“I declined offers because I wanted you. Now, a lot of the men are paired off.”
“Demand my pity, and you’ll receive nothing.”
There was a distinct flash across her eyes, a burning flame that attempted to send my soul to the pyre. She held too much anger for her to express, and for the first time, she was speechless. It seemed like she considered slapping me, and she probably would have if there weren’t a gathering of witnesses to see it. She walked past me and headed toward the cabins, her footsteps growing quiet and then silent once she was gone.
My eyes returned to Hanne. She presented the vegetables that she’d prepared and dumped half of them into the first cauldron that was about to hang over the fire. We had too much meat to cook at once, so it would have to be done in batches.
If I weren’t so damn hungry, I would retire to my cabin for the evening, but all I’d had the last few days had been a couple pieces of jerky. Hanne had donated her jerky to me, but even then, it wasn’t close to being enough.
I moved to the table where Hanne had been sitting and looked at the pile of seeds that she had harvested on the linen. They were small enough to be dots, and it was hard to believe something as hearty as a potato could come from something so tiny. I stared around at the efforts from the hard work of my labor, of the risk I’d taken to my life. It seemed like such a small payment for such a great adventure, but it was something.
Hanne returned to the table and sat across from me. She hardly knew me, but she was hesitant, like she could read the anger on my face or could feel it like flames from a fire. She took a seat and didn’t inundate me with questions about my mentalstate. Her eyes moved to the seeds she had gathered, and she separated them into two piles. “I’ll plant these soon. If I wait too long, they’ll dry and wither.”
I gave a slight nod.
“We should go back for more. Because not all seeds take root, and not all plantings lead to bountiful harvests. The more, the better. Plus, I didn’t find the mushrooms. Those are nice because it’s nearly impossible to kill them.”
“We’ll make our plans tomorrow.” I was tired, hungry, and fucking mad. I did my best to hide it from her because she didn’t deserve wrath that she didn’t provoke. But she seemed too intuitive not to notice. And too smart to ask me about it.
Silence fell, and it seemed agreeable to us both. She continued to examine the seeds that she had extracted from the vegetables, either because she was that engrossed in the task or she wanted to avoid my gaze.
I continued to look at her, to stare at the eyes that were impossible to describe. I’d noticed them the first time I saw her, but now I studied them in far greater detail. “Do others on the surface have eyes like yours?”
She looked up from her work, her brilliant eyes slightly provoked by the question. “No…they’re rare.”
Now that her eyes looked directly into mine, I could see their texture, the subtle cracked lines within the blue. Like a stone at the bottom of a blue river. “Why?”
“I don’t know. I just know it’s been in my bloodline for generations.”
“Peasants don’t speak of bloodlines. Only nobility.” I didn’t force myself into her crypt of secrets with a shovel. I knocked at the door and waited for her to answer.
Her eyes dropped down to the seeds again. “You’re right.”
“Morco.”
I turned when I heard Caius address me. He carried a large bowl toward me, a bowl bigger than the ones we normally used during eating times. Steam was heavy on the surface, like smoke from a bonfire.
He placed it on the table and slid it toward me. “You eat first, Chief.” He stopped when the bowl was in front of me, and he handed me the wooden spoon, his lips in a slight smile.
I stared at the spoon for a second before I took it, hating the attention that I drew from everyone in the Gathering but also moved by it. I felt like a failure to these people every day—except for this one.
I took the spoon. “Thank you, Caius.”
He clapped me on the shoulder.
“I provided the meat, but Hanne provided everything else. She eats second.”
Caius gave no objection and returned to the fire to get a second bowl.
I left the spoon inside the bowl, the steam still dancing on the surface like flames.
Caius brought the next bowl and set it in front of her, along with another spoon.
Both of our meals were too hot to eat, so neither of us touched them, just looking at each other as we waited for the food to cool. My back was to the fire and she faced it directly, so her eyes had greater depth and detail in the light. Her hair was still a mess from the journey and she looked dead tired, but her eyes continued to burn like the bonfire that was reflected in her stare, a flame that would never extinguish.
6
HANNE
