Free A Veil of Secrets by Hailey Edwards

offering myself a compromise. Here there were no savory treats with which to barter with the darker part of myself.
    When I looked up from my empty bowl, it was to see everyone rising with their dishes in hand. I watched to see what they did, but they filed from the room past Old Father and mingled in the street.
    Asher leaned closer. “Old Father is summoning us.”
    We cleaned our places and collected our bowls, then we joined Old Father. He reached for each of us at once, intending for us to help him stand. He must have sent the maven and paladin ahead to give us a moment of privacy. I bent, thinking I would collect his dishes, but they had been removed.
    “Sikya tells me you wish to discuss an arrangement with me.” He gestured toward the far corner of the room, and Asher fetched his walking stick. “It is an interesting request. One I will honor.”
    I held his elbow while we waited for Asher. “I appreciate your consideration.”
    “The two gods send us trials, and I feel certain you are a test of theirs. If I can only see my way out of solving the puzzle, it will bring blessings upon my people.” His white teeth flashed. “Come. I am expected, as are you. Once we have cleansed ourselves, then you may greet me at my home.”
    He accepted the stick from Asher and grunted as his bones settled into a comfortable stoop.
    Out of concern, I stuck by his side until we exited the building and bumped into Wishövi.
    “You can go ahead.” He eyed the walking stick. “It is my honor to escort Old Father.”
    The elder snorted but waved his hand to usher us where the others gathered. Dual lines formed ahead. Females stood in one line and males in the other. Both lines angled toward the river. I took my place at the end of one and Asher at the end of the other.
    Old Father shuffled past us, making his way to the head of the line with Wishövi’s help.
    Several minutes later, his rich voice raised a rhythmic chant whose purity vibrated in my bones. The end of his song brought a peaceful silence. He cried out once, and the line shifted forward. From where I stood, the ceremony was concealed. All I saw were the backs of heads in the snaking queue.
    When the line crept forward another step, I caught Asher emptying his bowl on the sand.
    He hadn’t eaten a single bite.
    The sight of his oats made mine sit like lead in my gut. “Was the meal not to your liking?”
    He flicked congealed oats from his spoon. “Fruit and grains aren’t a meal.”
    I shared the sentiment, not that it did either of us any good. “The Salticidae don’t eat meat.”
    “I learned that the hard way.” He shifted his weight to better see over the head of the male ahead of him. “This time I cured enough dried meat to last me several days in the event I was detained, but it was in my pack, on my ursus, wherever those went.”
    Four males and five ursus lost. There was no point searching the veil. They wouldn’t be found.
    A thought occurred to me. “How is Lleu adjusting to his new diet?”
    Asher checked our progress again. “Lleu will eat anything.”
    “You’re fidgeting.” I wondered. “Is this done after every meal?”
    “I’m not.” He paused before saying more. “And no, it isn’t.”
    “Was there something else you wanted to add?”
    “This is a ceremonial cleaning,” he admitted. “I witnessed it once before. I was passing through here on clan business when a female who had survived the plague returned to Beltania. I don’t know the particulars of her case, but she ate in the hall with her clan before they performed the ceremony.”
    Heat blossomed in my cheeks. Old Father was cleaning his clan of our association.
    “I made inquiries. They don’t know about you,” he assured me. “They do know we encountered risers on the other side of the veil because the Mimetidae guards stationed here warned them before they went to patrol their borders. That is likely the taint they wish to banish, nothing more