A corpse was sitting rather comfortably in Eadric's favorite thinking chair. Alyce ate at its feet, conditioned, squinting between her slices of bread to see if her cheese looked as rank as it tasted. The Keep was quiet and dripping somewhere, near abandoned, a shell of itself.
Air filled Eadric's dusty lungs, but he didn't say anything. Alyce glanced up and found him staring at her food. "Hey, stupid," she said, inviting his eyes. "You okay?"
"I'm excellent. You're eating moldy cheese." He smirked at first when she threw it down, but then he sat forward, aligning his hands. He was trying to work something out in his head, she knew. Ethos did the same under pressure. "Alyce," he said. "Is Norita in the Keep today?"
Alyce pretended to sulk and lied, "You know I can't tell."
"You're so unhelpful these days."
"I'll go and hunt her down if you want."
He closed his eyes with a heavy sigh. "No need."
Alyce stood. She studied him, feeling tall for once. "I'm sorry."
"We're going to lose this war without outside support." He fell silent, but Alyce new better than to cut in. "The Rhysling army won't make it by foot," he continued, true to form. "The Bullock army is weak. The Duskfires hate me. The Westfords won't fight."
"We outnumber the Bonesteels two to one."
"But we have no provisions." He raised his head, just enough to see her. "Everything within eighty square miles of here was impacted by the fall of Wyndemere," he said. "I've cordoned off the surviving farms out west of the city, but it's not enough."
Alyce dipped her head when his eyes fell. "So what's the plan?"
"We obviously need an ally," he said. "Someone without a commitment to Wulfstead." He glanced back at Alyce. "The Battlefrosts have always been at odds with the Bonesteels. Negotiating won't be easy, of course, but with them on our side we could balance the field."
"You're forgetting about Peter. He'd sooner die."
"Peter's not an issue," he replied, dismissive. "He's too kind to abandon the tono. He's gone and marooned himself just like Ethos, saddled himself with their wounded and dead. The Invictus will devour his pathetic rebellion."
"Anouk's sure to tell her father."
"She might. She'll be landing in Flint soon."
"How can you tell?"
"My men on the ground saw her ship take off while Peter was still in the field," he said. "Same day as I brought you home. I imagine she gathered her crew and fled."
"Why would she do that?"
"She probably didn't want to make an enemy out of me."
"She could still tell her father what happened. It could set him against you regardless."
Eadric held her eyes. There was a quiet anger in his motionless bearing. "I wouldn't have to seek outside support if the marks were still in place," he said. "Ethos was supposed to be a resource. He was an alimentary godsend."
She scowled. "There was nothing I could do about that."
"You could have put up a little resistance." After another few moments of staring, he rose from the chair and approached his drafting table. "Ben should have reported in by now," he muttered, absently spinning the shell there. "It'll be problematic if he's dead."
"He's not in Oldden?"
Eadric didn't answer. He was focused on his map, both hands gripping the table edge. "Flint is on his circuit," he said. "It's possible he made first contact."
"Can't you just possess him or something?"
"Ben's a bad person. I don't assimilate with bad people."
"Stupid," she grumbled. "Then why do you work so closely with him?"
"Because he delivers outstanding results."
Alyce quietly joined Eadric at the table. He was measuring distance, walking his compass between towns and territories. "Say, Eadric," she ventured. "Were you telling the truth about your family? About what happened to them?"
"Sure. Butchered to bits."
"But you said you returned the favor."
Purposefully, Eadric glanced up from the map. "Yes, and?"
She looked away first. "It's weird to imagine you with a daughter."
His hand resumed its artful dance. "I was a good father."
"Did she look anything like you?"
"Obviously. She was mine."
"Does that mean you look like Ethos?"
The compass stilled on Flint, briefly, and then trailed off the map entirely. Eadric lifted her face with it, eyes like open caves to the soul. "Careful, Alyce."
"He's exactly like you, snot bucket. I was bound to notice eventually."
"He wouldn't be in this position if that were true." Those eyes of his narrowed. He tilted his head in mild interest. "What are you here for?" he asked. "Why return if you love him so much?"
