“You know what I mean.” He sighs. “The Adropo tribe was just the first. There will be others. Others like Sprub’ex.”
“Then we shall deal with them like with Sprub’ex.”
He hesitates, then adds, “They also talk about what we keep in the water over there.”
My jaw tightens.
“It sounds as if they know. They say powerful things draw powerful things,” he continues. “And that when such things gather, disaster follows if they are not managed. The Plood and the Darkness… the connection is well known.”
“She’s not Plood,” I state wearily. “They didn’t send her.”
Carter’ez meets my eyes. “The men look at her. Then they look at the cage.”
Anger flares, hot and sudden. “She has nothing to do with that!”
“I believe you,” he says. “But other beliefs spread faster.”
I watch the smoke curl upward, gray and heavy against the sky. The special red-smoke wood is all gone.
When Callie finds me again, she’s holding two bowls of stew.
“They’re already talking about next season’s planting,” she says, handing me one. “Gren’ix thinks we can double the beds if the fertilizer works the way I think it will.”
“That’s good,” I say. “Gren’ix likes his plants. And the tribe needs them.”
She scoops a spoonful of stew. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing in particular. It’s been a long day. I’m… empty.”
She does not believe me, but she lets it go. “Today was good. Wasn’t it?”
“It really was,” I say. “The best day the tribe has seen.”
“And things can get better,” she continues. “When we go to see Theodora. When things settle, as you say.”
I don't answer at once.
She lifts her head slightly. “Crat'ax?”
“It will take time,” I say carefully.
“How much time?”
“I don’t know.”
Her eyes search mine. “You said after the splix run.”
“The run was huge,” I reply. “And now there is trade. More splix than we’ve ever had.”
Her mouth tightens. “There is always something.”
I reach for her, but she bends away, out of reach.
“I will keep my word,” I say.
She nods, but I feel the doubt settle between us like a third body.
After she sleeps, I lie awake.
