about the way those eyes rested on Gavin and Judah, as though the two Highfallers were misshapen, or oddities to be pitied—
No. As though they were an oddity to be pitied. The chieftain looked at Judah and Gavin like they were a single creature, and all at once Judah was certain that he knew about the bond. Quickly, she scratched he knows to Gavin. A cross with a hook. A warning.
The chieftain watched. He knew exactly what she was doing, she could see it. But all he said was, “It’s impressive. And—” The word he used was a knotted tangle that Judah didn’t understand.
Gavin had frozen the moment she scratched him and was still locked in a stunned silence. The Seneschal said, “What does that mean?”
“Evil,” the chieftain said. Then he tilted his head and appeared to reconsider. “Well. Ill-intended. Poorly conceived, let’s say. It adds up to the same thing.”
“But you can sense the bond.” The Seneschal’s expression was urgent, almost desperate.
“I’m surprised you can’t,” the chieftain said carelessly. “Maybe living in this place has left you dull-witted.”
“What’s wrong with this place?” Gavin would not hear Highfall slighted when it was so close to being his.
“This place,” the chieftain said, as if the word barely applied, “is the very heart of all that’s wrong with the world. Being here is like being sealed in a grave.” He looked at Judah. Now his words were softer, almost sorrowful. “You, I would help if I could. You don’t belong here.”
In one motion, Gavin grabbed her hand, pulled her close and stepped in front of her. She nearly stumbled with the force of his grip. “She belongs here more than you do,” he said, and the words came out in a snarl worthy of one of the kennelmaster’s hounds.
“And yet neither of us asked to come,” the chieftain said.
The Seneschal ignored both of them. His voice rough with urgency, he said, “Do you know how the bond works? Do you understand it?”
“Do you understand why each beat of your heart is followed by another?” The chieftain gave him a withering look. “Stupid man.”
“Can you manipulate it?”
“I’d rather be roasted over hot coals.”
The Seneschal’s face hardened. “That can be arranged,” he said, and then, “Take him away,” and somehow, suddenly, the room was full of guards. The burlap hood was yanked back down over the chieftain’s head. Until the last moment his black eyes bored into Judah and she was glad when they were hidden. They terrified her. He terrified her. In the scarcest of moments the guards and the chieftain and the Seneschal were all gone and Gavin and Judah were left alone in the strange, empty room.
He wrapped his arms around her, which he almost never did, and she fell into a cataract of fear and agitation. His strength was ferocious. “I won’t let them do it,” he said. “I won’t let them take you away from me.”
Judah couldn’t answer. She could barely breathe.
All of a sudden he let go and stepped back. Theron had entered the room, drifting silently through the open door the way he always did. His eyes floated their way across the cot, the shutters, the locked chest, the chair.
“This is a bad room,” he said. “Bad things happened here.”
Gavin took his brother by one arm and Judah by the other. “Come on then,” he said furiously. “Get out. Go.”
* * *
As evening fell on the second day, the Seneschal called them all into the death room. The magus, worn from his long vigil, stood at the Lord’s bedside, his hands clasped neatly in front of him. His eyes were fixed on Lord Elban’s inert body, his lips faintly parted. Nobody had lit the gaslights but two oil lamps filled the room with a diffused glow that seemed steadily warmer as the sun outside fell beyond the Wall.
Two guards waited in the room. Judah hadn’t noticed them come in, but she’d been dozing. The Seneschal’s face was grave. “It’s time,” he said.
Theron looked mildly interested. Elly moved closer to Gavin and took his arm. Then, for good measure, she laced the fingers of her free hand through his. Her eyes were very wide, her forehead damp. Judah felt ragged, out of control. The world past Elban’s death was a yawning chasm of possibility, exhilarating and unnerving. She found herself wanting to take Gavin’s other hand, to move close to him the way Elly had, but forced herself to stay still. This was their moment. Gavin and Elly.