Page 76 of Still the Sun

I move toward her. How could I have forgotten? “She wore one just like this,” I murmur. The same shape and everything, on a long chain around her neck. She never took it off.

Salki wrings her hands. “She never told me where she got it. I don’t think she knew, honestly. Family heirloom? But ... maybe that would work.”

“It has to!” I grab her shoulders. “Salki, it’s aperfect fit. I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence! Where is it?” My enthusiasm falters as Salki’s face crumples. Slow, careful, I repeat, “Salki ... where is it?”

She sighs. Pats one of my hands. “Pell, you buried her with it.”

Chapter 25

I am the worst friend.

We wait until the mist falls again. Fewer witnesses, fewer questions. Salki comes with me, because she claimed Entisa as her mother and Entisa claimed her in return, and if anyone does stumble upon us, she’ll be able to turn them away. I won’t. Salki left Casnia and her artwork with Maglon at the alehouse and followed me, wordless, out here.

It feels wrong, that first shovelful of dirt. I apologize to Salki again, but she just clicks her tongue, annoyed at the repetition of my regret. It’s easier to be annoyed than hurt. I’m hurting her. I’m hurting everyone. And yet they let me, again and again and again.

But I have to know.Something is missing, and I have to find it. This necklace is a literal key to that.

“Why didn’t you keep it?” I asked.

“Because it was hers,” Salki replies. “She never took it off, even when she bathed. It felt wrong to separate them.”

And yet here we are.

I’m a few decimeters down when the guilt suffocates me. I pause. “We don’t have to do this. There has to be another way.”

“Just do it, Pell. Quickly. You can make it up to me by explaining it all.”

Not while I dig. At the pace I’m setting, I’m too breathless to talk much. “Do you remember where I pulled out that machine?”

She hesitates. “The floor in your kitchen?”

I nod, and dig.

It’s not a pretty job. I don’t measure out my perimeter or shore up the sides. I just dig, straight down to where Entisa’s head should be, my fingers cold vises around the shovel handle. I know I’m getting close by the smell. I grit my teeth and bear it, but Salki moves away, facing the road, her back to me.

I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.

I dig carefully, not wanting to skewer the decomposing body beneath its white wrap, which the earth has turned sepia. The moment I uncover the burial shroud, I pull out Arthen’s knife and cut into it. It takes me a long moment to figure out which part of the rotted corpse I’ve found—the shoulder. Turning as far away as I can, I get a few cleaner breaths of air before digging further, revealing more of the burial cloth. I cut it away, nicking one of my fingers and then uncovering a cluster of maggots.

My stomach seizes. Swallowing bile, I rip the cloth back, finding more beneath it ... her dress ... and—

A silvery chain.

I grab it. I’m not gentle. I’m bathed in the stench of death, and if I don’t pass out, I’ll surely be sick. So I yank and twist the chain up. The pendant gets stuck under the burial cloth. I hack away at it, desperate to finish, and the tin medallion comes loose, just like Salki’s but with a green edging like rust.

Pulling a turnscrew from my belt, I shove its narrow end into a link and twist, breaking the chain and freeing the pendant. Then I rebury Entisa as quickly as possible. I’m a third done before I have to scrabble out of the grave and vomit behind the headstone. Salki, ever generous, steps over and pats my back, then crouches and starts filling the hole with her hands. Wiping my mouth, I grab the shovel and help her, glad I was at least able to hide the body before Salki had to see it.

It’s a filthy job, but we finish before the mist lifts. Anyone bothering to look will see that the soil has been disturbed. We retreat to Salki’s home and scrub filth from our hands—me from my entire body—thenset out rosemary and dill to purge the scent of decay from our noses. There are emilies blooming right outside Salki’s door, but they don’t carry a scent. Only that soft, eerie light.

“I’ll tell you everything,” I promise once I’m dressed, Entisa’s pendant biting into my closed fist. “I promise.”

“Okay,” she whispers sadly, but without judgment. And I leave her there alone, without her mother or Casnia, hoping to make it back to the tower before the mists lift, knowing I’ll have so much to make up for when they do.

The mist has cleared by the time I arrive at the tower, Entisa’s pendant pressing red lines into my fingers and palm. Heartwood watches from one of the windows, and in a flash he’s downstairs, pulling open the doors. I half collide with him when I arrive.

“I have it.” I heave for breath and blow sweat-stuck hair from my forehead. It hurts to open my hand, but I show him the flat tin piece, with its square body and curious corners.

Three fine lines form between his drawn eyebrows. “I thought you were returning it.”

---