Eventually, Timon broke the silence. "How many men died, do you think?" He wasn't talking to anyone in particular.
"Fewer than normal," I said.
"I saw the Wyvern," Jeshiah admitted. "His tail..."
"Blue," Elijah agreed. "So blue. Usually, the feathers on his arrows are too, and when one hits you, you're as good as dead."
"The Phoenix is the same way," I said, watching Elijah closely.
One corner of his mouth curled. "Yeah. She is."
"Wild woman?" Jeshiah asked.
I simply looked at Elijah and lifted a brow, making it clear he could answer that however he wanted.
The man simply nodded. "She is now."
"Now?" Uriah asked. "What was she before?"
"My sister," Elijah said, keeping his eyes forward but halfway closed against the growing glare. "Her name was Ayla Ross before. She's six years younger than me and was sacrificed to the Dragons for trying to kill a man."
"Oh..." Timon breathed. "I remember that. Mr. Cassidy preached about her often."
"And the other," Jeshiah said. "Gideon's wife. Is she a wild woman too?"
"Haven't seen her," Elijah admitted. "What about you, Tobias?"
"Merienne?" I shook my head. "My own wife roomed with them as a girl. That's the reason no one else wanted to marry her."
"Lucky you," Elijah said, then left it at that.
We walked. No one looked at each other, but I got the impression Elijah had just dropped some heavy knowledge on the younger members of my squad. Now it felt like no one was sure what to say. I knew I wasn't. I certainly didn't trust any of these men.
None of them were like Sylis. Elijah may have changed his mind about hunting after Ayla saved him - or maybe not - but that didn't change the fact that he'd been fine with it before then. Jeshiah asked too many questions. For all I knew, Gideon had offered him a promotion if he got something incriminating out of me.
Timon wasn't any better. He watched everything, those pale eyes of his lingering like he was trying to memorize every detail he saw. Then there was Uriah. That young man was quiet. He wasn't straight out of sermon, but only barely. Twenty-one? Maybe? I didn't know, but when I'd asked about his duties before being assigned to us, he'd told me he'd been a gatherer - like me. So after a while, I decided to bring it up, hoping to get a little information of my own.
"Hey, Uriah? When did you join the gatherers?"
He hummed, thinking. "September? Not that long ago. Why?"
"What did you do before that?" I pressed.
He looked down, kicking at the leaves as he passed. "I was being trained for rendering."
"Ugh, really?" Jeshiah asked. "You had to cut them up?"
"It," I corrected. "That's meat."
And Jeshiah spun, shoving into my face. "That's more than meat, Tobias. Maybe you can ignore it, but thosepeoplehave hands and wear clothes!"
"They are the Devil's beasts," I reminded him. "That is what the elders say, so that must be the truth."
"And," Elijah added, "if you think otherwise, there's a good chance you'll be left with Abiel."
"What?" Timon asked. "Why? We need all the hunters we can get."
Elijah looked over at me, then pushed out a heavy sigh. "Look..." And he gave me his full attention. "Turn me in if you want, Tobias. We all know you've excelled as a hunter, but I didn't. Haven't. The only reason I'm still here is because mysisterrecognized me. The Wyvern decided that was a good enough reason to givemea chance. They killed others. They didn't care, and I'm not foolish enough to think it was God who saved me."
