The Boon of Alon

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

First thing in the morning, I roll out of my bunk and Suthi's there.

"Good morning, Della," she says, lightly, before she continues on her way. Weird, but at least she didn't try to make me have a conversation.

She's ahead of me in line for breakfast, shortly after. I'm waiting with Lemi, who's telling me about her plan to head down the mountain today to shop in one of the villages below before winter sets in—something I should probably do myself, since I'm still very short on clothing—and Suthi passes us on the way to find a table.

"Hello, Della, Lemi," she says. She doesn't stop. I glance after her but she isn't watching me like usual.

She's already outside in the garden when we leave for the lakeside. I brace when she looks up and sees me.

"Hi," she says. "See you later." And she goes back to weeding or whatever, under the supervision of a couple riders. I exchange a look with Erno, who was right behind me, but he just shrugs at me.

As usual, the steady stream of people heading down to the lake for the morning stretches out into a lazy trickle as we pick our way down the stairs and onto the trail. Rev and Lemi are some ways ahead of me, but Erno jogs to catch up with me once we're off the steeper part of the route.

"Heard you had another spat with Suthi," he says cheerfully.

"It wasn't nearly as bad as the first time," I protest.

"I figured, since she's still talking to you."

"I wish she'd stop," I sigh. "Even if all she's saying is hello." Hello is just the start of something, and I don't know what's coming next.

"Oh, so, exactly what you've been doing to Iamon?" Erno points out with a wicked grin.

I shoot him a look. "No! That's... different." Barely.

"Is it?" Erno skips ahead a couple steps and turns to walk backwards down the trail in front of me. "'Cause it looks the same to me."

"I'm not a threat to Iamon. What could I do to a dragon?"

He shrugs. "Dragons aren't invincible, and didn't Suthi fail to kill you already? Is she really a threat to you?"

"Just because she won't attack me doesn't mean she can't. She did stab me, you know."

"Well, you could stab Iamon. I mean, good luck surviving after, but you could." He makes a stabbing motion with his hand. "Dragons have big enough blindspots to hide in. You could sneak up on him."

"It's different," I say again. Isn't it? I'm nobody to Iamon. Even if he's figured out that he spoke a prophecy about me, he's spoken a lot about a lot of other people, too. He and I aren't wrapped up in this destiny shit the same way.

Erno rolls his eyes and trots off to wait in line for oil. I follow after, and look for Iamon as I walk; I find him glaring directly at me with a distinctly suspicious tilt to his eye ridges, and decide not to test my luck today.

Suthi is still in the garden when I get back up from the lake. She's absorbed in picking beans—presumably the last harvest of the season, because even by the calendar winter is almost here and it's colder up in the mountains—and I think she's going to miss me walking by. But she looks up just as I pass.

"Della." She nods and looks back at the trellis.

I almost ask her then and there what she's doing, but that's probably why she's doing it. So I keep walking.

A few minutes later, I'm heading back out with Lemi to catch a wagon down the mountain, with a portion of my 500-piece tourney winnings in my pocket. At this point, I'm checking around corners for Suthi, but the coast is clear and we make it to the wagon on time—so, of course, Suthi's already in the back, waiting to head down the mountain, too.