Reluctantly, she sat. He had a corkscrew. Where had he found a corkscrew? The wine was cool and creamy, thick as suede on her tongue. “That’s good,” she said, voluptuous warmth spreading through her.
“Yes.” Gavin took the bottle back from her. “It is.”
He sat against one end of the ledge and she sat against the other, their legs slotted next to each other like books on a shelf. The crypt wasn’t unpleasant. It was cool but not cold or damp. The presence of his mind at the edge of hers felt companionable and easy as they traded the bottle back and forth. Somewhere above them, Elly was probably stoking the fire in the stove, putting on a pot of water to boil whatever mess they were going to eat that night. It seemed irrelevant. Everything Gavin drank layered on everything Judah drank and they didn’t feel the same but they didn’t feel entirely different.
“The magus isn’t a lovesick puppy,” she said. Her tongue was thick in her mouth. So drunk, so fast. “And he doesn’t make me sad. He brings me candy.”
“Something made you sad today.”
She thought of the way the kennel had burned, the long gray column of smoke. The flames had seemed as depthless as the aquifer and they’d crackled happily as they ate the building from inside. It had collapsed with a mighty whoosh that had felt like a piece falling out of the world. The empty space felt clean, unencumbered. But that was too hard to explain. “We went to the stables.”
“Ah,” Gavin said. He moved his legs so they pressed against hers in a warm, comforting sort of way. “That seems like another lifetime, doesn’t it?”
Darid’s capable hands, thick and scarred with work but so deft at tying a knot, soothing a horse. “Not really.”
“That was back when I was going to marry Elly. I guess we’ve both lost love.”
“Yours wasn’t eviscerated,” Judah said. “Yours is upstairs cooking, and if you’d try being reasonable for once, you might still be able to fix things.”
Her tone was acid, but he only laughed. The bottle glinted in the lantern light as he took another drink. “What would be the point? The Seneschal’s not going to let us live. Elly, maybe; Theron and me, no way. Can’t have stray heirs for people to rally around.”
“Glad to hear I have such a long and healthy future ahead of me.”
She expected to feel the heat of a blush, but he only said, “If you want to duck out early, I’m game. You’re the only reason I’m still around.” His voice was offhand and terrible. “Well, you and a lack of sharp objects. I’ve never heard of anyone dying by falling on their axe, and I don’t think Elly would let me use her knife.”
A crawling chill ran over Judah. “I don’t want to die.”
“Then we live,” he said simply. “As long as the Seneschal lets us.”
“He hasn’t killed us yet.”
“I’ll bet he’s got a very good and nasty reason for that.”
“The people like us. The stableman—” she couldn’t say his name to Gavin “—said his sisters had dolls of us, even.”
“Yes, I’m sure when we die of mysterious illnesses, they’ll all mourn deeply and profoundly for about a week.”
He sounded relaxed and pleasant. Posturing even now. Judah found it annoying. “Stop.”
“Stop what? I know how these things work, Judah. I’ve been reading Elban’s journals. I know how everything works. He was an obsessive journaler, did you know that? Multiple volumes, private and extra-private. The ones I’ve been reading lately are the extra-private ones.” He half laughed. “And you used to scold me for flirting with the staff girls. You want to know what Elban used to do to the staff girls? And boys, occasionally. Even a lesser courtier or two. That extra bedroom of his—you want to hear about that?”
“You’re not like him,” Judah said.
“I wasn’t going to be. I was going to be better.” He was twisting the corkscrew in his hand, pressing his thumb against the pointed tip. Judah could feel it, a tiny sting that threatened more pain than it delivered. “But maybe I wouldn’t have been. Maybe it’s too much power for one person to have and still stay...sane. Human. Maybe it’s a good thing that all of this is ending. Maybe—”
Suddenly Gavin stopped; cocked his head, listening. All at once he was crouched next to her. The sarcophagus for which the shelf had been built would have been huge, grand; there was more