Page 81 of A Vow of Blood and Tears

“Agreed. I’ve retained very little of it.”

When Brother Glyn sat in a chair, I sat across from him, selecting a sofa that looked like it would hold my weight with minimal complaint.

He tipped his head; he was as clean-shaven as every other Silent Brother, only the darkest stubble visible on his scalp, his blue eyes curious. He scrawled quickly and passed the little notebook to me.

Before we begin, I confess to some interest in why one of the four fiends would be interested in learning the priests’ tongue.

I passed it back. “My wife is mute. She is fluent in the priests’ tongue, and it seems an unnecessary burden to force her to communicate via writing.”

He nodded, considering that, and I quickly added, “She belonged to the Silver Sisterhood.”

I couldn’t claim that I wasn’t the slightest bit concerned by the now-muted interest in Brother Glyn’s eyes; they were forbidden from speaking, but not from marriage. But the Silent Brothers and the Silver Sisterhood considered each other siblings, in the strange way of their religion; those who devoutly followed the Lady of Light, taking oaths in her service, did not intermingle.

So maybe therewasa touch of jealousy. Cirri and this Silent Brother would be able to speak to each other far more easily and fluently than I communicated with her; he was not unattractive; and, most of all, he was human.

You are a wretched sack of covetousness, I told myself, and promised her silently that if she came across Glyn, I would not interfere with her speaking to him.

She should speak to whomever she wanted and that was fine, it would all be all right, because she slept in my bed every night and let me touch her and told me about her day over dinner.

I’ve brought a book, Glyn wrote.I borrowed it from the chapter in Frost Home on the way north. We will begin withthe basics, the individual letters of the Veladari alphabet. That is likely what she speaks, if she learned from the Sisterhood. If you can memorize half of it today, I will be pleased with your progress.

He rose from the chair, disappearing into the bedroom, and returned with an enormous, battered book, bound in worn brown leather and clearly well-used.

Glyn sat down, placed it on the table between us, and leafed through several pages. There were drawings of hands, each with a letter of the Veladari alphabet labeled beside them.

He held up a closed fist, palm out, thumb angled upwards.A, was the letter he pointed to.

I imitated the motion, and it was followed withB: four fingers held straight up, palm out, thumb pressed flat below the fingers.

And so it went. I was vaguely aware of time passing as Brother Glyn took me back to the beginning, the mist swirling bright white outside the windows, the sounds filtering in from the exterior of the keep.

Cirri was well awake by now… likely already holed up in the library, working on the inventory of the ancient vampire documents. She was only a thousand feet away…

I forced myself to not think of her, because this lesson, time, and gold would be for nothing if I didn’t beat it into my thick skull. This was to speak to her, to actuallyhearher, which made it easier to focus.

After another two hours passed, and I could form the letters of A through J without mishap, I asked if he needed to stop.

“Do you need to take midday?” I asked, glancing through the window at the heavy veils of mist clinging to the keep’s walls. I hadn’t seen him eat that morning.

Brother Glyn shook his head and wrote.I will be on a fast until the evening, he told me.We have all the rest of the day.You’re making better progress than I’d hoped, but we’ll see if you retain it.

By the time the sun fell behind Ravenscry’s walls, painting the sky a bloody red, my brain felt overstuffed, nearly numb. But I held up a hand, and slowly, painstakingly formed the letters without error:C-I-R-R-I.

Cirri is your wife?Brother Glyn wrote.

I nodded, still distracted by remembering the letters for the next word:H-E-L-L-O.

Glyn watched me form several more words, leaning back in his chair and nodding after each one.G-O-O-D, he signed back with one hand, and I breathed a sigh of relief at my understanding.

He switched back to the little notebook.That’s enough for today. Try to retain this much, and we’ll review tomorrow before we move on. You have the motivation to accomplish much in a short time.

“I do,” I said, folding my hand in my lap. “She’s gone long enough with no one understanding her.”

Glyn slipped the page-marker ribbon into place and closed the book, and I finally rose from the couch, my legs tired from doing absolutely nothing all day, but it was worth it.

I gave him my hopes that the hospitality was to his liking, and escaped the Tower of Summer, following the path to the library in the hopes that Cirri was still there.

She was; Koryek and his retinue were stationed in various places throughout the library, leaving Cirri in her own little pool of light, the books spread before her. She’d twisted her hair up into a messy bun that spilled over her neck, and her fingers were splotched with ink stains.

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