Page 69 of Earthbound

He was silent for so long that Lettle had to drag her gaze back to him. He sat as still as a statue. She was about to prompt him when he said one singular word: ‘Yes.’

‘What happened?’ She wanted to shake the explanation from his chest, but there was something dangerous in his gaze that made her tread carefully. This was a man whose very words could bind her.

He sighed. ‘They could only be tamed by their makers, but we realised too late, and though they killed many of the fae, they killed my people too.’

He looked into the distance and said quietly to himself, ‘That, I think, is when Hady began to change.’ Then he added, as if to reassure himself, ‘It was the violence; she could not abide the sight of blood.’

‘But you managed to tame them.’

‘Yes, eventually, though they were strange things, good for the purpose for which we had made them, that is all.’

Lettle returned to her burning question. ‘How have you survived this long?’

Again the unnerving smile. ‘I wove a binding, of course. To the oldest thing I could think of–the earth itself.’

‘Why?’

He laughed and she knew it was forced. ‘Look around–one lifetime was never going to be enough time to read all these books.’

‘And this is where you have remained.’

‘And this is where I have remained.’ He spoke as though in conclusion.

But there were too many holes in his story for this to be the entire truth. They regarded each other, both aware of his omissions, but unfortunately Lettle didn’t know exactly what they were.

‘Night has drawn in,’ he said. ‘Come, there is a field of moss nearby that makes a suitable bed.’

The fraedia was the colour of twilight; soon the light would fade completely and they’d be in total darkness. It was already dark enough that Lettle could no longer see Afa’s expression.

‘Do you sleep?’ she asked as she followed him.

‘I do. I suffer from the same needs as any other human.’

But he wasn’t any other human, he was a sorcerer bound to the earth. Lettle shivered.

‘Here we are.’

The moss was more comfortable than she expected, but Lettle didn’t expect to sleep.

As Afa lay down and rolled away from her, she said, ‘Sleep well. We can talk more in the morning.’

He hesitated, before he answered, ‘Sleep well.’

Afa may have lived a thousand years, but my determination is relentless.

Chapter Fourteen

Yeeran

Yeeran woke to the sound of the cat catching a mouse. She heard its jaw clamp around its neck, and the mouse’s death-squeak as its heart stopped beating.

What a lovely wake-up, she thought as she stretched. But then Furi nuzzled closer into her neck and she whispered with real feeling, ‘This is a lovely wake-up.’

‘Hmm?’ Furi mumbled.

Pila, what colour is the fray?

Like a lemon skin.