At the corner of her eye, Sarai caught Cassandane giving Anek an utterly unsubtle elbow in the ribs, before the two sidled outside, dragging Méherre with them. Then, it was her and him.
She fought to keep her voice stable. “I’ll take my leave here. Better that no one knows I’ve left until—” He was before her in a breath.
“Did you not say,” he said hoarsely, “that you would give me your burdens?”
Tears brimmed at her lashes. “Aren’t I? I’m leaving you to a city gone mad.” When he would have spoken, she gripped his forearms. “The survivors keep saying that this is my fault, but I think that the culprit is afteryou. Who would Aelius’s acolytes and the Order have gone after if I hadn’t offered myself as a target? You. These bloodbaths that hint at an unearthly end? You returned from the dead…” She trailed off when his hands fell to his sides, the aloof, cruel god she’d known at her Robing resurfacing in slow increments.
He’s guessed it too.
Grim lines deepened on his face. “This shouldn’t be your responsibility. Cassandane said that I gave you the weight of a country and the fear that you’d broken it. I ask you to endure too much, Sarai. Deny me.”
“I have it on good authority that the Order wants your head! I barely stopped them at the Hearing, Kadra. We need something more tangible now than rhetoric. You shielded me from Aelius and his ilk. Let me do the same.”
Perturbation darkened his gaze. He cupped her cheek. “Why did you really allow the Order to drag you to a Hearing?”
“I had to distract them. Because if they Examined or Probed me, they’d find nothing. But…”
“But?” The softest syllable.
If they Examined you…The knowledge she’d sat on for months slipped loose. “You’re Godstouched.”
He went stock-still. Fathomless eyes watched her for a long moment. “How long have you known?”
“I know you,” she said simply. “I didn’t want to force the truth from you, or—”
“Impose?”
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes on a low sigh. Guilt and quiet pride softened his austere features. “My Sarai, you’ve borne so much.”
That was the straw that broke her self-control. She hadn’t shed a tear despite months of turmoil, but they rolled free now. Kadra’s jaw clenched before he pulled her into his arms.
“The hell of it is that I thought I was protecting you by staying quiet,” he murmured, holding her tight. “After your Fall, my purpose was vengeance. I burned everything down in its pursuit. Now, I seek to build. With you.” He wiped her wet cheeks. “I don’t know how.”
“Let me learn with you when this is over.” She took a deep breath. “Will you share your burdens with me then?”
With a bitten-off exclamation, he kissed her hard. “When this is over, I will give youeverything,” he swore against her mouth. “Stay safe for me.”
When she left a short while later, it was without a backward glance. She knew what she’d find. Worry, yearning, and the man she wanted to protect.
The gates out of Kadra’s Quarter parted open. Méherre and a small contingent of vigiles waited there with their mounts.
The Bridger closed her eyes. A fissure ran through the air before it split open, a town blurred by snow on the other side of the hole through space. Silver laced the portal’s edges.
Méherre gave her a reassuring nod. Sarai steeled her spine.
One by one, they walked into the night.
Twenty-eighth day of the Month of Frost, six days after Sarai’s departure
There was no better graveyard than a sea of snow.
Between the chill and the thaw, a body lost too much in the way of integrity to easily glean its cause of death. Ice preserved even as it penetrated. The truth would slip away as water come spring.
Yet, even winter couldn’t veil this death.
Kadra examined the frozen body outside the whitesleep den masquerading as a domus. The man’s reddened eyes were one clue. The lack of external wounds said the rest.Whitesleep overdose.The man had been too deep in oblivion’s throes to realize that Death had come. His city couldn’t say the same.
