Page 124 of The Thrice-Bound Fool

“You, too, you bony-arsed button-smoocher.”

We’d bought ourselves some time. When the Guild sent others to find out what became of the killers and their quarry, they would report Kinch Na Shannack and Galva dom Braga both dead. And so would we be in the Guild’s eyes, until we were ready to strike. Whether we’d strike first at my rotten Guild or her rotten king was going to be up to her queen and my witchlet, who was likely now a proper witch.

Galva asked me what I intended to do to my former masters, the Takers Guild, when the moment came to move against them.

So I told her.

But I’m not telling you just yet—that’s for another day.

That eyebrow of hers came up, and she nodded.

“If it is my queen’s will, perhaps I will help you with this.”

“Nah, I don’t think she’s going to let you out of her sight again.”

She shrugged.

I thought she was going to close off again and walk in silence, but I was wrong.

“We have a long road in front of us,” she said.

“That we do,” I agreed, wondering what she was getting at.

“Back in the cave, over the long winter, we shared a great deal.”

“Oh? Were we lovers? I’m sorry I died and forgot it,” I said.

The punch wasn’t as hard as I deserved, but it was well aimed, right between the muscles of my shoulder and arm.

“I told you about a lot of things. My brothers. Gallardia. How it was between myself and the queen.”

We walked in silence for five steps. Six. Seven.

“If you wished to hear of it … again? Is again the right word to say of this?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been tripled and had two of me die before.”

“Nor I.”

“But yes. I would hear it. Again. If you’ve got it in you to tell it.”

We walked for a moment, but then I thought I’d been too short about it. The Spanths can be an oddly formal bunch; words and the way you say them matter a great deal to them. I stood in front of her, looked her in her blue eyes with their slightly different hues, and said, “Galva dom Braga, I humbly ask you to honor me by telling me of your travails in far Gallardia, and of the fates of your brothers, and of this Inocenta you mentioned, and the others you marched beside. Howsoever much you wish to tell, that will I listen to faithfully.”

She held my gaze a good while, then walked again, and I walked beside her.

“So shall I, Kinch na Shannick,” she said, matching my formality.

Though of course the Spanth said it more like more like Keench na Shaneek, and I’m proud of myself I didn’t laugh.

Though I think she knew that I’d struggled not to.

After a suitable moment she added, “Try not to cry so much at the telling this time,” and then she smiled. Truly, she smiled. Gods gathered, had cave-Kinch taught her how to do that with her face?

“No promises about dry eyes. We went through a lot together. Out there,” I said, gesturing back but also over, meaning on the other side of those bastard mountains. And then, before I could stop myself, I said, “I love you better than I did.”

She looked at me for a while, then looked forward again.

“And I you, jilnaedu. We went through a lot together as well. I thought you had it in you to make a good death before I saw it happen. But watching it, I knew you were…”