The Valley of Lies (Lightkeepers #1)

Chapter SIXTEEN: Liss

The rain showed no sign of stopping. Liss spent the morning in the Healers Cottage with Mell, helping mix medicines for the day's orders, and the old elf had not been quiet about her amusement over her great-granddaughter's preoccupation with the weather.

"You know," Mell said at one point, chuckling a little, "if you keep looking outside it will rain forever."

Liss stepped away from the window, suppressing an impatient groan. "It was mild for over a week, and now it's decided to pour! It's like the valley knows I'm close to unlocking its secrets."

"What are you on about? The valley is sentient, now, is it?"

Mell sounded far too amused, tapping the end of her glass stirring stick against the side of a mixing bowl filled with honey, bairnroot, and lemon. It smelled good enough to drink, but Liss knew better. Bairnroot was odorless and overpoweringly bitter. She felt bad for the women who were taking it to promote fertility, and prayed to the goddess she would never have to.

"No, nothing like that..." She hadn't told Mell about the changeling bird or the wildcat den. As much as she'd wanted to, some things were too important to risk. It was safer to change the subject. "I'm supposed to go on a walk with some friends this evening, but I'm sure they won't want to if it's a wet mess outside."

"Ah. Is one of these friends Dev, the young man you're Engaged to?"

Liss wanted to protest that she wasn't Engaged to anyone, but facts were facts. "Yes," she said briskly. "And Pile and Rana."

"Well, a few drops of rain won't hurt you."

Mell poured the unpalatable syrup into a glass jar and corked it, gesturing for Liss to set it aside with the other orders to go out later. Shuffling around the room while Liss organized the cluttered delivery counter, the old elf mumbled garbled reminders to herself. Soon she was laughing again.

"If you ask me, it's romantic. Not that you care about that sort of thing."

Liss huffed, glaring at the unending rivulets of water racing across the windowpane. "What happened with you being unhappy about my Engagement?"

"I still am, you're too young. But every girl deserves a little romance, even if she doesn't think she needs it."

Liss was at a loss for words. Mell was trying to make the most out of an unfortunate situation, but did she really believe Liss would fall in love with her oldest friend, the boy she'd grown up with who was like a brother to her? Did she think Liss would give up her chance at finding freedom and resign herself to life as a Bearer so easily?

Before she could think up a response that didn't make her sound like the clan's greatest rising curmudgeon, a warm, feeble hand wrapped around her arm. "I don't mean to make you uncomfortable, dear. I only want you to be happy."

"I know," Liss murmured, patting Mell's hand. "I'm trying to be."

"Then let me send you off with a piece of advice, and before you make a snap judgment, remember that I've walked the path you're on. I may be lined and shrunken now, but I was young once." She smiled, ambling toward the door with Liss' support. "Happiness is a wonderful thing, but it's rarely found in the first place we go looking. Sometimes what we think will make us happy turns out to be a disappointment, and other times it grows strongest where we least expect it to." She unwound her bony fingers from Liss' arm and reached for the doorknob. "So go out and chase your dreams, but keep an open mind and remember that sometimes dreams change."

They were pretty words, and Liss was sure Mell meant them from the heart and without judgment, but she was also certain that she would never find her freedom while languishing in a cursed valley. No amount of motivational speeches or good intentions would change her mind, or her dreams.