She glared a little. "It's not like he'll ever love me back," she said. "He plays the part well enough, but it's bullshit. Everyone's special because no one is."
"You betrayed him for withholding an emotion he doesn't possess."
"He's broken, Eadric. He'll end up hated by anybody stupid enough to love him."
The needle dug in; a reminder. "Who else knows?"
Eadric's expression demanded an answer, but a knock at the door intervened. Someone called out on the other side. She cleared her throat, pulse in her ears. "It's Rusty Woodward," she could tell by the voice, and quietly added, "You're hurting me."
Eadric frowned, drawing a blank. "Who's Rusty Woodward?"
"The night watchman. Funny hair. Kinda gangly. You don't like him."
Another knock came, light and uncertain. Eadric's eyes slid to the door. Before he went to answer it, he glanced back at Alyce and seethed, "Your breath stinks."
"Your face stinks."
The needle retracted, blissfully, and he left it on the table. Alyce sourly rubbed at her chin, eyeing the map while Eadric dealt with the watchman. She idly assessed the fresh marks, committing as much as she could to memory.
The door shut. Eadric was suddenly there when she turned, and his grip was painful, constricting, controlled. Darkly, he asked, "Where are they?"
The Invictus had arrived in Harken. She feigned annoyance. "Where are who?"
"I've had enough of your games," he hissed. "Terrans don't just lose their abilities. Peter and the tono are gone and you know exactly where they are."
She sneered at him. "You think I like being useless like this?"
"Then you must have overheard something. You've always been the fly on the wall."
"The wilds don't have any walls."
Eadric's eyes fell. "They must have gotten help from Anouk."
Fearfully, she watched him back off. "But the Battlefrost ship was at capacity."
Ethos had lied about his numbers, and as Eadric came to that tentative conclusion, the fury seemed to bleed right out of him. He turned to go. "He knew he'd be split from the group."
Alyce started as if to stop him, but froze in place when he glanced back.
Vacuous, he said, "Don't leave this room."
He was gone before she could retort. He hadn't been himself since their uneasy return to Oldden, and she could guess why, even see it in his eyes sometimes, hear it in his voice. They were nearing an end, and he was uncertain. He wasn't good at being uncertain.
She could feel him moving throughout the Keep, appearing in one place and then in another. She waited until he finally slowed somewhere in the lower levels, and, on the chance that maybe he'd unbolt the cell block, she descended after him, fingertips skimming the walls. The cold corridors were dark and narrow, familiar channels requiring no sight.
The entrance was ajar. The cell block smelled like mildew and metal.
Alyce stopped short at the landing. Eadric was in a cell's open doorway, no less than twenty paces ahead. He hadn't heard her. He stood there unmoving until the person within the compartment said, "I was just thinking about you."
"And I, you."
"It's not polite to stare."
"I couldn't tell if you were awake."
Silence again, longer this time. Something harmless crashed in the distance. "You're angry," Ethos noticed, a trace of amusement in his voice. "At me, I'm guessing."
"The tono have mysteriously vanished."
"Have they?"
"To Flint, considering the odds."
"Flint? No. I ordered them off in all directions."
"Or fewer survived and you sent them north. Did you make a deal with the Battlefrosts?" Silence, silence. It was awful, the silence. Eadric entered the cell, and in moments a growl of low, angry pain made its rounds through the terrible darkness. Quieter, just shy of a whisper, Eadric said, "They're only nice to you because they're afraid."
"Obviously. This isn't about them." An odd response. Eadric must have looked surprised, because Ethos continued as if he'd been told to. "It's Kacha," he muttered. "I can't hurt her. I won't."
"Oh," Eadric said. "That's fine. I'll do it for you."
"Don't," Ethos snapped, temper rising. "Don't you go near her."
The silence was harrowing. But Eadric was steady, smooth as ice. "She'll be the next one Alma takes," he said. "You get that, right? It's what she does."
Alyce was partway down the cell block before she realized she'd been advancing. She stood by the door, too afraid to go in. Worriedly, she wrung her hands.
