She traced a heart on his bare chest. “Dead boys don’t get votes.”
He caught her hand. “You knew how I’d feel about it.”
“Yes.”
“But you did it anyway.”
“Yes. And I’d do it again.”
The bird construct whirred, and Kreya heard the rustle of fabric beneath the bed. She’d kept her creations hidden while they were visiting with Stran’s family, but she’d let them out after all the lights were doused. She cooed at them. “Calm down, little ones. There’s nothing to fear here.”
Screaming cut off her attempt to soothe them.
Kreya shooed her constructs back under the bed with a curt order to hide, and she grabbed her coat as she and Jentt darted out the door. He had a knife in his hand that she’d never seen before—his belongings, the few there were, had burned with the tower. He must have helped himself to it while they were in Ocrae. She approved.
They burst into the living room to find Stran and his wife, Amurra, already there. Kneeling, Stran had his beefy hands on Marso’s shoulders as Marso was screaming with his mouth open so wide that it made his face look distorted.
“Breathe,” Stran was saying, his voice calm and soothing. “You’re safe. You’re with friends. Breathe, Marso. All is well.”
Amurra had a mug near him and was wafting the steam toward Marso’s nose.
Jentt tucked his knife back into whatever unseen sheath he was carrying. Kreya shrugged on her coat over her nightshirt so she wouldn’t be carrying it, but it didn’t look like there was an emergency, at least not the kind that talismans could solve.
A few seconds later, Zera burst into the living room. She had a talisman in each hand. Given how few she had left with her, Kreya wondered which talismans she’d chosen. “Anyone dying?” Zera demanded. “No? Great. Going back to sleep.” She pivoted and disappeared into the hall.
Kreya noticed Stran’s children, minus the littlest one, peering into the living room. She herded them back. “He’ll be all right. Everything’s fine.” With Stran and Amurra and now Jentt hovering over him, she wasn’t sure how much she could add to the mix. Marso didn’t seem to be calming down much, though he did gasp for breath between screams. “He’s having a nightmare, that’s all.”
Little Vivi nodded solemnly. “I have nightmares sometimes.”
“Oh? What do you do to get rid of them?” Kreya asked.
“I bite them.”
“Sorry?”
Vivi chomped on the empty air. “I imagine I’m biting all the things that scare me.”
“That... is a completely sensible solution. I’ll tell Marso to bite them.”
“Good,” Vivi said, and dragged her brother back toward the bedroom they were sharing while Jentt and Kreya used Vivi’s room. From another room, the baby started wailing.
Amurra stood. “I don’t want to leave while—”
“Go,” her husband told her. “Thank you, but we’ll take care of Marso.”
Both Stran and Jentt continued to try to soothe Marso. It didn’t seem to be helping. He was gasping for air now and shaking. His eyes were open and darted everywhere, not seeming to see anything.
Kreya gave them two minutes more. And then she stepped forward, grabbed Marso’s face in her hands, and said, “Knock it off, Marso, and tell me what you see.”
He quit screaming, and his eyes focused on Kreya.
Stran murmured, “I will never understand how you do that.”
Without moving her eyes off of Marso, she asked, “Do what?”
“Make us listen to you. You are half my size, and if I sat on you, you’d squash like an ant, but when you give an order, I don’t even think. Same with Marso. Even after twenty-five years.”
“Naturally bossy, I’m told,” Kreya said. Sitting beside Marso, she took his hands in hers. “You read something terrible in the bones, and you didn’t want to believe it.”
