I wonder.
Chapter 23
Whenwegetbackto the cottage, Zan carefully locks the door, looks at me, and holds out a hand to me.
It trembles, just slightly.
Mine does too, as I take it.
Wordlessly, Zan leads me to his room—not our room, I realize, at least not in my head.
He sits me down on the edge of the bed and bends down to untie my shoes, and then his, and then comes to bed and holds out his arms.
I turn into them without hesitation, and he lays us both down, him beneath me once again, and reaches back to draw the covers over us.
Tension I didn’t realize I was holding immediately drains out of me, and soon, lulled by the feeling of warmth in his arms, the solidity of his heart beating, I fall right to sleep, wrapped in him.
WhenIawaken,assoon as I open my eyes, I feel Zan do the same beneath me.
“Everything okay?” he murmurs. “It’s early.”
So early it’s still dark outside.
“Something’s wrong,” I say.
His eyes glint beneath me, a pale light in the darkness. “Do you know what?”
I do a mental scan as far as I can reach now that I’m conscious and then shake my head slowly, sitting up. “I can’t put my finger on anything. I don’t get vague senses of dread for no reason, though.”
“I believe you,” Zan says simply. No doubt in him. “You won’t be able to sleep again.”
“No.”
He nods, sitting up. “We can probably assume it’s something to do with the priests—”
“—and probably not up here on the mountain, at least directly. I’d be able to sense them now.”
“So likely in Crystal Hollow, yes? Could you have noticed something farther afield?”
“No.” The island had been the limit of my perception because of the Quiet, and even that was wider than a sage was supposed to be able to feel.
I can’t properly sense Crystal Hollow anymore from here, which was how the Sage of Compassion could enter yesterday without my noticing. But I wonder if some sympathetic awareness remains, and that’s why all I have now is this ominous feeling.
I didn’t feel anything when the priests came yesterday, so what does it mean that I feel it now?
“It’s too early to go down yet,” Zan says. “If we don’t know what we’re looking for, showing up before people are even awake for the day will only make it look like we’re trying to pressure them.”
Argh. “How long?”
Zan closes his eyes, getting a feel for the time of day.
I used to be able to do that. My ability to sense the passage of time broke when I created the Quiet.
I wonder if I should make an effort to reacquire it, or if being able tofeelthe passage of time will make me mad.
“Two hours until sunrise,” Zan says. “That’s the earliest we can reasonably show up without appearing to be skulking.”
He could probably hide his presence, but if what we need to do is talk to people to find out what’s going on, that won’t help.
