Outpost (Razorland, #2)

by Ann Aguirre

However unlikely, I had family in Salvation. Down below, only Stone and Thimble would have noticed my absence … and they wouldn’t have mourned me long. Death was too much an accepted part of our world for it to be a shocking event. “I like them,” Fade said softly. Then he shifted closer, drawing me against his side as he had done to comfort me in the past. This time, it had other meanings, and I curled into him, accepting those new terms. His warmth felt delicious, sinking into my skin and making me indolent. “They’ve been good to me.” I paused, thinking about the story Edmund told. “Do you think there’s any truth to it?” “What part?” “The world being like it is as some kind of punishment?” He shook his head. “My dad never mentioned it. And he was right about a lot of other things. So it seems like it’s just something that happened.” “Then why do you think they tell the story that way?” Leaning his head against mine, he contemplated the question. He rubbed his cheek against my hair, and I was glad I had taken it down, so he could feel its softness, even if it wasn’t bright burnished like some. At last he answered, “People try to make sense of things, and if they don’t know the answers, they make them up, because for some, a wrong answer is better than none.” That rang true, as it echoed what I had been thinking about the Wordkeeper earlier. “I guess. But I’d rather have the truth, even if it was uncertain.” “That’s because you’re a brave and honest soul.” “Aren’t you?” I a...