Page 60 of A Serpent in the Garden

No hellhound would ever consent to that. And think how ridiculous it would look anyway. Get rid of it.

And how should I do that? Ask it nicely?

I felt cold oil slipping over my tongue then, ice in my throat, some guttural rasp rushing out from between my lips. The hound cocked his head, haunches folding beneath him as he sat, head level with my pelvis. A normal dog would have seen this as a prime opportunity to jam its snout between my legs, but this one just sat there, gazing up at me in perfect silence.

I told it to stay, It said, before I could ask. Now move.

My heart thrashed as I stood at the point where the stone wall began, looking over the edge of the cliff bank at the lethal gray waters of the river.

If I were to fall, I asked It, how long would it take me to die?

Minutes. It would age you quickly. When your body was fished out, you’d look like an old crone.

The water was opaque; I couldn’t see the bottom. Nothing but my shape shivering across the surface. Would that be considered a quick death?

Doubt it. Minutes are a long time to know you’re dying. A wide pause. I wouldn’t let you fall. I’ve climbed this wall before, trying to sneak past the guards. I felt a tentative sort of chill brush my palms, a tingle that seemed very much like a may I?

I nodded my consent and let the chill envelop me completely, as if I were sinking into a cold bath.

And suddenly I was dropping over the side of the wall, pillowed by nothing but air for a moment before It reached out for the clammy stones. The toes of my boots deftly found footholds as if they’d done it time and time again. My fingers slithered into cracks with reassuring ease. It moved me slowly yet steadily; not once did he glance down at the gray water beneath us. But try as I might, I couldn’t let myself relax in that dark cell.

I turned away from the window so I didn’t have to watch. Are we almost there? I asked after a nervy few minutes.

No.

Chancing a glance at the window, I watched him fit my fingers into another crevice, felt my left leg groping for its next foothold, which it found and immediately claimed.

How long has it been since you’ve climbed this? I asked, simply because I wanted to hear his voice. Something to take my mind off all that deadly water beneath us.

Six years. Not long before we …met.

And did that have anything to do with why you were punished with such an unusual curse?

My hand darted out, snatching at another gap between stones. I felt my stomach give an unpleasant whirl as my feet hung loose for a moment. Is that really any of your business?

You make all my business your business.

I felt It consider that as he clung to the wall like an insect. I should get allowances for that. It’s dreary in here. I’ve got nothing better to do.

Well I’ve got nothing better to do right now than make conversation. Better that than fret that you’ll send me plunging to my death.

Yes, he said. It had something to do with it.

I waited, seeing nothing but damp stone through my window as he hung there, my head cocked at an angle.

That’s all the explanation you’ll give me? I prodded.

It did not respond.

What is it?

Shh. I felt myself flooding with an emotion I could not immediately identify, something oddly disconnected from the situation at hand.

I realized it was a panicked sort of excitement a half second before It was up and over the wall, crashing toward a blurry sea of greenish gray. He moved so fast the world turned into smears of color, but I knew we had landed on grass a moment before reality reasserted itself because I felt stalks graze my ankles.

A little girl was in my arms. I had one hand wound in her sheet of blanched, shimmering hair, the other at her neck. She turned her gaze upon me and my breath caught sharp in my throat as thin, gauzy layers of fog swirled around us. I’d never seen eyes that color, a face like hers; had never felt something so cold yet alive. Frost glittered at her hairline, at her temples, despite the relative warmth of the day. Frost clung to her lashes; her lips like pale pink sugar through the ice coating them like a gloss. Eyes like moonlight. After an initial flash of fear, she looked at me with such a strange and startling expression that I didn’t see it for what it was at the time.

Before I knew what It was doing, he had his father’s blade to her slender throat.