“Where is Echo?”
“We no longer call him that anymore.”
Silver blinked, taken aback at Amber’s terse response. “What do you mean?”
“Please wind these bandages.”
Silver sat and twined a strip of linen alongside the healer. Other than the creaking of their chairs, very little sound penetrated the quiet of the morning. Leafy branches outside the windows hung in stillness, brightened by sunlight that was kept from shining directly into the house. Amber set a roll onto the counter, staring into a space beyond her hands.
“You have been away for some time, Silver. Once, I was your instructor, but you left for the academy. Many things have changed since then. In the same way time makes you a stranger to me, we no longer know Echo for who he was.”
With a carefully expressionless voice, Silver chose one of the thousand questions to ask. “What happened?”
“Shadow.”
“The vagabond Echo rescued? What about him?”
“He is a she.” Amber growled, gold eyes flaming. “Shadow lied to us. Everyone has been lying, all this time.”