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Maiden staggered to him. Collapsing, she reached for the lapels of his coat. “Please, Lord Father, don’t marry her.”
    He shadow-stepped, vanished, and re-appeared behind the Feaster. As if he would be fool enough to let her touch him. She would stain his coat. “Would it satisfy you, my child, to know I’m only wedding her for power?”
    The Bleeding Maiden had landed on her knees. “If only I could believe you.”
    The distrust reassured Tethiel. The only motives you could never be certain about were your own. Hiresha was more wonderful than a night without dawning, but did he love her? A man might not be able to love once his heart had been pickled in black wine.
    “Defang us all, and gain what?” The Bleeding Maiden slumped. “No woman could be so powerful.”
    “You’d be surprised.”
    “It must be love.” She painted a glyph of blood across the floor as she crawled toward him.
    Everything dripped. Redness spread and smeared. He could even taste it. His mouth was full of coppery tang. Blood in the water. Blood in his throat. Predators circling ever closer.
    No, he couldn’t let her sway him. That wasn’t her blood in his mouth. It must have been his own. The heat trickled down the back of his tongue, but no harm came of swallowing your own blood.
    She asked, “Does any of the family want this? Angler? City Bane? Lyss Oil Bones?”
    In her own little slippery way, the Bleeding Maiden was stronger than all of them. He had to convince her or kill her. “Once I rule with the Lady of Gems, you will have a meal every night. Not a binge like this, but enough to keep your black wine flowing.”
    “I’m afraid. To not kill, it may kill us.”
    “You could still execute our enemies. Fight in our guard. Cruelty has its place at the heart of any well-ordered nation.”
    The nail in her leg scraped across the gravel floor and must grind against her bones. Her bare foot twitched, toes curled to the breaking point. “The gem witch must adore you for everything you risk.” The Bleeding Maiden’s voice was hoarse from hours of screaming. “She wouldn’t think of breaking the engagement. Would she? What an insult, our family would never forgive it. Or her.”
    “The wedding will come to pass, and you may attend. Do be presentable.” He dropped his handkerchief in front of her. He would leave her with that and send the formal invitation later.
    The lace darkened in a pool of her blood. Then the fabric dissolved. “I’ll pray to all the gods for your marriage to succeed,” she said. “If it doesn’t, I’m terribly frightened that your children will devour you.”

 

    Jerani gasped awake. Their llamas were crying with a shrill buzz. Something had frightened them. Celaise floundered up beside him, but it was day so he was faster. Jerani snatched his spear and rolled out of the tent. He worried the fox had escaped again. Then a flash of golden fur would dart between the llama’s hocks. Or had the animals spotted a jaguar? A pack of terror birds?
    Worse, it was the lord.
    He dropped from his horse. It was a horse again, not a six-legged monster. The lord and his two leper guards helped themselves to Jerani’s camp and set about heating a pot over the fire. The lord’s back was to Jerani. The red of his coat was the gruesome fleshiness of flowers that attracted flies.
    The lord hadn’t called out. Maybe he wouldn’t. He could ride away without saying a word. He might leave Jerani and Celaise in peace. Jerani thought that hope had thorns. No good holding it too tight.
    Jerani checked on the llamas. The horses had upset them, had trod over their dung fence. The llamas didn’t have the serenity of cows, but the shaggy llamas did have the herd sense to stay together as a family. They all craned their necks up to keep watch. The bells on their blue harnesses tinkled with displeasure.
    “Thank you for waking us.” Jerani rubbed a llama’s neck.
    The llama stared back with that froggy sideways eye of