Isla supposed it wasn’t a common color found here. Their own eyes were like the woman’s—amber.
“That’s right,” Isla said.
“Why?” he demanded.
Isla didn’t know how to respond. She couldn’t exactly share that she was from another world.
Luckily, Jessel stopped her from having to say anything at all. “Agor. I’m making pepper pie. Do you want to help get some from the sands?”
The little boy lit up, immediately forgetting about Isla’s strange eyes. He ran outside, Prelis at his heels.
“Sorry about that,” Jessel said.
“It’s okay,” Isla said, trying to form a smile. “Your children are adorable.”
“Oh, they’re not mine,” she said. “Not by blood anyway.” Isla could fill in the blanks.
Jessel motioned toward a bench formed from the stone wall. “Sit,” she said. She peered at Isla with a mixture of curiosity and wariness. “Because I do want to know how you have eyes the color of treetops.”
Isla hadn’t expected to be so honest with Jessel. Maybe it was because she just needed someone to talk to. But she found herself telling herthat she was from a place where green was everywhere, and flowers bloomed in every color imaginable.
And Jessel just sat and listened. It didn’t seem like she could be shocked by anything.
“This world was like that once,” she said. Isla couldn’t imagine living in the wreckage of a world like this. Finding, occasionally, signs that it had been something different.
Would that happen to her own world if Cronan got his way? Or would he simply consume it until there was nothing left?
“I’m not old enough to have seen it, of course,” Jessel continued. “It’s been like this for a long, long time. But there are tiny pockets of what once was. And there are some beings...that remember.”
Remlar had said something similar—he was of this world too and remembered what few had. Isla swallowed down the jolt of pain at the memory. Remlar’s death still felt unbelievable, that a creature so ancient could just cease to exist. He had died for the chance at a better world. And Isla had failed him, just like she had failed every single person that had believed in her.
“When I first arrived here,” Isla said, “I was captured by a group of scavengers in the desert. They were able to wield power. But I haven’t seen anyone in this village do anything like that...”
Jessel shook her head. “There are many factions in these lands,” she said, “and I don’t know much about them. But they trade in artifacts they’ve collected from other worlds that end up here—it’s possible they found a way to harness the storms though one of those, to get through...the block.”
Their necklaces must have been like Azul’s rings, then.
Isla paused, deep in thought. “What do you know abouthim?”
A shadow fell upon Jessel’s expression from where she stood kneading dough. Isla didn’t have to clarify who she meant. “I know he’s the reason for all this ruin. Him...and his knights.”
“Has anyone ever tried to oppose him?”
She huffed a laugh. “Of course. But anyone foolish enough to try never came back.” She nodded toward a crudely made game in the corner, built of glass and carved rock. It belonged to the boys. “That’s what happened to their parents.” She sighed. “They fought...and for what?”
Jessel frowned like someone whose hope had been drained. She looked at Isla, sidelong. “Is that why you’re here? To destroy him?”
Isla nodded. She didn’t know if it was unwise, telling her this. “And to save my world.”
She was doing an awful job at both.
Still, Jessel just stared at her. “Save ours, while you’re at it, will you?” she asked. Her lips curved into a crooked smile. Her tone was lighthearted, but Isla didn’t miss the desperation beneath it.
The boys returned just minutes later, and the room was filled with laughter and chaos. For a single night, Isla could almost forget the agony of her current circumstance. She could eat. She could wash the dirt and blood from her face and rest.
Jessel offered warm blankets and a soft place on the floor. For a few hours, Isla allowed herself to sleep, while the rest of the household left to run their stand in the market. But when the sun was hottest, and everyone returned, and the house went quiet, Isla slipped out the door without saying goodbye.
It was only a matter of time before Grim found her. She did not want him—or Cronan—anywhere near Jessel and her boys. This was Isla’s mess to face.
