbs my blood, the way it is curiously Silent and yet not …to be without it….

“ Your blade .” Kyla interrupts my thoughts, distracting me from the feeling of coming dread that creeps along the hairs on my skin like spider’s legs.

Every part of me is shivering with a phantom fear, vague and nebulous, but insistent and unrelenting.

Seeing my clear reluctance, she drops her voice, almost mouths her next words.

“It’s either going to me or to him, and I have given you a blood oath. ”

“Kylabet?” Axton is impatient, and his terseness becomes hers as she shakes the bag in front of me.

“Now, Binder. There is no choice for you here.”

“I wouldn’t let the blade cut you, Flank Commander,” I can’t help but caution, pulling up my tunic and wrapping my fingers around its exposed hilt. Her eyes flare wide in surprise and alarm before she narrows them, cocking her head .

“Is that a threat?” she asks quietly, and I shake my head immediately.

“No. It’s a warning.” The knife fights against being loosed from my belt, dragging along my skin, cutting a deep line which instantly wells with blood, covering the exposed edge.

“A warning you should take for yourself, apparently.”

I sigh. “As you said, Commander, there is no choice for me here.” Yanking the blade firmly from me, I try to hide the tremor in my hands when it pulses almost angrily in my fingers, the way the bones of its handle bite into my skin, sticking like hooked needles.

I have to grab the jagged blade to tear it from me; my hands are a bloody mess by the time I drop it into her waiting sack.

Axton snorts derisively, shaking his head.

“Perhaps we should have left you your rough little dagger. You’re so incompetent with it, it does you more harm than good.

Kyla? Come.” Turning, he disappears into the darkness of the trees.

Kylabet doesn’t follow him immediately, despite his clear demand, just stands and studies my shaking, dripping hands.

When she finally speaks, she is, if not fearful, at least apprehensive, and it gives me some hope that she’ll take my words to heart.

“I will keep it as safe as I am able, Binder. I cannot say the same for you. Promises made are not always promises kept, and if Axton commands me, I would have to go against any oath, blood-bound or not. I suspect that you have made choices which have changed your path, and thus mine. But perhaps the…lesson in stones…is enough for you. For both of you,” she adds, now directing her words to Teo, who is curiously silent behind me.

His emptiness ignites something in her to action; dropping all pretense of being uninvolved, she steps forward, pushing past me, and takes his hands.

“I know, my friend, I know you have lost something irreplaceable — we both have.” Voice vibrating with barely suppressed emotion, she glances at me, then back at his blank face.

“But there are fields we cannot thresh, crops we cannot grow. He will never forgive you if you have done…if what he thinks you have done…” She reaches a hand up to rest on his cheek; he does not respond.

Her voice is low, so quiet it is barely sound.

“Teo. Please. You are breathing. You are moving. Time will heal this loss, though it seems insurmountable. I had no true family but you and Ellie, and now just you. I need you here. She is gone . You need to let her be gone. Grieve, seek comfort in safe meadows, take time to ease your heart. I am on your side, as much as I’m able to be.

But there are things that cannot be condoned, even here, far from the Elders’ eyes.

One of these choices alone would be a death sentence, and you…

you seem to be chasing down nails for your coffin, rather than avoiding the open grave. ”

Teo reaches up and removes her hand from his face.

Even though he is gentle about it, I can tell it hurts her.

She folds back into herself, her face settling into a well-worn masque.

“You can’t understand, Bet. You will never understand.

There are things more important to me than duty; you have too much of your brother in you to fully know the depths to which the soul descends when all light is snuffed and there is only darkness left. ”

“I loved her as well, Teo. She was a sister to me.”