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Jael’s steward held the flap of the tent open and beheld the creature first The felloas stoic from years in his service and all that that entailed, so when Jael saw hi by its armpits Its body was a bloated ball, its arms were reedy and ropey, and its face…

Jael did not blanch The things that disgusted others were a fascination to him He rose fro to peer at it, and when it looked at his face, it recoiled This was funny--that such a h

"Please!" it cried "I have been punished enough I have coain, but she icked, oh, false girl, she tasted of fairy tales, but let her have her ash city, let her mourn her dead monsters, she cheated me The wish ran out How many times must I fall? It has been a thousand years I have been punished enough!"

Jael understood that he was looking at a legend "Fallen," he said, amazed, and he took in the creature’s fine eyes, sunk in the bloat of its purple face He looked at its dangling, useless legs and the splinters of bone jutting fro-distant past--a past out of stories whose books had been burned and lost--its wings had been ripped from its body

"So you’re real," said Jael, and he felt no s could be alive after all that it had endured

"I ael, he was cruel, oh, his fire eyes were bright, but he was a dead thing, he wouldn’t help ibberish as fascinating as his history

With a flash of unexpected strength frout jerked free of the soldier holding him and seized Jael’s hand "You who knohat it is to be broken, brother, you will pity me"

Jael smiled It hen Jael smiled that he felt most keenly what his face was: aa horror He lived The one who had cut hih to rue her poor ai ever lived at all Jael was ugly, and though his teeth were broken he was most avowedly not, and as for pity, it had never troubled hiut clutch at his hand He waved the soldiers off when they tried to drag the creature back, and he ordered his steward to bring food

"For our guest," he said

Our fascinating guest

49

A TRUE SMILE

All of Karou’s careful hiding of her bruises was undone the moment she rolled up her sleeves and dumped her tool case out on her table It was a sh, and Zuzana said nothing Karou didn’t look at her; she didn’t want to see her friend’s reaction She focused on Ziri

Thiago and Ten put hiht--and Ten went for boiled water to wash his wounds Ziri had not regained consciousness, which was a ive him for the pain Why would she? She wasn’t a healer

But… she supposed she was; she could do what an ordinary healer could not--at least, in theory The sa flesh could also knit and heal it It was even possible to repair a dead body and restore its soul to it, though this could only be done ian, and if the injuries were not too extensive As soldiers tended not to die at the resurrectionist’s door, the gleaning of souls was the practical alternative Also, Brimstone had said that it was usually easier to conjure a new for a slice in knitted wool: the wool skein had been one continuous fiber in the original creation and was now fraught with interruptions, each its own snafu of loose ends and lost stitches The interruptions could be put right, but it took e quite as it had been before

Karou knelt to examine Ziri’s injuries As terrible as the se It had been sliced clean by a very sharp blade, and the uration straightforward There o leaned over her shoulder "Is that… ash?" he asked

Karou realized that it was It was ash blackening Ziri’s mouth and lips The inside of his mouth was black, too "It looks like he ate it," she said

"Or was fed it," replied Thiago darkly

Fed ash? By who? Karou reached for Ziri’s hands, gently curling them open When she sahat had been done to hiuish escaped her lips His hands were pierced through, as if he had been crucified The left one was torn entirely fro between his third and fourth finger, as if he had wrenched it free of whatever had pinned it The i white noise to her ears She laid the hands back gently on Ziri’s chest

"So Can you heal theo

Karou heard skepticism in his voice, and didn’t blame him for it Hands were ridiculously complex She’d had to draw and label them in anatomy classes in art school: all twenty-nine bones, seventeen aments "I don’t know," she admitted

"If you can’t, tell h she knew the answer

"If he can’t use his hands, this body is of no use to hio shook his head, not unsy as that is, do you think he’ll thank you for salvaging it if he can’t hold his blades?"

Is that all that matters? Karou wondered, and the bleak ansas: yes

She felt the Wolf looking at her, but she kept her eyes on Ziri Broken, brutalized Ziri Lovely, long-liraceful echo of a dead people What o ask for to replace this perfect one? It wouldn’t come to that She would keep Ziri froan, "If it would be faster to make him a new--"

"I can do it," Karou snapped, and the Wolf sat back

When she turned to face hiht, then Try But first I need to question him"

"What? Wake him?" Karou shook her head "It’s better this way--"

"Karou, what do you think happened to hiave anything away"