Page 103 of Planet Zero
“I wanted to talk to you, Addie.”
Upon closer inspection, Melmie looked grave and a bit flustered.
“What is it?”
“I was following you,” she admitted. “And then I had to wait until… the person you were with left, and I had to run to catch you.”
Addie stopped. “You were following me? Why?”
“I meant to talk to you before, but I wasn’t sure…” Melmie fidgeted.
“You can talk to me now. You have to, now that you’ve said this much.”
Melmie looked around, not furtively, but like a huntress checking for danger, eyes narrowed but calm. She looked very mature at this moment, and capable. “I know that you meet with the queen. You give her something. Herbs? The stuff Chele hides under her pallet?”
Addie’s heart was beating fast. So, it had finally happened. She’d been caught.
She’d been caught by Melmie, and she wanted to scream from the unfairness of it. She hated that Melmie knew, of all the people. What would she think of her? It was sad. It was also dangerous. “Melmie, you don’t want to know.”
“I already do.”
Addie took the girl’s hands in hers and held tight. “Please. Whatever comes, I want you to hear it from me. I’m not doing anything to harm anyone. I would never dream of causing grief or pain to the people of the tribe. They’ve become my people.” Well, strictly speaking, the High Counselor was a glaring exception, but she was willing to include him if it earned her Melmie’s forgiveness.
Melmie blinked, surprised. “I never doubted you, Addie. I just wanted to tell you to be careful.”
Some of the tightness in Addie’s chest released. “I am careful.”
“You’re being watched.”
“By who?”
“By my pawi.”
“What?”
“Yes. I was watching her watching you. She knows about your meetings.”
Addie licked her dry lips. “Why does she care?”
“I don’t know. I think she was looking to find Chele, to learn what secrets Chele was keeping, but she found you. With Queen Qalae.”
“Has she told anyone?”
Melmie shrugged. “I don’t think she knows enough to tell. That’s why she’s watching you, to learn what’s going on.”
Addie’s brain was furiously processing this new development. Not only Melmie now knew about her meeting with Qalae, but so did Illied. And Illied had a bone to pick with Chele for her refusal to share their home.
“Do you know how long ago your pawi started following me?” she asked Melmie.
“I’m not sure. When I first noticed her disappearing somewhere, I thought she went to meet up with Klarm. It was unusual for her to go somewhere by herself, that’s how I noticed.”
So Illied’s suspicions had started before Chele’s accident. Maybe even before they came to the Valley of the Stone Shadows.
The whole thing was shaping up to be a big mess.
“I am grateful for your warning, Melmie,” Addie said from the heart. “I feel lucky to have you on my side.” She used her native word for “lucky” because she didn’t know how to express it in For.
“What’s lucky?”
