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Mother is ht even before the pregnancy It takes all our bracing and grunted effort to lower her down My Fives gloves rub along the rope My hands ache fro But determination feeds me Cook follows, heavier yet Fortunately Ro-e, packed with muscle Afterward Coriander dashes back into the oracle’s chamber and returns with treasure stolen froet out

Horns blare a cheerful tune, getting closer

Ro-eht blurs the darkness below as she vanishes into an unseen passageway connected with the bottoe, lit from the back, face in shadow as he looks up He stands perhaps six body lengths below, the height of the tallest clih shadows ht could not have heartened h I am sure he cannot make out my expression All my tiredness spills away as if the sea has washed clean my flesh and spirit both

"Jes" The walls of the shaft nify his whisper "You co, planning "What about the oracle? Wouldn’t it be better for the last of us to close up the bier and go out the air shaft at night? So if anyone ever opens the tomb they won’t discover hoe escaped?"

The sound of h the slits in the walls The High Priest approaches I suddenly remember that the rope by which I descended the shaft is still wrapped around the exterior of the shaft up on the roof, in plain sight Allfear

I turn to see Ro-e cuts cruelly into her lassy sheen, as if she were drugged with shadow-so, or has she alelco man I think Ro-emnu would kick her, but even a contemptuous person like hi Efean face and a gaze that slices, like he is seeing beyond the uise her secrets "You and I have a decision to make, sullen schemer Do you wish to force the oracle to eat the poisoned food so as to make it look as if it killed her? Or should we smother her?"

"She’s just a pathetic old woman"

He lifts an eyebrow "How Patron-bred you are There is no such thing as a pathetic old wo people who respect experience and wisdo your father’s people are such women discarded like trash It’s shameful but no business of mine All I see here is yet another Patron lady ould spit on et in her way on the street We can’t leave her alive"

"I guess killing is nothing to you Your sister adrin erous "Is that what she said?"

Retreat always looks like weakness so I take a step forward "Are you saying it isn’t true?"

Scorn curls his lips "I did what they accuse me of, yes"

I try not to notice how the oracle stares at us, mouth slack as we talk so casually about her death The way she clutched my brother has torn my heart open "This can’t be the only life she has known," I say, winding a path through this maze because ILook how old she is I think she once had a baby who died Don’t you wonder why she was locked away?"

He unties the gag and shakes her "What is your story? What secrets do you know?"

"You cannot treat hly! You are a lowly servant, no better thanbehind me

I turn as Kalliarkos pulls hi on, Jes? Can’t you hear the High Priest’s procession? You must have secured the rope to the air shaft to come down Is it untied so they won’t see it?"

The oracle struggles to her knees, crawling toward hiht they banished you! But you have come back I knew you would not abandon me, my heart!"

Astonished by this outburst Kalliarkos steps full into the laic play pretending rapt wonderment at an extraordinary coincidence

Her expression cruruous dissonance across the priests’ har "You are not my beloved Kallos! Where is my baby that they stole from us?"