Page 56 of Silver in the Bone

“Because ... you can use them to poison people?” I ventured, struggling to follow.

“No, of course not.” Neve gave me another look. “Because they’re harbingers of death.”

“Obviously,” I said, my voice faint.

“Neve,” Cabell said. “Has anyone told you that you’re kind of goth?”

“She means they’re rotters. They decompose dead organic material and return its nutrients to the soil,” Emrys said, staring at the wall opposite him. “So something else can be born from that death. The fact that they’re there isn’t a good sign for the health of the tree.”

“Wonderful,” I muttered.

Neve looked up at me. “Don’t be afraid of fungi. There’s so much beauty in that decay.”

“If you say so.”

“Tamsin used to love mushrooms,” Cabell piped up.

I gripped the bars of my cell, glaring at him. “Don’t you dare.”

Cabell smiled. “She used to think the tiny greenling Fair Folk liked to use them as little houses and umbrellas.”

“I’m sure they do!” Neve said, her face bright. “The mushroom is the fruit of the fungi, see, but the most important part of it is underground, the mycelium pathways that connect entire forests. Trees even use them to communicate with each other. I bet the Mother tree is connected to those in the sacred apple grove—maybe even all of the isle’s trees.”

“It is. Every bit of wildlife is connected to that tree,” Emrys said. “Why else do you think the whole island is dying at once?”

I looked back at the roots; the cold, damp air curled around my face, as if studying me in turn.

It was a long time before I spoke again—or maybe not long at all. Time seemed to have no form or meaning in the dim light. I started to do laps of the cell, just to stay awake. Seeing a faint scratching on the wall, I wiped the grime away from it. The strange letters there shifted and twisted, becoming ones I recognized.

I blinked, rubbing at my eyes. “Did I just imagine it or did the words on this wall decide to become English?”

“The One Vision is more than sight,” Cabell said from the cell across the walkway. He had stretched out on his back, using his leather jacket as a cushion. “It’ll translate languages you see or hear to the one you speak, and translate the words you’re speaking for the listener.”

“Excuse me?” I sputtered. “Are you telling me that I’m the only one in the guild who actually had to learn to speak ancient Greek and Latin?”

“Hellfire, Bird, you actually learned those languages?” Emrys said, eyes wide.

Cabell gave me a consoling look. “What does the writing on the wall say?”

“Hang on,” I said, my irritation growing, “can we just go back to the part where no one bothered to mention the language thing?”

“I didn’t want to make you feel any worse about it than you already did,” Cabell said. “And honestly, after a certain point, I thought you would have figured it out.”

“Why wasn’t it mentioned in any of the books?” I asked. “Or Immortalities?”

“Because it was common knowledge for people who actually had the One Vision?” Cabell offered. “You know how many historical details have been lost that way. I assume that’s why none of the Immortalities referred to the Mother tree either.”

I sent him a withering look. “Any other long-held secrets you want to mention now?”

“No, but I’m still wondering what the wall says,” he answered.

I turned back, reading it aloud for them. “He is the way.” There was another line scratched into the stone to the right of it. “You shall know our pain.”

“Creepy,” Emrys said, “but intriguing.”

“Wake me up if things get more intriguing,” Cabell said with a wave of his hand.

Eventually, I sat down myself, leaning against the wall opposite Neve, who had curled up and gone to sleep. Emrys was a mirror of me across the way.

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