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“And another toast, Taurek. Here’s hoping the wine will make you less of a surly bastard!” Talan holds his goblet high, almost spilling.
“Is wine a miracle cure?” We both collapse into laughter and down the second glass.
“Let’s hope.”
“Anyway, keep talking. I’m actually listening for some reason.”
“Zaya has studied the records of Kiphia’s histories.”
“Even I never had the patience for that. And some of them are about my family.”
“That’s why you should listen. I think she has something to offer. She said the histories chronicled an illness that sounds like Hanai’s. It was called the stone-skipping curse, because it strikes the body like a game of stone-skip. You remember that game as kids?”
“Of course. You pass around a stone activated by heat, and you lose if it combusts into ash in your hand.”
“Yes. She can explain it better, but the books said it relates to electric signals in the body…”
“This sounds like a fairy legend.”
“It also sounds like with her knowledge, she might be able to help.”
It sounds ludicrous. At the same time, it seems less ludicrous than the doctor who said he needed to drain all of Hanai’s blood. And the one who said she needed to rest on the edge of an active volcano.
“So, Your Highness. Would you like to summon Zaya?”
Would I like to? No. Will I?
“Yes.” I let out a sigh and shake my head. “I’ll see that she’s sent for.”
ZAYA
“It’s weird, but I’ve always thought of Tlisan as an island.”
“That is weird.” Sorsha laughs. “Why do you think that is?”
“I don’t know. Just always have. I remember coming over the ring of mountains with my parents, just after we’d been in Ocean Kingdom. I thought, ‘This is the real island. Not that place.’”
Before we’d arrived to the Mountain Kingdom, we’d traveled for years like nomads from one realm to another, not out of adventure but necessity. My parents never lost faith that the next place would hold the key to restoring my health. It wasn’t until we got to Tlisan, a settlement of humans in the Mountain Kingdom, that I finally began to get better.
In the Mountain Kingdom, the Kiphians mostly mind their own affairs. They don’t love humans, but they don’t despise us either. They’re indifferent for the most part.
As soon as we crossed over to the other side of the mountain, I knew I’d never want to leave. I’ve pretty much stayed put for the twenty years since.
“I never really had much to compare it to, since I grew up here,” Sorsha says. “That’s the only thing I like about Cygoth. Makes you grateful to be back in Tlisan.”
“And that’s where Talan is? In Cygoth?”
I’m there to help Sorsha with the children while Talan is gone. I’m here most days anyway, though, since Sorsha offered me an unused part of their home for studio space. Ever since she went missing, along with her memories for a time, I get the sense that familiar faces help her feel grounded.
“Yes, he’s in the capital.” Sorsha purses her lips uncomfortably, so I don’t press further.
I turn to the mosaic on the floor, positioning stones I extracted from nearby quarries and caverns to create a landscape portrait of the mountains nearby. I hold out my arms to block the children from crashing into it every so often.
“Zaya?”
“Hmm?” I keep arranging.
“Can I tell you something, and you promise you won’t get mad?”
