Page 76 of Fire in Stone

“Did you meet here in the Sanctuary?”

“No. We come from the same village. Though we hardly spoke to each other before. Our paths rarely crossed back home. But she confessed that she loved me when my husband left for war. After his death, I was sent to theSalamandraSanctuary as the new law requires of all widows. Isar was already promised to a man in marriage, but she volunteered to accompany us, myself and another woman, also a widow. ‘One last trip before the wedding,’ she said. A dragon attacked us on the way, killing the other woman. Isar took care of him. Then…” she lowered her voice to a whisper, “She took the other woman’s clothes and name, just to be with me here.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” I assured her, realizing she’d shared a secret with me.

She didn’t look particularly concerned. “Thank you. I know you wouldn’t. You’ve nothing to gain from this. No one cares what an old widow locked in the Sanctuary might say. This is a place of perfect oblivion.”

“An old widow?You?” Like everyone else I’ve met so far, Ertee looked to be in her twenties, maybe early thirties, with smooth skin and a slender, youthful body. Her eyes were the only part that betrayed her age. The sadness in them needed far longer than a couple of decades to reach the intensity it had. “How old are you, Ertee?”

A smile lingered on her lips as she lifted the hair above her ear. A web of tiny fissures in the pattern of the cracked, dried riverbed marred the delicate skin on her temple and below. It spread down from her hairline to her ear. I remembered where else I’d seen this pattern—on Weyx’s corpse, just before it had burned to ashes, and around Mother’s eyes.

“See this, my human friend? This is the sign of aging.” Ertee let her hair fall back down. “I’m four hundred and eighty-seven years old. I don’t have much time left in this world, and I’m perfectly content to spend the remainder of it where I am.” Her gaze slid back to the woman wielding the swords. Ertee’s mouth tightened in the corners with worry. “Isar is not even a hundred yet. She has a whole life ahead of her. Yet she chose to bury it here, with me. She’s so bright and full of life. She has so much to give to this world if the world would only let her. I know she dreams about traveling. She wants to see more of our kingdom and beyond.”

“Would you let her go? On her own?”

She met my eyes. “Isar wouldn’t leave me, even if I asked. And I’m too selfish to ask her. She’s the only light I have in this dark life. I’m not strong enough to live without her.” She leaned closer, holding my gaze. “Isar has the real secret, the one I wish you didn’t know.”

The image of the giant lizard ripping open the throat of the dragon rose in my memories once again.

“The murder?” I lowered my voice.

She brought a finger to her lips in a sign of silence. “And the poison,” she whispered so quietly, I barely heard her. “I’m sorry you have to carry the burden of this secret with us. But if you tell anyone, she’ll be captured and…killed.” She drew in a shuddering breath.

“I won’t tell,” I promised.

“Thank you.”

She pinned her braid around her head again. “So? What’syourstory?”

“Mine?” I smoothed my hands over the skirt of the dress I’d been given to wear. It was threadbare, like everyone else’s. “I don’t really have a story.”

Or maybe I had too much of it, too long to tell to a woman I met only a few days ago.

“Everyone has lived a story if you’ve made it into adulthood,” Ertee objected. “How old are you, little human?”

I was almost as tall as Zenada and probably even a little taller than Ertee, but she called me “little human,” just like Isar did.

“I’m twenty-five.”

She whistled, her light eyebrows rose. “So young.”

“By fae standards, maybe,” I agreed. “But twenty-five years is more than a quarter of a human lifespan. I’m most definitely an adult.”

“Why did you leave your world?”

“I…” I winced. “I didn’t plan for it.”

“You were taken?” Compassion saturated the delicate features of the quiet woman. “Kidnapped by a man?”

I was at a loss for what to say. By remaining silent, I allowed her to think the worst of Elex. He never had a chance to explain his actions. At the same time, I had no desire to invent excuses for him.

“Well…” Ertee patted my hand with hers. “You’re here now, and he’s not. The Sanctuary isn’t the worst place to be in Dakath. You can make a life here.” She slid the hood of her robe back over her head and got up to her feet. “I better go back to my chores now. They seem to grow in numbers if I neglect them for too long.”

With a smile and a wave for Isar, Ertee returned to the Sanctuary, leaving me sitting on my rock alone.

Isar’s blade sang as she slashed with her sword through the chilly mountain air.

“Impressive,” I muttered under my breath, then got up to come closer.

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