The Burning White (Lightbringer #5) - Brent Weeks Page 0,29

windows, even though, as Teia saw immediately, Karris wasn’t asleep, nor alone.

The young White was in her bed, lying on her back, resting. Blackguard Trainer Samite stood at the foot of her bed, at ease. Her face was stone, and she didn’t move, even when Watch Captain Blunt hesitated at the door, his scheduled sweep of the room completed. He motioned to his younger partner to leave.

After she stepped out, wordlessly, he snapped a salute to Samite, and left.

Samite didn’t return the salute; she barely dipped her chin.

She wasn’t usually rude. If anything, oddly, losing her hand had made her less of a hard-ass than before.

Teia had taken advantage of the Blackguards’ noise in moving about the room to position herself in a dark corner behind Samite’s back—the woman was facing the window and the door, where threats were likely to appear. They’d also dull her night vision.

Pretty quickly, Teia realized that Samite intended to stand guard all night. Not good.

Why? What the hell was going on?

Long minutes passed, and none of them moved. Teia was going to have to think of something to get rid of Samite, or she was going to be here all night.

And it’s harder to be totally silent for an entire night than one might guess. Teia relaxed her hold on paryl. She didn’t have the strength to stay fully invisible all night, but with the darkness and Samite staring the other way, she shouldn’t have to.

“You can go,” Karris said from the bed. Finally.

Please obey, Trainer Samite. Please?

But Samite merely squared her shoulders. Though not tall, she was built like a draft horse.

After a long minute, Samite said, “Being this kind of hard? Not good. This kind of hard is brittle. You should weep for him.”

For him? Huh? For Gavin? That had to be it. But why was this happening now? So far as Karris knew, Gavin had been absent for nearly a year.

“You’re not weeping,” Karris said. There was nothing of tears in her voice, either.

Ah, so not Gavin, then? Who would they both weep for?

“I’m on duty,” Samite said. “This is your break from duty. These hours are when you need to regroup so you can put on your face tomorrow.”

Karris scoffed.

“The dumbest scrub learns that if you don’t take off your blacks and give ’em a wash, you’re gonna stink, and you’ll wear through ’em in no time. That applies to your clothes, too, O Iron White.”

Teia had never heard someone speak so scornfully to Karris, not even when she’d just been Karris White Oak.

“Do I need to order you to go?” Karris asked coldly.

“Not the kind of order I’m required to obey,” Samite said. She turned her back and folded her arms.

“What, you think I’m a danger to myself? I’m not going to kill myself.” The condescension was thick in Karris’s voice. Teia had never heard her talk that way to anyone, either.

Then she remembered these two had been in the same cohort. They’d known each other for nearly twenty years, and been through everything together.

You can be a bitch to a heart-friend, when you really have to.

But Samite merely applied the servant’s veto—she pretended not to hear: what I have just heard is a fool’s order; my mistress is no fool; ergo my mistress obviously didn’t give it.

Karris sank back into her covers. Speaking to the ceiling, she asked, “Have you ever done it?”

“It’s not such a horrible thing,” Samite said. “Dying for something you believe in. For someone you believe in. And he did. More than anything.”

“Have you ever done it? Personally?”

“You know I haven’t,” Samite said a few moments later, back still turned.

What the hell? They were talking about a Freeing. Someone must have broken the halo recently. One of the Blackguards?

Teia’s chest went tight. No.

A scroll of the names of every Blackguard Teia knew started unfurling before her mind’s eye. Who was close to bursting their halo? She felt a sting of guilt at the realization that losing some of her comrades wouldn’t bother her at all.

“You want to know a secret?” Karris asked. Her voice was bitter as the black kopi she loved. She sat up. “A secret I barely even dare whisper even here? Here, in my own rooms, to you, my oldest fri . . .” She trailed off.

“What?” Samite asked. Teia drafted the paryl she’d been holding loosely and disappeared before Samite turned around.

The one-handed warrior’s face was forgiving toward this woman who’d been such a bitch moments ago.

But Karris didn’t give