She drew my head lower, and then, she kissed me.
Soft. Unhurried. I had no preparation for the gentleness of it. My hand found her waist, mostly because I needed to ground myself from this unexpected assault. The party outside was suddenly very far away. All I could process was her smell, sea salt and warm bread; the cool of the room against the warmthof her hand; the realization that shedidtaste as good as she smelled.
Her fingers slid up into my hair. The festival kept going without us, indifferent, and in here everything had narrowed down to the two of us in this dim room and nothing else.
I had been shot, stabbed, burned, and left for dead on various occasions. I had survived conditions that should not have been survivable. I had never once lost my footing.
This, I was sure, wasnotsurvivable. I’d met my match in the form of a small Runam woman. To think, I had once considered her an inconvenience.
She eased back before I could do anything I’d need to think carefully about afterward. She gazed up at me with heavy, languid eyes, and an expression that was warm and open and softly pleased. I was becoming aware that I would do any number of questionable things to keep seeing that look on her face.
“We should return to the festival,” she said.
Chapter
Twelve
Stay for the food
We stepped backinto the noise and I was hit with the full force of the festival all at once—the drums, the torches that had been lit along the harbor wall, the smell of fire and sea together. The music had changed. Less structured now, more improvisational, and the dancing near the dock had gotten looser and faster. Someone had rolled out a barrel of something.
The hunk of meat on that spit still smelled extraordinary. But all of it paled to the woman beside me.
“Are you okay?” Maive asked, and there I saw a rare glimpse of insecurity. “Maybe I shouldn’t have?—”
“Do not finish that sentence,” I said in a growl. “You definitely should have. And you may, anytime you wish.”
That was partly coherent. Ihopedshe knew I was referring to her kiss.
She looked down with a smile and I caught her bite her lower lip. “Okay,” she said softly.
Good. No regrets on either side. Both of us were too old for that sort of thing. We strolled toward the fire looking calm, eventhough I felt like I’d just been revived from a long coma. The world was a little more vivid. Sounds had a bit more resonance. The warmth of the large fire pit moved over my skin as we approached.
Someone put a plate in my hands, heavy with a chunk of that meat they were carving on the spit.
“It’s apindlok,”Maive explained, holding her own plate with less on it. “It’s a deepwater fish. Difficult to catch and only served on special occasions.”
I pulled off a piece of meat and ate it, then closed my eyes and groaned. The outside had a crust that cracked when you pulled it apart. The inside was soft and full of flavor, all the way through. I ate it standing up, with no regard for decorum whatsoever.
“Ah, he likes it,” beamed the proud cook, who stood beside it. The short, strong-looking woman lifted a large brush from inside a bucket she held and slapped the fragrant mix onto the still-roasting meat. “We cut it off and eat as it cooks. It gets dry if you wait for the whole thing to be cooked through.” She winked and sloshed on more of the oil. “If you like that bit, come back later for the tender, inner meat. It’ll make your eyes roll right back in your head.”
“It may well be the death of me,” I murmured reverently, pulling off another piece. “You should serve this more than once a year.”
“If only thepindlokwere not so elusive, perhaps we would.”
“I would swim out and hunt one down for you,” I said. “Say the word.”
The woman laughed, but looked very happy with the praise. “Half the taste is in the spices.” She slopped more on the meat and the dripping sizzled on the coals below. “Butthatis an old family recipe.”
We strolled back toward the square and Maive tilted her head. “Thank you. You made Braija’s day.”
“Her food is delicious,” I said. “No false flattery there.”
A child with an infectious giggle ran up to take our plates. Maive was finished and gave hers over, but I was not so I held on to mine. He scampered off with a whoop. Then, Maive was summoned. A gentle hand on her elbow from one of the elder women made her smile and nod, and she went with a small apologetic look. I watched her retreating back and my senses instantly missed her. I took a deep breath, looked around at the assembled Runams of Valrim Village and thought,well.
People came to me. I hadn’t expected it, but probably should have. They came in twos and threes, and said things like,thank you for saving little Aila,and,we’re grateful,and,Tregen is our family.I nodded and tried to look like someone who received gratitude with any grace whatsoever, which I had no evidence of ever doing. A very old Runam woman, shorter than most and moving with the deliberation of someone who had outlived all her doubts, took my free hand in both of hers and held it for a moment without speaking. Then she nodded and walked away.
“That was Tregen’s and my great-grandmother,” Pasek said, appearing at my elbow. “She’s done that to three people in my lifetime.” He paused. “One of them was Maive.”
