"How can you side with her?" Rib questioned the young man in front of him. "My own father's murderer."
"Rib?" Gavin folded his arms. "Consider this."
Rib waited for him to continue.
The young man sighed. "Look at yourself," he said. "You're big as a horse, armored with scales and plates, able to run, fly, and climb. With a whip of your tail you could fell an ox, with a bite of your jaws you could crush a skull?You don't know what it's like to be vulnerable."
"What are you saying?" Rib asked.
"I'm saying?for you, not having to use lethal force is a luxury. Think of when you stopped the fight between Hesper and that other monigon. All you had to do was pin the brute to the ground. Could Damara or I have done that?"
Rib's eyes wandered over the place where the monigon had bit Gavin's arm. The nymphs' magic had healed every trace of it, but he could still picture the bleeding, torn flesh.
"No?"
"So it's only natural that you wouldn't understand why Damara did what she did."
"But," Rib protested, "you've never killed anyone. And you're just fine!"
Gavin held his gaze. "I've never been put in a situation like that before."
"Would you have killed my father then?" Rib asked, incredulous.
Gavin showed him his open palms then dropped his hands back down to his sides with a sigh. "It's hard to say what I'd have done. I wasn't there."
"But you think you might have?"
The young man's lips became taut. "He killed hundreds of people, Rib. You've seen the dozens of empty broken towns in upper Wystil. That was all his doing."
"What?" Rib's talons dug into the ground in alarm. "What do you mean?"
Gavin gave him a queer look. "Did you think they were abandoned for no reason at all?"
"Well," he stammered, "birds desert their nests!"
Gavin shook his head. "People don't just leave their homes like that. Why do you think no one ever dares cross the Swaine? They're terrified of what happened there."
Rib remembered the surprise he felt when he first saw Damara on the bridge in the upper kingdom. She'd known there was nothing to be afraid of there. She'd killed the last one to fear.
And I only hear of it now?
"You should have told me," Rib said, wounded. "You're my greatest friend. How could you withhold a secret like this from me?"
"Tide knew what was best," Gavin replied. "I see it now. We told you too early. You're too sensitive still."
"Sensitive?" Rib echoed, incredulous. "Should this not be upsetting to me?"
"That's not what I'm saying." Gavin passed a hand over his face. "Look, we're getting off my point. I think you should help Damara."
Help Damara?
The most secretive one of them all?
"How could I trust her?"
"Because, Rib, she's trying to save her brother's wife from dying. She's trying to save half the kingdom from dying. Why would you give up on that?"
"I-" Rib began, but reconsidered.
Is that really what I've been working towards? All this time?
Was I thinking of the cure or??
No.
His heart unfolded like a cloth, revealing truth to him in its purest form.
The plague cure was only ever a secondary goal in his mind. It was not the thing that conquered his dreams, his thoughts, his deepest desires.
But now that Rib found himself in the loneliest of all positions, untrusted, kept in the dark by even his closest friends- now he knew what he wanted most. What he would give anything for.
Memory.
She used to follow me everywhere.
She never kept secrets.
I've never had a better friend than her.
In realizing this, Rib recognized his own isolation like never before. Loneliness was a wounded animal forsaken by its kind, crying from his innermost being for consolation. Only Memory could feel the same way as him, he thought, a lonely slave.
And she was out of reach.
Always.
A heavy groan escaped his mouth.
"Rib?"
Gavin was looking at him in this moment of heart-sickening clarity. His dark blue eyes were full of concern, but Rib recognized their gaze to be the same as one turned to an injured child, a crying pup.
All these years we've known each other and still?
Still no one can be who my sister was to me.
Rib found no words to express the emotions plaguing his heart. He could only speak his desire.
"I want to find Memory."
"Your sister?" Gavin looked taken aback by the change of subject. "But isn't she in Husk? How would you even get there?"
I can't. It's hopeless. I'll never?
Wait.
Rib raised his head as an idea dawned on him.
I'd have to?but it would be worth it.
This is my chance.
"I know how," he told Gavin, and turned to meet Damara and Jacinth without another word.
The two were just as he left them, except now they were silent. Both faced him, a loathing expression on one, a look of expectancy on the other.
"I'll come," he said. "But only if you agree to my plan."
"What plan?" Damara growled.
Rib ignored her, and instead looked to Jacinth. "The Huskhns want a firebreather, right? They tried to get Wycker but that didn't work. Have they ever seen you?"
The firebreather shook her head. "I kept hidden."
"Then we don't have to force the Huskhns into anything. They'll do what we want. We just have to fool them."
"How?" Damara sneered.
Rib met her challenging stare. "Simple. Jacinth and I act bewitched. You act as our bewitcher. The sea serpent follows. You tell the Huskhns you'll craft them however much powder they want, just so long as they take us to their homeland."
"Husk? Never. Why should I?"
"Because that's the only way I'll agree to help you."
"But why do you want to go to Husk?"
"To look for my sister. Meanwhile, you craft the powder like you saw Brock do. The Huskhns will think you're making it for them, but as soon as I free Memory, you bewitch the sea serpent and we escape to Wystil on it. Husk is closer to Wystil than we are now. Just ask Mortaug."
Both Damara and Jacinth were quiet as they considered his plan.
Seeing the firebreather's doubtful expression, Rib said, "This way, the Huskhns wouldn't have any reason to harm Damara. She'd be the answer to their prayers. A divine gift."
As if she could be anything of the sort, he added silently.
"Very well," Damara decided, jutting out her chin. "I can do that."
Jacinth looked at her, then studied Rib's face.
"You must stay beside Damara at all times," she told him. "I won't agree unless you're prepared to fight for her. You're the only one who can protect her. Can we trust you?"
Rib looked her dead in the eye.
"I'm doing this for my sister and the Wystilians," he answered. "So long as I can trust her, I'll do whatever I can to keep her safe and see this through."
Even though she killed my father.
Jacinth held his gaze a moment longer, then nodded.
Good.
Rib had no urge to smile, but relief flooded his veins.
"Tomorrow, we fool the Huskhns," he said.
Tomorrow, I go for Memory.
Chapter 21