The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - By N. K. Jemisin Page 0,65

so many questions. When she could not get answers from us with politeness, she commanded themas you have done. Such hate there was in her young heart. Like yours.

I fought the urge to swallow, certain he would hear it.

What sort of questions?

Arameri history. The war between my siblings and I. Many things.

Why?

I have no idea.

You didnt ask?

I didnt care.

I took a deep breath and forced my sweaty fists to unclench. This was his way, I reminded myself. There had been no need for him to say anything about my mother; he just knew it was the way to unsettle me. I had been warned. Nahadoth didnt like to kill outright. He teased and tickled until you lost control, forgot the danger, and opened yourself to him. He made you ask for it.

After I had been silent for a few breaths, Nahadoth turned to me. The night is half over. If you mean to go to Darr, it should be now.

Oh. Ah, yes. Swallowing, I looked around the room, anywhere but at him. How will we travel?

In answer, Nahadoth extended his hand.

I wiped my hand unnecessarily on my skirt, and took it.

The blackness that surrounded him flared like lifting wings, filling the room to its arched ceiling. I gasped and would have stepped back, but his hand became a vice on my own. When I looked at his face I felt ill: his eyes had changed. They were all black now, iris and whites alike. Worse, the shadows nearest his body had deepened, so much that he was invisible beyond his extended hand.

I stared into the abyss of him and could not bring myself to go closer.

If I meant to kill you, he said, and his voice was different, too, echoing, shadowed, it would already be too late.

There was that. So I looked up into those terrible eyes, mustered my courage, and said, Please take me to Arrebaia, in Darr. The temple of Sar-enna-nem.

The blackness at his core expanded so swiftly to envelop me that I had no time to cry out. There was an instant of unbearable cold and pressure, so great I thought it would crush me. But it stopped short of pain, and then even the cold vanished. I opened my eyes and saw nothing. I stretched out my handsincluding the hand that I knew he heldand felt nothing. I cried out and heard only silence.

Then I stood on stone and breathed air laden with familiar scents and felt warm humidity soak into my skin. Behind me spread the stone streets and walls of Arrebaia, filling the plateau on which we stood. It was later in the night than it had been at Sky, I could tell, because the streets were all but empty. Before me rose stone steps, lined on either side by standing lanterns, at the top of which were the gates to Sar-enna-nem.

I turned back to Nahadoth, who had reverted to his usual, just-shy-of-human appearance.

Y-you are welcome in my familys home, I said. I was still shivering from our mode of travel.

I know. He strode up the steps. Caught off guard, I stared at his back for ten steps before remembering myself and trotting to follow.

Sar-enna-nems gates are heavy, ugly wood-and-metal affairsa more recent addition to the ancient stone. It took at least four women to work the mechanism that swung them open, which made a vast improvement over the days when the gates had been made of stone and needed twenty openers. I had arrived unannounced, in the small hours of the morning, and knew that this meant upsetting the entire guardstaff. We had not been attacked in centuries, but my people prided themselves on vigilance nonetheless.

They might not let us in, I murmured, drawing alongside the Nightlord. I was hard-pressed to keep up; he was taking the steps two at a time.

Nahadoth said nothing in reply and did not slow his pace. I heard the loud, echoing sound of the great latch lifting, and then the gates swung openon their own. I groaned, realizing what hed done. Of course there were shouts and running feet as we passed through, and as we stepped onto the grassy patch that served as Sar-enna-nems forecourt, two clusters of guards came running forth from the ancient edifices doors. One was the gate companyjust men, since it was a lowly position that required only brute strength.

The other company was the standing guard, composed of women and those few men who had earned the honor, distinguished by white silk