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"You smell," he said, "and you’re filthy, and you look like horseshit Since you’re too useless to take yourself out of here as you should, I have no choice but to put you up for the night But don’t get used to it; I want you living soot up and went away, I assueed -- barely -- to sit on my knees I was still shaky Insanely, ain In or out, I told it, but it did not listen

Ahad crouched in front of ed to lift , but he lifted a hand and conjured a small hand mirror I was too tired even for envy He lifted the rown older The face that gazed back at er jawline The hair on rown darker, longer, the wispy precursors of a beard Late adolescence, rather than the one? Three? Gone, regardless

"I should be flattered, perhaps," Ahad said "That you remember the old days with such fondness" His words skirted the edge of danger, but I was too tired for true fear He could kill me anytime he wanted, and would’ve done it by now if he’d reallyhis power

Suddenly this seemedif he heardnow"

Ahad shook his head, less annoyed than unsurprised His hand seized the back of ’ You’reThe sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be" He took one of ust "You need to eat Start taking care of your body if you want it to last for the few years you have left Or would you rather die now?"

I closed rasp "I don’t want to be ood to realize I still could, however rown up "Mortals lie when they say they love you They wait until you trust them, then shove the knife in, and then they work it around to make sure it kills you"

There was awhich I closed ood cry It ended wheneig ma the office door opened and two servants caave

"Gods do that, too," he snapped, "so you’re damned whichever way you turn Shut up and deal with it"

Then he shovedarms and they hauled me away

11

I L-O-V-E, love you

I’ll K-I-S-S, kiss you

Then I pushed him in a lake

And he sed a snake

And ended up with a tue sumptuous bathchamber with lovely benches that reeked of sex despite their freshly laundered cushions They strippedmy old clothes into a pile to be burned, and scrubbedme in perfumed water Then they put me into a robe and took me to a rooht I did not drea h she would never do such a thing When I , I conte-cold meal and a pitcher of room-temperature water sat on a sideboard of the rooestion rather than ejection and applied ood Beside this sat a s a dab of thick white paste and a paper card, on which elegant blocky letters had been written: eat it The hand was fahed and tasted the paste The alley rat had been uest in Ahad’s houlped the rest down, then quickly ate uise the bitter taste This did not work However, I began to feel better, so I was pleased to confir had been set out for e shirt, a brown jacket, brown boots Servant attire, most likely, since I suspected that would suit Ahad’s sense of cruelty Thus arrayed, I opened the door of the roohter and httie to play a dozen bawdy, vicious tricks was alht It would be so easy to change all the house’s sensual oils into hot chili oil or make the beds smell of mildew rather than lust and perfue passed I felt a fleeting sadness in its wake