Page 117 of The BoneKeeper's Daughter

“She was not permitted. As such.”

Rannoch is standing in the deeper water, his shirt clinging to him like a second skin, hair dripping in dark strands over his forehead. He pushes them back casually, as though swimming beneath a waterfall in the depths of a green forest is something we did every day back home. He answers Kaden’s question in a flat tone, one I am coming to recognize as disguising some larger emotion. I wonder what he is hiding, to answer in such an uncaring manner.

“But I’d like to. I’ve…I’ve always wanted to.”

Kaden nods, as though my response is all he was waiting on, and leaps back into the pool with a joyful whoop of noise. He is under for long enough that I find myself unintentionally holding my breath, mimicking him, and finally let it out in a pained gasp when he finally surfaces.

“It’s safe,” he assures me with a smile, swimming towards me on the shore. “Come on. I’ll take you in.”

I watch him exit the pool for a heartbeat too long; he notices the way my eyes follow his movements, curling up the corners of his full lips in a slow, purposeful smile. Lingering in a languid, unhurried way, Kaden ambles from the water up the narrow beach to me, giving me space to drink him in. I can’t look away, tracing him until he is directly before me, towering over me, smiling down at me through soft eyes. They are full of a hesitant tenderness, and it shakes me.

Reaching out a calloused hand, he takes one of mine in his own. “Will you come swim with me, Flame?”

The words are low, not whispered, but not meant for other ears either. Tahrik has wandered to the edge of the water, poking at the surface doubtfully with his toes, and Rannoch is still as stone in the depths of the pool, watching Kaden approach me with a thoughtful expression.

I look down at my hand in Kaden’s — my thin, pale fingers sodifferent from his own, my hand seeming tiny in his grasp. He doesn’t move, just stands patiently, waiting for my answer. Suddenly I realize how often he does this — gives me the room to figure out my own mind, with no pressure or impatience. I think back to our nights around the fire when he cooks — he watches me eat from the corner of his eye, seeing what I pick at, what I eat quickly, which I save for last as a special treat. I always thought it was just casual interest, like studying an unknown animal in the wild. It did not occur to me to think it might be…something different. He’s never moved to return to our time from the village; I thought it was because he had changed his mind, but maybe it is that he is giving me the space to make up mine instead.

“I…I don’t know,” I begin slowly, looking at the water, then back at Kaden. But Idoknow. If I don’t go, then I am the only one keeping me in my prison. “Yes.” This time the answer is firm, excited even. “Let me just?—”

In one swift movement, I shrug my tunic from my body, and then pull off my pants, putting them on the stones behind me. There’s a sharp intake of breath, and the clearing falls silent. When I turn back around, the weight of three sets of eyes feels as heavy as a yoke, all three men staring at me, unblinking. Flushing red with embarrassment, I shrug uncomfortably. “Is this…is this not…” Swallowing hard, I try again, more forcefully. “Isn’t this how the women dress when they swim at home?” I motion to the small shirt and undershorts that still cover my body, Lorcan’s bones trailing down my back. “We wash the clothes while we are in the water?” I must sound very unsure, and Kaden shakes himself, offering a forced, tight smile.

“You’re perfect, Flame. This is exactly right. In my home, the women wear even less. We are more casual with nudity there.”

I frown, looking down at my thin outfit, and pluck at the edges. “I don’t think I would be comfortable completely naked…” I say thoughtfully.

From the pool, Rannoch makes a choking sound and drops beneath the surface. All talk of clothing and nudity forgotten, I panic,pushing past Kaden, and rush into the water, slowing only slightly as the cold liquid curls around me.

“He’s drowning!” I cry out. Without thinking, I fling myself forward, hands flailing, trying to find some piece of him to grab and pull back to the surface. Kaden and Tahrik chase me, but I’m too far in, and, without warning, step off the edge of some underwater cliff, sinking like a stone to the bottom.

