The pounding wasn’t stopping. Something thudded behind me. I pointed at the door. “Should I—”
Ingrith’s dark, bulbous eyes were right in front of me. She was shorter than I remembered—or I was taller, I supposed—but she was no less frightening when viewed so close. “Should you nothing, girl. This is my house.” She seemed to have lost a front tooth since the last time we’d had the pleasure of talking face to face. Or, rather, face in face.
“Ingrith! Why can’t you open this door when I ask nicely?”
“I don’t have to open my door for nobody but the lord’s men.” Ingrith leaned around me and cupped her free hand around her mouth. “You one of the lord’s men? I suspect not, since I can hear you speak.”
“Ingrith, we’re coming in.”
Ingrith pushed me aside and hobbled to the door, ripping it open with that one-tenth-her-age speed once again. A man stumbled inside, grabbing the door to steady himself. “You almost killed me, you crazy old—”
Ingrith shook her walking stick a little off the ground. “If I’d wanted to kill you, I’d’ve popped this under your mask and knocked it off. You’re not welcome here.”
She was right. He was still wearing a mask. And he didn’t seem like one of the skinny, gangly teenagers running around the village. His face was that of a wooden fish, complete with a puckering set of lips over the black hole covering his mouth.
Behind him was a man whose face was uncovered. He had no reason to fear my eyes or Ingrith’s. His love had been Returned.
Fish Face shook his vacant mask. “Did you cause that earthquake?”
Ingrith poked at his abdomen with her walking stick. “I did. What of it?”
Fish Face swatted the walking stick away with one hand and held his mask tighter with the other. “You keep that away from me, you old biddy!”
“Tayton, please.” The unmasked man stepped inside and put a hand on Fish Face’s chest. He turned to Ingrith. “There are men working in the quarry most days, Ingrith.”
She sniffled and clasped both hands on top of her walking stick, which she lowered back to the ground. “I know. I can hear their racket. Makes my head ache and my ears ring.”
Fish Face tapped his foot. “And crazy old crones looking up at the castle makes rocks fall on our heads.”
She snorted. “Good. Then maybe I’ll get a day of peace.”
Fish Face nearly choked. “You senile, unloved woman—”
The unmasked man spoke as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “I’m sure it was an accident.”
“It wasn’t,” said Ingrith, as I said, “It was. She told me so.”
Fish Face threw both hands into the air. “Who’s this?”
“My guest.” Ingrith poked at the floor near his feet. “Which you are not.”
Fish Face scoffed. The unmasked man looked me up and down. I had to let my gaze fall. They were all so handsome when they were unmasked. And it was rare to have any take notice of me. And Jurij, he would be the same. Handsome, blind to me.
“Woodcarver’s daughter,” he said at last. So he actually knew of a woman besides his goddess?
Fish Face seemed as perplexed as his masked expression. “The one with a Returning today?”
“No,” I admitted. “I’m her sister.”
Fish Face started laughing. At least I thought it was a laugh. It sounded coincidentally like a fish flopping and gasping without water. “The only other unloved woman in the village. Figures.”
My blood boiled. “Oh, like you have room to speak!”
“I’m married!” protested Fish Face.
I shook my head and gestured to his fishy face. “But your wife obviously doesn’t love you, or you wouldn’t still be wearing that ugly mask! Unless what’s beneath is really much worse.”
Ingrith cackled at that. I think she was actually happy.
Fish Face pointed at me. “Can you believe these women? If I had—goddess’s blessings, whose mask is that?” I turned around to look at the chipped and cracked table behind me. There was a wooden mask there, all right. A snake. As chipped and cracked as the table on which it sat.
Fish Face might have been frothing at the mouth if he’d had one. As it was, his puckering fish lips looked oddly out of tune with the tone of his voice. “You murderer!”
The unmasked man put his hand on Fish Face’s shoulder. “Enough, Tayton. That mask looks too old to be someone she might have killed recently.”
“So you’re saying it’s all right; she must have killed that man years ago.” Fish Face’s expression perfectly matched his flabbergasted tone.
The unmasked man put his fingers to his temple. “No, Tayton. I’m just saying she’s unlikely to have killed a man since we set out to work this morning. I think we would have heard if she’d killed anyone years ago.”
Ingrith laughed and pounded her walking stick on the ground. “Shows what you know!”
“I need to get out of here,” said Fish Face. “I can’t stand to be around these crones one second longer.”