Page 83 of A Frozen Pyre
“Please, sit down.”
“I can’t stay long.”
Suley’s brows pinched. “Is there something you wanted to speak about?”
“Indeed, there was, though I suppose it’s moot, now.”
Suley’s forehead creased against the question. “What do you mean?”
Zita sighed. “I rarely see you without your jewels, Suley. Where are those pretty bangles?”
Suley’s fingers flew to her nose, then dropped. She looked to the vanity, where several bejeweled trinkets rested. “I’ve just taken them out to wash,” she said slowly.
Zita strummed her fingers atop her crossed arms as she leveled her stare. She allowed the winter day to seep through her as cold filled the room. “Did you harm her?”
“Who?”
Zita didn’t bat an eye. “Answer me. Did you hurt her?”
“Zita, I—”
Bitterness joined the arctic bite in her words as she said, “You’re a shapeshifting cockroach, Tempus. I knew it wouldn’t be long before you returned. I see the wisdom in stealing the form of the very person I’d fetched to hear you. Now tell me, did you hurt the girl?”
“You’ve gone mad, Zita. I don’t know what you—”
“She lost her noise, Tempus.”
Confusion flashed to concern. Worry and stress and anguish flickered across Suley’s face as she fought for words, struggling to string together a thought. She stammered an excuse, a plea, an argument. Then, at Zita’s frozen, emotionless stare, Suley’s shoulders slumped. Her face calmed. Her facade evaporated, no thespianism in the world enough to defend hers. She blew out a long, slow breath before getting to her feet. She folded her arms over her chest, mirroring Zita’s hostile posture.
She smacked her lips in disappointment. “No noise, you say?”
“None.”
Suley held her stare for several moments longer. It was contempt tinged with disappointment that colored her word as at last she cursed. “Damn.”
“And one does not remove piercings to wash. I see your attempt. Perhaps it was wisest to take her place, you worm, but it was futile. Now answer my goddess-damned question. Have you harmed Suley?”
“Not physically.”
Zita’s eyebrows shot up.
Tempus, in Suley’s lovely shape, raised his hands. “I gave her permission to do something she desired. She wanted to live in the Raasay Forest. Now she shall.”
“She wanted to live there so it might be silent, you fool.” Zita’s eyes flared. “You did this while wearing my face, didn’t you.” The firm, angry weight of her sentence held no question. She knew the answer. She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the filth in the room. “We’ve spoken every dayfrom the moment she returned from that goddess-awful cliffside village. I’ve known for some time that she was without her noise, and our friendship has gone unchanged. I struggle to believe that Suley could be so easily convinced of my dismissal.”
A long, evaluating pause stretched between them before Tempus said, “Perhaps she always used her noise to verify thoughts. She was certain of your friendship because she knew your mind, Zita. Without it, she had only your words, and whatever insecurity accompanied them.”
“How long has she been gone?” Zita bit out the question.
“Not long. A few hours at the most.”
The queen turned to leave.
“Wait!”
She twisted the knob and took a step into the antechamber.
“Zita—”
