Ardruna snorts, lying down on her belly and resting her muzzle on her front paws. “I’ll just pretend I don’t know them.”
I laugh softly, but for some reason, I feel sad. They are like a family, and I miss mine. Their easy banter, their teasing, their friendship, it all makes me feel more alone.
“It’s all right,” Olm says. “You have me.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
GO HOME
ADELINE
“He’s a beast,” Olm gripes as I eventually get up, testing my legs, my balance, my strength. “Grunting, lumbering around, eating straight from the pot?—”
“He doesn’tlumber.”
“Oh, that’s your great objection? And did you forget he pretended he was mute to avoid talking to you?”
Is that what he did? I haven’t had much chance to work everything out in my mind yet. My thoughts keep shying away from certain facts.
“I haven’t forgotten.” I remember his long fingers as he’d started the fire and cut up the greens. As he’d touched my face. “It’s not that.”
“It’s not what?” Ardruna lifts her head.
I flinch. “Nothing.”
“I see. Are you talking to yourself… or the book?” she asks.
“Um, the book. Olm.”
Her blue eyes flare. “A character. You should stop talking to him. Nothing good will come from this.”
“This?What do you mean? How can talking to him hurt?”
“You think of him as a person.”
“Heisa person!” I say, indignant. “He’s real.”
“I am so real,” Olm agrees. “More so than most people.”
“No, he’s a figment of an author’s imagination,” Ardruna insists. “Don’t let him influence you.”
“I’m not,” I mutter, annoyed. “We were just talking.”
She harrumphs. “It’s time to bind and lock that book away, and be done with it.”
“You let her talk about me like that?” Olm whines. “So cruel. As if I’ve done anything to harm you, or anyone else.”
I don’t reply, my neck warm, my mind unclear. The only thought standing out is that Ardruna is right, I need to put Olm’s book on a shelf and walk away.
Somehow.
And for that, I need Roane.
“Ready?” Ardruna waits until I’ve braided my hair and twisted it in a bun at the back of my head, then tightened the cloth belt around my chest.
“Do you know where Roane is?”
“His usual spot, by my guess.”
