The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy

Author:Margaret Killjoy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

FIVE

My second night in Freedom began far more somberly than my first.

It was well after dark by the time Vulture showed up with potatoes and onions and spring greens to be cooked before heading back to the lookout rock. The Days and Brynn were in the living room working through plans, which left me alone to cook.

I was happy to spend some time in the kitchen. It had been a long time since I’d been surrounded by people living the way I wanted to live, and I was almost able to convince myself that things were going to be fine. I’ve got a long history of scraping together little moments of peace in the midst of hardship, and cooking is great way to do that.

I cubed the potatoes and, alongside lots of garlic and oil, set them in a pan in the oven. I went through their spice rack and realized half of what they had had been grown, dried, and chopped there in town. I let myself get lost in the smells of fresh and dried herbs.

The brussels sprouts were from the food bank, but were going to taste amazing, regardless. I cut them up, drizzled them with oil and salt, and put them in a second tray. I’ve made fancier meals in my life, but it still felt good. I set the old-fashioned kitchen timer and went to join everyone else.

“You can’t figure it out?” Brynn asked. She was pacing. She didn’t strike me as the type who worried much, but she was worried.

Even Doomsday looked paler than usual. She leaned back in her easy chair, feigning nonchalance, but her teacup trembled in her hand. “I didn’t lead the ritual. I was blindfolded. I’ve spent all day poring over my books, and there’s nothing there. Nothing.”

“Nothing about dismissing a spirit?” Brynn asked. “Or nothing about Uliksi?”

“Nothing.”

Thursday was standing, statuesque, at his partner’s side. There was certainly more to their relationship than him trying his hardest to guard her, I was sure, but times call for us to fulfill certain roles.

“Will Rebecca know how?” Brynn asked.

“I don’t think so,” Doomsday said. “Vulture went to warn her last night, and how did he put it? She’d gone paranoid, ‘jet-fuel-can’t - melt - steel - beams - level paranoid.’ Made him show her his ribs. Vulture said, and I agree, that you only get that kind of paranoid when you’ve just got no agency at all. When you wish you had control over your life but you just don’t. She and Clay planned the ritual together, I don’t know that either of them would know how to do it alone.”

“What are our options?” Brynn asked.

“If we leave town, take Rebecca with us, will it come after us?” Thursday asked.

“It probably can’t,” Doomsday said. “But it’s a moot point. I won’t leave without cleaning up my own mess.”

“Rebecca’s place is warded too?” Thursday asked. “Uliksi can’t get her? If you and Rebecca stay inside, what’s it going to do? Nothing? Attack the people close to you?”

“I have no idea,” Doomsday said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.