Page 15 of The BoneKeeper's Daughter

“Well.” The word is a stone in my throat. “Well. We will figure that out. But for now, will you wear her?”

BoneKeeper….Lorcan is unsettled, but it is too late. I already have a foot off the cliff’s edge and am leaning forward.

“And the others?” He’s less hesitant now, curiosity riding his voice like a mountain hawk.

“This is one of her children. And where she goes, he follows as well.” Marrin smiles with the understanding of youth. Where a mother goes, her children are close behind. Then his eyes darken, face falling as the thought hits too close to home. Trying to distract him, I tilt my head, considering the baker. “Perhaps — let us think. A necklace, Marrin?”

He nods in reply, and I loosen a leather band in my hair, then tie three small distal phalanges and two larger carpals in a pattern, before fastening it around his neck and tucking it beneath his shirt. “Keep that against your skin, please.” I pause, fear sudden and wild in my heart, and my voice drops into warning. “They are not toys or things to brag about. They are a secret between us and us alone. And they are my friends.”

“I wouldn’t, Keeper. I promise.”

“I believe you.”

There is a sound at the door, and in silent accord, we step back from each other just as Hollis re-enters. She tilts her head, watching the scene before her but not understanding what she is seeing. Marrin takes a deep breath, and turns to her with a set expression.

“I didn’t want to leave the Keeper alone. It seemed disrespectful.”

Her face softens, and she smiles. “You are thoughtful as ever.”

He smiles, not a grin, more a tight baring of teeth, and shrugs. “You’re here now, so I guess I can go. If the BoneKeeper doesn’t need me,” he adds, almost as an afterthought. He is such a little adult.

In a moment of rare sisterhood, Hollis shoots me an amused look before shaking her head at the emptiness in my white eyes. Quietlydismissing him, she straightens and presses her hands together, bowing low before me.

“‘I’m so sorry, BoneKeeper. They’re usually better behaved. It’s just…”

“There’s no need for apology, Hollis.” Merriment still shadows my voice, hiding in the corners. “They’re just excited. I imagine many of them have parents who went on the hunt. You have the patience of the Goddess, though. I’m exhausted and it’s only been a few moments.”

Ducking her head, she risks a small smile, thinking I can’t see her response. She pauses, then decides to chance a conversation. “Do you mind if I ask you a question, Keeper?”

“Not at all, Hollis.”

“Was the history you were taught so different?” Real curiosity is in her voice, and I recognize the thirst for information. It is a mirror of my own.

I will play pretend for a moment, that I am a girl at the school whispering with a friend.The thought is enticing. Too much so, and it makes me careless. “It was. You did not mention the TriGoddess, or the bone history. And—” this with a wry twist of my lips, despite my best intentions, “the Council played a much larger role in the saving of our people in your tale.”

Keeper! Be cautious! Not all faces are friendly just because they smile.The Hunter in my hair whispers in a rare rebuke, and Lorcan has the feel of frowning down my back, a cold finger tracing my spine. Hollis tilts her head, a considering look on her face.

“Of course,” I add thoughtfully, carefully, “I did not attend school as such. So I am sure you have a more…structured…approach…My education was perhaps a bit haphazard. Not as curated.”

She brightens, nodding. “That makes sense. You would not have had the approved history, maybe.”

Fingering my necklace, I agree in a quiet tone. “Maybe.” Looking around the room, I tilt my head curiously, and a bit of ice seeps back into my voice. “Hollis. Where are the bones?”

She freezes at the question, a deer in a hunter’s sight. “The, uh,bones? Keeper?” Her eyes dart around the room frantically, and I turn the full force of my white gaze on her. She crumbles beneath its weight.

“The Schoolhouse bones. They’ve earned their place within these walls. Where are they? I will not ask again.”

“Councilman Raek…suggested that perhaps…they were distracting to the…learning environment…”

“Didhe.” It’s not a question, and she’s shaking at the sound of my vertebracelets clacking on my wrists as my fingers flex.

Temper, temper Little Keeper.Lorcan’s voice has forced cheerfulness in it, as though he’s trying to calm the Everfire that flares to life in my stomach, but he is too late.

“I will visit this room again in two days time,” I say, very,veryquietly, all traces of our temporary comradery gone. “I expect the bones to be back in their places within its walls by the time I return.” She is shaking, but not enough. Not enough. And the Everfire inside me explodes into frost. “And I will relay the children the history of our land as told by those bones. Thecorrecthistory.”

Lorcan and the hunter groan in unison.Little Keeper…Keeper!

“Keeper…” Hollis echoes. She sounds terrified, but on this I will book no argument.

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