When Sorrows Come by Seanan McGuire
Author:Seanan McGuire
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2021-09-14T00:00:00+00:00
thirteen
âSire!â I dropped my knife and rushed to kneel at the High Kingâs side, falling to my knees and reaching for his head, like that was going to help when heâd just been stabbed in the back. The remaining guard was standing next to Fiac, sword in hand, looking baffled. His position was probably why the second Doppelganger hadnât killed them both.
âIs he alive?â asked Fiac, who had risen from the floor after a relatively short period of shocked unconsciousness.
âYes, for now,â I said, already regretting the speed with which Iâd dropped my knife. Approaching the fallen High King with a weapon in my hand hadnât seemed like a good idea, in the half-second Iâd been given to decide what was or wasnât a good idea. And now here I was, with no reasonable means of making myself bleed.
âHe doesnât have long,â said Cassandra. âAunt Birdieââ
âI know. I know.â
Aethlin was breathing, little hitches of his chest that sounded increasingly labored. The knife had been slotted between his ribs, probably piercing a kidney, and he could be bleeding out internally.
The knife. The Doppelgangerâs knife was less than a foot from the High Kingâs body, as yet untouched by the spreading pool of ichor that was all that remained of the actual Doppelganger. They melt when killed, creating a horrible, caustic slime that never comes out of carpet.
Go on. Ask me how I know.
Suddenly realizing what I had to do, I lunged for the Doppelgangerâs knife, only for the remaining guard to slam his sword into the carpet bare inches from my fingers.
âNo, king-breaker,â he snarled. âYou will not harm him farther.â
âSheâs on his side!â cried Cassandra.
I did my best not to get distracted, focusing on the guard. âIâm not trying to harm him, heâs Daoine Sidhe, that makes him a blood-worker, Iâm Dóchas Sidhe, I heal like itâs a contest, if I can make myself bleed, I can help him.â I was talking fast, all too aware that the High Kingâs time was limited. He was going to lose consciousness soon, if he hadnât already, and then he wouldnât be able to use the magic he got from my blood, no matter how useful it could have been. We were on a countdown, and I didnât know how much time was left before we ran out of options.
The guard looked to Fiac hopelessly, clearly awaiting the Adheneâs answer before he made his final decision. Fiac looked briefly pained, looking between the two of us, then sighed and settled on a mild:
âShe speaks truth. Let the girl try.â
The guard pulled back his sword, a mistrustful expression on his face, and I grabbed the knife, covered as it was with the High Kingâs blood.
In a mortal setting, at a mortal crime scene, interfering with the weapon would have been the worst thing we could do. But hereâthe Doppelganger wouldnât have left any useful fingerprints behind. If it left any, they belonged to the missing guard, not to the dead monster. And we already knew the High King had been stabbed, so contaminating his blood wasnât a concern.
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