Bound by J. Elizabeth Hill

heard of it?"
    He shook his head. "Didn’t get off the farm much, remember? So what are you doing here?"
    "Well, that’s where I was born and grew up, but I just graduated from the Voleno Academy."
    "So you're heading back home, then? I mean, Avene is on the Imperial Highway to Rianza."
    "Uh, no. I'm going to see a friend of my mentor. He lives near Rianza, on this side though. I need to ask him something, need his help really. I might end up studying with him for a while, before deciding where to go next." She was skirting the truth in a little, but hadn't really lied. Even so, she felt a strange desire to keep going, to tell him more, including the things she had just purposely left out or been vague about. What is going on with me today, she wondered. Maybe it was just a reaction to what had happened at the academy, the close brush with that awful darkness making her want someone to know her, now that she was so alone in the world. Again, the thought occurred to her that there was something more to this, but then he distracted her.
    "Graduated and still studying? I guess you're aiming to know everything," he said with a laugh.
    "There's always more to learn in the world. My mentor used to say that you stop learning when you stop living."
    Tavis nodded, still smiling. "That sounds like a decent philosophy."
    Fay cocked her head at him and raised an eyebrow. "You know, you don't sound like any farmer I've ever talked to."
    The smile slid from his face and he looked embarrassed. "My mother wasn't from Shev. I guess I just picked some of it up from her."
    Starting to feel a little desperate to get off the subject of her own life before she said too much or her reawakened grief could overwhelm her, she asked, "Why did your mother leave?"
    She regretted her words immediately. He frowned again, and didn't meet her eyes. He sounded reluctant as he said, "I was young, and wasn’t there when she left, so I- I guess I don’t really know. My father took it badly though."
    Fay looked at him, considered the cup that he had brought out with him, and was suddenly sure it contained only water. She wanted to drop the subject, seeing how little he wanted to discuss it, but found that she couldn’t for some reason. She said softly, "He drank. When she left, I mean."
    Tavis' eyes rose to hers, shocked and then his expression became uncomfortable. He looked away and stared out into the night. She almost thought he wasn’t going to say anything more, but then he did, the words coming out in bunches, full of resistance that didn't quite stop him. "Um, not exactly. He always drank, as far back as I can remember, but he started doing it all day, every day when she left. Didn't take long before he couldn't do anything around the farm anymore, about a year, so I kind of took over. It was either that or starve. It wasn't like we had money or any family to help us."
    She took in the edge of bitterness in his tone, the hard look that she could see in his profile. "How old were you?"
    His eyes studied his cup intently. "When my mother left? Nine."
    "How long has it been?" she asked, hardly able to say the words, though she felt compelled to ask. The thought of a ten year old taking on his whole farm made her sad.
    "Eleven years."
    She was pleased to find he was only a year older than her, but the sad look on his face made her want to reach out and put a hand to his cheek. What am I thinking, she asked herself in surprise. She never did things like that. But she couldn’t deny how much she wanted to make him feel better after refusing to let such an obviously painful subject drop. "Maybe she left because of his drinking?"
    "I... don't know. My father used to say-" he stopped and took a drink. "It was just drunken ranting, really. Forget I said anything, please."
    Fay understood what he couldn't bring himself to say out loud. She reached out and laid her fingers delicately on his forearm. The warmth of his skin under her hand almost distracted her