Page 24 of Earthbound

‘You do not loathe me?’ she whispered.

Dart looked surprised. ‘My father was the one who created the boundaries with my mother. You were not the one to cross them, he was.’

Tears filled Mortah’s tired eyes and she dashed them away with gnarled hands before clearing her voice as though nothing had happened. ‘I suppose you’ll be wanting to know where you came from, Alder.’

His head bobbed. ‘Yes, tell me everything about where I was found.’

‘I won’t tell you.’ She must have seen the despair on Alder’s face because she held up a hand and continued, ‘But how about I show you?’

Chapter Six

Lettle

‘If she didn’t want us there, she should have just come right out and said it,’ Lettle said as she, Mia and Farhan left the resting room.

‘Mortah has her peculiarities,’ Mia said, looking at Lettle sidelong, almost as if she was accusing Lettle of the same thing.

But Lettle was unfamiliar with Mia’s temperament and didn’t want to assume, so she simply said, ‘Indeed.’

They wound through the mountain streets of Caperly at a brisk pace. The morning air was warmer than she expected, the rockface protecting them from the weather.

‘Where are we going?’ Farhan asked. Shera trotted beside him.

‘We’re going to the dining hall. There’ll be food there. We each take it in turns to cook. Though I admit, few let me near the hearth any more.’

‘Bad cook?’ Lettle asked.

Mia looked as though she was assessing Lettle’s words for the insult. So Lettle added quickly, ‘I say as someone also with the affliction.’

Mia grimaced. ‘Yes, it is an affliction. No matter what I do, the food either ends up too burnt, too sour or too salty.’

‘Yes, my talents lie firmly in reading the Fates.’

‘You’re a diviner?’

‘She is,’ Farhan answered for Lettle. ‘The best there ever was. During our travels she once predicted we’d see a baby deer by the road. And guess what? We did.’

‘Impressive,’ Mia said. And it was Lettle’s turn to search for the insult in her words.

‘My prophecies aren’t always so…elementary,’ Lettle said. ‘I foretold Alder’s arrival, and the obeah’s connection to the humans.’

‘That they are humans,’ Mia said softly.

‘Yes.’

They each retreated into their thoughts and Lettle took the chance to take in more of Caperly. She’d seen so little of the city last night, and it was a different place in the daylight.

Though the village was set deep into the chest of the mountain, there were openings in the rock that showed the blue sky beyond. It wasn’t as bright as the fray in Mosima, but the sunlight and the gas lamps were enough to drench Caperly in a warm glow.

Moss and ferns glittered with morning dew on the paths beside them, and more than once Lettle jumped back from a rabbit crossing by her feet. She winced as she landed heavily on her blistered heel.

‘You are limping,’ Mia noted.

‘I am not used to travelling long distances.’

‘Caperly is very far. The edge of the world, some think.’

‘I’ve been using tarrow root to help heal the blistered skin, but I’ve run out.’