with those of the men she’d slaughtered on the steps of the Basilica Grande. Scattered like torn and sodden rags through the belly of the Philosopher’s Stone. An orchestra of screams, and she, the scarlet maestro. Bloody hands swaying in the air.
Tric’s footsteps faded in the hall.
Mia stood there in the dark.
Shoulders slumped.
Head bowed.
Alone.
“… it is for the best, mia…”
And never alone.
“… it is for the best…”
CHAPTER 30
FAVORS
Five turns until it was too late solve Spiderkiller’s riddle.
Until her best chance at initiation dissolved like smoke.
Until everything she’d worked for crumbled to dust.
Just.
Five.
Turns.
Mia had barely slept and hardly eaten since the trial in Songs. Burying her nose in tome after tome, feeling the answer close enough to touch, only to watch it slip away like sand as her fingers closed around it.
A no-holds-barred thievery war had broken out as acolytes scrambled to topple Ash from the lead on Mouser’s ladder. The tally of marks was now kept in the Sky Altar instead of the Hall of Pockets, so that all could know the score.
Hush was placed second, still a good eighty marks off the pace. Jessamine trailed twenty marks behind that. Ash’s lead seemed virtually unassailable—a fact the girl loudly reminded everyone of at mealtimes, just in case they’d gotten airs. Bedrooms were broken into, pockets ransacked, and every seemingly harmless collision in the halls resulted in four or five different objects trading owners. Chronicler Aelius registered a formal complaint with the Revered Mother after Ashlinn stole the spectacles right off his head while he was dozing at his desk,1 and item #5 on Shahiid Mouser’s list:
A book from the athenaeum (stolen, not borrowed, smartarse) —6 marks
was removed under protest from the Shahiid himself. Pip had apparently staged an early-morn raid on the athenaeum to snaffle a few tomes from the RETURNS trolley, and got himself devoured by one of the surlier bookworms.2
“And now all the others are pissed they didn’t get a feed!” Aelius had yelled. “Who’s going to clean up the bloody mess is what I want to know!”
With official lessons ended, the acolytes were permitted to travel to Godsgrave whenever they chose. Speaker Adonai sat by his pool, sending fledgling killers out into the City of Bridges and Bones, morn and nevernight. Shahiid Aalea kept her counsel about who was leading in her contest, but with the amount of secrets flooding back from the ’Grave, Mia figured the woman must be more in the know by now than the princeps of the damned Obfuscatii.3
Alone in her room, or hunched over a desk in the Hall of Truths (always facing the door), Mia worked on Spiderkiller’s formula. She’d abandoned the notion of heading back to the ’Grave seeking whispers. Aalea’s contest was too much a shot in the dark for her liking. Better to work on something she could actually see. Touch. Taste.
She’d set up a series of glassware labs; beakers and bowls, cylinders and flasks and endless spirals of pipes and tubes. Solutions bubbled or dissolved or congealed inside the elaborate structures, and more than a hundred black rats shuffled off this mortal coil as Mia continued her search. Spiderkiller would visit often, working at her desk or her own experiments, but Mia knew better than to hope she’d offer a clue. If she was to finish top of Truths, she’d have to earn it. In fact, the Shahiid hardly spoke at all, save once, the very turn after Solis’s contest.
“A shame about Diamo…”
Mia had looked up from her work. Spiderkiller walked slowly along Mia’s latest sculpture, trailing a long fingernail along the glass. Her hands were stained black with toxins. Her lips stained black with paint. Her stare, blackest of all.
“A shame he didn’t test his antidote before he used it, you mean?” the girl asked.
“Ah, but that’s the rub, you see,” Spiderkiller had said. “While it didn’t counter my toxin entirely, Diamo’s solution did delay its effects. So any rats he tested it on the eve before would have still been alive when he brought the solution to me the next morn.”
“Mmm,” Mia said, returning to her work. “This is a shame.”
The Shahiid had patted Mia on the shoulder and left the hall without another word. Diamo had been interred in an unmarked tomb in the Hall of Eulogies that afternoon. Spiderkiller never mentioned him again.
The countless hours working on the quandary made it easier to avoid Tric, at least. Mia kept her mind on task, sparing as little thought for him as possible. Eating at
<<Previous page Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 1 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 2 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 3 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 4 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 5 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 6 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 7 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 8 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 9 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 10 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 11 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 12 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 13 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 14 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 15 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 16 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 17 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 18 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 19 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 20 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 21 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 22 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 23 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 24 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 25 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 26 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 27 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 28 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 29 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 30 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 31 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 32 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 33 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 34 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 35 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 36 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 37 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 38 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 39 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 40 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 41 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 42 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 43 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 44 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 45 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 46 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 47 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 48 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 49 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 50 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 51 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 52 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 53 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 54 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 55 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 56 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 57 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 58 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 59 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 60 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 61 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 62 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 63 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 64 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 65 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 66 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 67 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 68 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 69 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 70 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 71 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 72 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 73 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 74 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 75 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 76 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 77 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 78 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 79 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 80 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 81 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 82 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 83 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 84 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 85 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 86 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 87 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 88 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 89 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 90 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 91 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 92 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 93 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 94 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 95 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 96 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 97 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 98 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 99 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 100 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 101 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 102 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 103 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 104 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 105 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 106 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 107 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 108 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 109 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 110 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 111 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 112 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 113 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 114 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 115 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 116 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 117 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 118 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 119 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 120 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 121 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 122 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 123 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 124 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 125 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 126 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 127 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 128 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 129 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 130 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 131 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 132 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 133 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 134 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 135 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 136 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 137 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 138 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 139 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 140 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 141 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 142 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 143 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 144 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 145 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 146 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 147 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 148 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 149 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 150 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 151 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 152 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 153 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 154 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 155 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 156 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 157 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 158 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 159 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 160 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 161 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 162 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 163 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 164 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 165 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 166 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 167 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 168 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 169 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 170 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 171 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 172 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 173 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 174 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 175 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 176 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 177 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 178 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 179 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 180 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 181 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 182 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 183 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 184 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 185 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 186 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 187 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 188 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 189 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 190 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 191 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 192 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 193 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 194 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 195 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 196 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 197 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 198 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 199 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 200 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 201 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 202 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 203 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 204 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 205 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 206 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 207 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 208 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 209 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 210 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 211 Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff - Page 212
Next page>>