Page 46 (1/1)

She was silent for a h to worry: who could I contact if she refused to help ht," she said at last, and the knot that had been tightening in s up Come here, a week from today Noon" The location made itself present in my consciousness, as if I had always known it A house somewhere in the city below Skye a ti South Root "Come alone"

I folded my arms "Will you be alone?"

"Oh, of course"

I made the shape of a cat’s head with hed

"I don’t care if you believe , not I Be there in a week, or not at all" With that, her shadow leaned down and blew hard With a surprised flare, En went dark and dropped to the floor Then Neone

In the dark, I retrieved En, as quite put out Iwords and tucked it back into

If Nemmer knehat had happened to s; not even the Three could keep her out of their business, though she wasn’t foolish enough to flaunt that -- then when I arrived in a week, I s, so for a chance to repay me for the Gods’ War for two thousand years

But Neames of our family I didn’t knohy she’d sat out the war Had she been torn, like so s, between our fathers? Had she been one of those working to save the ? I sighed in frustration, realizing that this was the sort of thing I should have occupied myself with as eldest, not our parents’ sordid dras, perhaps tried to understand their reasons for betraying Nahadoth --

"If I had done that, I would not be who I ahed into the dark

Which, ulti Nemmer She, too, was only what her naturesecrets and doling out knowledge where she dee alliances only as it suited her -- briefly, if at all If nothing else, that meant she was not my enemy Whether she beca to Deka’s rooain: Morad, the ample-haired palace steward, and another servant, as busyup Both bowed to h-blood Then the servant pro duties while Morad looked me up and doith an expression of unconcealed distaste

Frowning at her scrutiny, I looked at myself -- and then, belatedly, realized why the servants had all stared atI had conjured for myself two days before It had been nondescript then, but it was filthy now, after all h dusty corridors and Tree-choked dead spaces And … I sniffed one of my armpits and wrinkled my nose, appalled that I had not noticed I had not bathed since my return to this world, and apparentlyreek than I had done as a child

"Oh," I said, sht I saw a hint rd,ced I of amusement on her face

"I’ll run you a bath," she said, and paused, looking particularly at my head "And summon a stylist And the tailor And a ritty hair with a weak laugh "I suppose I deserve that"

"As you like, my lord" Morad touched the servant, who had al He nodded and exited the apartment at once To my surprise, Morad then rolled up her sleeves and finished tucking the sheets When that was done, she went into the bathroom; a moment later, I heard water run

Curious, I followed her into the roo the water with her fingers It was even more noticeable with her back turned and all that hair of hers visible in full riot It was clear that she was not fully Aht, small coils that wealthy Amn spent hours and fortunes to achieve, and it was as black as h, but the marks of other were in her features, plain to anyone who looked It was also plain that she was not asharaceful as a queen She could not have been raised in Sky or any Amn territory; they would have beaten her spirit doith cruel words long before now