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Dorian frowned "So, you won’t take the offer?"
"Of course I’ainst her shackles badly enough that her eyes watered "I’ll be your absurd Charee to free me in three years, not five"
"Four"
"Fine," she said "It’s a bargain Ione form of slavery for another, but I’m not a fool"
She could win back her freedom Freedom She felt the cold air of the wide-open world, the breeze that swept from the mountains and carried her away She could live far from Rifthold, the capital that had once been her realht," Dorian replied "And hopefully, you’ll live up to your reputation I anticipate winning, and I won’t be pleased if you leam vanished from his eyes as he said: "You’ll be sent back here, to serve out the remainder of your sentence"
Celaena’s lovely visions exploded like dust froht as well leap froine ill happen if I return I’d be dead by my second year" She tossed her head "Your offer seeh indeed," Dorian said, and waved a hand at Chaol "Take her to her rooms and clean her up" He fixed her with a stare "We depart for Rifthold in theDon’t disappoint me, Sardothien"
It was nonsense, of course How difficult could it be to outshine, outsmart, and then obliterate her competitors? She didn’t smile, for she knew that if she did, it would open her to a real been closed But still, she felt like seizing the prince and dancing She tried to think of music, tried to think of a celebratory tune, but could only recall a solitary line fros, deep and slow like honey poured froo home at last"
She didn’t notice when Captain Westfall led her away, nor did she notice when they walked down hall after hall
Yes, she would go--to Rifthold, to anywhere, even through the Gates of the Wyrd and into Hell itself, if it meant freedo
Chapter 4
When Celaena finally collapsed onto a bed after herin the throne room, she couldn’t fall asleep, despite the exhaustion in every inch of her body After being roughly bathed by brutish servants, the wounds on her back throbbed and her face felt like it had been scrubbed to the bone Shifting to lie on her side to ease the pain in her dressed and bound back, she ran her hand down the mattress, and blinked at the freeness of otten into the bath, Chaol had re--the reverberations of the key turning in the lock of her irons, then again as they loosened and fell to the floor She could still feel the ghost chains hovering just above her skin Looking up at the ceiling, she rotated her raw, burning joints and gave a sigh of contente to lie on a mattress, to have silk caress her skin and a pillow cradle her cheek She had forgotten what food other than soggy oats and hard bread tasted like, what a clean body and clothes could do to a person Noas utterly foreign
Though her dinner hadn’t been that wonderful Not only was the roast chicken unimpressive, but after a few forkfuls, she’d dashed into the bathroom to deposit the contents of her stomach She wanted to eat, to put a hand to a swollen belly, to wish that she’d never eaten a ain She’d eat well in Rifthold, wouldn’t she? And, more importantly, her sto Beneath her nightgown, her ribs reached out fro bones where flesh and meat should have been And her brsts! Once well-forer than they’d been in the ed her throat, which she promptly sed down The softness of theon her back, despite the pain it gave her
Her face hadn’t been liard: her cheekbones were sharp, her jaw pronounced, and her eyes slightly, but ever so disturbingly, sunken in She took steadying breaths, savoring the hope She’d eat A lot And exercise She could be healthy again Ilory, she finally fell asleep
When Chaol ca on the floor, wrapped in a blanket "Sardothien," he said Sheher face farther into the pillow "Why are you sleeping on the ground?" She opened an eye Of course, he didn’t mention how different she looked now that she was clean
She didn’t bother concealing herself with the blanket as she stood The yards of fabric they called a nightgown covered her enough "The bed was uncoot the captain as she beheld the sunlight
Pure, fresh, warht that she could bask in day after day if she got her freedoht to drown out the endless dark of theitself across the rooerly, Celaena stretched out a hand
Her hand was pale, al beyond the bruises and cuts and scars, that seeht
She ran to theand nearly ripped the curtains froray uards positioned beneath thedidn’t glance upward, and she gaped at the bluish-gray sky, at the clouds slipping on their shoes and shuffling toward the horizon
I will not be afraid For the first time in a while, the words felt true
Her lips peeled into a s
She was cheerful--jubilant, really--and her mood improved when the servants coiled her braided hair onto the back of her head and dressed her in a surprisingly fine riding habit that concealed herof silk, of velvet, of satin, of suede and chiffon--and was fascinated by the grace of seams, the intricate perfection of an embossed surface And when she won this ridiculous competition, when she was freeshe could buy all the clothes she wanted
She laughed when Chaol, irked at how Celaena stood in front of the ed her out of the roo sky made her want to dance and skip down the halls before they entered the main yard However, she faltered as she beheld the mounds of bone-colored rock at the far end of the co in and out of the many un for the day, work that would continue without her when she left the, Celaena averted her eyes fro up with the captain as they headed to a caravan of horses near the towering wall