Crossroads of Canopy (Titan's Forest #1)(54)

“The dayhunter,” Bernreb said.

“The dunderheaded dayhunter.” Tears glistened in the corners of Frog’s eyes but didn’t fall. “If the demon ’as took your fellow, too, then I am sorry for you, but it is not my fault.”

“We never said it was your fault.”

“’E will not guarantee my safety.” She pointed at Esse.

“He will,” Bernreb said. Esse’s gaze snapped angrily in his direction.

“Floorians take both of you, Bernreb, I—”

“Make a little room for me by the fire, brother.” Marram walked into the room, shivering, teeth chattering, and wingless. He must have left the chimera skin in the fishing room, unheard above all the shouting.

Esse crossed the floor and roughly embraced him.

“Who are you?” Marram asked Frog over Esse’s shoulder.

“I am Frog,” Frog said, her shoulders hunched defensively. “Will you give me monsoon-right now? Am I forgiven for whatever you think I have done, Heightsman?”

“You are small,” Marram said, moving past Esse to stretch his hands out to the flames. He gave Frog a sidelong glance, considering. “Small, and yet you have the spines implanted already.”

“Does anyone else wish to insult me?” Frog demanded angrily.

Marram grinned despite his chattering teeth.

“I am not insulting you,” he said. “Only thinking. I think I could teach you how to fly.”





THIRTY-THREE

UNAR’S EYES opened in the instant before the last, guttering tallow candle died.

Darkness filled the storeroom. Unar didn’t think it was daylight outside. In the ten days since coming to the hunters’ home, she’d adjusted to the strange cycle, sun unsighted, and her stomach, not quite ready to break fast, told her it was a few hours before dawn.

In ten days, she’d filled three of Esse’s nine sacks with twine. Oos had surpassed Marram’s level of skill on the thirteen-pipe flute. Frog had been forbidden by Esse to learn to fly and spent her days drying fish instead. Ylly spent them washing blankets and clothing, trading funny faces and noises with Issi, and trying to turn the nuts and grains that the brothers had in storage into an edible form of unleavened bread. Esse slept in the day and went out at night, keeping opposite hours to Marram and Bernreb.

Incredibly, Hasbabsah clung to life without waking.

Unar sat up in the pitch-blackness. Was Hasbabsah’s spirit leaving them? Was that why Unar had woken instinctively? Hope and dread filled her. Maybe she was adjusting to this new level of the forest, no matter how impossible it seemed. Maybe her ability to detect fading life was returning, which meant Hasbabsah was about to leave them.

Feeling her way with her feet into the workshop, which was also completely dark, Unar lifted the embroidered hanging that led to the hearth room. The coals were banked but the room remained comparatively bright and much warmer than even four sleeping bodies could make an enclosed space. There hadn’t been floor area in the storeroom for another bed for Frog, so the brothers had put her pallet in the hearth room by Hasbabsah’s chair.

Unar looked down at the curled lump beneath the blanket as she passed it. Frog’s breathing was slow and regular. She was sleeping.

Hasbabsah’s breathing was erratic and barely detectable. Unar knelt by her chair and took hold of her cold, wrinkled hand.

“Hasbabsah, I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I’m sorry for what your life has been like, and I’m sorry for how it’s ending. I thought I was saving you. I tried to save you.”

She swallowed, feeling the smoothness of her tongue on her hard palate, thinking about the markings the goddess Audblayin had allowed to be placed on Hasbabsah’s tongue. Unar had believed her goddess was wholly good, but now she couldn’t be sure of that.

No, Audblayin was good. He—she—had to be. It was the Servants who were stupid. The wasteful habits of Servants could be changed. They would change, when Unar returned to Canopy.

“I was stupid,” she went on, holding harder to the rough palm. “I made mistakes. I’ll do better. Your friend’s daughter, Ylly, is free, now, isn’t she? I promise I’ll do everything I can to free Sawas and baby Ylly as well. I’m sure wife-of-Epatut is treating them well.”

Unar paused and shook her head. She couldn’t be sure of that, at all. She was being stupid again.

“I wish I could help you.” Reluctantly, she let go of Hasbabsah’s hand. It felt like she was letting go of her at the edge of the Garden, leaving her to fall to Floor. Frustration crept into her voice. “I wish Esse would let Frog learn to fly, so that she could fetch medicines, or that Oos would teach me what I need to know to heal you.”

“Oos cannot teach you,” Frog said, and Unar’s head whipped around to find the skinny girl kneeling beside her, a strange gleam in her eyes. “Oos does not know. But I do.”

Unar reared back from her.

“What are you talking about?”

“Hush! Do not wake them. I have been waitin’ for you to come alone. Oos would sense it, the thing I wishta show you, and she must not. She must believe that ’er mind merely itches in ’er dreams, that it was ’er own yearnin’ and nothing more that she felt. Lately I ’ave thought the old woman would die while I waited. You are so slow. So dank.”