Page 73 of The Book That Wouldn't Burn

Evar shrugged and took it, noting that it was completely empty. He knelt at the nearest pool and held the skin under until the bubbles stopped. “There.” He handed it back.

Livira’s look of astonishment lasted only long enough for her to get the spout to her lips. After a dozen gulps, she stopped and wiped her mouth. “We’re seeing different things! It’s amazing. Do you see the tapwoods?”

“Are those trees?”

“Very tall ones.”

“I see trees. Lots of them. They’re pretty tall. I have to stretch up to reach the lowest branches.”

Livira shook her head. “You’d need to be five times as tall to reach a tapwood’s branches. Do you even see the birds? The ravens?”

Evar shook his head. He stared at the branches, trying to imagine birds there. “I’ve never seen a bird. Anywhere.” Though he hadn’t seen trees before either.

“Why weren’t you there when your sister was little?” Livira took him by surprise with a question at right angles to the conversation. “Is she much older than you?”

“Well, that’s all pretty complicated.” Evar wasn’t sure he could properly explain his family.

“Isn’t she really your sister?”

“No.” Actually it was pretty easy.

“And Starval’s not really your brother?”

“No.” It seemed like a betrayal to say so. “Wait—how did you know about Starval?”

“You told me.” Livira blinked. “Did you forget?”

Evar nodded. He couldn’t remember much of what the girl had said when they first met. He’d been more focused on the fact he was talking to a stranger for the first time in his life. “Wait... you remember our conversation? You said it was years ago!”

“I remember things. It’s what I’m best at.” Livira made a slow turn. “I think pools would look nicer than doors of light. They’d fit better with the trees.”

Evar nodded again, feeling that he was always three steps behind in conversations with Livira. And if he ever caught up, she’d veer off unexpectedly into something new.

“Clovis, Starval, and anyone else?” Livira stopped her rotation with her eyes turned in his direction once more. Eyes that held a magic he’d never encountered before he met her—their gaze made him interesting.

“My other brother—who also isn’t really my brother—Kerrol, and the Assistant and the Soldier who are both part of the library. There was Mayland too, but he’s gone.”

“He found a way out?” Livira asked.

“I think he’s dead.” Evar guessed that counted as finding a way out.

Livira sat down on the grass. “So, it’s you and two boys and a girl? How old are they?”

Evar frowned. He hadn’t even kept close track of his own age: he had no idea if his brothers were a year or two older or younger. “We’re all about twenty, I guess. If you don’t count the time we spent lost in the Mechanism, and we didn’t age then.”

“Maybe she’s the one you’re looking for,” Livira said. “She’s not your sister.”

“What?” The suggestion surprised him, even though he had once tried to will it into being true. “Gods no.” His laugh sounded forced even to himself. They’d all had the moments of attraction to each other that the Assistant had predicted. Clovis had set her sights on Kerrol for a while after Mayland, but he’d deflected her with such skill that the rejection didn’t seem to even sting, let alone leave a scar. For someone so deeply versed in all the levels of intimacy and interaction that people share, Kerrol stood alone among them for never having expressed any interest in the opposite sex or his own. Perhaps after you’d minutely dissected something it was hard to properly engage with it. That might be the price he’d paid for his insights.

“She’s the only girl you’ve ever known, and you’re not interested?” Livira allowed herself a disbelieving smile. “I’ve seen the older trainees after class. They spend longer chasing each other around than they do at their books.” She snorted—perhaps a little too hard, as if she might already have begun to feel the same tug herself and was trying to deny it. “Is she pretty?”

“This is your plan to help me find the woman from my book? To tell me she was in front of me the whole time?” Evar would look at Clovis with new eyes following his encounter with her past, but not with that sort of interest again.

“Is she pretty?”

“Yes, she’s pretty!” Evar wasn’t really sure what pretty was, but Clovis had a strong, symmetrical face, dangerously grey eyes, and a hard body that often gave him restless nights. “I was interested in her. Years ago. But it didn’t work. And she is definitely not the person who wrote this book.” He pulled it out from where he’d stuffed it into his jerkin. “And she’s full of...” He wanted to say knives. That’s what it felt like most of the time. “Anger. She’s always angry, but it’s the cold, murderous kind that’s had a long time to settle. All she really cares about is killing sabbers. There’s no room for anything else. It’s eaten her up inside.” He hadn’t meant to say so much, but then again, he hadn’t ever had anyone to speak to who didn’t already know all this.

“I hate the sabbers too.” Livira clenched her fists. Something in the twist of her mouth said that the admission didn’t please her. “They killed my people like they killed your sister’s people. And each year they come closer to the city where I live now. Like they’re following me. Malar says they’ll be laying siege soon enough.”

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