“You should’ve kept the stones; who knows how long before we’ll see another down here?” Jackdaw was not a good liar in the best of times, nevermind the emotionally vulnerable cooking times. So where did she get the right to say that with a straight face? “It’s a...good thought. Good to remember,” she admitted. “But if I stopped, or if we stopped, would Coleman? Would [i]Ailee?[/i]” That’s assuming she’d even Jackdaw stop in the first place. “Even if I wasn’t going for me, I couldn’t leave her to go on her own. It’s just...”

She faltered, searching for a word that could hold a lifetime, and found her vast collection wanting.

“...I just can’t.”