Lillibeth Tripp's Arc

Chapter 7 of 9

Lillibeth kept her hand near her knife as Tala stepped further into the dome. The wind howled outside, but inside, only the sack's faint twitching broke the quiet. Lillibeth had to know who this girl was before she said one wrong word about where she was going. "You built that wall fast," Lillibeth said, careful. Tala shrugged. "Not my first night out here." Through the dome's mouth, Lillibeth could see more than the stacked stones now. Past Tala's half-shelter sat a low, rounded structure of pale crystal panels, its windows lit faintly from within. Tubes and dials glinted inside. A workbench stood beside it, scattered with hammers and glowing crystal shards, narrow grooves cut into the wood. That was no traveler's camp. That was a place someone stayed. Lillibeth's throat went tight. "You live here." "I work here," Tala said. "For now." She crouched by the sack and studied the rabbit's shape through the weave. A pendant swung forward from her collar — pale bone framing a dark crystal core, purple bleeding into black. Lillibeth had never seen a stone like it. It looked old. It looked like it knew things. "Where are you headed?" Tala asked, plain as asking the time. Lillibeth's mouth opened, then closed. The lie was right there. So was the truth. She looked at the pendant. She looked at Tala's steady blue eyes — eyes that had already guessed, maybe. Eyes that weren't afraid. "The edge," Lillibeth said. The word felt enormous in the small dome. Tala did not laugh. Tala did not flinch. She just nodded once, slow, and reached up to touch the dark stone at her throat. "Then we're going the same way." Lillibeth's hand fell from the knife. Something loosened in her chest, and something else pulled tight. She was not alone anymore. She did not know yet if that was a gift or a trap. But the secret was out, and there was no putting it back.