Page 127 of House of Embers
But she just removed a second knife, grasped his other hand, and buried it to the hilt. Gerrond’s screams were music to her ears. She was getting closer—closer to finishing her task.
The Father had told her to take her time. She didn’t have a distinct amount of time this had to lead to, but she needed it to not be quick. Oh, how she wanted it to be quick and over. But the fever of the collar was holding her in thrall. She could do nothing but follow orders.
“Gerrond, Gerrond, Gerrond,” she cooed. “There’s so much screaming. If you’re not careful, I’ll have to cut out your tongue. Then how will I get my answers?”
Tears streaked his cheeks as he gradually reined in the horrible sounds he was making. He was still crying, barely fighting back from more shouting. But her threat had worked.
She spent the next hour in the cell. Gerrond had no new information. The Father hadn’t thought that he would. He’d wanted to torture him. He’d wanted Isa to torture him.
Oh, how Mother would revile this.
The mother she had never known.
The wife of a killer. The mother of a killer. Perhaps she too had been a killer.
Isa would never know. She only had the Father.
“You’re lucky, Gerrond,” Isa said as the red, sticky blood coveredthe floor. “You get to be useful a second time. We’re going to send you back to Kerrigan with a message—one she’ll know all too well.”
Isa removed his head. It’d go on a pike. It’d reach Kerrigan’s ears. The Father was sure of it. Someone else would retrieve it, but for now, Isa was done.
The compulsion to obey diminished. She felt her limbs return to her, her will return to her. She breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out of the cell.
“Quite moving,” the Father said.
Isa stilled. She hadn’t known he was watching. “To your liking?”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Yes,” she admitted. It was not a full lie. She was too good at her work. But it was also not entirely the truth, because she would not have ever done it otherwise. For answers, yes. But not for someone like this.
“That’s my girl. Your mother would be proud. We’re one step closer.”
“Was she a killer too?” Isa asked as she turned to face him in the darkened dungeon.
“You follow in her footsteps,” he assured her. He wiped a smear of blood off her cheek. “You do her memory justice.”
For once, Isa did not feel relief at those words.
She felt disgust.
Chapter Forty-Four
The White Dragon
Darby
Darby slept in the aerie as she waited for news, only leaving to do her work with Amond in the infirmary. Her healing magichadimproved under his tutelage, more than it ever had with the strict Bryonican regimens. She felt like she was finally thriving as the healer she’d always wanted to be.
But her friends might all be dead, and she couldn’t concentrate on anything else right now.
Kerrigan was supposed to portal everyone home the night before. No one had arrived. No news on the wind. No wings on the air.
Hadrian was still in Galanthea, safe as far as Darby knew.
But Clover was in the heart of Kinkadia with her amulets and brand-new soldiers against the Society Guard and dragons. Kerrigan, Fordham, Kivrin, Wynter, and Viviana with their dragons against the entire Society? Darby couldn’t handle it. And she couldn’t heal any of them if they were beyond her reach.
She should have insisted—no,demanded—that they take her along.