AFTER THE POOL

WREN

“Youare an idiot.” Kaden’s words are teasing and bubbling with laughter from the far side of the clearing. They are low, and I know I’m not meant to hear them as I sit, still shivering, by the warmth of the fire.

“Well what was I supposed to do? You were sitting, talking her into stripping bare skin in front of the three of us like it would have been nothing…” Rannoch’s response is even more quiet, and it makes me smile into the folds of the blanket around me — a secret, tired, but very happy smile.

As soon as I’d hit the bottom of the pool, maybe even a half breath before, one of Rannoch’s strong arms had wrapped around my waist, and he’d pulled me to the surface, where I’d taken a strange, gulping breath. Then, without warning, I burst into laughter, bright, chaotic, and all-encompassing. I couldn’t even paddle — had just clutched Rannoch’s shoulders with slippery hands, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed, full joy pouring from me like a song.

Kaden and Tahrik had both looked poleaxed, and Rannoch strangely angry, but as soon as my feet found purchase in the pool, I’d spun in a circle like a child, before promptly falling down and submerging my head under water again. This time it wasKaden who pulled me up, but I’d shaken off his hands and jumped up and down, crowing with delight.

“Tahrik!” I called, splashing water his way, soaking his already wet shirt. “Did you see me?”

His face cracked into a reluctant grin as he shook his head and ran a hand over his face. “Did Iseeyou?”

“I swam!”

He laughed, half-amused, half-exasperated. “Yousunk, Wren. Yousunk.”

“Sunk, swam, what’s the difference?”

“Breathing, for one…” But my happiness was infectious, and he made his way over to me, taking my hands in his own. “If you’re going in, you at least need to learn enough not to drown yourself. Now pay attention,” he’d chided gently, and patiently taught me the basics of not dying whilst in a pool of water. Kaden and Rannoch had called out small pieces of advice as Tahrik walked me through the motions, but largely left the two of us to our own devices. It was the first time since we left the village that I felt like we were back to “us”, the us that existed before the rains and the fires, the Traders and the caverns. Where my laughter was a secret only he knew, and his words were songs for my ears alone. He’d done his best, carefully guiding me, only holding my hands or arms — years of not being allowed to touch me were hard habits to break.

When he’d gotten cold, lips blue and skin white, Rannoch had taken over. Much more of a taskmaster, much more brusque, he’d commanded my movements and I’d done my best to follow his instructions like a soldier, delight spilling from me, despite his glare, with careless abandon. I’d never felt so free with happiness. By the time the light of the day was dying, I’d managed to tread in place for a few moments before going under. He’d passed me off then to Kaden, who had wrapped his strong arms around me, and swam me to the center of the pool, him on his back, my body laid over his, using him to stay afloat. Every nerve of my skin was lit up in tiny, shivering flames where his naked skin brushed against mine.

Once we reached the deepest parts of the water, he’d shown mehow to lay on my back and fill my lungs to stay on the surface. Unlike Rannoch and Tahrik, he wasn’t shy with his hands and touching me, correcting me with his body instead of his words, fingers brushing down the side of my torso, trailing along my arms, tracing my sternum. Every touch was an inferno, creating tiny sparks of warmth on my shivering skin. We’d stayed there, movements slowing ‘til we were just floating next to each other. It wasn’t until he’d heard the chattering of my teeth that he’d rushed me out to sit by the fire Tahrik and Rannoch had made. They’d wrapped me in blankets like a child, and then gone to prepare dinner, leaving Tahrik with me to watch over me.

The day, which had started with such desperation, had turned into a sort of euphoria I’d never known, never experienced, and even now a wild exhilaration fills my lungs, skittering along my skin, pushing at the corners of my mouth. Turning away from the dancing fire, I seek out Tahrik, eager to see a mirror of my own excitement in my friend’s face. But there is no echo of my emotion written in his eyes, just a sad darkness that seems at odds with the warmth of the fire and the smell of clean water in the air.

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