Page 24 of The Winner's Kiss
“I don’t want to say something I’m not sure is true.”
“All right, all right. Was this her right hand or her left?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you tell me anything about it? Did she wear a seal ring?”
“Not that I saw, but—”
“Yes?”
“She had a birthmark. On the hand, near the thumb. It looked like a little black star.”
“Arin.” Roshar briefly squeezed his eyes shut, then regarded him with the slightly repelled, slightly fascinated look reserved for aberrations of nature, such as animals born with two heads. “This sounds—”
“I don’t care how it sounds.”
“You’ve thought this kind of thing about her before.”
“I should have trusted myself. She lied. I believed her. I shouldn’t have.”
“Arin, she’s dead.”
“Show me the body.”
“I’m worried about you. I’m serious.”
“I don’t need soldiers. I’ll go to the tundra alone.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know. But I’m going.”
“You can’t leave in the middle of a war to chase a ghost.”
“I’ll be back.”
“The tundra is Valorian territory. Do you understand what they’ll do to you if you’re caught? You can’t hide who you are. That scar—”
“You don’t need me. You said it yourself.”
“I was joking!”
Arin gave Roshar a copy of the same plans for the miniature cannon he’d given to Sarsine. “I’ve asked my cousin to oversee production on this. The Herrani aren’t well enough to fight, but it doesn’t require much physical strength to make these. And you can assign the construction of different parts of the mechanism to different people. Even the elderly can make the ammunition. If you start now, you’ll have a small arsenal of these weapons by the time I’m back.”
“You’re giving this to me?”
“I should have given it to you before.”
“This is the sort of thing people do before they kill themselves.”
Arin shook his head. “Suicide is an undignified way to die.”
Roshar drew himself up to his full height. He folded his arms, rippling fingers along the biceps. “I could keep you here by force. In my country, we have laws about making sure crazy people don’t hurt themselves.”
Arin said, “There is something you can do for me.”
“I dread to ask.”
