Tainted

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Braxos was on duty again today. He was equally as chatty, so the day passed once again in near-complete silence. My stomach is screaming for food. All I've eaten so far today is a loaf of Traigh bread thanks to Sailor. I wave goodbye to Braxos and set off down the path between tents toward the center of Haven.

Voices murmur from the open dining space. I follow both that and the smell of spices inward to the cluster of tables already filling with people and food. Nerves skitter up and down my spine, but I walk confidently toward the food.

You helped out, I think, you can have this food. But as I feel myself watching everyone else, I know it's not the food that's making me anxious, it's the way their eyes automatically glide over to my left forearm, curiosity getting the best of them.

I've kept my arm in its bandages, so my Fate is out of sight, but even still, I keep my arm tucked to my ribcage and out of view.

I spot Tanymede and the waving women, along with Braxos and his daughter. The Educator sits with a small group of people, small dimples marking his smile. I don't see Rogue anywhere, but I keep looking as I head to the food stations.

Large, clay pots stand atop small warming fires along the open side of the space. I pick up a porcelain bowl, taking care not to squeeze the fine china too hard. It's beautifully-wrought with delicate gold filigree decorating the scene of a phoenix resting by a mountain lake. It almost hurts to dirty it with soup.

The soup is some sort of chowder with a thick cream sauce and more potatoes than I have ever seen in one place. There doesn't seem to be any other meat or vegetable, but it smells divine.

I move away from the soup line and look around for Rogue once again. I'm so lost in trying to find his flash of red hair, that I walk headfirst into someone. The soup sloshes out of the bowl. I grit my teeth against the burn of it on my skin.

"Hello." The woman's voice is low and rough. She looks close to Alani's age, but she lacks all of Alani's warmth.

"Hello," I say, ducking my head in a quick show of politeness.

"I hear you've met my sister," the woman says.

"Oh?" I ask. I search her face, trying to pick out any sort of resemblance to someone I've met before.

"Tanymede," the woman says.

Ah. There is a similar look in their faces, but this woman's features are sharp and angled, whereas Tanymede's are round and full of life.

"Don't become attached," the woman says. She moves to my left to pluck a bowl from the pile. "She's weak."

I swallow. "Well I think—"

"I don't care what you think." The woman cuts across me, leaving with her bowl and without a backward glance.

I watch as she moves from table to table, managing to cast each one in her shadow before settling at the farthest one with the Elch Rogue smiled at, and Not-Binks.

She doesn't throw one look at Tanymede as she passes, but I see Tanymede watching her out of the corner of her eye. Her lips tighten as her sister sits without saying hello.

I weave between the stools and tables and make my way toward Tanymede. She's the only friendly face I recognize. Of course, everyone else seems welcoming enough, but Tanymede knows who I am, and she hasn't pushed me away for it. Yet.

There's already a small cluster of people at her table. I take a seat to the left of an Epiphagy. One large eye swivels to look me over, while the other stays rooted to his food. I swallow. The healer's anatomy book says an Epiphagy's brain is located in their chest cavity. They don't have heads, per se, they have two large eyes set just on either side of their collar bone.