was the point of your existence in Sinistral?” I asked. “I suppose you just…devoured souls all day?”
“No, that would…be too much. I don’t seek out souls to devour. I answer a summons from magic users who are weak and lost. They call me because deep down, they have a need to surrender to someone more powerful than themselves, and when they call me and I devour them, I give them a purpose.”
“When you put it like that, it sounds like you’re already helpful,” I said. “You give people something to do who might have otherwise just been trouble, or ended up homeless or directionless…that sort of thing?” This made some sense to me because Bernard had seemed so lost when Jenny died, and then he ended up in the council guard, and I could tell that he felt better when he was just following orders. He was so devoted to the council’s cause, and I thought it hardly mattered what the cause was.
“Helpful?” His glare was deeper and darker this time.
For a second I saw a glimmer in his face as if he had never considered that he might be helpful, that he might be part of the cycles of nature where all things had a purpose. I rather wished Bernard would have looked at me like that. I tried to help him move forward without Jenny and Mr. Franch, a long time ago, but he only slipped farther away.
“They are my slaves,” Variel said. “Just slaves. As are the both of you. Which is why you’ve made me a dinner, and until I figure this out, you will make me a good meal tomorrow without any…meat. Nor will you eat any meat.”
“I like vegetables and pastries much more anyway,” I said. “I’m sure you’ll be very happy with me as a servant!”
“Does anything ever upset you, toad?” Lord Variel asked me after a moment of brooding silence.
“Sometimes, but not on the outside anyway. And I’m very happy now. This is the most wonderful place I’ve ever been.”
“How many places have you been?” Variel asked.
“Here, and home, and…well, that house Bevan’s witch was fixing up, but I didn’t really get to know it because I needed to stay out of the way. And when I was very little Bernard used to take me places sometimes, like Anastasia Island. That was my favorite place until I came here.”
Lord Variel’s mouth opened just a bit, like he was going to say something, and then he shook his head. “I thought, perhaps, your family had sent you to train to make cakes with some Italian artisans or…somewhere.”
“That’s so very nice of you, but no. I just had cookbooks and lots of practice.” I brought the cake to the table because I could tell he wanted the cake more than the potatoes, and why not? I cut him a big slice. I knew it would improve his mood.
Bevan held up his plate too.
“Thank you, Jenny,” he said, meeting my eyes again, in a way that made me feel like he was my husband, although it wasn’t like he had ever even tried to kiss me. I felt that, in the end, the best part of having a husband would be when he looked at you like that.
Then I cut a little slice and put it on a saucer and brought it to the crack under the kitchen cabinet.
“Hell, you don’t have to feed him,” Bevan said. “He’s not worth it.”
“I know he tried to hurt your witch, but if you aren’t going to kill him, then I’m going to feed him.” I slid the plate under the furniture. I knew it was naive of me, because it hadn’t worked yet, but I still held a secret belief that cake could fix everything.
Chapter Eighteen
Lord Variel
No, I truly could not abide the sight of that girl in a toad form, so I wanted her to have the bed. As my servant, I should not have felt any need to be chivalrous to her, but it didn’t seem entirely right to make her sleep on the floor either.
But that meant I was on the floor. The floor of this little scrap of a house. I certainly was not going to sleep in the kitchen with the scraps and my avornax, but now I was wedged right between the fireplace and the bed where Jenny was to sleep.
Bevan filled a couple of sacks with leaves and sewed them up with an enchanted needle, and spread a few blankets