Ethos suffered a harsh, sudden cough, and it shook something loose that made him spit. He made a sound of annoyance. "I can't breathe in here," he said. "It's killing me."
"Just tell me what you did with the tono. I'll take you outside." But Ethos didn't answer, save for the rattling of his breath. What resulted was a strange rustle of movement. "If you sent them to Flint, they'll be landing sometime later tonight," Eadric told him. "I have eyes there, of course, but I can't very well allow safe passage to a ship that I suspect has been compromised."
Darkly, Ethos said, "I didn't send them to Flint."
The strange rustling sound became a clatter. "Without your cooperation, I will be forced to shoot them out of the sky," Eadric went on. "Anouk will be forfeit. The crew. The rats. And I really can't have that, Ethos. Especially if I'm discovered, which would surely incite war with the Battlefrosts."
"What are you doing?" Ethos snarled. "Don't touch me."
"You have fifteen seconds to tell me exactly what you did." The clattering stopped. The seconds passed by. Five. Ten. A sigh breathed down the cell block. "Have it your way."
Ethos made a strangled sound, like he'd partway caught himself crying out. And it wasn't nearly loud enough to mask an inescapable snap. Alyce swayed on her feet; he was filling her head, noise and sensation. A fire burned behind her eyes.
Eadric was nothing if not untiring. "Yes, I'm terrible," he said. "Let's skip the indignation and just get to the part where you admit how perfectly right I am."
"Don't," said Ethos, same as before, meaning something entirely different. "Don't."
"Then quit being difficult. Answer me." Met by silence— another snap. Eadric didn't speak again until the partway strangled sounds had gone, until the unceasing dripping returned. "Breathe," he said, lest Ethos drift off. "That's it. Can you see me alright?"
Alyce listened to Ethos struggle, squatting now, hugging her knees. Her tears wouldn't end; they blistered her cheeks and tasted like seawater.
Eadric tried again. "You sent them north," he pressed. "Let's start with that, shall we? You don't even have to say it. Just nod."
"We're the only ones she wants," Ethos said, voice low and shaking a little. "She'll be satisfied if we all die together."
"That's never going to happen."
"I don't really like the sound of it, either."
"Do you think the tono are worth more than us?"
"I don't know," Ethos said, simply. "There are more of them."
Quiet, quiet, dripping, breathing. Crashing in the distance. "You'd let her kill you?"
Surprisingly, Ethos laughed; it was cheerless— dejected, but genuine. "Why not?" he asked. "It's what I'm here for, why I exist. I'm not supposed to be happy. I'm not supposed to have my own dreams or want to grow old or start a family. I exist because she doesn't know how to die."
"Then break the rules," Eadric insisted. "Help me."
"Help you? You're just as bad as she is."
Movement, shuffling. Briefly, the quiet returned. "Take the loss, just this once, and I'll give you everything you've ever wanted," Eadric said. "You don't have to suffer."
Another round of unhappy laughter quietly bubbled out of Ethos. Without heart, he teased, "You sure say pretty things when you're desperate enough."
"I could say the same about you."
"My hand— "
"Look at me, Ethos." The silence. The cold. The dismal darkness. "Breaking fingers is child's play to Norita," he said. "Use your head."
Ethos was also quiet, briefly. "Norita's not a pother."
"No," Eadric agreed. "She's an innovator. And she enjoys this far more than I do."
A hard impact struck Alyce square in the back. She spilled forward, in front of the door, and turned in time to see Norita advance on her. "Nosy little rat," the old beauty leered. "Shall I make you deaf?"
Alyce scrambled away— too slow. Norita seized the tattered collar of her shirt.
"Norita." A stern warning, from Eadric. He was risen in the accursed cell, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. "That's enough," he said, voice low with a threat. "Let her go."
Alyce found herself back on the ground, eye-to-eye with the dirt and the grime and all of the things that crawled and despaired. She didn't want to look, but she did; Ethos was curled on his side and facing away, cradling an injured hand. She couldn't see his face.
But like an echo, she could hear him. He was telling her to stay put.
