Page 49 of The BoneKeeper's Daughter

His brows knit together in concern and confusion, but he pulls, then pulls harder, until the edges begin to release, bone fingertips scraping along my temples and yanking at my hair, reopening shallow cuts from the previous week. The bones groan, half in protest, half in lapping greed, taking tiny droplets of scarlet with them, drinking them up. Rannoch shivers in front of me, almost as though he can feel their anger at being forced from me.

“I’ll keep it safe, BoneKeeper.”

Shrugging, I turn away, dismissing him. “You’ll do what you will with it, Councilman. Clearly I have no say here at the moment.”

Silas clears his throat, distracting the considering eyes of the rest of the Council. “We’ll leave her to it. Perhaps you’ll walk with me, give me your input regarding her room. Brothers?” It is too tempting an offer, I can tell, and all but Rannoch follow him out.

Everything is silent between us.

“BoneKeeper—” It’s barely a whisper of sound, but not one I’m interested in hearing, no matter how gentle, how apologetic. He and the Father have put me on a hook without my knowledge, wriggling and writhing, luring the biting fish from the brackish ponds where they hide beneath dark rocks.

“I’ll be out shortly, Councilman. I have no intention of staying here, no matter howlovelyandsoftyou make it.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to.”

“You expect much more of me than I realized, Councilor.” Despite my best effort, bitterness is thick on my tongue, stinging my taste buds like ginger root.

He sighs. “I…Enjoy the peace while it lasts, Keeper.”

Shaking my head, a dark snort of sour laughter shatters from my throat, startling him. He waits for an explanation for a breath, maybe two, before realizing none is coming, and silently leaves the room.

DUST AND DECAY

RANNOCH

Our walk back to her home is heavy with her anger, though her face is placid and peaceful. She had remained in the room for perhaps five minutes at the most, emerging pale and seemingly undisturbed.

“It is not to my liking, and I am tired,” is all she said, and took two steps forward before freezing, jaw flexing, noting the absence of her crown. She didn’t ask me, though, and simply bit out, “I clearly have no bone on me to guide me home, Councilman. Perhaps you would be kind enough.”

And so I had taken her thin fingers gently in my own, placed them on my sleeve, and led her from the Council House back into the cold sun. Since then, she has not spoken or looked at me, and I’m suddenly desperate to have a hint, even a glimpse, of the girl I saw on the day I kissed her.

“Ceridwen—” It’s a mistake, I know instantly, but to call her “BoneKeeper” feels like it would make things even worse. Sighing, I stare straight ahead, but mutter under my breath, “I’m sorry. Iamsorry. If it helps.”

“For what, Councilman? Surely you have nothing to apologize for.I am aware of my place here, of how the Council views me. As a tool for their purposes.”

It is clearly worse than I thought. “We don’t…you’re not a tool for me to use…”

“Did you not expect me to notice you baiting a trap, Councilor?” Her answer is tight and biting, before she smooths her tone. “Do you think that all tools are meant for destruction? Use of a thing is use, whether or not you intended to treat it as an object.”

“I…we had to…but…” She is right and she is wrong all at the same time. It is impossible to have a conversation in front of watching eyes, though, impossible for me to plead with her to listen.

“But makes an excuse of an apology.” Her lips tighten, almost imperceptibly. “It’s better I know where I stand when I am by your side.” There is cool acceptance in her quiet words now, and it feels like a dagger to my heart. “I know I am a vessel of the Gods. It does no good for a wolf to want to become a bird. Wings don’t grow from wishes.”

“Please, Keeper?—”

Her fingers twitch on my sleeve, and I stop speaking. The walk to her home is interminable, and does not get better as we approach to see her door cracked open, handle hanging at a broken angle.

“What’s this?” Concern is electric on my skin, raising the hairs on my arms like the crack of lightning in the winter months. Things have been changing, too quickly for us to keep up, but for someone to risk entering the Keeper’s cottage, for someone to break into her home…Turning, I catch the eye of a passing villager. “I need the Father. Quickly now!” Snapping out the order, I step back into the role I’ve played for so long, arrogance dripping like storm rains from me. “BoneKeeper, you will stay here while I go inside. That’s not a request.”

Surprisingly she doesn’t fight me, stepping to the side and sitting on the low wall outside her door. I can’t decide whether to go in alone or wait for a second set of eyes as witness; am not sure if Silas’s words would even back mine up in this unheard of event.

“The bones say there is no one left inside,” she whispers quietly,not looking at me, staring somewhere off into the distance, eyes blank. “But nothing more. They won’t say who entered, or what happened. Just that the house is empty.”

The houseandher voice. It is like everything inside her has drained away, leaving only her shell. Something is happening that I am missing, but I don’t have time to think on it. Not now. So I file it away in my mind, adding it to the growing list of worries that sits on my shoulders, pushing me into the earth.

“Rannoch?” Silas is behind me suddenly. I must have been staring at the door for longer than I thought, or else he ran from the Council House here. “Broken into?” He can’t hide the astonishment in his words, and I shake my head in reply.

“She says it’s empty. That there’s no one left inside.” We exchange a considering look. The words are right and wrong all at once.

---