Misery's Child (The Cadian Chronicles) (30 page)

“Capture?” Marta’s
heart lurched into her throat. “What will the shallan do to them?”

Osane shrugged,
and in that gesture, Marta realized the woman was weary and sickened in spirit,
but doing her best not to show it. “I don’t know. Bring them back here; stage a
trial, perhaps. I suspect Scearce will be executed for high treason. I pray to
Oman they reach Jeptalla before Varden’s troops catch them.”

“You want them to
get away? Why? Lilli should pay for what she’s done!”

“And what has she
done, child, but follow her heart?” Osane sighed and turned away, seeming to
speak to
herself
and not to Marta at all. “If there is
blood on anyone’s hands, it’s Paglia’s. There was no need for this to happen.
If only I’d gotten to him first....”

Marta wiped her
eyes with the back of her good hand. The dedre was sponging the dust from her
face and hands.

“Paglia,” Marta
murmured. A great weariness settled on her, making her yearn to just close her
eyes and drift into sleep where she could forget what she’d seen. “He’s the
little beardless man who started the shouting, isn’t he? Why was he so angry?”

“I don’t know.”

“He wanted
Lillitha himself,” Marta said, surprising
herself
with
this sudden knowledge. But once the thought formed in her head, it seemed so
obvious. “That’s why he’s so angry she ran away, isn’t it?”

Osane shot a quick
glance towards her,
then
sighed.

“Perhaps. I don’t
know. All I do know is that he’s in Varden’s chambers even now inciting him to
war with Jeptalla for Scearce’s blasphemy.”

Osane walked to
the door, then turned. “I shouldn’t be telling you this. You’re but a child and
I’m sorry for your loss today. Rest here as long as you like, then go and see
your mother. She’s been asking for you.”

“Where are you
going? What are you going to do?”

“I have work to
do, child. Someone has to be the voice of reason. I’m afraid the duty falls to
me.”

With a flick of
scarlet skirts, the dedre was gone.

Marta sank to the floor, suddenly too afraid to cry,
her anger swept away by complete terror. Her father was dead and the Realm
tottered on the brink of war.
All because of
Lillitha
.

What would happen to her? What would happen to any of
them?

For the first time in her life, Marta wished she
was
one of Oman’s true believers. She needed a god she could
turn to now for even the smallest hope….

Instead, all she had was a sick certainty that things
had gone very, very wrong.

So ends Book I of Misery’s Child