The Fire Sisters (Brilliant Darkness 3) (31 page)

No.

I shake my head, clearing it, and instead hold close the memory of the last few months of my life.

I kept my people alive in the caves by collecting the water. Peree and I led as many as we could to the safety of Koolkuna. We brought the children home from the Cloister—almost. I’ve faced the Scourge again and again and survived. I can do this.

The creatures shift around me, breathing their hot breath in my face. So close, but not touching me.

“Do you want food?” My voice quivers, and my arm, holding the pack, shakes. “Are you hungry?”

The moans grow more frantic.

Trying not to touch them, I gesture behind me toward what I hope are the packs and the remaining food the Sisters gave us. “Take anything you need. It’s yours.”

My muscles are tight and my mouth is dry as crumbled leaves, but I keep still, waiting.

Slowly, my pack is lifted out of my hand.

Footsteps shuffle past me, toward the other packs. Things are tossed to the ground with soft thumps. I catch the sounds of biting, chewing, swallowing. They understood me.

“Eat,” I say. “As much as you want.”

And they do. They listen.

I’m desperate to get on the trail back to Koolkuna, but will the sick ones let me go? I wait, shifting my feet, and then finally decide to ask.

“I’m leaving now. Please… let me go.”

Somehow, speaking to them seems right. I spoke to the sick one who was with me in the pit, and it listened. Kadee talked to a group of them when we traveled home through the forest from Koolkuna. The
anuna
who offer food to the
runa
speak to them. They treat them with respect, or at least compassion, and the sick ones respond.

I begin to pick my way around the sounds of them, out of the crowd. Aloe’s stick taps in front of me at a rate much slower than my heart. As I take one step after another, the sick ones seem to melt out of my way. The groans and shrieks quiet, fade, and stop. There’s silence among the trees. I take a long breath.

When I became the Water Bearer, I was frightened of the sick ones, sickened by them, and I wanted nothing more than for them to disappear. And now… now I want to help them. I’m not sure how, but I’ll find a way. Maybe Nerang can help. I’ll make it my goal, along with working together with the Sisters to better both of our communities.

The sounds of the sick ones recede behind me. With a new sense of purpose, I travel the last of the journey to Koolkuna alone.

Birds begin to trill and chirp as light filters in through the branches of trees far overhead. Before long, I can hear the waterfall crashing noisily into the Myuna on my right, flowing from the Dark Places, oblivious to the early morning hour. I follow the dirt trail from the water hole to the edge of the still-quiet village.

I’m at the outskirts when I smell something that makes me skid to a stop: clove smoke.

“Nerang!”

“Good morning, young one.”

I’m almost afraid to say the words. “Did they… did they all make it back?”

“Yes, they did.”

“And… are they okay?”

“They are,” he says.

My shoulders collapse with relief. “Thank the stars. But then… what are you doing out here?”

“Waiting for you.” He hooks my hand onto his arm and begins to stroll in the direction of the
allawah
at the center of the village. Dazed, I follow.

“The children—?” I ask.

“Are in their beds, sleeping.”

“And Peree and the others—?”

“Are recovering in the
allawah.
I gave them some of my special tea to help calm them. Most are sleeping. Kadee is with them; not to worry.”

I pull him to a stop. “Nerang, are you sure everything is okay?”

He chuckles. “Young one, nothing could be better. It is the start of what looks like a beautiful day, our
guru
are home, and you all came back to us.”

“It’s just, you’re so… calm.”

“Have you not had enough excitement? I gathered enough of the story to know what you have been through.”

“Yes, but—”

“Mirii.” He pats my hand. “I am amazed at what you have accomplished. I was not wrong to put my trust in you, young as you are. But you have a long day of celebration, gratitude, and surprises ahead of you. I thought you might enjoy a few moments of peace now.”

I exhale and lean against him. He’s right. It
is
nice, no matter how short-lived.

“You’re a strange person, Nerang. Strange but wise. I like you a lot.”

“And you are an exceptional young woman, Fennel. You will hear it many times from the
anuna
, I am sure, but I want you to hear it from
me
first—thank you.” His words are heartfelt. “Thank you for bringing the
guru
, and yourselves, safely home.”

