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But it wasn’t All was not well

Also once white, and white no longer, by a noose around its neck, swung the stained and broken body of Thiago

And here was the answer, sooner than expected, to the question of what had happened when they left the battle raging in the Adelphas, and made the hard decision to co

Did I do enough? Karou had asked herself then, already knowing the answer Did I do everything I could?

No

And their coht her and held her, and they didn’t speak but watched, helpless, beats, as Jael landed before the corpse of the White Wolf and laughed

71

ABSENCE

Karou went to the body, after Jael was gone Just for aclose, she remembered the last time this flesh had bled out Her own small knife had killed him then, and the neat wound was easily knit back up to prepare the vessel for Ziri’s soul

This wound was… not neat

Look away

This death had not been easy, and Karou’s mind screamed for the brown-eyed orphan who once upon a tily as a fawn Whom she’d kissed once on the forehead, and only re

Ziri And she knew the feel of his soul from when she’d put it in this body, and hope, hope would just never learn

Of course his soul would be gone It could never have survived this long in the open, or such a journey Of course it had evanesced But Karou still opened her senses to it, because she couldn’t not try Did I do everything I could? And still she held her breath, as invisible tears tracked down her invisible cheeks And still she hoped

Absence has presence, sometirass where soer Absence where a thread has been ripped, ragged, froap that can never be mended

That was all she felt

72

THE SEVERAL DAYS’ EMPEROR

Mood incrementally i his retinue of guards The soldiers in the watchtowers had saluted hilide up short and stride at his side

"Report," Jael barked, re it to him "The rebels?"

"We trapped them in the Adelphas, sir--"

Jael whirled on hinize the soldier "Aeneral?"

The soldier bowed his head, flustered "Eminence?" he ventured "My lord eotten and revenants together, if you can credit it"

Oh, Jael could credit it He gave out a hiss of a laugh

"I’ain, sir

Jael’s eyes narrowed to slits "And?"

"They put up a valiant defense," said the soldier, and Jael read the rest in his smirk A valiant defense was a dooht of the White Wolf’s corpse, and it was all he needed to know for now Jael’s blood was thrue-tense He’d been meek as a rabbit--a neutered rabbit--for days in that infernal palace, not daring to injure his reputation by answering his own hungers And all for what? To be chased away like a skulking dog? He hadn’t even dared slay the Fallen for fear of defying the bastard Akiva’s prohibition of bloodshed

He looked around for his steward "Where is Mechel?"

"I don’t know, runt "Send o

"No need, sir There’s one already in your tent, waiting for you" Still that smirk "A victory celebration"

Jael hauled off and backhanded the soldier, whose expression scarcely altered as the slap turned his head from east to west A thread of blood appeared at his lip, and he did nothing to stanch it

"Do I look victorious to you?" Jael seethed at him He held up his empty hands "Do you see all my neeapons? I can scarcely carry the and was rees had been fa a creature of cunning, not te not in passion but in coolness

So he just shoved the soldier aside--fixing the smirk in his memory for a more considered punish at his ridiculous white pageant garb and giving a hiss of pain when he peeled at the place the scorched silk had hardened against the weeping flesh of his wound, reopening it