16
Tavern at the Middle of the World
Hollyn moaned against Brandyn’s chest. The heavy blanket, shielding her from the deadly sunlight, caused her to break into violent sweats. Her fever had broken in the night, but now she complained of pains in her belly, and the soles of her feet were inexplicably covered in blisters, despite that her feet had seldom set foot upon land. Not long after the complaints left her lips, she fell into a fugue, no longer speaking. Brandyn put his hand against the back of her head and stroked her silken hair, the way their mother would have done, but as the waning figure of his oldest sister shivered in his arms, riding the slow pace of the mule, Brandyn was again reminded that he was the baby, and this wasn’t supposed to be the way the world was.
“She hasn’t