I beam. Praise from Nerang is like an extra helping of dessert.

“However,” he chides, “having a visit from a Fire Sister was… unexpected.”

“You’ll like Alev, Nerang. She knows a lot about the world, like you. Oh, um,” I scratch my nose, “and how do you feel about working with the Sisters? Because… I sort of already told them we would. And that you’d show Alev the way the sick ones change after she’s drunk from the Myuna for a while.”

“We will discuss it. For now, rest.”

The man does love his rest.

We sit together on a log near the
allawah
as the day blooms around us. Nerang smokes, and I think about how long it’s been since I’ve just sat. As long as the others are okay, then there’s nothing to do, nowhere to go, no people to lead or children to rescue. No life-threatening danger hanging over my head.

I can get used to this.

“There is some sad news, young one,” the healer says after a while.

“Wirrim?” I guess. Kadee warned me he might pass on before I left with the search party. “I’m so sorry.”

He exhales, and the sweet smoke tickles my nose. “He was a very good man. I will miss him. But he has taught Kadee well.”

So she’ll take over as Memory Keeper for the
anuna
. From what I can tell, the role is part leader, part group conscience. I think it’s a sign of who the
anuna
are, their values of openness and equity that they would allow a woman who was once a
lorinya
to inherit it. Aloe was one of the Council of Three, and Kadee is the Memory Keeper. I hope I will be remembered as a leader one day, as both my mothers will be.

It isn’t long before the village begins to stir and the
anuna
gather. After that, it’s a blur of joy, being passed from person to person, hugged on, cried on, and thanked. I lose track of who I’ve spoken to and who I haven’t. I just have to plaster a grin on my face and enjoy the ride.

Peree and the others wake from their tea stupor and join me, sharing in the attention. An impromptu feast is drummed up, and the smell of meat and fresh bread make my stomach roar with hunger for food I won’t have a chance to eat. Peree kisses me over and over, not letting me go for a moment.

We all have to repeatedly tell the tale of the Fire Sisters. Moray and his brothers crack jokes and laugh, making light of everything that happened, no matter how serious. They don’t mention Frost. The children tell their story, causing their parents to cry every time. I notice we all change the details a bit, in deference to Alev. The
anuna
seem to address her cautiously at first, but they warm after she formally apologizes for the Gathering, vowing it won’t happen again. Not everyone will let it go at that, but I think I know the
anuna
well enough to be confident they’ll at least give her a chance to make amends.

“Fennel, my daughter, welcome home,” Kadee says when she finally reaches me. The smile and tears in her voice are echoed in my own. We talk, catching up, although it’s impossible to cover everything in the few moments we have before a new parent pulls me in for a hug. Arika, Kora and Darel’s mother, returns again and again to thank Peree and me.

When Moon gets to me, she almost knocks me off my feet. She’s so choked up that she can’t even speak. Petrel greets me with a more measured hug, Yani squealing in his arms.

“And how are you?” I coo to the baby. Her scent of fresh spring grass and florals is a salve to my soul. “Have you grown? Are you walking yet?” I tease.

“Thank you
so
much for bringing Thrush home,” Moon says. Her words fly by so fast my ears barely catch them. Her tears wet my face as she hugs me. “We’re naming our next child after you or Peree.”

I try to tell her I’m flattered, but she’s already off again.

“I have a surprise for you! Wait here.”

She runs away, leaving me breathless. Moon makes my head spin, but I love her. She returns a few minutes later, and the
anuna
all around us quiet down.

“What is it?” I mutter to Peree. I’m a little afraid of what his cousin cooked up, to be honest. He doesn’t answer.

“Fennel?”

My mouth drops open at the voice. Can it really be—?

“Calli? Is that you?” I say.

“Yes! And Fox and Acacia, too!” She shrieks and runs to me.

Her long hair smothers me. She’s screaming in my ear, and I’m screaming right back in hers. We jump up and down, asking questions all at the same time.

“What are you doing here?”

“When did you get back?”

