A whistle from the bottom of the cliff roused Bryant from dozing. He slept poorly the night before as he thought of the Tarrin girl and why she had come across the mountain. When he dropped to the bottom of the cliff and found himself face to face with her, he frowned. “What are you doing here?”

Kaye gave him a smile that reminded him of Elett. He guessed that back home she was used to everyone bending to do the bidding of that smile.

“Celeste asked me to return whenever possible. To re-bandage my wings.”

“Running back and forth like this is not safe. Did anyone follow you?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

She crossed her arms and gave him a look reserved for priestess-use. “Have you ever had your wings cut off? Trust me, I’m the last one who wants to be found out by them.”

Bryant sighed. “Fine.” He held his arms out, unable to hide his dislike. She was putting them all in danger, but she had the blessing of the Daughters, and there was nothing he could do.

She turned away from him and walked to the cliff, running her hands over it.

“What are you doing?”

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“Climbing.”

“You cannot.”

She stopped and faced him. “I climbed the mountain. I think I can handle this.”

While that was impressive—and stupid—he kept his face neutral. “No one can climb it. We chisel the handholds off so no one can reach the top without wings. For safety.”

She turned back to the wall and searched it with her hands. When she faced him again she was frowning, and looked to the mountainside. “What about the vines? Surely those grow all the way down.”

“We prune the vines.”

Kaye frowned and searched the wall again for handholds as Bryant waited, bored and annoyed. “I promise I will not drop you,” he said. “The Lady invited you, and Celeste asked you back. You are our guest, for whatever reasons they think Aleda has.”

She stopped searching the wall but didn’t turn around. Her whole demeanor turned inward. “Yes. Priestesses have a way of thinking only they can understand the ‘why’ of Aleda.”

It was not hard in that moment for Bryant to remember that she had been hurt by the Tarrin too. His arms fell to his sides. “I apologize.” She was alone, scared, betrayed by her chief and the one woman she had every reason to trust. “I will take you up. Elett will be excited to see you.”

She closed her eyes as he picked her up and her muscles tensed, but her fingers didn’t dig into his shoulders on the ride up. When he placed her on the ground, she turned an insecure smile on him.

“Thank you.”

“You are welcome.” He was still stiff. He didn’t want to be there, giving her rides to and from the base of the cliff—but he was trying to remember that she didn’t want to be there either. It was the Tarrin’s fault. Her High Priestess’ fault.

“I should be here when you are finished.”

Kaye’s smile steadied. “I won’t jump off the cliff. I promise.”

He watched as she walked toward the caves, wondering how she planned to find Celeste. Yelling would be rude. He was surprised when she reached out, tested the vines, and began to climb.

She was quite possibly the strangest girl Bryant had ever met.