I turned and looked out over the valley, the view from her final resting place. It was beautiful. Something she would have liked.
“But you never rested, did you, Mama?” I whispered to the wind.
I knelt beside the grave and brushed my palm over the small mound. She had fits of tears and rage. “It was you, wasn’t it? Not letting go.” I spoke as if she could hear me, because I was certain she could. “Did you make a bargain with Death? Rage against him? Twist his arm? Make him watch over me? Make him push me to stay alive?”
As much agony as I had suffered, how much more had she endured? Her life had been about protecting me, and then suddenly she couldn’t.
I picked some of the tall prairie grass and began weaving it together the way she had taught me.
Like this, Kazi, one strand over another. She leaned over me.
Let’s weave a wish stalk in too.
Do wishes really come true, Mama?
Of course they do.
Make a wish now, Kazi, one for tomorrow, the next day, and the next. One will always come true.
I tied off the grass, shaping it into a crown, and laid it on her grave.
“I wish you rest, Mama.”
When Jase came back with the brush and dye, I marked her gravestone.
Mama
My chiadrah
My beloved
* * *
It would be months before the temple was rebuilt. But Vairlyn insisted on another ceremony, just as Jase had said she would. Not because a Vendan ceremony wasn’t good enough, but because a celebration was due.
We had a ribbon.
We had a priest.
We had a town full of witnesses.
Even with all the rubble around us and a ceiling of sky, the temple altar still stood.
The priest had finished his part. Now it was our turn.
“You remember the words?” I asked.
“Every single one.”
“You aren’t going to go getting all choked up again, are you?”
Jase smiled. “Nah. I’m experienced at this now.”
But as he began wrapping the ribbon around my wrist and helping me tie it off, he swallowed hard, and when he began speaking, his voice broke just as it had the first time. I squeezed his hand. “We’ve got this, Patrei,” I whispered. “And remember, we have a hundred more times to go.”
He nodded and leaned forward to kiss me, but Wren’s hand darted out and swatted him away. “That comes after,” she scolded. Our other witnesses who stood beside us, Synové and the entire Ballenger clan, rumbled agreement.
Jase’s eyes locked onto mine and he began again.