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coffins.
    The idea saddened Jules a little. He tried to put it out of his mind. "How can you be so glib about it?"
    "Years of practice." She offered her flask to him.
    He stretched forward to take it from her. The mausoleum was cramped and he was tall. "I'm tired of cemeteries."
    She caught Opal as he slumped forward, now sound asleep, and eased him back to the floor tenderly. "The Azez still hasn't melted. We could chance it and travel over the ice tonight."
    "Back to Lockenwood? I've so many good memories about that place."
    Cameo smiled and took the flask back. "Well, it's that or stay here and deal with the over-zealous royal guard, and we're all wanted here."
    "We're all wanted there."
    She glanced down at Opal's face, which was softer in the moonlight. "People don't know he's Francois Mond there."
    "Oh, yes. I'd forgotten we were protecting the most notorious revolutionary that Faetta has ever known. Forgive my stupidity."
    "Aren't you the man who murdered an old man, a priest, if I remember correctly, by burning him to death in a religious sanctuary?"
    "Yes," he acknowledged quietly.
    "And Opal is so much more terrible than that?"
    He laughed, "How can you even make a comparison? He's the man who wanted to be a dictator—a bloody dictator—and killed everyone in his path to get his way. No, I don't compare. He's more bloodthirsty than the two of us combined."
    "You sound like Edel."
    Jules fixed her with a cold stare.
    Cameo glanced down at the dandy without ever really seeing him. She was growing tired of hearing everyone come down so hard on Opal. After all, Francois Mond was a great man. He was trying to help the little people of the world. She wasn't quite certain why everyone was missing this point. Of course, she'd snapped. Jules probably didn't deserve it, though. Edel had treated him horribly, and now she was comparing him to the vampire who had smashed in his skull and nearly killed him. "I'm sorry," she said at last, her voice barely audible.
    "The ice could break under our feet."
    When she looked up at him, he seemed to be memorizing every detail carved on one of the stone coffins. The flowers carved into its surface. The eternal weeping willow.
    "Yes."
    "Why do they decorate coffins like that? They just push them in here and never see them again."
    "The family probably visits."
    He was dubious. "Sure they do."
    "I don't know."
    "Seems a shame to just create something so beautiful and then tuck it away for no one to ever see it again."
    "Yeah. Well, I'm certain my grave will end up being a ditch somewhere, so no one will waste his time with all that art," she said as she rolled her eyes.
    He didn't reply.
    Cameo flipped open her pack and searched through it. If they were going to take a trip tonight, she might as well know what she had on hand, and that was pretty much nothing. Some tincture, a few bits of food items, a bottle of wine, Bel's two books. She sighed and looked up at Jules. His long, dark hair fell against his face and down his chest, hiding him.
    "How are your wrists?"
    His expression was suddenly hard. "If you're planning on leaving while it's still dark, we should go."
    She hadn't meant to offend him but somehow that was exactly what she'd managed to do. Oh, well. She slung the pack over her shoulder and lifted Opal to his feet, dragging him outside.
    He half stumbled.
    "Wake up darling," she whispered, holding him against her.
    "What's going on?"
    "We're going to walk to Lockenwood."
    "It's freezing out here..."
    Cameo removed her cloak and wrapped him up in it.
    The sky was clear and black, a few stars were twinkling, and the moon was waxing so there was enough light to see by. There was an uncomfortable foot of snow to slog through on their way to the edge of the sea, however.
    "What time is it?"
    "It must be midnight."
    The three of them trudged down a steep hill, sliding part of the way, until they were at the shore of the Azez.
    Jules took one step out onto the frozen sea. It was a