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I realize we’ve just been standing there, staring into each other’s eyes like idiots. We have to figure out our hunter problem—but all I want right now is to keep talking with Rimi. Though I haven’t heard any signs of our tails yet, surely they’ll find their way down here, unless the pyramid is an even greater labyrinth than I thought. There’s no other way out of this place except up. And even if we got out unscathed, I’m not sure how we would ever climb that cliff face again.
So here we’ll stay for now, until we come up with a better plan, or face the hunters ourselves. There are three of them and one of me, but I’ve gotten in enough scraps that I might stand a chance. When they do come, I’ll be ready. In the meantime... I want to understand Rimi better, to know all the shining silver thoughts swirling around her head. So I gesture at the ground and sit.
What is this place?Rimi asks, sitting down next to me, surprisingly close. Her knee is slightly touching mine, and I wish there was even more of her touching me.
I shake my head.All I know is these are troll ruins. We lived here ages and ages ago.Then I remember Graz’s map, and the red dots on them. One of those dots should be... right around here. Maybe he was on to something.
Rimi looks up at the faces on the walls, the human and the trollkin only inches apart from one another.I’ve never seen anything like this. If these are troll ruins, why is there a picture of a human down here?
I follow her eyes to the bizarre image.I don’t know. But they don’t look like enemies, when humans and trollkin have been enemies for... forever.
Rubbing her chin, Rimi tilts her head.Maybe we weren’t always.
I try to imagine that, a time when our peoples didn’t constantly try to kill one another and steal each other’s land. It seems impossible, and yet we’re looking right at some pretty compelling evidence to the contrary.
You know,Rimi says,history is longer than we think. In my country, we have legends that go back to before the existence of humans and trollkin completely.
I study her.In your country?I ask. Now I can finally get answers to all of the questions I’ve been puzzling over since she first came into my care.What happened to you? How did you end up here?
Rimi’s face falls, the memory clearly a raw wound.Well, I was sleeping when they came for me, she begins.They stole me from my bed and put me into a sack, then shoved me into a crate and, I think, put me on a ship. I don’t know how long I was on that ship, but it felt like forever. Like two forevers.
I remember how she reacted to the crate and guilt sweeps through me. I just want to hug her, and erase all the horror she’s been through.
I’m so sorry, Rimi.I run my hand over her knee, and she doesn’t flinch or pull back.I’m sorry I was a part of this. My own boss, my own clan, is responsible for what happened to you.
She gives me a wan smile.Everything that’s befallen me wasn’t your fault. You freed me, Lo’zar.
Again, my name in her voice sends shivers up my spine. I just want to reach around her and pull her close, the way I did when she fell asleep against my shoulder in the wagon. But I’m also embarrassed to be one of her kidnappers, horrified at myself for not setting her free the moment I laid eyes on her.
I couldn’t let you get sold off like cattle,I tell her.You’re... You’re a person. Even if you are human.
‘Even if I am human’?she asks, an edge to her voice.
Well, like I said, we’re enemies. Our people have been killing each other for who knows how long.
She shrugs.I never saw a trollkin before now.
I furrow my brow at this.Where are you from?
Yusala.
Where’s that?
Rimi contemplates for a few moments before answering.Relative to here? I’m not sure.
I shake my head. A place with only humans, and a name I’ve never heard before.You’re very far from home, Rimi.
The look on her face is as if she expected to hear this.Yeah. I imagine so. She stares down at the ground, and tears well in her eyes.
It’s okay.I reach out and wipe one from her cheek. She looks up in surprise.We’ll get you home.
We... we will?She doesn’t look like she believes me for a second.
Of course.I know this with a certainty now. I need to help Rimi get back to where she belongs, not just to make up for what I did—for what Gusak did—but because it’s what’s right. It’s my duty.You should be back at home in your bed, I tell her.
Strangely, not only do the tears continue, but they’re flowing harder down her face. She buckles forward and drops her head into her hands, weeping openly.
Rimi? What’s wrong?I put an arm around her and instinctively pull her close.
