Michelle West - Sun Sword 06 - The Sun Sword by Michelle West Read Free Book Online Page B

people;
there were whispers that devolved into sharp questions, sharper orders, as the
Chosen walked by. Finch, Teller, Adam were sequestered within their ranks;
Ellerson chose to walk behind them, dignity his shield. It worked, for him.
She'd have to ask him to teach her that, later.
    If there was a later.
    Snap out of it, Finch
, she thought, angry with herself. Angry, truth
be told, with Jay, with House Terafin, even with the Chosen. Too much anger. She
prayed that she would see no sign of the rest of the House Council; that would
have been more than she could bear in silence.
    And in this, at least, Kalliaris smiled. Servants, guards, members of the
House and the Household staff, lined the halls, fluttering like wounded birds,
as they formed a macabre procession line.
    She tried not to look at them, and she found it easy; she concentrated on
Torvan's broad back. Let him be what she was too weak to be, this eve; she would
be better tomorrow.
    The stairs had never been steeper. She mounted them one at a time, as if her
feet grew heavy with each forced step. Her knees ached. Her breath was ragged.
    She felt Adam's concern; his hand was warm. She wanted to shunt it aside; she
no more liked being touched than Jay did, and for the same reasons.
    But she needed that touch. She needed the comfort it gave her. Despised
herself for needing it; he was a
boy
. He was a child.
    We were children, too, when we first came to the House. And we saved it.
    Yes, think that. Think of past glories. Better that than the present, without
Jay. She wanted to rip down the tapestries, to turn the paintings toward the
walls, to deface the silvered mirrors.
Wealth
, she thought bitterly.
Power. What good were they
?
    Another hand touched hers; she stumbled as she took it.
    Teller met her gaze and held it a moment. He didn't ask her if she was all
right. He knew she wasn't.
    But he helped. He had held her hand a hundred times before; a thousand. In
the streets of the twenty-fifth, when they were the two weakest members of Jay's
den; the two smallest, the two most easily moved to fear or silence. Thinking of
that brought her some peace.
    Bitter peace, but it was better than nothing.
    They cleared the stairs. The hall opened up before them and it was blessedly
empty of anyone who
wasn't
Chosen. Even so, they were stopped three
times; form was followed precisely.
    Torvan and Arrendas answered each challenge as if they expected to receive
it; the men and women who offered the challenges recognized their ranks only
after they had received the necessary responses.
    Morretz was the last guardian.
    Finch had never though of him quite that way until this moment, but he stood
in front of the doors of the library that was the gateway to The Terafin's
private universe.
    "The Terafin sleeps," he said quietly. "She is not to be disturbed."
    Torvan ATerafin fell to one knee at the domicis' feet; Arrendas did likewise.
As they dropped, they exposed the den, although Finch's head barely cleared
their helms.
    Morretz' eyes narrowed. "ATerafin," he said coolly. "ATerafin." When his gaze
fell upon Adam, he said nothing.
    Finch cleared her throat. Which is to say, she tried to speak, croaked, and
cleared her throat. "I'll explain," she told him. "I'll explain when we—when we
can talk."
    His eyes widened briefly, and then he said, "You can speak now." He hadn't
moved an inch.
    "He's from—from the houses of healing. I went, today. I—"
    He lifted a hand.
    But she'd started to talk, and the words suddenly bunched up behind her lips
and expelled themselves in a rush. "Alowan's dead, Morretz. Alowan's dead. They
killed him. And—and Adam is here because he can do what Alowan
couldn't
.
We need to see her. We need to see her
now
."
    She wasn't certain how much of what she'd said was heard. "Alowan?" Morretz
turned to Arrendas. "Captain?"
    Arrendas dropped his head.
    Morretz bowed his. The resignation in the gesture was perhaps the worst