Thrush went on. “Come to me. Iwillkeep you safe and once Cian is on the throne, we can return to Perpatane and I will not allow any priest to ever touch you again.”
“Once Cian is on the throne?” I could not understand him.
“He is third in line and also wishes for Tintar to advance,” my first husband explained, taking another step towards me. “We will execute Hinnom and his brother and then give Tintar to Cian. He is a reasonable man. He has agreed to a co-regency with Perpatane, but he will be allowed to be seen as a fully seated king who brings peace to this wilderness of magic. Oh and he tells me you have magic.” Thrush smiled fully now. “Did you know that? I certainly did not. Always surprising me, Edie.”
I believe Pikestully has a rat, Alric had said.
“Was it you on the other end of the enchanted slate?”
“Ah, he let you get quite close to that discovery,” Thrush grumbled. “I think him a little in love with you from his dispatches. You were always mentioned.”
“Were you in Eccleston the day of the restrained invasion?” I demanded.
“To get you out, EdieFinch,” he snapped. “Why pick such a stupid alias?”
His use of my third last name made me think of Yro’s white eyes.The vole tried to be a bird twice, but she fell from the second nest into the mouth of the fish. She has no feather or fin. And soon she be without a paw.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “One moment professing undying love, the next criticism.”
He looked up at the bluff rock ceiling above us. “I eventually found you and kept eyes on you, you and all of your adulteries. So many men in your bed, Edie.” He tutted.
I bless any man who brought you some kind of pleasure.
I laughed again. “You just admitted to having a son with someone else!” I shut my eyes, my right hand gripping the top of the axehead to steady myself. “So, if you missed me, why not come for me in Eccleston before?”
“Because,” he shouted, taking another step. “You too broke my heart! I washeartbrokenby your abandonment, Edie. It took me winters to forgive it.”
“You threatened to have me killed!” I shrieked. “I fled for my life.”
“I was desperate!” he burst out.
Our shouts ricocheted off of the rock walls. Outside noises came through the windows, hoofbeats and wagon wheels thundering over the streets, crowds of people screaming, civilians in agony and fear, soldiers in dutiful cadences.
I shook my head. “You and I cannot be. I am wedded to another and I love him.”
“He will die today if his Procurers stay to do battle.”
“I would rather die the same day as him then. Without him, my heart will not beat anyway.”
“No— No one,” Thrush said, “no onewill ever love you like I love you. You are mine. You always have been.” He began to walk towards me with purpose, no longer strolling.
Girl, I beseech you to go, said Mother Earth.
And I ran.
98. Jaw
Had I been in my twenties, living a more pampered life as the wife of a nobleman, he would have caught up to me sooner. But I had spent ten winters in Eccleston, too poor to keep a horse and walked everywhere I needed to go. I had spent nearly four seasons here in Tintar, walking up and down stairs every day, traveling on horseback all over the farmlands, eating the hearty but lean diet of fish, vegetables and fruit with nuts and bread. I was running through the keep and I was running with alacrity, grateful for those muscles in my thighs that I thought made my shape look too round. I was grateful for those feet I had once thought unfeminine. And I knew this keep, better than Thrush would know it.
I heard his boots on the stone floors behind me, but the sound was far enough away to know elusion was possible. He called my name but I kept running, that thing, those fates, alive in my chest and compelling me towards the Shark King’s throne room, that hall of bones. I did not know why that was my aim, but it was.
Do not slow, said Mother Earth.He gains on you.
I hurtled through the antechamber where all of Tintar’s peerage had watched me, this time last spring, and my eight companions walk past, shepherded by Zinnia, not knowing our futures or into what we walked. There were no guards at the white double doors, so tall and wide. I knew opening them would be perhaps beyond my strength.
Knowing I had strained my back and shoulders, I managed to pry one apart from the other and wedged myself inside the opening, my backside and breasts mashed to me as I wriggled inside, like a fish desperate to flip itself back into water.
Unfortunately, the doors, wooden and swollen with the season’s new humidity, gave a sonorous squawk in protest, announcing my location to any who could hear. Why was I here? I looked around wildly at the large shark skeletons draped in white sheets in protection from the mural’s paint. Why did these governing forces guide me to this grotesque museum of Hinnom’s trophies? My true husband’s words came to me.There is a door behind the shark throne. Behind the large jaw.
