“Don’t say that!” Emotion shook Perla’s voice.
A hushed silence fell over the room, the pop and crackle of the fire the only sound. Fowler said nothing. I wondered if he even cared. Sivo was skirting the truth of our identity, saying more about us than he ever had before in Fowler’s presence. He must feel confident that Fowler would not guess. Or perhaps he simply trusted him now.
I moistened my lips, searching for an answer—a way out of this. A solution didn’t present itself and I had to face the truth. There might not be one.
We lived in this tower and now those soldiers knew of its existence. They would report what they had found and when the king realized who Sivo was, they would be back.
“Luna can’t stay here.” Sivo’s announcement was softly worded but no less grim.
Perla didn’t react at first. No one did. Then she finally snorted. The sound was part laugh, part grunt, but entirely dismissive. She did not take Sivo’s words seriously. “You’re being ridiculous. You want us to leave? I can’t leave this place. I would not survive a day. And Luna? You want her to go out there? How long will she survive? She cannot see, Sivo! No. Our chances are much better here.”
“I’ve trained her well. She goes.” Sivo’s voice was firm and unyielding. “And I said nothing of us going.”
My heart pounded in my suddenly too-tight chest. Words hung on my lips, but I could think of nothing to say. To leave the sanctuary of the tower and exist on the Outside was equal parts terrifying and thrilling. To leave Sivo and Perla, however? No. I could never do that.
I turned my face in the direction of Fowler. He’d made so little sound up to this point that I could almost believe he left the room, if not for the sensation of his eyes on me.
“You want her to go out there without us?” Perla’s tone left no doubt how absurd she thought that plan was.
“You said it yourself, Perla. You won’t survive.”
“No! Absolutely not! She stays—”
“They’ll come back. And when they do, when they discover her, they will kill her. You know that, Perla.” I’d never heard Sivo speak to her in such a way—so hard and final. Usually, he let her have her way, but not in this.
“You know what they can do,” he continued, his words heavy with the implication, with the reminder of who they were. Who I was.
Perla sucked in a raw breath, and I knew she was remembering, too. They were the king’s men—and he had killed my parents. He was supposed to believe I perished that night, too. If he suspected otherwise . . .
They had killed Dagne. They would kill me, too. Of that, I had no doubt.
“Perhaps,” Perla allowed, stubbornness lacing her voice. “But I’m not letting her go out there by herself—”
“She won’t be alone,” Sivo countered.
I suddenly found my voice. “What do you mean?” Did Sivo intend to go with me? He couldn’t leave Perla here. She wouldn’t be able to fend for herself without his help.
“She goes with him,” he said evenly, calmly. As though it were the obvious solution. Him. I didn’t need to see to know he was talking about Fowler. I even felt them looking at Fowler now. “He’ll take her with him to the Isle of Allu.”
“We don’t even know him,” Perla insisted.
“Perla, I’m not leaving you here. If soldiers return to the tower, then we’ll make a stand together. We’ve lived a long life. It’s our responsibility to give Luna the best chance to live hers. Don’t you see? This boy coming here was meant to be.”
Perla was weeping now. “You and your signs. And how do we know he won’t harm her?”
I turned in Fowler’s direction, waiting for him to say something, to tell them all this back-and-forth was for nothing because he wasn’t taking me anywhere. He wouldn’t do something so noble. He had his own quest and it didn’t involve me.
“I know he won’t abandon her.” Sivo’s deep burr rumbled on the air. “He lives by a code. Don’t you, boy?”
Fowler still said nothing, and I wanted to retort that Fowler’s code was all about self-preservation, not altruism.
“Don’t you?” Sivo repeated. “You’ll see she comes to no harm. And you’ll see she gets to Allu. Won’t you?”
I waited for his denial. Once he dissuaded Sivo of the notion that he was some manner of hero bent on saving girls, we could come up with another plan that did not involve me leaving Sivo and Perla and heading off on a quest for some fantastical place that probably did not even exist.
Finally, he spoke. Only, the words were not what I was expecting.
“You have my word.”
TWELVE
Fowler
I HAD NO idea where the words came from within me. I recognized my voice. I knew I uttered the words, but they weren’t mine. They couldn’t belong to me.