Chapter 14: The Fourteenth Dawn

Marguerite did not argue.

She stood at the bars with her mouth open and her hand pressed flat to her chest.

Then she turned and walked down the stair without a sound.

Haruka heard her start to cry on the third landing.

Seraphine did not move until the footsteps were gone.

"Say it," she whispered. "Say I was cruel."

"You were," Haruka said, and pulled her in. "You did it for her. She'll cry honestly tomorrow, and it will save your life."

That was the whole of the thirteenth day.

Haruka spent the rest of it on the cell floor with Seraphine's head in her lap, and neither of them said much.

At the fourteenth dawn, Haruka brought the tea herself.

The Mercy Cup was a plain pewter mug that the Captain carried to the condemned by law.

The tea inside smelled of honey and crushed leaves.

"Strawberry leaf," Haruka said. "It was the closest I could get. It's the sleeping draught from the ledger, the one the old Captains used."

Seraphine held the mug under her nose with both hands.

"I chose the flavour," she said. "Good."

"Last chance to change your mind."

"No."

She was dressed in the grey shift, with her hair brushed long down her back and the iron cuffs on her wrists.

She looked at Haruka, and her green eyes were steady.

"Swing true," she said.

"I'll swing exactly how it's meant to be swung."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one I have."

Seraphine almost smiled.

Lantern Square was full by the time the sun cleared the roofs.

Thousands of people packed the cobbles and the steps of the fountain.

They stood in a stiff silence broken only by coughing.

The scaffold stood on the north side, with the black block in the middle of it and a coffin waiting on the boards.

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