Page 5 of To Touch A Silent Fury

It made little sense to me. Harum’s sensory power—inevitably taste-based given his birthland—seemed benign enough to me; he could make one other person taste what he was tasting. I struggled to think of any applications of it which could be world-changingly helpful in the short term, although perhaps it would prove its value when three corpses lay at his feet.

“If speed is the goal, that still doesn’t require a Death Fate. Marriage could also be quick,” I said, nudging his foot with mine. “Depending on the willingness of the bride.”

“There hasn’t been a Marriage Fate in many spans. Ersimmon’s been a Thread in name alone longer than we’ve been alive.”

“I hope the streak continues.” It was an understatement. Thread Ersimmon, overseer of Marriage Fates, was a doddering fool at the best of times, and these were most certainly not those. The next Fate to be read was my own, and I hardly wanted to have spent all this time studying just to be carted off as some bride. It would almost be cruel, I argued, to force the Thread to oversee a failed Marriage Fate, at his age.

“You’re still angling for Acquisition, then?”

“I’ll take anything but Death or Marriage, at this point,” I said with a smile.

Seth smiled back, but there was sadness in it. “I’ll be lonely when you’re gone.”

“I think you’ll be the only one on this whole island to miss me.” I played with a cluster of dust on my hood. “Did you know the Brotherhood picked Harum up only a couple of weeks before me? We travelled here together.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“When they found me, the first ever female Moontouched, it was a good thing. ‘Not only a girl, but a girl from an outside kingdom’,” I imitated loftily. “I would help the Brotherhood’s growing influence. Braxthorn’s influence, more likely. Harum was completely ignored as they pushed me in front of crowds from Andiz to Verdusk. He resented me for it.”

Seth frowned. “And then you arrived here, and he tormented you from the off. It seems like a low bar for the hatred he holds for you.”

“You weren’t here for the Heape when I arrived. They’d sent you off home for some Sightlands ceremony.”

Seth went stiff, then nodded. “I recall.”

“It was like a whole other place, for that one season. Your Groulin assigned the next boy who hit his fourth span to the pursuit of discovering how I existed. A Knowledge Fate bestowed just because of me. I was all anyone would talk about.”

Seth appraised the untouched room like a relic. “Until Skirmtold burnt down the West Wing.”

I nodded. “Guess who was the first unbound to decide it was all my fault?” Seth grimaced; no need for him to fill in the obvious gap. “Within days, I was the doom of the Brotherhood. Harum spread it faster than that dragon’s fire ever could.”

“I’m sorry,” Seth said.

I waved my hand instinctively. In truth, it didn’t hurt much anymore, the Brothers’ quick rejection of me. But I was relieved I'd only have to suffer Harum for one more night. “I’m just glad some boy barely past his third span decided to take pity on me.”

Seth shook his head. “It was never pity. I could see your innocence as plain as day.”

I relaxed back against the wardrobe’s frame. “What’s the other reason, then?”

“What?”

“You said there were two reasons for Harum’s Fate. One was that his power was needed sooner than later. What’s the other?”

Seth dropped his eyes to his boots. “The only other reason I can think of is there’s someone they want dead.”

My stomach flipped. “Who?”

Seth didn’t look at me.

“You think they want me dead?” I asked, my voice toneless. “The Threads?”

Seth still wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I don’t know. But everyone is afraid of you. If you make it to your fourth span, they have to give you a Fate. And if you succeed, your abilities will grow. I think the idea of a cursed woman with power is far scarier than setting Harum loose on the island.”

Oh.

The words were not as devastating as they should have been. I never expected the love of the Threads, nor sought it out. But it carved another curl of wood next to that wide hollow place inside me. “What now, then?”

Seth finally looked at me and reached his hand out. I took it without question, feeling his sincerity. “Now, we stay here until dawn. And then you try to stay alive until the first stroke of Ergreen.”