Page 16 of Earthbound

Yeeran stiffened with surprise as Furi regarded her, searching for the injury.

‘You have blood on your cheek,’ Furi said.

‘Oh,’ Yeeran looked down at her hands. ‘I must have cut my palm on a rock, and when I wiped my face…’

Her gaze skittered away from Furi’s and they stood still for a moment, neither breathing as Furi’s hand rested just above Yeeran’s neck. Furi could feel Yeeran’s pulse racing beneath her fingers. It was the first time she had touched Yeeran since the night she had uncovered her father’s treachery. She recalled the moment.

‘Death is all around us,’ she had said to Yeeran then. She had meant to walk away, but Yeeran had reached for her hand and held it so tightly their blood had beat as one.

‘But we, Furi, are alive. Don’t walk away from me now. As long as you’re willing to fight for the love we have, I’ll be here, by your side.’

She’d had two choices: fight, or lay down her sword. But Furi had been a warrior for so long. ‘I’m so tired of fighting,’ she had said. Then, she had unravelled her fingers from Yeeran’s and walked away.

And that was it, the love they’d so carefully stoked had burned out. Well, that’s what she told herself.

Now, Furi dropped her hand from Yeeran’s cheek, the reverberation of that night thrumming through her veins. She had been the one to break this thing between them. She had been the one who had given up.

She knew she had taken the easy route. Their relationship had proved more than merely rocky, it was damn well mountainous. Then, after Sahar had been uncovered as the Authority, everything and everyone she had trusted had been destabilised. She had to let Yeeran go.

But I never stopped loving you. Furi’s mouth drew together as though she were going to speak the words. Yeeran’s gaze rested on her lips, but no sound came out and the moment passed.

Furi moved a few paces back until her heels rested on the cliff’s edge.

Death behind and life ahead. But she wasn’t ready to take either step.

‘How go the negotiations?’ she asked to distract her from her thoughts.

Yeeran grimaced. ‘Not well, they want more fraedia.’

Furi’s gaze snapped to Yeeran’s, her longing sharpening to anger. ‘They cannot have it. If they take any more, Mosima will cease to function.’

‘I know that, and that’s what I said.’

‘How were you gone half a day? Seems like a quick conversation to me.’

Yeeran’s nostrils flared–the only sign of her irritation. ‘I tried everything, but they won’t give up their obeah-skin weapons if we don’t increase the fraedia.’

Furi hissed, her fangs slipping out from her top lip. ‘They insult us. Let us skin their soldiers and see how they fare.’

‘We cannot give them any cause for violence. They are so close to raising arms against us.’

Furi laughed. ‘Let them. What can they achieve with us locked in here?’

Yeeran rubbed her brow and Furi almost felt guilty for the lines she’d caused on her forehead. ‘We need to give them something—’

‘You are not suggesting we let them continue with their obeah weapons?’

‘Of course not,’ Yeeran snapped.

She was more frustrated than Furi had realised. Anger bubbled beneath the surface of Furi’s skin, but for Yeeran it was often buried deep. Like a well, it had some way to go before it overfilled and affected her demeanour.

‘Then what do you suggest?’ Furi tried to speak more gently, but she worried it sounded mocking.

Yeeran took a breath. ‘We need to invite them to Mosima.’

‘No.’

‘Listen—’ With every attempt to speak, Yeeran stepped towards her.