Page 38 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
“A bathing suit?”
She was wearing her usual look—a tank top and shorts—but I noticed then that orange strings rose from the top of her shirt to tie around her neck, and another set of orange ties poked out of her waistband.
She paused with a towel in hand. “You didn’t bring one?”
“I don’t own one. Besides, I’m not going to be in the water with you all. Right?”
Nya’s dark brows raised in surprise. “No, but you may decide to take a dip at some point. Better safe than sorry. Especially since walking around in wet clothes will give you wicked chafing. But anyway, is that normal for someone from Cyllene? Is there seriously something that all of us out here own that you all don’t?”
I shrugged. “Most of us don’t really have a use for one. We may have access to more luxuries than you all do out here, but maintaining a swimming pool isn’t one of them. I’m pretty sure the last person who managed to fill up one of the old concrete pools in the suburbs, without anything to properly clean or sanitize it, got really sick. And then the ocean’s right over the wall, but we’re not allowed to go outside the city under any circumstances.”
The irony of my that last part wasn’t lost on me.
“Wow,” Nya drawled. She went to the closet—a space with missing doors, exposed drywall on the sides, and a back “wall” that was nothing more than a tarp—and began sifting through the clothes that hung there.
Meanwhile, in the crumbling hole that was once the doorway to the bedroom appeared a petite redhead with long lashes and a dusting of freckles across her cheeks.
“Oh, perfect!” she exclaimed in a voice that was like tinkling bells. “While you’re over there, can you pass me my apron?”
“Sure thing,” Nya tossed the words over her shoulder, right before she tossed a gray apron.
The woman caught it and pulled it over her head, smoothing the strands of her short hair in the process.
I gave her a small smile. “You must be Wren.”
“That’s me,” she giggled. “And you’re Maila. I hope you slept okay last night.”
“I did. I’m sorry, I feel like I kicked you out of your own room.”
“Oh, it was no problem at all!” Wren clasped her hands and leaned closer, her eyes wide with reassurance. She lowered her voice to a mock whisper. “Besides, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?”
A trademark world-weary sigh sounded from the closet.
Wren giggled again and turned on her heel. “I’ve got breakfast to prep. See you two later.”
As she pranced away, Nya turned around with a violet bikini top and bottoms in hand. “I know I’m taller than you are,” she mused, examining her selection. “But you’re curvier than I am, so hopefully it will all even out.” She lobbed the bathing suit onto the bed next to me.
“Where did you get this?” I asked. Then, “Where do you get clothes in general, I mean?”
“Well, first off—bathing suits aren’t exactly high on the list of priorities for anyone. Obviously. So they’re easy to find.” She tied her braids back into her usual thick ponytail. “As far as other clothes go, we get them the same way you do in Cyllene. Whenever you all are running low on clothes or other supplies, you either strike a deal with another city, or you send yourEnforcersout on a supply run. Basically, you take what you need from somewhere else. That’s what we do, too. Except for the striking deals with other cities part. I only know of a few that even exist anymore, and it would take days or maybe even weeks of travel to get there.”
My knowledge about other surviving cities was limited, too. But I knew enough to know she was correct on the lengthy travel.
“And if we encounter another group like ours, which is rare, it usually doesn’t end well. We’re all just trying to survive out here, and no one’s going to let some Stranger”—here she smirked at her own joke—“take clothes or food that they could be bringing home to their own children.”
I let her words sink in. Then, beginning to undress, I asked, “How do you know so much about Cyllene?”
She pursed her full lips. “Because by default, anyone who finds out the truth of how Cyllene operates gets exiled. Some of us have been out here all our lives—like me, Kieran, Cecil, Rubi, and Xiomara—but we also take people in when Cyllene tosses them out and leaves them to die.”
There was a lot to unpack in what she said. But a thought struck me. “By chance, is there someone here who was exiled recently? Like within the last week?”
Nya nodded. “You’re talking about George. You’ll see him at breakfast.”
I suddenly couldn’t wait to get to breakfast. I finished tying the bikini, then looked down at myself, twisting from side to side.
I frowned. “It doesn’t fit.”
Nya glanced up from where she was rolling up her sleeping bag and immediately burst into laughter.
