Give the Dark My Love(32)

“Friends,” she said, spreading her hands wide. “I am honored to be a guest of the Elders today, and to take part in the remembrance of one of the most important days in Lunar Island history.”

A smattering of applause interrupted her, but most people didn’t clap, either because the solemnity of the prayer still weighed on them or, like me, they were still surprised to see Governor Adelaide here.

“I know that today’s celebrations are more bittersweet than they usually are. I know that times are not easy now. The plague that has swept through our community has weighed heavily on my shoulders.”

I did not miss that she called it “our” community, and neither did anyone else. We were used to being ignored by the government. Even at the hospital, which was funded by the governor and had been for a century and a half, there was constant concern that the doors wouldn’t remain open. Frugal Frue was stingy with potions for a reason.

“Please know that I am doing all I can,” Governor Adelaide continued. Her voice choked with real emotion. “My own alchemists have been working on the plague and nothing else since I first became aware of the problem. And today, I would like to offer everyone a chance both to continue the traditions of Burial Day and to remember those we’ve lost more recently.”

Governor Adelaide swept her hands toward the dock. Grey and I turned with the rest of the crowd and saw three barges pulling up. Murmurs rose from the crowd again. My fingers curled around the iron ring.

“These boats will run until sundown, or until everyone has had a chance to mourn and remember,” the governor said, her voice respectful. “Those who wish to visit the city grave may. I also invite you all to join me in the church halls for prayers.”

I turned back around to stare up at the governor. Her chin was tilted up, her spine straight, but it was clear that she was on the brink of crying. “It is no easy thing to lead a city faced with an enemy that cannot be fought,” she said, her voice lower. “But I will fight with you all.”

Cheers erupted throughout the crowd, the sound ringing out so loudly that I thought perhaps even my parents across the bay could hear it.

Grey and I were close to the docks, so we were able to board one of the barges in the first voyage across the bay. He stood at my side, his arm wrapped around me for warmth as the crowded boat plowed through the gentle waves.

Lunar Island was shaped like a crescent, the ends high above sea level and capped with cliffs, the center low with rolling hills and forests. Or, it had once held forests. Now there was a large clearing, black marks in the red soil the only remnant of the trees that had once stood there. Rather than individual graves, long trenches had been dug, filled, and covered again. Dark reddish-brown lines scarred the field in more or less straight lines. The first lines, the ones closest to the road, were only fifteen meters or so long. The mounds grew longer and longer as they neared the forest.

The barge bumped against the dock, and my stomach roiled with the movement. “It’s so big,” I said in a low voice, but Grey didn’t hear me. I clutched my iron circle, the sharp end of the nail pricking my skin.

Working at the hospital, I had seen plenty of death, but not like this, not all at once, with the very earth etched in long tally marks to record just how much had already been lost.

Grey reached for my hand, and I wove my fingers through his, clutching him, letting his warmth root me to this moment.

As we drew closer to the graves, I tried to count the long trenches, to guess how many bodies slept under the earth, but my eyes blurred.

I thought of Jax and Ronan, who had come so desperately to the quarantine hospital from a village in the north. Was their mother in one of these unmarked trenches?

All around me, people knelt, kissing their iron nails and then pressing them into the red earth, their lips mumbling the last phrases of the Prayer for the Dead. They touched the three knots tied into the cords around their necks before they stood and headed back to the barge.

I dropped to my knees, dragging Grey down beside me. I squeezed the iron ring in my hand so hard that it hurt, but I didn’t care.

I didn’t say the Prayer for the Dead.

I prayed—with all my heart and soul—that my family would be safe from graves like these. It was a sin, and I knew it. I should pray for the peace of those already gone. But the other prayers spoken today would have to serve; there was no other plea in my heart.





SIXTEEN


    Grey



The barge was silent as it returned to Northface Harbor. I wrapped my arm around Nedra, holding her close as the boat pushed through a cold fog. I had never been a deeply religious person, but the murmured prayers over the mass grave weighed on me in a way I had not expected.

We climbed the hill back up to Yūgen without talking, Nedra and I both lost in our thoughts. Before we reached the gates, a group of students rushed out, Tomus at the head.

“Greggori!” he shouted, waving. Even with one word, I could tell he was well on his way to drunk. “Come with us! It’s time to properly celebrate our day off!”

My fingers tightened around Nedra’s hand. Tomus’s gaze dropped to our clasped palms, and his eyes narrowed with disdain.

Nedra slipped free of my grasp.

“Ned—” I started.

“Go,” she said in a low voice. “I want to be alone anyway.”