Page 49
“Cold.”
“I expected that.”
She retrieves her own. I shift my arm so she can drink without moving off my lap.
“Tovi always forgets his tea,” she says. “Asha warms it for him, complains that he’s wasted the fuel, then does it again.”
“Would he drink it cold?”
“He usually doesn’t notice. She wants him to have it hot.”
She lowers her cup without drinking. I hold mine still above her knee, waiting until she either goes on or settles back against me.
“I’d like them to meet you.”
“When I visit,” she adds. “I want them to know who I’ve been spending all this time with.”
The words stop me halfway to taking a drink.
“Then bring me.”
“Asha will have questions.”
“I assumed she would.”
“She’ll ask what I haven’t told her. She’s very good at that.”
I picture Asha standing in this room, asking why her sister had to wait so long for a way home. Vai would have to hear the answers too.
“I’ll answer her,” I say.
Vai looks up. “You won’t enjoy all of it.”
“Neither did you.”
She puts her cup down. I think she might kiss me again. Instead, she wraps both arms around me and holds on.
I set my cup aside and hold her too.
Later, when she begins to yawn, I help her stand. She picks up the hair tie and drops it into her bag.
At the door, she catches my arm.
“I’m glad you came in.”
“So am I.”
She kisses me good night, then stays at the doorway while I walk to the junction.
In my own room, I lie down on the moss and leave the space beside me clear. I notice what I have done only when I reach for the blanket.
She would complain about the cold if I took all of it. I spread it across the bed, then pull it back over myself. There is no one here to keep warm.
I turn onto my side, the only comfortable way to sleep with my antlers, and face the door.
VAI
By my eleventh morning in the Ilden, Daurek knows which end of the bread I prefer and how late to leave my tea brewing. I know he reads the road reports before breakfast now, that he dislikes having his antlers brushed by the low kitchen arch, and that kissing the corner of his mouth can interrupt almost any complaint about it.
