The jungle comes alive again. I hear the crash of the waves, the wind in the treetops, the water still dripping from the leaves.
I bury my nose in Callie’s humid hair and draw in the wonderful smell of her—salt, rain, and something warm and living beneath it all. She’s cold in my arms, and she shivers.
Still, I let go of her.
“I tried to keep you where you didn’t want to be,” I say. My voice sounds rough to my own ears. “And I didn’t tell you everything I should have.”
Callie sniffles. “It was the dragon. He said some things that… well, I was wrong. It really was dangerous to sail on the ocean. My boat sank.”
“Mine too,” I confess. “Smashed on the rocks.”
“You crazy man,” she says, looking up at me now, eyes red but fierce. “You knew it could kill you to go out of the bay and into the storm!”
I shrug, because there is no other answer that makes sense to me. “Every man must die. Coming after you would be worth dying for. And it was because of me you left, not the dragon. I did try to keep you in the village. Every time you said you wanted to go to your friend, I was already thinking of reasons not to go. What I would say next time. And the time after that.”
I huff a bitter breath. “There would be a charcoal firing I had to take part in. We had to smoke the splix. Then have a tribal feast to celebrate the splix catch. Then I could start building my new boat, and that would take many moons. And then perhaps the weather would be bad…”
“That’s how it felt,” Callie says quietly.
“I was afraid you’d stay with your friend. Or that the Plood would take you back. I thought that was why you wanted to go.”
“It wasn’t,” Callie says. “I just have to let Theodora know about me. And about you. I never wanted to leaveyou.”
My fists clench all by themselves. “I used the wordminemany times, talking about you. And it didn’t feel wrong. Just… not completely true. Because you are so clearly your own. Like you said.”
She looks up at me. “Crat'ax. You must know this. It was I who freed the dragon.”
I nod. “I thought so. I wondered if you… if you were his friend. From before, I mean. That you and he… But then I realized youcouldn’t have been. There’s no darkness in you. And he is pure Darkness.”
Callie reaches out and takes my hand. Her fingers are stiff and chilly. “Can you hold me? I’m cold.”
I gather her to me again, carefully, as if she might break. “I don’t want you cold. You can go anywhere you want, Callie. I won’t stop you. But I will help you, if I can.”
She exhales against my chest, some of the tightness leaving her shoulders. “Did you speak to the dragon?” she asks. “In his cage? About me?”
“I kept away from him. But I think he spoke to me anyway. From a distance. As if his voice was in my thoughts whenever my boat passed too close.”
“I think he talked to many tribesmen,” Callie says softly. “To Sprub’ex. And to me. I paddled out to his cage one night. He said you wouldn’t let me go. That I was a captive, like him.” She swallows. “I’m sorry. I know you never meant me to be a prisoner. I wish I’d never talked to him.”
My jaw clenches. “Those fools. The dragon hadn’t hurt us. But he threatened to, and they were afraid of the Lifegivers. I told them he wasn’t a danger if we stayed away.” I shake my head. “They didn’t tell me they were going to catch him. Not until he was already there.”
Callie shudders. “Why would they want him there?”
“I think they felt his power,” I say. “And once they had caged him, they couldn’t let him go. I felt the tribe change. Men muttering. Men disobeying rules, paddling out to ask him questions, and returning with darkness in their faces.” I glancetoward the sea. “I built the boat to get away from him. For a while. And then I foundyou.”
We stand like that, breathing together, the world slowly stitching itself back into place.
I draw in a steadying breath. “Callie. The old men spoke of something they heard from the Dry tribes. Something a man and a woman can do if they want to be together. Forever.”
She looks up, curious now.
“There’s a ceremony. And words.”
“I know,” she says gently. “It’s called ‘marriage’. We have it on Earth too.”
My eyes widen. “You do? Even on a planet with many women?”
“And many men,” she says, smiling. “Yes. Why?”
