A Tree of Bones by Gemma Files

A Tree of Bones by Gemma Files

Author:Gemma Files
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9781926851648
Publisher: ChiZine Publications
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“‘Thank you’ seems . . . markedly inadequate, in the face of what you just gave me,” Sophy Love told Yancey Kloves, as they sat atop the butte, watching Grandma, Yiska and the braves preparing for their task: drawing Navaho signs on the rock, smudging a wide circle with aromatic smoke, singing atonal phrases into the wind. Torches on long poles surrounded a central fire in a ragged ring of flickering light. Though Gabriel had since managed — how like a man, or at least a baby! — to go back to sleep, Sophy could sense his dreaming thoughts yet, on the outermost edges of her brain; a not unpleasant mix of pressure and shadow-play, similar to being constantly aware of a nearby lantern’s heat, even when its flue was shuttered.

“Least I could do,” Yancey replied, looking wrung out. “Considering.”

“Yes. But . . . it’s a beginning.”

“And I meant it, you know,” she went on, not looking at Sophy or Gabe. “About surrendering.”

Sophy drew a long breath, gathering her thoughts. The pain did seem more distant now, though that might well be due only to fatigue. But nevertheless, such an admission deserved honesty; she set herself to address it, if she could.

“Mesach . . .” she began, at last. “When he was in his right mind, I’m sure he knew — had to’ve known — that vengeance was the Lord’s alone to take, not his. ‘I will repay,’ saieth our Creator.”

“I’ve heard that.”

“Romans, 12:19. It is a central tenet of our faith, and must be acknowledged, no matter the circumstances. So — in the end, just as Rook’s and Pargeter’s punishment was never truly his to administer — neither is yours mine. And while I appreciate the offer, I won’t require it of you.”

“Justice isn’t vengeance, though, nor vice versa; forsaking one can’t give you a free pass on the other. Can it?”

“No, Missus Kloves. Yet, to my mind . . . it’s always the quick who stand in far more urgent need of justice than the dead.”

For what did you accomplish, after all, she wondered, by making Mesach pay the price he’d incurred — did you bring your loved ones back to life, the way Pargeter did mine? And what would I reap, exactly, were I to sow whole fields with your blood, madam — ’sides from dragon’s teeth and damnation, immediate regret in the short-term, risk to my eternal soul in the long — ?

Sophy sighed again. “All of which is to say . . . I won’t honour Mesach’s legacy by despairing of the Lord’s Word and trying to substitute my own, elsewise the bloody wheel will never stop rolling. For though God is just, He is also merciful; another thing we too often forget, to our shame.” She looked down at Gabe, frowning a bit in his sleep, and chucked him beneath the chin, gently. “Might be you’ll answer for Mesach yet, Missus Kloves — but it won’t be by my hand. There has to be forgiveness, somewhere.



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