Creusus's Arc

Chapter 22 of 43

Creusus came back to the garden the next day with a small wedge of hard cheese wrapped in cloth. Kallista was waiting on the same stone edge. She took the cheese, broke it in half, and gave a piece back to him. They ate without much talk. When she stood, she did not walk toward the flower beds. She caught his wrist in her hand and tugged. "Come," she said. "I want to show you something. Not here." He let her pull him. That surprised him more than anything. His feet followed her out of the gardens and along a dirt track behind the market. His pack knocked at his hip. Inside it the orb sat quiet. His knuckles did not warm. His shoulders stayed low. She held two of his fingers, not his whole hand, as if she knew a whole hand was too much to ask. She stopped at a little wooden building set back from the path. Flowers were nailed along the eaves. Ribbons hung from the porch rail, faded from sun. A painted heart swung on a chain by the door. A lantern glowed in the front window even in daylight. "People come here," she said. "To be quiet together. That is all." She pushed the door open with her shoulder. Inside smelled like old cedar and dried petals. A low bed sat under the heart-shaped window. She sat on the edge of it and patted the blanket. Creusus stood in the doorway. He thought about the post. He thought about the tournament and the next bout on the card. Then he set his pack down against the wall and sat beside her. The mattress dipped under him. She took his hand and turned it over in her lap. She began to unwind the bandage on his right knuckles. He did not stop her. No one had done that for him since he had learned to do it himself. The cloth came away in a slow spiral. His skin underneath was raw and pale. She ran her thumb once across the knuckles and set the bandage on the blanket, folded, neat. "You do not have to be a fist all day," she said. He looked at his own bare hand in her lap. It looked small there. He felt something inside his chest give way, like a rope cut clean. His eyes stung. He did not speak because he did not trust his voice. She rested her head against his shoulder. He let her.