The Tangled Bridge by Rhodi Hawk Read Free Book Online

sleep.
    Chloe said, “Madeleine. You pretend so much. Why you come to me with stupid questions? You can learn answers to much better questions, in a way that no one else in the entire world can. You alone can exist in the briar with your river devil. This is a gift you squander.”
    â€œRight now I just want to know if there are others like our bloodline.”
    â€œOthers! Stupid! No, girl, our family is all there is. You still don’t see? This is why it is powerful. If others could do what you can it would undermine you. Outside your bloodline, the lumens are the only ones who can tap the briar. That is why they weaken you.”
    Chloe leaned forward. “You really want to know? You learn the ways of your devil, yanh? The river devil shows you answers even to stupid questions.”
    Madeleine listened, refusing to be fazed. The bargain with Severin was working well but Madeleine knew that if she let her frustration escalate, Severin would come looking for her.
    â€œThis is serious, Chloe. There was a murder last night.”
    â€œListen, Madeleine, you know I can help you. We start with the stupid question, yanh? ‘Are there others,’ you ask. So. Tell me, what do you know now?”
    â€œWhat do I know?”
    Chloe said, “Tell me everything in your mind now.”
    Madeleine blinked at her, thinking. “I was speaking to Alice, a homeless woman who’d killed a man, but she didn’t seem to be in charge of her own body and mind. And—”
    â€œAh, see! Look how you hold back. You talk about something that does not matter.”
    â€œIt does matter! Chloe, I—”
    â€œListen! It does not matter because you have already given care to this thought. You hold a magnifying glass too long and it only serves to burn the object. You drop it, and look at the rest. Forget this homeless woman.”
    â€œI just don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
    Chloe said, “What is in your mind right now, right here, as we stand in this room?”
    Madeleine sighed. Still unclear what Chloe was getting at, she gave it a shot. She stepped outside her thoughts and backward-examined them. So many things there, not the half of which she cared to expose to the likes of Chloe.
    Madeleine said, “Alright. I don’t like that nurse. I don’t like the look on Zenon’s face. I heard a clicking noise this morning and I can’t get it out of my head. There are dead flies in the window.”
    â€œThat’s better,” Chloe said, and waved at Oran.
    He moved across to the window where the flies were, seeming to be relieved at having a task to fill. Madeleine stepped back.
    Chloe said, “You are not telling everything in your mind, Madeleine. I can see there is more that is hidden.”
    Madeleine did not meet her gaze.
    Chloe said, “But you do not have to. Not this time. You have taken a look yourself.”
    Oran was running his finger along the window track. The two living flies were buzzing and bouncing off the window, too sluggish to notice him. He retrieved the last of the dead flies from the sill and then closed a fist around the two that were still bobbing. Madeleine watched, repulsed.
    Chloe said, “Now, back to the stupid question, ‘Are there others like your bloodline?’ Does it feel the same? Does this question matter to you so much?”
    Madeleine threw an exasperated scowl at her. “Yes. It matters!”
    But as soon as she’d said it she realized it wasn’t so.
    Chloe was right. Madeleine was posing a trumped-up question. She wasn’t really looking for others like herself, not at this moment. The heart of the matter was something else. It formed a stone of dread in her stomach, and perhaps she’d been trying to deflect focus.
    â€œThrow them away, Oran, and wash your hands,” Chloe said.
    He obeyed.
    Madeleine said, “It’s just that when I found the woman who’d