Chapter 20: The Pale Hall

Ewan's POV

The hall on the other side of the gate was long, pale, and quiet.

It had no windows and no ceiling I could see.

People stood along it in loose lines, gray and soft at the edges, waiting for something at the far end.

Nobody pushed.

Nobody talked above a murmur.

Ada's hand was still in mine when we stopped.

"There," she said, and her voice went strange.

At the head of the nearest line stood a woman of about eighty, upright, with a white braid and Ada's jaw.

She had her back to us.

She turned her head, very slowly, and looked at Ada.

"Mama?" she said.

Ada let go of my hand.

She walked across the pale floor with her housecoat swaying, and the old woman opened her arms, and I looked away to give them the room.

I heard Ada say, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I should have said it first."

I heard the old woman say, "Oh, Mama, I was always going to say it first."

I walked on alone.

Far down the line to my left, a thin figure in a black suit stood facing the wall.

His hair was light brown, and one hand was wrapped around his left wrist.

He did not turn when I passed.

I stopped for a moment anyway.

The band was gone.

His wrist was only a wrist, with a faint pale mark where something had been.

"Pierce," I said.

His shoulders shook, but he kept his face to the wall.

I let him have it.

At the end of the hall there was a plain wooden chair set on a plain stone floor.

The King of the Underworld sat in it with his hands on his knees.

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