Tara Runeweaver's Arc

Chapter 29 of 29

Later that day, Bjorn carried his sharpening stone outside and sat on the stone bench beside the door. He set the stone down on the cushion next to him and did not pick up a blade. He left the space open. Tara watched him through the doorway and understood the seat was meant for her. She stepped out into the cold. In her closed fist she held the hammer pendant he had once worn into battle, found that morning on the crib's edge. She turned it over and over as she walked. Her thumb pressed each carved line. She had counted his glances for years. She had never counted her own silence. She sat. The polished stone gleamed between them, then he moved it to his other side. She opened her hand and laid the pendant on her knee. "I love you," she said. Her voice did not shake. "I have. For longer than I knew how to say." Bjorn did not speak at once. He took her open hand and pressed it flat against his chest, the way he had done before words. Then he bent close and answered, low and clear, "And I you." Tara closed her eyes. The old silence was gone. Whatever came next, it would not be built on what she had failed to say.