The Devil's Last Wife

slept, so she d

e considerably sharper than hairpins had any right to be. Nine poisons, redistributed. She had read the scratched warn

g. Treat every kindness as a

a clean towel and a warm smil

ng, my lady

per than she meant. "T

el on the chair, and withdrew with a small curtsy. Elowen stood listening to the door close and felt like

t the one w

nt dow

, a maid who dropped a tray and did not stoop to pick it up, a clerk who studied a tapestry so intently that he held it upside down. News travelled through the palace the

in rustling silence, in silks of wine and midnight and bone. The Seven Dukes took the best seats, close to the head. Beyond them sat the courtiers, the generals, a priest

ble was empty. The

irs had been

lded on each seat like a body laid out for burial. At the very end of the table, by the kitchen door, so far from the head

the silence of eighty peop

Duke Sethric of Hollowmere. She had seen him in the gallery. "We thought you might be tired after the ceremony

y?" sai

r chairs warm for you." His hand swept toward

table made a smal

rs and the Devil all at once, in the language of hospitality. No one

aned back were frightened, and the ones who stared at their plates knew exactly how this ended and did not wis

h, until the delight began

l, unhurried, and stoppe

e said, and li

a neat square and l

rmurs

" She went down the row one chair at a time, in a clear, quiet voice, saying

d it with the others, and the six squares sat in

e was warm as milk. "It was kind of you to keep their place

s the old woman in the crow cloak. She was staring at Elowen, h

ad thinned. "You

Dukes as witnesses, that I am wife of Ashfall. I have been trying to find where in the contract it says a wife

pa

custom," said Sethr

authority on the matter. In whose seat does your host's wife sit, Your

or a hundred and fifty years, and nobody had thought to include it in the arra

ed to it an

ry quiet br

been trying very hard to keep a straight face, p

was about to say, the old woman

ing at him. Her voice was dry as old paper. "The gi

ric

t the head of t

came i

en the day before, and there were shadows beneath his eyes like bru

empty chair at the foot with its wooden plate. And Elowen, in th

ple stoppe

thrown out. His gaze moved slowly across the hall,

n the chai

ld it's

wh

ntract. Pa

had not been a lie. It had been a bluff, and the vow, apparently, did not care about bluffs. It does not forbid falsehood, she rem

r a very long time. Something un

of the table and sat, two fe

popped. At the far end, the Duchess in the crow cloak picked up

that her hands, at last, were trembling

nable wish to lean toward it. He smelled of cold stone and old paper and something sharper beneath, like a blade lately cleaned. His hands lay flat on t

low, so that only she c

s i

try to kill

anyway," said Elowen. "I'd prefer

a voice that was almost, unbelievab

ve it wr

ill be t

se with him, and he left without another word. But as he passed behind her chair, a few inches from her sho

the table Sethric said something to his neighbour, low and very pleased, and Elowen heard only the word Marrow and the word winter. Sh

afterward, falling into step besid

aid, "been so entert

m g

d you see his face? Did you see Voss? She hasn't smiled since the Th

keep h

then, abruptly, pressed something small and

ria

grin was gone. He looked suddenly older, and tired in a way tha

before she

f flour on her cheek. The girl stepped aside and lowered her eyes, in the manner

it, and she did it anyway, in the flat tone of a woman reading out

prickle. "Oh, my lady, that's nothing. Cook says the last lady shouted at her maid for a week and then gave the girl

slowly. "I don't

careful not to ask herself why a girl who was so unguarded

ith the door locked and the ashes drifting pa

left on the sill, and sit with her back to the wall, as though she co

wo lines, in a qu

s. Not since the Marrow carriage

him

slowly on the

e she had so much as set a foot in Ashfall,

hat settled in her stomach, the words she had spok

bound her. She could ask him anyt

on. A mercy. She could not decide which, and th