The Valley of Lies (Lightkeepers #1)

Chapter THIRTY-EIGHT: Dev

Rana stopped in front of a cluster of small cottages Dev had never visited, just past the much larger Healer's Cottage. Sprigs of herbs hung above the doors, some flowering and green, others dried out and disintegrating. The door of the nearest cottage opened before they reached it, and Mell waved them inside.

The old healer was typically cheerful, but worry etched deeper wrinkles than usual along her forehead this morning. The moment the door clicked shut behind them her arms came around Dev's waist, hugging the breath from him.

His hands stuck out like branches, hanging awkwardly over the wood floor. He'd always liked Mell, but they didn't know each other that well.

"Thank Hona she found you. Where have you been, young man?"

Dev stood back and composed himself. Mell's home was smaller than Rondan's, but the layout was identical. The wide trunk of a hollow tree poked through the ceiling, serving as the cottage's center point and fireplace. A colorful woven rug edged up to his feet at the threshold, extending to the hearth. Cozy cooking and seating areas faced each other on either side of him. Dev supposed the sleeping and bathing areas were in the back, like they were at Rondan's, down the shadowed hallways flanking the fireplace.

He contemplated how to answer Mell's question in mixed company. The old elf and Rana weren't alone: two more women and a man also gathered in the room. Their faces were familiar, but that was as far as Dev's recognition extended. There were hundreds of adults in the clan, and he knew less than half by name. The two women smiled at him from the couch, sipping from shallow glasses of honey-wine. The man stood by the fireplace, an elbow propped between clutches of leafy plants decorating the mantle. His shaggy hair was the color of an unpolished blade, curling above piercing green eyes.

"I was sleeping," Dev mumbled, averting his gaze to the unlit firebox.

"Not the whole time. We heard what happened last night." From the corner of his eye, he saw a shiver ripple across Mell's narrow frame. "So now you know the truth."

Not the whole truth, clearly.

"Are you her Seed?" He figured it went without saying who his question was for.

"No." Mell spat out the word as if it tasted bad. "We don't use those terms here. But no, Wesly is not Liss and Rana's father."

"I'm their uncle," the green-eyed man said. "Their mother–their Bearer–and I were born to the same woman." Dev didn't think it was an accident when the man's gaze slipped to the couch, to the woman with white hair and fine lines around her eyes. Too old to be Liss' Bearer, though she might have been Wesly's. His smile was tight-lipped and somber. "Lera was my sister."

Was?

Rana put her hand on Dev's arm. "Our mother died in childbirth."

Dev twisted away from her, acid rising in his throat. "Why are you here?" Rana didn't favor Mell as much as Liss did, but there were enough similarities to make him feel like an idiot for not putting it together. He turned and glared at the old healer. "Liss needed this. She needed a family more than anyone, and you hid it from her. Worse, you told Rana instead."

Mell wrung her knobby hands together. The bluish-white wisps of hair escaping the bun at the back of her head added to her frazzled appearance. Maybe she was as concerned for Liss as he was, but that didn't explain the secrecy. The lies.

Was the old elf playing favorites, like the Council?

"Mell didn't tell me. I found out when I started apprenticing with the Carers." Rana's voice was soft with guilt. "Many of us double as midwives, and it's important we know the bloodlines... Some of them, anyway."