“That’s understandable,” Ruta agreed. “But you aren’t going anywhere.”
It was a sad truth, Lianna realized. And it wasn’t just because of the distance through the dry plains to some place where she could live and have a normal human life. She was no long a normal human. The piercings could be taken out easily enough, but the tattoos were a different problem. Worse, though, was what was in Lianna’s heart. “I know I’m not.”
“Do you feel it?” Ruta asked.
“Feel it?”
“Proval’s pull.” Ruta’s lips were twisted oddly.
“I feel…affection, even love for him, I suppose. I shouldn’t.”
They stopped in the space between two tents. There was no one else around. Ruta peered carefully up and down the narrow passages between the tents. “There’s no way to escape that feeling,” she informed Lianna even t
