Page 100 of The Cruel Dawn
As the tattoo on Jadon’s hand continues to fade, there’s nothing we can do about the blood that still flows through him as Danar Rrivae’s son.
Are his other tattoos also fading? I’d kissed the irregular rectangle on the left side of his chest, and I’d licked the script that runs along his ribcage.With death comes life. Will he be free of them, too?
I ponder this as Jadon and I follow Elyn and the Raqiel down the stairs and back to the Abbey’s dungeons.
“I’ve wanted to ask you,” Jadon says now. “Back at Beaminster, down in those jail cells. How did you know all the names of the prisoners?”
I shrug. “It’s my job.”
When I don’t say more, he offers a thoughtful, “Hmm.”
I want to ask him about Beaminster’s jail, too.
What role did he play in building it? What role did he play in keeping it open? Did he ever imprison someone in that dank, awful place? If so, how could he be that cruel?
Those questions sit on my tongue, ready to emerge. I clamp my lips together, though; I’m not ready to hear his answers. Not right now. Instead, I ask, “Do you feel any different?”
Jadon squints at me. “That will be up to you. You make me feel all kinds of ways, Kai.”
“I’m not at my…most delectableright now,” I say, remembering my patchwork reflection in the mirror.
“If you say so,” he says, smirking.
The dungeon’s darkness slows our walk until Elyn and the guards become the light that guides our steps. At least it doesn’t stink in this jail. At least there aren’t rotting bodies or suffering prisoners here. Compared to the jail in Beaminster, this prison in the depths of Mount Devour might as well be a fancy inn.
Finally, we come to the end of the corridor, and the Raqiel opens the cell door. Jadon’s stacks of books and quilts have remained in their place.
“Sorry about this,” Elyn says as Jadon enters his cell.
“I understand,” Jadon says. “This is a sacred space of order and power, and you can’t have a diseased weapon running amok among the better gods.”
Elyn says, “Yeah. Something like that.”
I whisper to her, “Can you give us a moment?”
“Amoment? You fought giants and soldiers, wolves and bear-men, and you’re asking for onlya moment? Is that how you reward your success?”
“Okay,” I say. “Several moments.”
“But you can’t stay down here,” she says, wagging her finger at me. “So don’t even ask.”
I smirk and spread my arms. “Does this look like a place I’d beg to stay?”
Elyn rolls her eyes.
I cock an eyebrow. “Don’t you have a god you want to see before Selenova rises full and we all die trying to save Vallendor?”
Elyn’s freckles swirl across her flushed face. “Not really.”
“I saw What’s His Face from Astes up in the sitting room,” I say.
She wrinkles her nose. “He smells like Separi’s chewed licorice root.”
I wrinkle my nose in sympathy. “What about Calyx? He looks good. Well-rested…”
She tilts her head. “Thiscouldbe the end of Vallendor, huh?”
“In the most awful way,” I say, stepping into Jadon’s cell. “Consider it while you can.”
