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Karou’s body was still flashing fro to make sense of the scene It was Issa who moved slowly forward and bent over Hazael to touch his face Karou only watched, a queer detach over her--that old unreality returned, as if her life were a shadow play cast on a wall--and she expected the fierce sister to snarl and shove Issa away, but she didn’t Liraz reached for Issa’s hand and gripped it The serpents in Issa’s hair and around her neck grew still and taut, ready to strike if it caled Her eyes shifted from Issa to Karou and they ild "Save him"

Karou heard the words, but in her slowed-down state they see to Akiva The way he was looking at her… it was like touch She took an involuntary step back His face was a silent plea; he was nearly as gray as the corpse of his brother, which they had laid down on the space of floor where Karou conjured bodies The resurrection floor They were all looking to her Even Issa had turned to her

Save hi Bri her people, they had brought her their slain brother to resurrect?

How far had they carried him? They were racked with treainst the wall His ar at his sides He looked more dead than alive,on the battlefield at Bullfinch

"What happened to you?"

Ithim that question, but it wasn’t It was Akiva, and he was looking at her cheek, her lip, and her newly stitched earlobe Self-consciously, she untucked her hair from behind her ear and concealed it "Who did that to you?" he asked Weak as his voice was, it burned with anger "It was hi, and all Karou could think of, seeing the fury on his face, was the living shawl he had s on her shoulders Once upon a tio had torn her dress, and, down from the false stars of the festival lanterns, Akiva had su shawl to cover her

She hadchoice

But that was then So nored his question, hating the physical evidence of her vulnerability, wishing her ar she had mended herself What was a little more pain, after all? Sheher attention to Hazael Akiva had brought her his dead brother? Well, he had also brought her Issa And he had given her Ziri back, she et that, whatever may have happened since She lowered herself to her knees beside the body--slowly; everything hurt--and wondered that they had brought his body so far

Bodies are only dead weight--we’re all just vessels, after all--but knowing that was one thing; leaving a body behind was another Karou understood that well enough It is bodies that h, or hands to hold? Her own hands trembled and she clasped them to keep them still

The wound was under Hazael’s left arm His heart It would have been a quick death

"Please," Liraz said again "Save hi Name your price"

Price? Karou looked at her sharply, but there was no trace of the cruelty or severity she relanced at Akiva Or if there is, she could have added, you’ve already paid it

"You’ll do it?" Liraz’s words trembled with hope

Would she? Karou knew she was their only hope--she who the hamsas on her hands--and there was irony there, but she took no pleasure in it She couldn’t bear the sight of Liraz’s hands--they were so black--but they were so tender on her brother’s neck, her fingers so soft on his dead cheek, and Karou knew she should not feel sy them, after all, had clean hands? Not her Oh, Ellai, ain She clenched them suddenly and her blisters burned from her ith the shovel It felt to her as if to do this one thing, save this life… it ht be a salve Not just for these seraphim but for herself, after the horror of the pit and the shovel and what she had had to do, and… and the lie she was now forced to live She wanted to do this A tick on her knuckle for a life saved instead of taken

"I can’t preserve this body," she said "It’s too late And I can’t make him look the same, either" Maybe Bris, but they were far beyond her "He won’t be a seraph anymore"

"It doesn’t matter," Akiva said She met his eyes, his red, red eyes, and she wanted to do this for hi as he is himself," he said "That’s all that matters"

Yes, she told herself, and wanted to believe it as firmly as he did Soul is what matters Flesh is vessel "Okay" She took a deep breath and looked down at Hazael "Give me the thurible"

Her words were

Oh no No Karou stared at Hazael’s dead face, his open blue eyes, his laugh lines, and her upwelling sorrow overwhel it to stillness She was rigid She had to be Her grief… if she let it out, it would be a rief tied to another to another, it would never end She didn’t want to look up again, to see the stricken faces frozen in that terrible silence

"We didn’t… we didn’t have one" Liraz Whispering "We brought him here To you"

Akiva was hoarse "It’s only been a day Karou Please" As if it were aher

They didn’t understand How could they? She had never told Akiva hoorked, how tenuous the soul’s connection grew after death, or how easily it could be cast adrift if it was not contained She had never told hi in the air or aura of this dead angel--soldier, killer, beloved brother--no i with those blue eyes and laugh lines, no stir of any kind to brush against her senses and tell her who he was because… he wasn’t

She looked up She forced herself to meet Akiva’s red eyes and Liraz’s so they would see and understand her sorrow

And know that Hazael’s soul was lost

77

TO LIVE

It was her sorrow that undid Akiva One look and he knew Hazael was gone