Nahadoth would bring me into the clouds and keep me there. He would drag me further, into the cold airless dark that was his true domain. And if I suffocated there, if my flesh burst or my mind broke well. Viraine was right; Id have only myself to blame.

I gave Viraine a rueful smile, letting him see my very real fear. Yes, Nahadoth probably will kill meif you Arameri dont beat him to it. If that troubles you, you could always help me by answering my questions.

Viraine fell silent for a long moment, his thoughts unfathomable behind the mask of his face. Finally he surprised me again, rising from his workbench and going to one of the enormous windows. From this one we could see the whole of the city and the mountains beyond.

I cant say I remember the night well, he said. It was twenty years ago. I had only just come to Sky then, newly posted by the Scriveners College.

Please tell me all you can recall, I said.

* * *

Scriveners learn several mortal tongues as children, before they begin learning the gods language. This helps them understand the flexibility of language and of the mind itself, for there are many concepts that exist in some languages that cannot even be approximated in others. This is how the gods tongue works; it allows the conceptualization of the impossible. And this is why the best scriveners can never be trusted.

* * *

It was raining that night. I remember because rain doesnt often touch Sky; the heaviest clouds usually drop below us. But Kinneth got soaked just between her carriage and the entrance. There was a trail of water along the floor of every corridor she walked.

Which meant that he had watched her pass, I realized. Either hed been lurking in a side corridor while she went by, or hed followed close enough in her wake that the water hadnt dried. Hadnt Sieh said Dekarta emptied the hallways that night? Viraine must have disobeyed that order.

Everyone knew why she had come, or thought they did. No one expected that marriage to last. It seemed unfathomable that a woman so strong, a woman raised to rule, would give it all up for nothing. In the reflection of the glass, Viraine looked up at me. No offense meant.

For an Arameri, it was almost polite. None taken.

He smiled thinly. But it was for him, you see. The reason she came that night. Her husband, your father; she didnt come to reclaim her position, she came because he had the Walking Death, and she wanted Dekarta to save him.

I stared at him, feeling slapped.

She even brought him with her. One of the forecourt servants glanced inside the coach and saw him in there, sweating and feverish, probably in the third stage. The journey alone must have stressed him physically, accelerating the diseases course. She gambled everything on Dekartas aid.

I swallowed. Id known that my father had contracted the Death at some point. Id known that my mother had fled from Sky at the height of her power, banished for the crime of loving beneath herself. But that the two events were linkedShe must have succeeded, then.

No. When she left to return to Darr, she was angry. Dekarta was in such a fury as Ive never seen; I thought there would be deaths. But he simply ordered that Kinneth was to be struck from the family rolls, not only as his heirthat had already been donebut as an Arameri altogether. He ordered me to burn off her blood sigil, which can be done from a distance, and which I did. He even made a public announcement. It was the talk of societythe first time any fullblood has been disowned in, oh, centuries.

I shook my head slowly. And my father?

As far as I could tell, he was still sick when she left.

But my father had survived the Walking Death. Surviving was not unheard of, but it was rare, especially among those who had reached third stage.

Perhaps Dekarta had changed his mind? If he had ordered it, the palace physicians would have ridden out after the carriage, caught up to it and brought it back. Dekarta could have even ordered the Enefadeh to

Wait.

Wait.

So thats why she came, Viraine said. He turned from the window to face me, sober. For him. Theres no grand conspiracy to it, and no mysteryany servant whod been here long enough couldve told you this. So why were you so anxious to know that youd ask me?

Because I thought youd tell me more than a servant, I replied. I struggled to keep my voice even, so that he would not know my suspicions. If sufficiently motivated.

Is that why you goaded me? He shook his head and sighed. Well. Its good to see youve inherited some Arameri qualities.

They seem to be useful here.

He offered a sardonic incline of the head. Anything else?

I was dying to know more, but not from him. Still, it would not do to appear hasty.

Do you agree with Dekarta? I asked, just to make conversation. That my mother would have been more harsh in dealing with that heretic?