Trial by Fire

Lily finished washing up as best as she could by a small, muddy stream and joined Rowan back by the fire. Bubbling away in the flames was the small cauldron he’d used to make Lily her ankle-healing brew.

“What’s for breakfast?” she asked dubiously.

“Acorns. I have to boil them first, though. Too many tannins for you.”

“I didn’t know you could eat acorns,” Lily said, sitting cross-legged by his side.

“White oak acorns are the least bitter,” he said, stirring the pot with a small stick.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lily said with a little smirk. She had no idea what a white oak tree looked like, let alone one of their acorns. Rowan caught the look on her face and interpreted it correctly.

“Not a lot of woods in your world, I take it?” he asked.

“We’ve cut most of them down so we could build houses and stuff,” she said, wondering how Rowan could read her so easily. “I don’t know exactly where we are right now, but I’m pretty sure in my world it would be someone’s backyard. Some sleepy little neighborhood in Nowhere, Massachusetts.”

“Without the Woven, I’m assuming people spread out wherever they wanted?” he asked. Lily nodded. “Are there still large cities?”

“Huge ones. There are people everywhere in my world. Overcrowding is a big problem.”

“Amazing,” Rowan whispered to himself. “I’d love to see that.”

Lily stared at his profile. The gentle expression that crossed his face as he imagined her world—a world that was safe enough to fill up with people—softened his usually sharp eyes. “How old are you?” she asked, suddenly not sure.

“Nineteen. Why?”

“You seem so much, I don’t know. Older, I guess. You’re, like, an adult.”

“Well, yes,” he replied with a small laugh. “Legally, I’ve been an adult for three years now.”

“So you come of age here when you’re sixteen?” Lily asked.

“In the cities. When do you?”

“Well, technically, it’s eighteen. But in my country, there are still some things you can’t do until you’re twenty-one.”

Rowan made a face, as if he thought that was insane. “In the Outlands we come of age at fourteen. Most men have families by the time they’re sixteen.” He put the stick he was using to stir the acorn down and wrapped his hand in the sleeve of his jacket. “But Outlanders don’t have any time to waste. Most don’t live to see fifty.”

Disturbed by this, Lily frowned pensively as she watched Rowan pull the pot off the fire and drain away the red-brown water. At least, that explained why all the elders seemed on the young side. Outlanders didn’t live long enough to get old. Rowan fished out all the acorns and gave them to Lily.

“Did you already eat?” she asked him.

“I’m fine.”

“Rowan, seriously.” Lily tried to put half of the acorns into his hand, but he wouldn’t take them.

“I don’t have to eat. I’m taking all the energy I need from you.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked, completely lost.

He placed two fingers on her wrist as he’d done many times in the days before, as if he were taking her pulse. Lily saw his willstone glow subtly under his clothes.

“Your body is an energy factory, Lily. You can take a handful of food—in the right chemical combinations, of course—and turn it into enough raw energy to sustain twenty people. Eventually I’ll have to eat for the protein and vitamins that my body needs to maintain itself, but I can live for days off of your excess energy.”

“That is so unbelievably weird,” she said, shaking her head. “So when you touch my wrist like that, you’re taking, like, sips of energy?”