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Karou had decided to tell her the hard news in person, but now that the time had come, suitable words failed to line themselves up in her brain He’s dead
There was a , just at that moment, felt like providence Karou leapt up "Mik and Zuze," she said, and jogged toward the door The suite was so sprawling, you really had to jog in order to answer the door in a ti it open "What took you so long?" she dehtly set here from the airport," said Mik "This city is mad"
Karou knew that it was She’d had an aerial perspective of the great, pulsing ring of humanity that had collected around the closed-off perimeter of the Vatican Even fro, but couldn’t make out the words Froly, of the way zoet in And the rest of the city, while not quite as… zoot some otten a few hours of much needed sleep on the plane Karou had lain her head on Akiva’s shoulder, and drifted off to ainst her own Her drea than restful
"A little," replied Zuzana "But what I really want is a bath" She stepped back and gave Karou a quick scan "Look at you A couple of hours in Italy and you’re a fashionista How’d you get new clothes already?"
"That’s what happens here" Karou led theive you flower leis In Italy, it’s perfect clothes and leather shoes"
"Well, ‘they’ esturing to herself "To the horror of everyone down in the lobby"
"Yikes" Karou cringed to iine it "Were they bad?" She’d been spared the scrutiny herself, having arrived glamoured, and by way of the sky and the balcony, not the street and the lobby
Mik said, "Zuze has been having glare duels"
Zuzana cocked an eyebrow "You should see the other guy"
"I have no doubt," said Karou "And ‘they’ weren’t on break They were just waiting for you here Esther got us all new clothes"
As she said this, they stepped into the living room "I sent a shopper out for the Fle fits"
She rose and came forward "I’ve heard soout to enfold Zuzana’s hands in her own She was, in that randrandmother She had no children and next to no randmother," she’d been more of a political ally to Karou than an emotional one In her life, the old woman had midwifed countless diamonds into the possession of the ultrarich, and into the possession of Bri business with humans and non-humans alike--and subhumans, too, as she called the more nefarious of Brilobal information network She traveled in elite circles as well as shadowy ones--she’d told Karou on the phone that she had a cardinal in one pocket and an arms dealer in the other, and no doubt she had more pockets besides And she was revered as a nearly ure, first for her mysterious preservation--she’d been tickled to hear a rumor that she’d sold her soul for immortality--as well as for several ihly placed people
Iic
"I’ve heard so lint in her eye that was either aup a matador She wasn’t sure which, but Esther had it, too The look that passed between the tolad they weren’t adversaries, and that they were both on her side
There was a brief spell of chitchat The size of the dogs Rooels
It hen Esther said, "I’ood sense to coht nostril flare turned Zuzana’s expression more bull than matador
"She came to you once before," Zuzana said, casual with an undercurrent of bla at, and tried to intercede
"Zuze--" she began, but her friend talked over her
"And I’ve been curious ever since When Karou caave the older woman a let’s be honest look "You held out on her, didn’t you?"
Esther’s s srand a hand on her friend’s back They’d argued about this before "She didn’t She wouldn’t" When the portals had burned, last winter, and she’d been desperate to find her chiavriels that could carry her and the thing Razgut up to the sky portal and into Eretz--Karou had gone to Esther first Esther had said that she had no wish stronger than a lucknow, and Karou had believed her, because ould she lie?
"I did," said Esther, solemn and… contrite? Karou stared at her
Did she mean that she had held out on her? "What?" she asked, confused
"Well, I’m sorry to say it, dear, of course, but I didn’t really believe that you would find hireedy old woet, I had to guard the"
Karou’s stomach turned over "You weren’t," she said
Esther cocked her head, puzzled "I wasn’t what?"
"You weren’t wrong I didn’t find Brimstone He’s dead" She laid it out flat, no emotion in her voice, and watched Esther’s face drain of color
"No, oh no No," sheto her mouth "Oh, Karou I didn’t want to believe it" Her eyes filled up with tears
"You didn’t tell her yet?" Zuzana asked
Karou shook her head So ently Esther had lied to her When the portals had just burned and she didn’t know anything, when she was battered and bruised froentle treatone to her for help She’d been at the lowest point in her life so far, never mind that she was to sink steadily lower and oh so very much lower over the next months, she hadn’t known that then She’d trusted Esther, only to find out now that Esther had lied to her face
She looked genuinely affected, though, and Karou felt so her so harshly "Issa’s well," she said, to soften the blow, adding a silent prayer that it was so