Lord of Souls

TEN

Annaig was acutely aware of Lord Rhel watching her as she studied Glim’s corpse, but she couldn’t control the burn of tears in her eyes. They seemed to come from someplace in the middle of her, a place where everything had been seared out. Soon she would be nothing but skin, and fall in a pile on the floor.

“I’m sorry, Glim,” she said in their private cant.

“Umbriel is pleased,” Rhel said.

“What’s going to happen to him?” she asked softly.

“First he’ll be shown to the skraws, so they know he’s dead. He’ll be cut in pieces, and each of the skraw dormitories will get one, to remind them.”

“That’s barbaric,” she said.

“I don’t know what that means,” Rhel said. “But you’ve done well for yourself. You should be proud.”

“That will take me a bit of time,” Annaig replied.

“Umbriel told me you might show grief. He said you were not to be punished for it, that it would come to you naturally. He also said that it will pass.”

“It will,” Annaig agreed. “May I be alone with him for a moment?”

“Why?”

“To tell him goodbye.”

“He’s already dead. He can’t hear you.”

“Umbriel would understand,” she said.

“Very well,” Rhel yielded. “But only a moment.”

She waited until she could no longer hear his footsteps before she bent down and hugged Glim’s still body. Hoping against hope that no one was watching, she pried open his mouth and took the crystal growing at the base of his tongue. Closing his mouth, she kissed him on the snout. She put the crystal in her pocket, straightened, and wiped her eyes. Then she left to prepare Rhel’s evening meal.

Annaig had endured long nights before, but she had never felt as lost as she did after the work in the kitchen was done that evening. She drank nearly a bottle of wine, remembering drinking with Glim on her father’s balcony as the rains came in Lilmoth.

Eventually she opened her locket.

At first she didn’t know what she was seeing, but then the tangle of limbs and blankets sorted itself out. Attrebus was in profile, asleep. The woman-whoever she was-was facing Coo.

She snapped the locket shut and sat there a moment as the feeling of betrayal settled over her. On the surface of her mind, she knew she shouldn’t feel this way, that Attrebus had never implied that he had romantic feelings for her. And yet, something about the way he spoke to her, as if they had always been friends, as if when this was all over…

But no, of course not. He needed her, that was all. To do this thing, destroy this city. He had to keep her on his good side, motivated, willing to do whatever was required, even murder Glim, for the gods’ sake. This probably wasn’t even the first time, just the first time he’d slipped up and left Coo open.

And who was she anyway? Nobody. A silly girl, worshipping a prince. Probably sillier than the one who lay with him now. What must he actually think of her?

She was really stupid about people, wasn’t she? She’d thought that Slyr was her friend. She’d thought that Attrebus might-

Before she could finish the thought, she hurled the locket at the wall, then finished her wine.