Until thirty seconds ago.
Was that me? Was any of that me. Did they live because I helped them or did they live because they were going to live and I happened to be standing there while it happened—
"Melori." Keer.
He's looking at the body, at Maren, then me.
I can't read it because I can't focus on a face right now.My eyes keep going back to the bowl Dara set down. The paste in it has separated. Two layers. I made it wrong. I made it weaker for the others first and they lived. I made it stronger for him because he was worse. Stronger killed him. Or weaker would have killed him faster. I don't know which. I don’t know which—
"Melori." Sharper.
"I'm here."
"Are you hurt?"
"What?"
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Stand up."
I stand. My knees don't work the way they did before but I stand up.
Brennan tries to sit up, but Dara pushes him back down. "Stay down. She kept three of you alive. Don't waste it."
Three. Not all four.
"Five of them." Brennan's voice is wrecked. Raw. "Human scouts. Camp near the border. Clay pots. Hit the ground, broke open. Smoke everywhere." He coughs. Wipes gray blood from his mouth. "We killed three. Two got away. Ran. Talking about a main force. Days ahead."
The clearing goes silent. Not because people stopped talking. Because nobody breathes.
Then the murmuring comes back. Worse.
"Days ahead—"
"This was a TEST?"
"She said this would happen—"
Tovar.
He's looking at the body. Then at me. The grief in his face has somewhere to go now and it goes straight to my chest.
"They're coming for the human." His voice cracks. "She's why—"
"Tovar." Kestria. Steel. "Not now."
"He's DEAD—"
"I KNOW he's dead. We're going to bury him. And then we're going to figure out how to keep more of us alive. Sit down."
He doesn't sit. But he doesn't speak again.
"Tovar." Keer. Quiet. Worse than loud. "Enough."
Silence.
