Nobody's Goddess (Never Veil #1)(11)

Fish Face swatted the walking stick away with one hand and held his mask tighter with the other. “You keep that away from me, you old biddy!”

“Tayton, please.” The unmasked man stepped inside and put a hand on Fish Face’s chest. He turned to Ingrith. “There are men working in the quarry most days, Ingrith.”

She sniffled and clasped both hands on top of her walking stick, which she lowered back to the ground. “I know. I can hear their racket. Makes my head ache and my ears ring.”

Fish Face tapped his foot. “And crazy old crones looking up at the castle makes rocks fall on our heads.”

She snorted. “Good. Then maybe I’ll get a day of peace.”

Fish Face nearly choked. “You senile, unloved woman—”

The unmasked man spoke as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “I’m sure it was an accident.”

“It wasn’t,” said Ingrith, as I said, “It was. She told me so.”

Fish Face threw both hands into the air. “Who’s this?”

“My guest.” Ingrith poked at the floor near his feet. “Which you are not.”

Fish Face scoffed. The unmasked man looked me up and down. I had to let my gaze fall. They were all so handsome when they were unmasked. And it was rare to have any take notice of me. And Jurij, he would be the same. Handsome, blind to me.

“Woodcarver’s daughter,” he said at last. So he actually knew of a woman besides his goddess?

Fish Face seemed as perplexed as his masked expression. “The one with a Returning today?”

“No,” I admitted. “I’m her sister.”

Fish Face started laughing. At least I thought it was a laugh. It sounded coincidentally like a fish flopping and gasping without water. “The only other unloved woman in the village. Figures.”

My blood boiled. “Oh, like you have room to speak!”

“I’m married!” protested Fish Face.

I shook my head and gestured to his fishy face. “But your wife obviously doesn’t love you, or you wouldn’t still be wearing that ugly mask! Unless what’s beneath is really much worse.”

Ingrith cackled at that. I think she was actually happy.

Fish Face pointed at me. “Can you believe these women? If I had—goddess’s blessings, whose mask is that?” I turned around to look at the chipped and cracked table behind me. There was a wooden mask there, all right. A snake. As chipped and cracked as the table on which it sat.

Fish Face might have been frothing at the mouth if he’d had one. As it was, his puckering fish lips looked oddly out of tune with the tone of his voice. “You murderer!”

The unmasked man put his hand on Fish Face’s shoulder. “Enough, Tayton. That mask looks too old to be someone she might have killed recently.”

“So you’re saying it’s all right; she must have killed that man years ago.” Fish Face’s expression perfectly matched his flabbergasted tone.

The unmasked man put his fingers to his temple. “No, Tayton. I’m just saying she’s unlikely to have killed a man since we set out to work this morning. I think we would have heard if she’d killed anyone years ago.”

Ingrith laughed and pounded her walking stick on the ground. “Shows what you know!”

“I need to get out of here,” said Fish Face. “I can’t stand to be around these crones one second longer.”

These crones? As in the both of us?

Sighing, the unmasked man shook his head. “We’re leaving. Ladies.” He nodded first at me, then at Ingrith. I ignored him.

“Take care not to let it happen again, Ingrith,” said the unmasked man as the two workers left. “It’s dangerous for there to be earthquakes near the quarry.”

Ingrith started muttering to herself and hobbled past me toward the table. I caught something like “useless, oblivious men” as she stepped past, leaving behind her scent of decay. With a groaning, scratching sound, she pulled a chair out from the table and plopped herself into it. She stared back at me. “Well? You goin’ to stand there all day, like your mind has gone numb? Sit down!”

It was as if I were a man, and she were my goddess. A cloud of dust flew out from under my mud-colored skirt as I sat. The chair I was in was dustier than Ingrith’s, but it seemed to be in much finer shape than the rest of the furniture. It was as if the chair had been sleeping, waiting for someone who never came to use it.

Ingrith pounded the walking stick, still in her hand even though it soared above her head while she was seated, making me sit taller in my chair. She pointed to the chipped and cracked snake mask on the table between us. “You know what that is?”

I raised an eyebrow. “A … mask?”

“A … mask?” Ingrith echoed my words as if they left a vile taste in her mouth. “Yes, we both have eyes, girl! I’m askin’ if you know what that is!”

Okay, maybe hanging out with the crazy old crone to pass the time before I lost the only man I’d ever love was a bad idea after all. Then again, it did get me out of extra primping. “A snake?”

Ingrith pounded her stick on the floor again. “Oh, for the love of … ” She grunted and reached across the table to snatch up the snake mask. She held it next to her face. “This was a man’s face, girl! How do you reckon I got it and got no man for it to be wearin’, eh?”