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“Just kill me!” I rolled over All of me hurt I must have slept with myit as a latrine all night

“How a creature such as you caination or eloquence failed him

I cracked one eye open Daylight streah heavy shutters to illuminate a filthy cha so me Naked? My locket! I lurched up, led not to decorate the headboard My clothes lay strewn over the floorboards, and an ill-advised lunge placedlu since Oppen This tile was in vain and I threhat appeared to be everything I’d eaten the night before, along with a couple of other people’s

“Cover yourself, el’s voice, roaring like nails down the chalkboard of my soul

“Uuuurgod,” proved to be my snappiest response I wiped e of the bed

On the far side, across a wrinkled sea of soiled linen and grey wool, E herself back into a pair of worn leather trousers Even in rimy, lines of her body before they were entirely hidden away She turned, buttoning her jerkin over tight-wrapped breasts, her expression a ust I took her to be somewhere in her thirties, towards the end of them perhaps Even with her short hair and broken nose, I couldn’t understand how I’d not seen her for what she was before

“My secret” She grabbed herself between the legs, all traces of a from her face “Speak of it and I’ll cut you to look the same” Suddenly I couldn’t see any trace of a woman in her at all

“There’s no secret, Brother Emmer,” I said

“That’s right” She flipped a copper crown atthe door shut, and left the room

Alone in the unsavoury mess, I took a moment to reflect “A helluva woman!” I crawled back onto the bed

“Naked as the devil and clothed in sin!” Baraqel howled—or at least it felt as if he howled it “Find a priest, Prince Jalan, and—” Somewhere the sun parted coht lanced ever h the shutters and I pulled the blanket over ot worse After a few confused ured out that a fair portion of the pounding was actually coainst it repeatedly I buried ainst it; theway from wholesome, several national boundaries away froed o away, and for whoever was having such a good tiy Or die

An indeterminate aer to the door, still reeling, half-drunk fro most of my clothes, my boots, my sword I took Eift for the next occupant—minus Mother’s locket, of course