Page 64 of Moonless

She tsks at me and turns the spit a little in its notch. “Of course you’d ask that.”

I sit with my hands on my knees while she checks the side nearest the heat. The light’s nearly gone from the wall above the passage.

“There are some outside. I saw them on the way up, around the rock where the path turns.”

I know the place. I can’t see it from the entrance, but I’d hear her on that path from here.

She shifts both fish to the cooler edge of the hearth and stands.

“I’ll go and get them. Keep these here until I come back.”

She lifts her chin and waits beside the fire, her good hand gripping the loose cloth at her hip.

The passage is open beyond her shoulder. She’s braced for the no, and I’ve got it ready. I’ll run again. You know that.

Another thing to keep.

I let the breath out through my nose.

I nod.

Her fingers loosen, and her eyes widen a little. Then she dips her chin. There’s a small smile before she turns, and she walks out through the passage.

Chapter 17

I take the upper path around the rock to the plants I saw on the way up. They’re right by my foot when I stop. They can wait.

From up here I can see right out over the pines. The sun’s nearly down behind the far ridge. I look back for the entrance, and the rock’s in the way. He can’t see me from the fire, and he nodded anyway.

I could keep walking.

Down past the herbs, into the trees, and I know the way to the river from there. Home’s upstream. I wouldn’t bother with a false trail this time.

I left Rauk by the fire with two fish and orders not to move them. I’d be in the trees before he even got up.

So go.

Keer used to catch my sleeve when I walked past him. Just two fingers in the cloth, enough to keep me there until I told him where I was going. I’d pull it free and tell him somewhere farther away.

I want his hand on my sleeve. I wouldn’t even pull it free.

And Mel. Fuck, I want to hear her complain about my fish again. I want to put a properly cleaned one in front of her and make her find something else wrong with it.

The sun’s gone behind the ridge, and I’m still standing here.

There’s still enough light to see the leaves. Mel showed me these, holding a sprig under my nose before it went in the pot. I bend over them with my left arm tucked in.

I pinch off a stem, then another beside it. The string marks sting when I close my fingers, so I hold the bunch looser and keep going until there’s enough for both fish.

I’ll finish supper.

I straighten up and turn back toward the den with the herbs.

Chapter 18

Her foot wraps scrape on stone out past the bend.

I’m on my feet by the fire, listening for the next one. I’ve heard every step since she walked out. She stopped once, long enough that I got up.