Page 118 of The Iron Flower

She’s a rune-sorceress, I marvel.One of the twelve.

Apprehension takes root as I examine the runes more carefully. They resemble a larger version of the goat fence runes. I move to touch the closest rune and am surprised to find my hand making contact with a solid, mostly invisible barrier.

I round on Valasca. “We’re not goats. Why did you just pen us in?”

A low growl starts at the base of Diana’s throat, and Valasca exchanges a grim look with Ni Vin, whose hand moves to her sword hilt.

I take a step toward them. “What are they afraid of me doing?” I demand, alarmed to be suddenly imprisoned. “What’s here that you don’t want me to find? I meanno harmto anyone here.”

“I believe you,” Valasca says adamantly, standing her ground. Her eyes dart cautiously to Diana, her grip tight on her rune-stylus. Then she looks back at me and lets out a hard sigh. “I was instructed to erect a barrier, just until you meet with the queen. For your own protection, as well as the protection ofourinterests. It’s temporary, I assure you.”

“I have been in a cage before,” Marina says, her eyes wide and frightened, her voice breaking. With shaking hands, she reaches up to press her gills flat. “Why would you do this thing to us?”

Ni Vin’s careful and ever-present neutrality breaks, her face tightening with conflict. “You are nota prisoner,” she insists to Marina staunchly. “You have mynhivhor. My word.” Ni Vin makes a complicated gesture over her chest with her hand. “And you have my pledge of protection.”

Marina nods tightly, but her face remains troubled.

“Come,” Valasca says placatingly as she walks up to the dwelling and slides back the star-patterned door. “My only desire is for your comfort this evening, as the guests of the Amazakaran. I will remove the rune-barrier in the morning.”

I look to Diana questioningly, wondering if she’s picked up anything troubling in their scents. Diana has her eyes fixed on Valasca with lethal singularity, as if she’s deliberating on the most expeditious way to take her down, and Valasca holds her stare with a surprising level of calm. Diana purses her lips and gives me a look that readsI’ll let her live for the moment, then gives me a curt nod.

Valasca smiles at Diana, holds back the door’s edge and steps to the side, welcoming us with an elegant gesture, and I follow Marina and Diana through the entryway.

* * *

It’s warm and comfortable inside our lodging. Scarlet tapestries line the walls and ceiling, and richly patterned maroon rugs cover the floor. There’s a small stove in the center of the room, pumping out warmth, a steaming brass teapot set on it. A low table with a purple tablecloth holds a gilded tea service and a plate of fruit. Cushions line the edges of the dwelling, and felted bedrolls have already been laid out for us.

The tapestries show more scenes of the Great Goddess performing various feats—defeating demons and armies of men, caring for children. And again, the motif of the small white birds swirling above the Goddess, rising up toward the ceiling to join a large bird.

Valasca stands near the door and watches us as Marina sits down on a bedroll, Ni Vin quietly arranging herself beside Marina, crossing her legs and closing her eyes. Diana follows her usual bedtime routine of stripping down to nothing, then curls up on top of one of the bedrolls near Marina.

Valasca is gazing at Ni Vin, an oddly intense set to her expression. Eventually, she pulls her gaze away and sits down at the low table, picking at some grapes. She seems deep in thought as she stares at the ceiling tapestry, her eyes following the swirl of white birds woven into the pattern.

I’m not ready to settle down to sleep. I feel too restless and confined, and also rather excited to be in such an unfamiliar and fascinating place.

“I’d like to go outside for a bit,” I tell Valasca, my tone tinged with resentment over needing to ask permission.

“Go ahead,” Valasca says wearily with a flick of her hand toward the door.

Ni Vin’s eyes fly open. She and Valasca exchange a few tension-fraught words with each other in what sounds like the Noi language.

“It’s a fortified barricade, Ni,” Valasca finally says, switching to the Common Tongue, her tone dismissive.

“Wait,” I say, catching their easy familiarity with each other. “You two know each other?”

Both Valasca and Ni Vin shoot me a quelling glare.

“Go,” Ni Vin finally says to me, her attention more focused on Valasca than on me, the two of them locked in what feels like intense, vaguely intimate communication.

I move to the door, feeling like I’m suddenly intruding on something personal, and retreat out into the night.

* * *

I linger outside, irritated by the barrier, but savoring the smell of summer in the dead of winter. I breathe in deep, reveling in the improbable leafy smells, the sound of insects chirring. I crane my head up to take in the starry sky, wondering what Yvan is doing right now.

Is he staring at the same stars?

An unsettled heat shivers through my lines at the thought of beautiful Yvan, coupled with the longing to have him here with me, right now...

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