Page 172 of Earthbound

Though the fae had offered to retain Yeeran’s position as ambassador, she had gladly retired from the role. Mortah had also suggested she rejoin the Waning army, but Yeeran could never imagine donning a uniform again.

So instead, she had approached Jay. Yeeran had been nervous and had prepared a little speech about how her experience in the quarantine district had changed her. But Jay had just looked her up and down and said, ‘Pass the gauze.’

And that was it, she was a healer’s apprentice.

Furi picked up the books Yeeran was planning to study. ‘Phlebology: a healer’s art and Cartilage of the body. These look deeply boring.’

‘They’re not, they’re really interesting. This one is all about diagnosing and treating vein disorders—’

‘So you’ve read it already?’

‘Yes, but—’

Furi pulled her up from the chair. ‘We’re going for a ride. You’ve been studying for months, you need to take a break.’

The truth was, Yeeran loved studying about the body. She’d spent years learning to break it, and here she was discovering how to mend it back together.

But she also loved making Furi happy, and right now going for a ride would keep her smile shining, and that was worth it.

‘Let’s go.’

—

Their home was equipped with a stable that Yeeran had spent a month building. ‘They need to be comfortable,’ Furi had said, when she’d changed the plans for the hundredth time. Her beloved Happy couldn’t have anything less.

Furi had named the camels Happy and Sad, mainly because she thought it was funny. It was actually Sad who was the best spirited and Happy who was the feistier of the two.

They mounted and set off across the city.

Though it wasn’t quite yet a city. Anyah was doing her best, but she had been nominated to lead a very different home from the one she’d left.

Furi and Rayan had abdicated the moment they could. Neither of them had wanted the throne.

‘Let the people vote, like we did before, let them choose their leader,’ Furi had said.

And vote they did, for Anyah, the serving girl turned soldier turned commander.

The camels galloped across the field that had once been Yeeran’s livelihood and home.

Furi’s hair ran like golden thread down her back and she smiled as she passed Yeeran riding Happy.

Yeeran could never have imagined the world she now lived in. No dream or nightmare could have captured her tale in its entirety.

Her thoughts went to the little girl who had lived off the food she pilfered from the pockets of dead soldiers. From the very fields beneath her camel’s feet.

Would she believe the story of her life? All she had known back then was the Elven Lands, the Forever War and Lettle. And now she lived in a world of humans, fae, and Pila too.

But most of all, peace.

It would be temporary. It always was. War would come again in ten, twenty, a hundred years.

But for now, she revelled in the simplicity of silence.

Never again would she beat her drum.