Page 123 of Stardust Child

“Eight men dead,” Tounot reported. After a month on the march, his beard was coming in grandly, and his eyes were socketed with weariness. “Six injured. Three badly.”

“Bad enough to die, or bad enough to need help down the mountain?”

“Unlikely to die,” Tounot conceded, and the lines drew deep in Remin’s face as he weighed his choices.

“Get some hot food into everyone,” he said, and went to have a look around.

There were many factors to consider. He had only been planning to continue for a few more days anyway; that time was necessarily shortened by the fact that they had lost significant supplies last night. And they could notallgo on, regardless. If he wanted to continue, he would have to divide his force. There was no telling how dangerous that might be. What if another blizzard blew up? What if the devils came again as they had last night?

Grimacing, he flexed his arm as he thought. He didn’t think anything was broken, but his left arm had swelled up so badly, the straps of his armor were cutting into his flesh. He would not like to try climbing with it.

But they had foundnothing.The whole point of this expedition was to find some indication of where the devils were coming from. Eight men had died last night. Two died yesterday. One more in the forest. Those lives had been sacrificed so they would learn more about their enemy, and so save the lives of many more in the years to come.

Why had there been so many devils last night? he thought, frustrated, frowning at the wide blue sky.

Wait. Whyhadthere been so many devils?

“You stay here,” he told Tounot and Jinmin. “I’ll leave twelve men with you. Use the day to build some defenses, you have enough trees nearby for barricades and fire. Auber, with me. The rest of us are going on.”

Chapter 13 – Behemoth

This was not the first time Ophele had erred in the estimation of her own value.

It made it all the more surreal that she could tell Lady Verr,I don’t want to see anyone else todayand know that she would be obeyed. She arrived in the forecourt of the manor with just enough time to dismount, hand Brambles to Jaose, and walk into the house with some semblance of dignity, deaf to the hoofbeats thundering behind her.

She needed to think.

She didn’t want to think.

She couldn’t face anyone else right now, but once she was in her room with the door locked, she especially couldn’t face herself. How had she not seen it? All these years, the evidence had been right there, but the underlying premise was so fundamental, she had never thought to question it.

She knew her father didn’t care about her. Lady Hurrell had explained from earliest childhood that Ophele was a disgrace to him, a bastard, a blot. She brought him nothing but shame. But somehow, in some secret part of her heart, Ophele had thought that he would at least honor the bond of their divine blood. Hehadacknowledged her as his daughter. If he had wanted to, he could have just denied that she belonged to him at all.

Remin and his men were operating under the same assumption. It was an unquestioned fact that the blood of the House of Agnephus wassacrosanct. All of them thought that her heritage would protect her and serve as a shield for Remin’s heirs and a foundation for his House. A powerful deterrent to any would-be assassins. The Emperor must punish any threat to her ferociously, in defense of the sanctity of hisownblood.

But there was a great deal of evidence to the contrary.

Ophele was standing in front of an empty fireplace, but in her mind, she was back at Aldeburke.

She could almostsmellthat place. Sharp soap. Azelma’s baking. The often-overwhelming scent of dried flowers, as if Lady Hurrell wished to remind everyone that the estate had no hothouse for fresh ones. Ophele had not lied to Sir Justenin, but she had not told him the whole truth, either. She remembered every moment of the ten long, lonely years after her mother’s death. And after her mother had died, Ophele could have chosen almost any week at random to provide powerful counterevidence to the proposition that there was anything sacred about her blood.

But there was one day that she would never forget.

Generally, Lord Hurrell had ignored her. He was not a big man, except maybe in the belly, but still large enough for Ophele to fear him, knowing he did not regard her with favor. But Lisabe had always been his especial pet, and when she came home dripping wet and sobbing that Ophele had pushed her into the stream, his wrath had been so spectacular that Ophele had gone out one of the parlor windows and disappeared into the forest.

For three days, she hid in the woods, foraging for nuts and berries and trying to make friends with the animals, as if they really might make a home for her in a hollow tree, like Rosalie Blue. Sleeping in the forest with all those shifting branches and night noises was scary, but still less scary than Lord Hurrell. Three days, while he stewed impotently and Lisabe goaded him with tears and complaints. Even as a child, Lisabe had known how to manipulate her father. By the time one of the groundskeepers captured Ophele and dragged her back to the estate, Lord Hurrell was so furious he had chosen to deal with her himself.

“But I didn’t push her!” Ophele cried desperately, frightened and bewildered. Lisabe was standing behind her father, smirking, and the injustice made Ophele’s voice quiver. “I was just reading—”

It had been a very hot afternoon. If she closed her eyes, she could remember it exactly, the way the shadows of the leaded glass windowshad stretched across the floor, the weight of the eyes on her that made the humid air even stuffier, the silhouettes of the servants at the end of the room. Her words had tumbled forth in breathless, panicked bursts.

“—she tried to take my book, but I didn’t give it to her, and her hands slipped and she fe—”

Crack.

Something smashed into the side of her head so hard, lights exploded behind her eyes. Ophele couldn’t even catch herself before her head smacked painfully on the floor. She lay still, stunned.

“We took you in.” Lord Hurrell was quivering with fury as he stood over her, the words distant and strange, as if she were hearing it underwater. “Raised you after your mother betrayed us, destroyed our House, ourfamily.Andthisis how you repay us?”

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