Diviner by Bryan Davis

and grind me into bait.” With a quaking sob, she added, “One of the men said I would be all right. It would hurt a lot, but as soon as I died, an angel would sweep me up to heaven where I would never have pain again. But … but …”
    “But what?” Jason prompted gently.
    “I don’t want to die.” She buried her face in his chest and cried, her sobs muffled by his shirt.
    Jason embraced her fully and laid a hand on the back of her head. “Go ahead and cry. I’ll be here as long as you need me. I promise.” He ached to run back to the basin and help his father, but how could he leave this poor girl without a protector? Unlike the man Cassabrie had fabricated in the Northlands as a test, this girl was flesh and blood, as real as love and pain. He had failed his earlier test badly, not even bothering to ask the man his name after giving up on bringing the healing stardrop.
    A breeze filtered down from above, cooling his skin. He was drenched with sweat, but the girl didn’t seem to mind. She kneaded his back, shaking gently as she wept. Somehow he had to comfort her, settle her down enough so that he could sneak back to the basin.
    He pushed away and ran a hand over her dark hair, dirty and tangled. Her sunken cheeks told of starvation, and her probing gaze hinted of a longing for love that had never been fulfilled. Jason sighed. Yes, she was real, tragically real. He wouldn’t miss his opportunity, not this time. “What’s your name?”
    She sniffed and swallowed. “Acknod.”
    “Acknod? I have never heard that name before.”
    Her voice slowly steadied. “It sounds like the dragon word for spittle. When I was born in the breeding stable, they saw how weak I was, and the Trader spat on the ground and said
Acknod.
The name has stuck ever since.”
    Jason rolled his eyes upward. “Maybe we should give you a different name, something that —”
    A shriek sounded from the basin, sharp and clear. Then, as abruptly as it began, it ceased.
    Acknod threw her arms around him again. “The kind man,” she cried.
    “Shhh …” Jason’s shushing died on his lips. He added his own swallow. Acknod was right. The scream was too deep to be from one of the boys, too human to be a dragon’s bellow. It had to be his father’s cry.
    Jason bit his lip hard. Father was dead. But he couldn’t lose control, not now. He had to keep his wits sharp and his perception skills active. Who could tell when one of those dragons might fly over and …
    His thought melted away. The horrid phrase trickled from his lips. “Father is dead.”
    As his body began to shake, Acknod rubbed his sleeve. “Your father? The kind man was your father?”
    Looking at her through a wash of tears, Jason nodded, but he couldn’t speak. His throat had clamped shut.
    Acknod rose to her feet and wrapped her arms around him, her chest now level with his. She set her hand behind his head and drew his cheek to her shoulder. “Go ahead and cry, Jason. I’ll be here. I promise.” She hummed, then whispered softly in his ear. “An angel came and took him to heaven. His pain is over.”
    As Jason wept, her gentle voice brought back a memory—Elyssa, when the two of them were both eleven years old. She crooned a song she had written herself, a gift for Jason when his grandfather died.
    Allow your tears to fall on me;
I’ll catch them all, and you will see
That friends who love are friends for life,
Together walking paths of strife.
     
    Jason cried on, trying to imagine Elyssa holding him close, but Acknod’s bare shoulder and moist skin brought him back to reality. He gently pried her arms loose and slid back on his knees. After wiping one sleeve across his eyes and the other under his nose, he gazed at her sincere face. She blinked her sunken brown eyes.
    “Thank you,” he said as he laid a hand on her cheek. “You are truly an angel of comfort.”
    A slight smile bent her lips. “Did you think of a new name for me?”
    As he studied her