she would disobey him. It wasn’t a bluff. It wasn’t arrogance. It was a simple exercise of the prerogatives of vast power. The courtiers eyed her now like the dogs under a king’s table eyed a fine scrap of meat that might fall to the floor. Vi wondered if the Godking would give her to one of them—or all of them.
“Do you know,” the Godking said, “that you’re wytchborn? As you southrons say, Talented. So here’s your incentive. If you kill this Shinga, we’ll call it your master’s piece, and not only will you be a master wetboy, but I’ll train you myself. I’ll give you power far beyond anything Hu Gibbet could even imagine. Power over him, if you wish. But if you fail me—well.” He smiled a thin-lipped smile. “Don’t fail. Now begone.”
She went, her heart thumping. Success meant betraying her world. Betraying the Cenarian Sa’kagé, the most feared underworld in Midcyru! It meant killing their leader for a reward she wasn’t sure she wanted. Train to become a wytch with the Godking himself? Even as he spoke, she imagined his words were webs, binding her tighter and tighter to him. It was almost tangible, a spell draping over her like a net, daring her to struggle. She felt sick. Obedience was the only possibility. However bad success was, failure wasn’t an option. She’d heard the stories.
“Vi!” the Godking called. She stopped, halfway to the door, feeling a shiver at that horror using her name. But the Godking was smiling. Now his eyes touched her naked body the way a man’s eyes might. Something flashed like a shadow toward her and she snatched the wad of cloth out of the air on reflex. “Take your dress,” he said.
6
I feel like I’ve been breathing sawdust for a week,” Kylar said.
“River water. Five minutes,” Uly answered. Terse. Snotty.
Kylar struggled to open his eyes, but when he did, he still saw nothing. “So you did pull me out. Where are we, Uly?”
“Take a whiff.” She was acting tough, which meant he’d really scared the hell out of her. Is this what little girls do?
He got half a breath in before coughing on the stench. They were in Momma K’s boathouse on the Plith.
“Nothing like warm sewage on a cool night, huh?” Uly said.
Kylar rolled over. “I thought that was your breath.”
“Which smells as good as you look,” she said.
“You ought to be respectful.”
“You ought to be dead. Go to sleep.”
“Do you think domineering is cute?”
“You need to sleep. I don’t know what dumb earrings have to do with it.”
Kylar laughed. It hurt.
“See?” Uly said.
“Did you get the dagger?”
“What dagger?”
Kylar grabbed her by the front of her tunic.
“Oh, the one I had to use a prybar to get out of your shoulder?” she asked. No wonder his shoulder hurt. He’d never seen Uly quite so snotty and glib. If he didn’t watch it, she’d burst into tears. It was one thing to feel like an ass. It was another to feel like a helpless ass.
“How long have I been . . . out?”
“A day and a night.”
He cursed quietly. It was the second time Uly had seen him murdered, his body mutilated. If she had an ironclad conviction that Kylar was coming back, he was glad. He had promised her that he would, but he’d never known. All he knew was that he’d come back once. The Wolf, the strange yellow-eyed man he’d met in the place between life and death, hadn’t made any guarantees. Indeed, this time Kylar hadn’t met him at all. Kylar had been hoping to ask him a few questions, like how many lives he got. What if it had only been two?
“And Elene?” he asked.
“She went to get the wagon. The guards Jarl bribed are only on duty for another hour.”
Elene had gone alone to get the wagon? Kylar was so tired. He could tell Uly was right on the verge of tears again. What kind of a man put a little girl through this? He wasn’t much of a substitute father, but he used to think that he was better than nothing.
“You should sleep,” she said, doing her best to be gruff again.
“Make sure . . .” He was so sore he couldn’t complete the thought, much less the sentence.
“I’ll take care of you, don’t worry,” Uly said.
“Uly?”
“Yes?”
“You did good work. Great work. I owe you. Thanks. I’m sorry.” Kylar could almost feel the air around the girl go all warm and gooey. He groaned. He