The Devil's Last Wife

aid out a

down an aisle in that veil. Elowen studied it for a while, then folded it carefully and put it in the wa

going to marry the Devil, she wanted

no bigger than a quail's egg, with a white ring running around its middle like a collar. He had found it in the shallows behind Marrow Hall

member to

had sewn that morning. It sat against her hip, small and or

word to yours. Her voice came out steady. She tried it again, quieter, and heard how mu

did not answer. She had not expected it to. She had only wanted t

teps, and no one came to walk her down them. Odalys had no

tair spiralled down through bare rock rather than glass, and the lamps along it had been lit by someone who disliked wasting o

, a few paces behind her own. She stopped. The footsteps stopped a moment lat

, "I would be grateful if you waited until after the

candle leans toward an opened door. Then it righted itself, and she went on down, and told herself tha

an expression of such strained cheerfu

still run

he

I'd count t

ifted her chin.

d

ll flames, reflected in every wall. In the gallery above sat the Seven Dukes of the Infernum, in black, silent as carved saints. O

ther than her eyes, as though planning how it would look afterwards. A woman so small and so old that her chair swallowed her, in a cloak of crow feathers that rustled whenever she breathed. A broad young duke

les. Six of them were unlit, their wi

hat that meant,

not look at her as she approached. He looked at a point somewhere over her left shoulder, with

. Not dark, but empty, a smooth hollow where a face should be. When he lifted his hand

was

er of Contracts. I will be witnessing, recording and, if required, e

es

no clause

in breach

ound that might have been

n the palace and shor

eciting a sentence. "No lie shall pass my lips to your face. What I hide, I may ke

t did somethi

a single line buried in a paragraph of formalities. She had assumed

tood until now tha

Tobias, of a library she meant to ransack, of everything she had decided never to tell this man. She had come to Ashfall w

wed her thoughts. "The vow forbids falsehood, not silence. But if you ar

ppens if

hood tilted. "Qu

r the first time that e

lation she had seen in the Hall of Ash. He might have been carved. But his hand, resti

he thought. And she did not

rd to yours,"

ndles

hide, I may keep. What you ask, I will answer tr

s had briefly remembered that it had once been li

onial knife from his sleeve and held it out,

troke of a woman who had done it a thousand times, for

id not

d bleeding, and held his hand out to her, palm

a moment t

hes me with

orgotten. He

ed, annoyingly. "Y

she had not expected, and a great deal st

pel wen

loor, up the walls, through every one of the thousand reflected candles, until the whole place was

ropped

es rose half out of his seat a

nutes, went white. Not pale. White, the way a man goes white whe

tly she barely heard i

rope as the ground fell away. She felt his pulse in his palm, fast and ragged, a morta

apel again, and two people holding hands b

alone with h

til Lucan said, without turning, "Go," and then he went, glanc

embling hands. "I will record the bindin

othing about the c

omit it. A bound

ui

stubborn courage of a man who has only one thi

eft

inally, and stepped back as though the contact had cost him, and wiped his palm o

and. The cut had stopped b

ate me?"

question the vow made impossible

said

elt it land in her chest like a bl

ket of foxglove. It was kindness that had always cost her something. A man who told her the truth and hated her for it was a man she could do business with. She found, to her annoyance, that the rest of

aid. "I trust

ve been irritation. It might have been the begin

nd to harm m

ton

not reas

s jaw tightened. "My turn. W

g between them l

had sworn not to lie. But a truth can be cut into a thousan

library,"

d not

n, "is a door. It

lie. It does not say

inclined his head, the way a duellist salutes an o

said. "It

e seven candles, six dead and one burning, a

night,

t made her the second. He co

it. It was the sort of thing a Marrow does: tak

e said, to the empty chapel, "

d between two faces. To the dark, to the glass, to the six dead candles, she could lie as freely as she liked. She filed

pel, while his footsteps faded. Her palm tingled. Her wris

la

od at the edge of the candlelight with his hood

red years of marriages in this palace. I have seen vows burn red, and I have seen them bur

he

His voice dropped to a whisper. "Be careful, wife of Ashfall. The l

before she c

enth candle guttere