I walk past a line of interfolk workers, their wiry arms rising and falling with picks and hammers as they open up a new vein to search for silver. Some of them are bulkier and more masculine looking than others, while many seem to be struggling to even lift their heavy tools.
My face sinks when I see one long-haired blonde girl, smaller in stature than the rest. Her back is to me and her arms tremble as she lifts her hammer and smashes it against a stone, letting out a small yelp of frustration.
I resist the urge to say something to her.Maybe I could show her how to hold the hammer better?
Shaking my head, I continue on, catching a glimpse of their profile—
And freeze with a double take. My eyes bulge.
“Palacia?” I cry out against the cloud of dust and incessant ringing of hammers on stone.I must be mistaken.
The interfolk girl stops, arms lifted, and slowly turns at the sound of my voice. Sure enough, it’s the pretty face of someone I knew years ago with the Grimsons. One of six interfolk members who were part of the sixty-strong underground fighting gang.
Palacia drops her hammer. She smears her dusty forehead with the back of her forearm, sweat lining her brow. “By the True, is that you, Sephania?” Her voice is high and lilting—a welcome sound for sore ears.
I smile wide and approach, wrapping the small person in a bear hug that lets me know just how frail and bony she really is.
Palacia stands as tall as my chest, chin tilted back to stare wondrously at my face. “Spirits and deities, you’re a sight!” she squeals happily, earning some glowers from her fellow workers.
“What are you doing here, Pala?” I ask, baffled at this chance encounter.What’s someone who’s only known the Nuhavian Floorboards doing a world away in Olhav?
“What’s it look like?” There’s no animosity in her tone as she flings her arms out wide. “Working.”
“But . . .here?” I lean forward and my brow lifts. “What about the Grimsons?”
She flaps a hand at me. “Left there a few months ago once Master Antones gave us the option. Not many followed, I admit.”
I rub the back of my neck, curious yet also wanting to respect Palacia’s privacy if she’s keen on staying mum. “And Imis? Did she follow?”
The girl’s face sinks. I know I’ve made a mistake. Imis was the resident letter-writer of the Firehold—the big-eyed girl who once obsessed over me before finding Palacia and . . . obsessing over the thin, quaint interfolk girl’sotherassets to anyone who would listen.
With my current need aching at the back of my mind, just thinking about Imis and the way she always gushed about Palacia makes me tilt my head and shamelessly glance down where, even in her baggy work pants, I can see she’s smuggled something disproportional and bulging against her narrow thighs.Seems it wasn’t a tall tale after all, Imis. Impressive, especially for one so small and dainty—
I reel back, clearing my throat. Luckily, if Palacia noticed my spying, she says nothing of it. That doesn’t stop my cheeks from burning. “Erm, what was that?” I ask, seeing Palacia’s lips move, then waving a hand. “It’s noisy in this mess.”
Palacia smiles sadly. “I said Imis was taken as broodstock, Seph. Went kicking and screaming.”
With a sharp inhale, I seethe. “No. Antones has allowed that barbaric practice to continue, even with Lukain’s death?”
She winces. “Had to make room for the new recruits. Ant took in a lot of guttergirls and sewerboys from the Diplomats.”
At my urging. Shit.
“When I left, things were chaotic, Seph. Factions had formed. I didn’t like it. Rirth changed and took on a leadership role after Culiar’s death.”
Also caused by me. Fuck.
“It was Rirth who resumed the shadowgalas, not Antones. Rirth saw it as the only way for people to find freedom. He said leaving the Grimsons to wallow in Nuhav wasn’t freedom at all. I disagreed.”
“By the True, Palacia, I’m so sorry.” I reach out and put a hand on her bony shoulder. “That sounds trying.”
“I loved them, you know? Rirth, Culiar, Imis, Helget—all of them. I guess the gang had to split up at some point. Helget was chosen, then Imis. I don’t think Im knew what she was getting into when she agreed to follow Rirth.” Palacia scoffs disgustedly, clearly trapped in her memories. “Foolish tart. We girls trained foryearsin the Firehold, just for such a thing! How could she not know what awaited her as broodstock?!”
The girl is starting to get hysterical, and wish I could do something.Her dreams must haunt her. Like me, wishing she could have done things differently.
“Alas,” Pala finishes with a sigh. She sweeps her arm out at the dusty workers behind us, lined up among the sloping rocks. “I’m better suited to my own kind. So I came here.”
My brow furrows. “Your ownkind?” I fumble with my words, choking back a sound. “But you’re a human, Pala. Humans belong in Nuhav.”