Eadric crouched over him. "Two hours," he said. "I'll be back for your answer."
Ethos was slow-moving, too exhausted to crack any jokes. "Don't leave me in here."
"No?" Smiling thinly at that, Eadric reached down and touched his face, lightly, with the backs of his fingers. Ethos didn't seem to notice. "You don't like the quiet," Eadric knew. "But it's okay. It won't be quiet. Be a good boy while I'm gone." He returned to his feet, eyes rising as Norita entered. He stepped over Ethos and stopped her near the door. "Remember what I said," he muttered, standing close, holding her gaze. "Just enough to confuse him."
"Fine." She folded her arms, put off. "Calaster's making headway with our army in the Rift," she said, as an aside. "He wants to know why you're ignoring him."
"I've been busy." Eadric brushed by and forced Alyce to her feet. "Two hours," he repeated, and he glanced back with a mild glare. "If he dies, you die."
Norita smirked, shoulder against the doorframe. "You never let me have any fun."
Eadric kept up his glare for a moment longer, just to make his point, and then led Alyce away. The cell door closed behind them. "Wait," Alyce said, running a little to match his pace. "Don't do this."
"He's done it to himself," Eadric replied. "I gave him plenty of chances to end it."
Alyce fought back as they entered the stairwell; she dug in, hooking her feet on the steps. "Stop it," she protested, along for the ride. "Listen to me, you stupid— "
His grip was painful. "Don't argue."
"Stop pulling on me," she said. "Eadric, stop!"
Eadric turned, eyes flashing. "I told you to stay in the room, Alyce."
Suffering from a brief lapse of sanity, Alyce shoved him into the stairs. He ended up sitting on one of the steps, looking bewildered by the outburst. "You said you wouldn't hurt him," she raged, and she shoved him again. "You said you just wanted him out of the way!"
His surprise faded. "That was before."
Ethos was silent now, suspiciously so. Alyce sank to the steps, drained. She asked, "Aren't you afraid he'll kill Norita?"
"No. She has an annoying system."
"I don't know how you do it. The way he begged you to stop."
Eadric scoffed and sent her a look. "I didn't see you rushing in to save him."
She'd been afraid. "He didn't want me to make myself a target."
"You see, it's that kind of bland morality that makes me want to break his fingers."
Alyce wondered if Eadric felt any remorse, any guilt at all for the bad that he'd done. Seeing him now, it almost seemed likely. "You need to stop this," she told him. "You need to. You'll never forgive yourself if you don't."
There was ageless weight behind his stare. He smelled like old, forgotten clothes. "He knows," he said, quietly. "I could see it in his eyes."
"You'll never get him to call you pappy."
"Shame," he mused. "It'd be funny to hear him say it."
She couldn't understand his expression. "Please," she said, and for once, she meant it. "I don't ask you for stuff very often. Don't do this to him. Don't be the bad guy this time."
He smiled a little and brushed her hair back, out of her eyes. "For your sake, I hope he breaks," he murmured. "I'd hate to give you the same treatment."
"But I don't know anything."
"Right. Except I don't quite believe you."
Alyce stared, lost for words. To her silence, he laughed; he patted her shoulder and rose from the steps, leaving her there to think it over. She listened to his footsteps fade.
She could take the Low Road, disappear into the lawless city. Two hours was plenty. She was the Overlooked, the Easily Forgotten. No one would ask or care where she'd come from. She'd head south, live streetside until she caught a good scent.
"It's okay." Ethos, beside her. He was gazing down the miserable cell block, arms folded as if he were cold. He glanced when he noticed her looking. "Really," he said. "You've done enough."
So handsome. So quiet. So clever and brave and stupid. "Aren't you afraid?"
He smiled for her, thinly. "Being afraid is the easy part."
Alyce was the Overlooked, the Easily Forgotten. Her eyes fell away. "I shouldn't have followed him down here," she whispered. "I don't know what I was expecting."
"Stay on your toes, hero. Run, if you need to."
Softly, she muttered, "I didn't come this far just to run."
But only the darkness had heard her. A sound rolled down the cell block, plaintive.