Page 126 of Ash and Feather

His gaze flickered to me, questioning.

“You must have a price in mind.”

He lifted his hands, studying the chains attached to them as if seeing them for the first time. I expected him to barter for his freedom. It would have been easy enough for me to break him out; however impressively deep these palace depths might have been, everything around us had still been built by mortals. And I had strength enough to destroy it all, even though I was currently weaker than normal.

“Your price,” I growled.

“Answers.”

This was unexpected.

I swept my gaze around every corner of the cell, expecting a trick.

Cillian’s face was perfectly impassive when I looked back at him.

“…Fine,” I relented. “Though I warn you: What little patience I possess is very close to being used up.” I rolled the tension from my shoulders and asked, “What do you wish to know?”

He hesitated an instant before deciding on his first question: “Is it true that she wields the same divine fire as you?”

“Yes.”

“A goddess, then?”

“In every sense of the word.”

“So what does that make you?”

I regarded him calmly despite the heat that surged through my veins.

“The gods do not share their specific powers, do they?” he pressed. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“There’s more to her powers than what I gave her. What she ultimately becomes remains to be seen.”

“So she doesn’t trulyserveyou, as so many of our kind fear?”

The heat surged into my palm. I clenched my fist, preventing a flame from igniting. “I poured my magic into her in order to convince the Moraki to spare her after Andrel nearly killed her—to let her ascend rather than perish. And I wanted her to be my equal, so I gave more than what one of the Marr would typically use to create a servant spirit. Her power is equal to mine, even if it hasn’t fully taken shape.”

He was quiet for a time, seemingly struggling to wrap his mind around all of this information. “She explained it to me, once. The way the divine courts are structured and balanced. I didn’t think adding another goddess—another equal—would allow them to maintain that balance.”

“The Moraki had their reasons for allowing her to become what she did. I can’t say what those reasons are. Or what will ultimately become of either of us.”

His eyes darted up to mine, more awake, more calculating than they had been since the beginning of our conversation. “She could very well be a pawn in some great and terrible scheme of theirs. Both of you could be.”

The idea was not new, and it had brought dread with it every time it crossed my mind; it was no better hearing it out loud, spoken by another.

He let the statement hang in the air, staring at the ceiling, unblinking.

“If I had to guess,” he said after a long pause, “I’d say you’ll find her somewhere near her old home. About twenty miles southeast of the Nightvale Wood. Her sister has been returning to it often, lately…”

He trailed off as though he intended to say more.

Before he could, his breath seized in a violent cough that lasted several seconds.

The movement sapped more of what little energy he possessed, leaving him slumping against the wall by the time he was finished, pulling the chains of his shackles taut.

Silence overtook us once again, lasting for several beats before I finally cleared my throat and offered my thanks.

Another coughing fit was his only reply at first.

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