“That’s where the unmated golems end up. The statues you saw standing in rows… Those were once living, breathing golems. They didn’t find their mates, or they lost them, and the calcification took everything.”
“Your mother,” I say.
“When our father died, she lost her soulmate. Without him, the calcification took her within a year. She’s standing up there now. She’ll stand there as long as the mountain does.”
I think about the woman in the Stillhalls, with Irrva’s cheekbones and wide mouth, with flowers at her feet. I think about Korr watching his mother turn to stone and knowing he was heading the same way.
“Have you not noticed anything about him?” Irrva asks. “The way he moves? The slowness, the stiffness?”
“I noticed. Sometimes his fingers don’t close all the way, and his joints catch when he walks. I thought it was a golem thing.”
“It’s not a golem thing. It’s his body seizing up. And the night we found him soaked in sweat, barely able to talk… That was an episode. His body had locked up. He could barely breathe.”
I cover my mouth with my hand. The broken plates on the floor, Irrva hauling him to bed while I ran to get water, not understanding what was happening, thinking he only had a fever.
“I slept in his bed that night,” I say through my fingers. “I stayed with him, and in the morning, he was better. He could move.”
Irrva smiles.
“Because you’re his soulmate. You’re the one he’s been looking for. He spent two years going to bride markets across Alia Terra, buying woman after woman, bringing them back here, hoping he’d find the one. More than twenty women, I believe. I stopped counting. None of them were his mate, so he gave them their freedom and a home in the Narrowhalls. Finally, you came, and his body started healing.”
My face heats up. “We’ve been… Korr and I…”
Irrva throws her head back and lets out a laugh.
“I’m glad. He’s himself again. His body moves the way it did years ago. I couldn’t be happier.”
I sit with it, turning the cup in my hands, letting the pieces rearrange themselves. The lemonade carafe shaking in his grip, his struggle to stand from the workshop stool, the way his fingers managed the bracelet clasp because I was sitting close to him. The cracks on his skin growing shallower after I started sleeping beside him… Now I have all the pieces of the puzzle.
He never told me… Was he ever going to tell me?
“Thank you for the tea,” I say. “I need to go scold your brother.”
Irrva groans. “Oh, he’ll kill me now.”
“He’s the one in trouble, not you.”
I walk fast, holding back when I want to run again. My mind is reorganizing everything I’ve observed since I arrived in Steinheim. When Irrva took me to the Stillhalls, she said calcification was a natural thing that happens to golems at some point. I understand now that Korr asked her not to say more, and she kept his secret even as she was forced to watch him turn to stone. I can’t be angry at her for that, but I can be angry at him.
I push through our door with a grin.
Korr comes out of the bedroom when he hears me. I can read the anxiety on him. His eyes search my face for clues about my state of mind. He thinks I’m going to leave him. He thinks his words pushed me too far and I came back to end it.
I narrow my eyes at him, march up to him, and smack his chest as hard as I can. The impact stings my hand.
“You massive oaf! Why didn’t you tell me you were practically dying?”
He stares down at me. “What?”
“The calcification. You should’ve told me. I had to hear it from Irrva.” I jab my finger up at him. “When she took me to visit the Stillhalls… I can’t believe you let me go up there and didn’t tell me what happened to your mother. What happens to golems who don’t find their soulmates. What was happening to you.”
“I’m sorry.” His eyes widen and his voice is pleading. “I didn’t want to put pressure on you. At first, I wasn’t sure you were the one. I didn’t know until you started touching me more, and I noticed I was feeling better.”
“You should’ve told me,” I whisper.
“I know. I’m sorry.” He holds my gaze. “From now on, I won’t keep things from you.”
I reach up and make a gesture with my hands that prompts him to lift me up. I wrap my arms around his neck.
