The ice over her heart cracked. A little warmth poured in.
‘That is,’ Ezer added, reaching up to place her hand upon Six’s beak, just over the ridges of her scar, ‘ifshe allows you to keep your brains intact when you come for me.’
Kinlear’s eyes went from her to Six and back again.
He grabbed his cane and stood with a wince.
‘I apologize if I hurt you. That was never my intention,’ Kinlear said. ‘But for what it’s worth, Raphonminder, you have no clue what sort of confines I live within. What pain I live with. And what sort of fate awaitsme,if this plan fails.’
22
For hours, Six fought Ezer’s attempts at buckling the saddle.
Each time she tried, the pup panicked. Each time Ezer settled her again, she received various visions of trapped creatures flooding her mind.
And felt the panic within her own soul.
‘It’s a means to an end,’ Ezer said, on the third hour.
She’d long since removed her cloak and was covered in shavings, sweating despite the frigid temperatures inside the dark space.
‘The end isfreedom,Six,’ Ezer said. ‘You can leave your cage. You canfly.’
Six walked slowly towards the saddle, which was left crumpled and abandoned on the edge of the cell, half-buried in the shavings.
‘That’s it,’ Ezer said. ‘It’s safe.’
Six swiped out with her front paws. And positively shredded the seat of the saddle.
‘Fine,’ Ezer growled. ‘You don’t like that one, then I’ll commission another. And another after that, until you do as you’re told.’
Six grabbed the saddle with her curved beak, sharp as a sword itself. Andflungit across the cage. It landed in her water trough, drenching Ezer in a wave.
‘Gods,’ Ezer said.
She slumped down, soaked, breathless and too damned tired.
A familiar burn started behind her eyes.
No,she thought.
It was weak, crying. At least, that’s what she’d always thought, for Ervos only cried when he was drunk, too buried beneath the weight of alcohol to think clearly.
She often brought him a mug of steaming coffee, for it seemed to be the only thing to sober him up. She’d take his large hand in hers and help him stand and hobble towards the couch, where he’d slump down, his eyes half-open.
She could feel the tears on her face, hot despite the cold around her. She could feel the pain in her heart, the emptiness that came from not ever getting a chance to saygoodbye.
Not to her mother or her father or to Ervos, who took the place of both.
Hot breath suddenly warmed her face, and the tip of a sharp beak nudged her chin.
‘Go away,’ Ezer said. ‘Please.’
But the beast lay down and placed her heavy beak on Ezer’s lap. Her body had grown, the weight of her head had grown, in the past many weeks alone. She almost didn’t even look like a pup anymore, unless Ezer paid attention to the downy feathers still clinging to her neck.
‘What are you doing? What amIdoing?’ Ezer wiped her tears and laughed to herself, a sad and desperate sound.
And then she placed her hands on Six’s beak and lowered her forehead against it.
