Chapter 14: What I Owed Her

My father cleared the hall with one raised hand.

The wardens went out in silence, and the lords of the mountains went after them.

The Mirror servants covered the glass again, and Maelis would not let them take the ember from her.

"Tomorrow," my father said, from the dais, to nobody. "I will speak to you both tomorrow."

He left by the side door, slowly, with one hand on the wall.

I took Maelis out onto the Water terrace, where the lamps were low and no one could hear.

She set the cradle on the stone rail between us.

The ember lit her face from underneath, and the gold thread on her wrist was still warm.

I could see that from where I stood.

"Say it," she said.

"Say what?"

"What you've been holding. You've held it since the feast. You look at me and wait for me to pay."

"You do," I said.

Her chin came up.

"Three days," I said. "I counted them in the dark, by how hungry I got, and then by how I stopped being hungry."

"Daelan."

"I told myself that you were standing on the other side with the key in your hand, and you weren't going to open it."

My voice had gone flat, and I let it.

"I told myself that so I wouldn't think about how cold the door was. And then I died."

"I came."

"I know that now."

"I came on the fourth day," she said. "I opened it on the fourth dawn, the first minute it would turn. I saw you."

"I was already dead."

"I know you were." Her voice shook. "I knelt in it. I don't remember the kneeling, but I watched myself do it just now, in front of everyone."

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