Page 41 of The BoneKeeper's Daughter

All is silence. All is dust. The earth stills and settles; the mountain sighs and softens.

In the lull, across the path, Raek and Nickolas help each other totheir feet, murder clear in their eyes and snarling mouths. Silas shifts away from me, stands, and brushes himself off. Looking down at me with an inscrutable expression on his face, he points at me with an unwavering finger, and issues a clear, biting command to Rannoch.

“Take her. Brother, remove her immediately to the Council House for questioning.”

Rannoch leaps to his feet and drags me roughly to mine, then wraps a hand around my vertebracelets. “Yes Sir,” he snaps back, yanking lightly on my arm, pulling me off my feet for a brief moment before surreptitiously pushing back again to steady me. Across the rockstrewn path, Raek and Nickolas pull to a stop, watching the interaction through smirking faces.

“I can help escort her, Father,” Nickolas calls, mouth salivating, words thick and worm-filled.

“Rannoch can handle a little girl, Nickolas,” Silas says, not looking away from the two of us. “I’ll ask that you and your brother walk with me, though. I would seek your counsel, if you’re recovered enough.”

Triumph flashes on Raek’s face, lightning quick, but obvious, and he presses his hands together before bowing slightly towards Silas. “Of course, Father. Anything we can do to help.”

The Father’s shoulders tighten minutely as he inhales deeply, then jerks his head at Rannoch, before turning to face the rest of the Council. Rannoch pulls me immediately away, escorting me in the direction of the Council House, away from the prying eyes of the men behind us. As soon as we’re out of sight, his grip loosens, though his face stays hard and his hands remain wrapped around my wrists.

Lips unmoving, jaw tight, he whispers frantically and almost unintelligibly to me, “Are you alright? Keeper, are you hurt?”

If you were not within a breath of us, you would never have known he spoke, so I respond in like, just a single downward motion of my head in a half nod. I am both — hurt, but not desperately. His relief is palpable but short lived.

“What in the world have you done, Keeper?” he mutters, mouth still immobile, shock clear in his voice. We are a year and a mile awayfrom the man who traced my lips in the shadow of the bone wall; it seems a dream in the Nowhere now. “What have you done?”

I don’t answer; we are approaching the center of the town, where villagers observe our progress, shock and concern clear on every countenance.

What have I done?

I wish I knew.

PIECES ON THE BOARD

WREN

“She is a danger to our people!”

The debate has been raging for hours, the arguments looping back to the start at this point and beginning again. There are calls for blood,myblood, and I should be more worried, petrified even, but instead I find myself growing…almost angry. Angry with the blustering, wind-filled, wrinkled lumps of men in front of me. Angry with the scheming and stupidity, angry with myself for sitting silently on the side, angry about letting myself be discussed as though I’m not here.

Finishing the last of the cistern water I was provided when I first was called into the chamber, I debate my actions. I’m cold, and tired, and hungry, full of sharp, biting grief for my lost Hunter, of paralyzing fear for my weakened Protector, and suddenly I have hadenough.Surging to my feet, I draw the eyes of all the Council and the Father to me.

“I’m leaving for the rest of the evening,” I state simply, rolling my empty eyes at the cacophonous response, Councilmen jumping to their feet and shaking their hands in the air like spoiled children.

“You’ll do no such thing,” Raek bites out. “You have much to answer for, Keeper.” He’s sneering, lips twisted up, overly confident,his supporters making noises of agreement behind him. To his credit, he’s played the game beautifully, distracting the discussion from his sacrificing villagers without the bones calling them to Offering, sending our people to Silence when there is an able Keeper within our walls. He expects me to be complacent, as always, bending to threats and menacing looks, thinks of me as an obstinate child throwing tantrums who will be brought to heel. Raek depends on my respect for our traditions, on my reliance for their protection. But he hasn’t noticed the shifting plates beneath my surface, the oceans being born in desert lands while he wasn’t paying attention.

“Ah.” Something in my voice stills the Council, some flash of fang, and I smile, cold and vicious. “Yes. Are we talking about answering for our actions now, Councilman? Then I am happy to stay, and hear your justification for murdering our people to water a tree which served the Ender. Please, explain how you felt it acceptable to send souls to Silence, in secret away from half the Council and the eyes of the Father. Explain why, when there is a BoneKeeper, you thought it your province to decide who lived and who died. Because I, and the bones, would love to hear any explanation.”

There is silence, and then an explosion of sound.

“TheEnder…”

“To Silence?...”

“But…”

“Murder?…”

“She didn’t know?...”

Only Raek, Nickolas, the Father, and Rannoch are unmoving. The rest of the Council, the Protectors, the Renders and Reapers are a wash of chaos. Clearly some pertinent things were left out of the briefing they had had while I sat outside the Councilroom, waiting to be called in.

“Oh, did we not discuss that yet?” I ask innocently, and heads whip back and forth between us, Raek and Nickolas now standing as one and advancing threateningly toward me. “Ah-ah-ah,” I caution gently, and they freeze, the weight of the full Council upon them. “You wouldn’t threaten the BoneKeeper, would you?” Smiling grimly, Ishake my head, the bones calling out hollow songs. “Well. Not openly, at least. Perhaps you need reminding, Councilors, but I am not your servant. I am not beneath you, to be commanded and commandeered.”

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