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“We’re going to freeze.”
“Have faith. We don’t know what the cold season is like here.”
“Amber said one of the men told her there would be a full frost that lasts more than a season, and with the cold, there are bigger animals. Soon, we’ll be run out of the caves.”
We can’t let that happen. When Grixis left us, we’d gone inland to inhabit the cave he’d taken me to, but it turned out to be uncomfortable with how steamy it was, so we set up camp around the entrance, deciding to eventually take shelter in it when it got colder.
But as the ribbons came more frequently and the need to take the caves became too great, other beasts have had the same idea, and more than once we’ve fought off huge, wild creatures.
Araelya ended up with a nasty bite, but luckily, Nori and her infinite wisdom knew how to keep it from getting infected.
Claudia, a fairly quiet girl of our tribe, was not so lucky.
“We’re not getting run out of the caves,” I insist.
“The last time—”
“If all you want to think about is what happened and not what we can do to make it better, then our conversation is over.”
Arwin shifts her body nervously, clearly still worried.
I decide not to tell her that I am, too.
“I’ve wanted to tell you something for a while…”
“Go ahead.”
“I’m sorry for how you were treated in Penticar. I’m sorry for how my parents treated you…how I never…cared.”
Her apology shocks me. My entire childhood was spent cleaning up after her and her family, and although she wasn’t overtly cruel, she never once addressed me, even though we were of an age with each other.
“Why…” My word hangs in the air, because I don’t know what to say.
“I remember when we were young, I wanted to play with you so badly. Once, I even took you to my father’s kennel to see the new puppies.”
I blink back at her, remembering the hounds. “I…was five. You took me out to clean their shit.”
“That wasn’t me. My mother was so angry I was having fun with you, she made you clean the cages. After that, I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”
I’m stunned. I had no idea.
“Oh…”
“I used to think about you, and what you’d be like as a friend. I was jealous.”
“What did you have to be jealous of? My rags? The fact that you could see my ribs because I never got enough to eat. I’m literally trapped on an island, plumper than I’ve ever been.”
“Gosh, no. I realize how cruel that must have sounded. My life may have been privileged, but it wasn’t necessarily happy. When I was twelve, my mother announced my betrothal…quietly. Only to my family.”
“I hadn’t realized you were betrothed.”
“No one knew, because they realized what a scandal it would cause. My family was…struggling, and the best matches I could have hoped for were from bigger houses that would have had unfavorable terms, asking my father for land and labor. So…I was intended for my uncle. My parents decided to consolidate the rogue branch to give us a leg to stand on.”
“Did you…like him?”
“Not so much. It was my Uncle Ben Voldren. He was sixty-two and walked with a limp.”
I bring my hand to my mouth to stifle my gasp. “The one that shat his bed whenever he visited?”
