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“Like it’s all a game, like everything is a riddle that is up to you to decipher.”
“Not always,” she gave me a sidelong look, the lie clear on her face. It only took one look from me for her to quickly correct herself. “He has for as long as I have known him, however.”
“How long have you known him?” Another glance, that calm demeanor that she usually had faltering to make way for nerves. Odd, she had no problem standing up to me in my rage, but something about that question was clearly causing her discomfort.
“My whole life.” She spoke slowly, as if questioning her answer. The hesitation made something deep in my core twist.
It made sense that he would end up leading these people if he had grown up amongst them. Even more so if he had inherited the title from a father, so why was the way she answered pulling me into an edge as though I was about to be attacked.
“How long has he led you Ligh—The Children of Light,” I quickly amended to use their preferred name.
She gave me another long gaze before exhaling, both of us returning to stare down the long winding road, The path was an endless dusty ribbon as it wound its way beside the forest.
“My whole life.” Again, she was hesitant.
I turned toward the man who was now walking through the still enamored crowd with his arms extended as though they would lift him and together, he and his people would take flight.
He didn’t appear to be any more than a few years older than my twenty-six years. Or rather, the twenty-six years that I appeared to be. I had lived much longer after all, my laugh cut short at that thought alone.
“No, truly. How long has he led you? He’s not that old,” I countered, even as my gut twisted and more of the pieces of the man fell at my feet.
“Well, he is much older than he appears.”
“How old?” I asked the question even as I did the arithmetic into my own age.
“No one knows, and he has not told anyone. He was blessed by the Goddess not to age and was brought here to lead us, and so he does.”
“For how long?” I asked again, her look turning to one of confusion.
“I do not know.” She snapped each word. “That he doesn’t age is a rare blessing indeed, the Goddess only bestows the gift to a divine few.”
A divine few. I would have laughed at the ridiculousness of it. Instead, my jaw clenched as even more pieces all fell into place. I had assumed my ageless life was because of the magic I held, but if Ryndle said he had no magic he was either lying, or that wasn’t why my life and aging was the way it was at all.
“You believe him?” I snarled.
“Yes.” She answered without hesitation and I would have laughed again if my own age and my own life wasn’t buzzing in my ears.
“Why? Because his name means truth?” Everything was suddenly feeling impossible and ridiculous. This man, Truth, he clearly had them all deceived.
“The words only mean so much, you know,” she was so calm, even as I snapped and snarled beside her. “It is the meaning that we put behind them that really matters. His name may mean Truth, but he has shown me that he is truthful, that he is trustworthy, so I trust him.”
A snort escaped me as I still stared at Ryndle, who was now talking with Ziah as they walked beside the wagon. Thankfully everyone had stopped rubbing his tattoos.
“He has shown us all who he is,” Lyani whispered, turning to the boy who was smiling and prancing beside their leader. “Take Ziah for example, he has shown himself a fighter and accepted that title. He is a fighter. Just as Ryndle is truth.”
“And you are a healer.” I continued for her and she nodded.
“And you are–” my head whipped to hers, cutting her off. Thankfully she did not continue, she did not say the words that Ryndle repeated so often and were now flashing in the back of my mind.
Caspyn, light bringer.
Except perhaps that was where these religious zealots and their idea of names was wrong. I could never be anything but dark.
There was too much wickedness in me to ever let light in. I liked it that way.
“You are on a journey to discover your light. To discover who you are,” she finished as though she read my thoughts, but I ignored her. Looking forward, my darkness boiled over as I swore those glittering words on my abdomen grew warm.
Chapter 30