“Is everything okay at home?”

“What is a
lorinya
? They keep calling us that.”

She whispers the last one, and I laugh. “I’ll tell you later. You remember Peree, right?”

Calli wasn’t Peree’s biggest fan before—at least she wasn’t happy I was intended to a Lofty—but she greets him cheerfully now. I think she even hugs him. Fox and Acacia come to me next; their family’s collective embrace feels as natural as breathing.

“Why are you here?” I ask them again. “Is everything okay at home?”

Fox sounds much the same as he always has when he answers. “We decided to come and see Koolkuna, meet Nerang and the rest of the
anuna
, and decide for ourselves if it might be prudent to, well, relocate. If it’s still a possibility,” he hurries to add.

“I think it will be,” I whisper to him.

They tell Peree and me that relations with the Lofties have improved, but Breeze, Osprey, and Thistle would not be invited to join us in Koolkuna. I’m glad to hear it. I doubt Peree or Moray would mind either, even though they’re family.

I can’t stop hugging Calli. I think I’m in shock. “How did you even find your way here?”

“The crampberries you smeared on the walls of the caves,” she says. “They still smell something
awful
.”

“And what about Cricket?” I ask. “Where do things stand with him?”

“He wants to come to Koolkuna, if we do. We’ll partner in the spring.” Her voice sparkles with enthusiasm, before she lowers it. “They
do
partner here, don’t they?”

Calli and Bear reunite with as much excitement as she and I did. He introduces her to Kai, who manages to sound friendly. We all join the
anuna,
now clustered around the fire chatting. Calli prattles with them as if she’s known them for years. Hearing my old and new friends celebrating together, and the children shouting and laughing as they run around the clearing in dizzying circles… it all feels so lovely, natural, and
normal.

Peree pulls me in close. “Happy?”

I tell him I am. But—

As Calli called my name, I thought it might be someone else for just a moment—the one voice I’d give almost anything to hear again. I haven’t allowed myself to hope—not really—but some nights I’ve dreamed that Peree and the others were wrong and that Eland wasn’t killed. That Calli and her parents could have nursed him back to health. That I might have my brother back.

But this is real life, not one of Kora’s beloved fairy tales. When someone dies, they don’t magically spring to life.

I can dwell on death, or I can choose to live. Suddenly, the choice seems easy.

Peree and I couldn’t bring ourselves to partner at the Myuna, as we’d planned before. Too many bad memories. We aren’t in any finery; there’s no feast. We wanted only a simple ceremony, witnessed by those we care about. And that’s what we have.

Kadee, Calli, Amarina, and Arika walk with me to the clearing. Konol, Petrel, and Bear, of all people, walk with Peree. Friends, old and new, greet us as we arrive, all except for Fox and Acacia. They went home already, eager to persuade other Groundlings and Lofties to join us here. I think they’ll have an easier time of it than Peree and I did.

My hair, smelling of the stinging nettle soap Kadee had left over from summer, flows loose down my back. It blows a bit in the breeze as Peree takes my hand beside the sparkling fire.

“Nice night,” he whispers as he takes my outstretched hand. He sighs. “I can’t seem to not talk about the weather when I’m nervous.”

I giggle, a sure sign
I’m
nervous. I take a deep breath to center myself.

“I love you,” I tell him. That’s why I’m here, after all.

“I love you, too.”

I finger the leather band I’ve been hiding in one pocket or another since this morning. “I have something for you.”

“I have something for you, too.”

“And I have something for you both as well,” Nerang says from beside us. Koolkuna’s healer likes to complain that he’s old and decrepit, but he can be as silent as a predator when he wants to be.

Small hands—Kora’s—pass me a fistful of stems. It’s heather again, from the complex scent. I breathe it in and thank her.

Nerang’s voice becomes more formal as he begins to speak in the first language. I focus on the feel of Peree’s hand in mine: his strong fingers, the rough patches on the pads from his bow. He holds my scarred and battered hands gently—sheltering, never shackling. His love gives me confidence, resiliency. It makes me more than I already am. I’m thrilled by the heady promise of life with him.