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Leander expected nothing less at this point, but covered his fear with a blank face “It seemed the best plan”

“Did it now? And I see you have brought the poor little bird with you All the masks off, then?” His eyes did not blink, nor shift to Aerie even for ato him; she didn’t matter

“If the derivative of a Prince is set to zero, the kingdom survives,” Leander whispered

“What nonsense are you spouting, boy? Did that foul Witch find you at last? She was never worth the price of her bedding A pity the fire could not be extended indefinitely Executions must always be handled personally; re, my son”

“I will not be King I will kill you here where you lie for what you have done to my mother’s people, for what you have made me do to countless others like her when the s”

The King laughed, low and hooting “Oh, ? I, too, cut out my father’s heart while he slept…”

HIS FACE WAS SO FAT ON THE PILLOW LIKE A SLAB of meat on a white tablecloth, all spidery red blood vessels and swollen nose He hadn’t slept in the same bed with my mother for years—but then, no one did I think I would have actually preferred it if she had had a lover It would have s; she spent every night in a shabby old bed in a shabby old tower, and reat ebony four-poster bed that was meant for the lord and his lady

Didn’t you know? My father was never King

A country Baron at best—soreat hall to keep the over in the frost The stink of it reached the rafters and hung there like a dung-spattered chandelier My mother was better than that I was better than that I used to watch her, her profile against her , and wonder how she eversnouts I called a father I heard from servants that he wasn’t always so useless Before rief, this was a rich place, and the cows slept in the grass where they belonged

But things were as they lay She never said anything She never said a word My mother had kept silent as a nun since the day my sister was taken from her

I was an infant when she vanished from us; I never knew that sister But her absence stalked the house like a hungry dog The hole where she had been took up space at our dinner table, it sagged and slumped in the musty air, it ate and drank and breathed down all of our necks

My other sisters were rew up alone in that silent house with nothing but the stinking cows and my mute mother and the hole Even my father didn’t want to spend his days there; he stayed in the fields directing hay-rolling and goat-breeding until it was dark enough to slip back inside without anyone bothering hi, and he had to scurry to bed with his head down to avoid looking it in the eye

I didn’t think anyone would , and I ell into ry for it, tired of the ra down around us, propped up only by a hole in the air, by e squalor like my father always has a kind of rude health, and I knew if I wanted a Barony, I would have to take it

I wasn’t even very quiet going up the stairs to his roo—in that dead house, ould care if one ? But the hole was there I could feel it, tugging at my sleeves with sisterly disapproval If she had been there, the hole sighed sadly, there would have been no silence, and I wouldn’t need to hearjust to knoas alive The hole was sorry for me, and I hated it

But he didn’t screa meat for a roast I didn’t even think when I slid the knife into his ox-huge heart I just did it, and it seeht, should be harder than this His eyes flapped open, and he gurgled a little, no more than a calf hen you cave in its skull for the summer banquets He didn’t scream; I wasn’t alive