Lying beside Jentt, Kreya stared up at the clouds drifting across the stars. The air had the crispness of coming winter to it. At last, she hinted at the question that had been haunting her since they slipped away: “Should we have stayed in Cerre?”
He knew what she was asking. Of course he did. He knew her. “Eventually you’d have been arrested and executed.”
“Unless the laws were changed,” Kreya said. “We could have tried—”
“Did you ever think that maybe this iswhythe law was written?” Jentt wrapped his arms around her, and she felt his warm breath on her neck. “Eklor may not have been the first to discover how to cheat death.”
She considered that. It was one of the oldest laws in Vos. She’d no idea of its source or original purpose, but she did know it wouldn’t be easy to overturn. The taboo ran deep, as she’d seen from her encounters with the villagers around her old tower. If people knew the cost of extra life, both to themselves and to others...Some wouldn’t care,Kreya thought. But those with a conscience, who cared about others...
“Eklor’s spell makes a lot of evil possible,” Marso said. He was lying only a few yards away, closer to the fire. “You saw what he nearly did.”
“Plus who will supply the bone?” Amurra said from the opposite side of the campfire. “Some would have to stay dead for others to live. Who makes that choice? Not that I’m not grateful for you bringing me back, but... I don’t know that that’s a choice anyone should be allowed to make.”
Stran spoke up. “I am more than grateful. And I’d ask you to do it again in a heartbeat, and I think most people would. The temptation to save a loved one would be irresistible.”
He was right—that was the problem, wasn’t it? If the spell were known, it would be used. And abused.Some lines shouldn’t be crossed,she thought. Eklor’s books had been burned. So had Eklor himself. In three years, with her death, the knowledge would pass out of the world entirely.
And that was a good thing.
I can’t tell, though, if this makes me the hero or the villain.
Maybe both. Maybe neither.
Maybe there were no perfect choices for anyone to make, hero or villain. Maybe there was only doing the best you could do with the time you had. That was an unsatisfying thought, but just because it was uncomfortable didn’t mean it wasn’t true.
“I wish I could have done more.” She thought of Briel and the other bone workers who’d fallen. She thought of all the bodies in the street and pyres in the squares. If she’d been faster, smarter, less certain that she knew Eklor’s plan...
Jentt cupped her face in his hands. In the amber glow of the campfire, she could see the seriousness in his eyes. “You can’t save everyone. But you should know that you saved all of us. Gave us all second chances. And that’s not nothing.”
“But is it enough?” Kreya asked.
“I think... Yes,” Jentt said.
Marso: “Yes.”
Stran and Amurra: “Yes,” and “Yes.”
“Yes.” Zera.
And Kreya let herself believe them.
Chapter Thirty-Three
They didn’t speak of it again, or of much else. Quiet, they slept. At dawn, they packed their camp and continued on. The crawler lurched through forests and across cliffs, until it reached the old farmhouse.
Bathed in late afternoon light with the remnants of frost still clinging to the tips of the grasses, the farmhouse looked like a painting. Kreya climbed out of the crawler behind the others. Stran and Amurra both ran toward the door, their arms open.
Seeing them from the window, two children tumbled outside: Vivi and Jen. An elderly couple followed more slowly, the man holding little Nugget, soon to be called Evren. Stran and Amurra fell to the ground and were swarmed by their family. Following them came the bird construct and the other rag dolls. They flocked to Kreya.
She couldn’t help smiling. This felt right.
The others held back, allowing Stran’s family their moment, until Amurra beckoned them over, and they were all enfolded into the group embrace. Jen immediately climbed onto Jentt’s back. Vivi tugged on Zera’s arm. “You want to see me climb a tree?”
Zera laughed. “Absolutely.”
“And you’ll catch me when I fall?” she asked.
“Maybe we should save tree climbing for later,” Zera said. “Climb on Jentt.” Squealing, the little girl joined her brother in scrambling over Jentt. Stran was already holding the baby and breathing deeply as if he exuded an exquisite perfume, which Kreya was fairly certain no baby did.
