Page 66 of The Cruel Dawn
The room shudders—like a bull has just rammed into the side of the inn.
The women in the kitchen gasp. They pause their work to gape at each other, looking worried.
“What was that?” I ask, creeping over to peek out the window.
And then, a steady knocking…
In the shadows, people are standing side by side at the walls of the Broken Hammer. They’re all knocking on the inn at the same time. And they look…different. They glow but not with the amber glow of dying mortals. And “glow” isn’t the most precise word, either. No, these people knocking on the inn’s walls are filled with…anabsence of light, but it isn’t darkness.
Void.
And now, each of the Voidful knock on the walls of the Broken Hammer.
Ridget comes to stand beside me. “What are they doing?”
I squint at them, at their shredded hands, at their hollow eyes, how they place their ears against the brick walls trying to hear… “They’re trying to get in.” My heart flares, and I step away from the window.
“Get in?” Ridget laughs and returns to those shallots frying in the pan. “They’ll fail.”
These Voidful are looking for the door, looking for a weakness. Are they looking for me?
Ridget sucks her teeth. “Don’t worry, Lady. They’re just regular, hateful bastards wearing grimy tunics.”
My mouth dries as I spin farther away from the window and shake my head. “Their light… It’s different in these people.”
Knock… Knock…
Ridget chuckles. “Ugly insides have a way of eating up anything beautiful. Think of them as apples. You know how the rot starts at the core? By the time the spoilage reaches the peel, you’re thinking,Oh, that’s just a minor blemish.But then you take a bite and…ugh.”
Knock… Knock… Knock…
I look out the window again because maybe this is an illusion. Maybe my imagination has been affected by exhaustion and caused by my guilty feelings about…about…everything.
Outside the inn, the numbers of the Voidful have grown and—
I place my face against the window. Do I see who I think I…?
Fuck.
Jamart!The candlemaker’s skin is covered with bruises. Dried blood crusts around his purple neck.
Lively stands beside him.
Both are knocking…knocking…
But they’re dead…right? With my own eyes, I saw them meet their ends in that ?eld behind Farmer Gery’s barn in Maford. Danar Rrivae had squeezed Jamart’s neck until…
I blink to clear my vision of what I saw, but as I open them, new tears blind me.
“Little do they know,” Ridget is saying, “that if you were to show us yourtruepower, this world would surely end.” The Renrian narrows her eyes. “Don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to go yet. So, if you don’t mind…”
A lump forms in my throat at the plain and unassuming way Ridget speaks to me, and I reply, “Don’t worry. I won’t burn down the rest of Caburh because someone calls me ‘Maelstrom.’ I shouldn’t destroy the forest because a single roach crosses my path.”
She sucks her teeth again. “But where there’s one roach in the forest, there are many.” Ridget considers me with searching eyes. “Which means, then, that the forest must go. With fire comes life. Stronger life, tested life. Freedom.”
Knock…knock…
I gaze at the beautiful, caramelized shallots in Ridget’s pan. Then I gaze upon the kitchen’s high ceiling speckled with grime, the once-sturdy walls now plagued with cracks. I shake my head in wonder. “How can you and Separi run such a lovely inn in this awful town? Why don’t you leave?”
