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Dido opens her hands to us “You see my predicament There is no time for your proposal One option reood host? Have I not shown honor?”
Does she think we’re so stupid?
Cassius smiles “You have my terms”
Seraphina looks to me “Castor, no harm will come to you…”
“My brother speaks for the both of us,” I reply
Dido leans back in her chair and nods to a Brown by the door “Tell Pelebius to bring in his pet”
“Have you a new creature for the children?” old Gaia asks in delight Her wrinkled neck cranes in anticipation as an old Violet with a black mustache lilass jar filled with noxious yellow liquid So stirs within, but I can’t yet make it out The Violet stands ominously at the end of the table
“It is said that a life is reat by sorrow and joy” Dido stares at me, then Cassius “But you men are cursed You will never really understand life because you do not knohat it is to bear a child To push a life fro inside you at once” She looks at the empty seat beside Seraphina She takes the flower there between her fingers “To have had seven hearts beating beyond you, carrying your hopes, your dreams And when one of those hearts stops…you feel it as if it were your own”
She crushes the flower in her slender hand and lets the led petals drift free one by one to settle on the barren bones of her fish
“The story of their life ends All those dreain to loathe yourself for ti the joy their life brought as their ins to fade”
More Obsidians enter the room and stand behind us
“My daughter, e or Roirl A vessel of all randfather Revus to see Mars and attend Augustus’s summit She wanted to see the Valles Marineris The Olyrandfather die and felt fear as her head was caved in by a Martian boot My joy vanished that day, and as a faeance upon all those responsible Roque au Fabii, Lilath au Faran, Aja au Griustus Antonia au Severus-Julii Octavia au Lune” Dido’s lips curl “And Cassius au Bellona”
CASSIUS BURSTS FROM HIS SEAT, diving across the table to try to reach the access pad on the safe The Obsidians grab hie for one of the knives on their belts, but Bellerephon stands and in one fluid onally across the table The thin black metal snaps around my arm He jerks me sideways and I spill down, set upon by Obsidians Bellerephon’s fingers id form He’ll take my arm
“Bellerephon,” Seraphina snaps “Not that one”
He says nothing but flicks his whip free of my arm and recalls it back across the table It slithers like a snake across plates and spilled rice The Obsidians shove me into my seat They’ve wrestled Cassius back to his “If you hurt hiive you the combination,” I say quickly “Seraphina, he saved your life You’re in his debt and he’s under your promise of hospitality”