Page 22 of Deadly Maiden (Dragons and Darkthings #1)

Kroll Krasten

“We are done here.” I stab the knife into the side of the cart and one of the painted-on books.

The woman sags against the cart, whining in pain. The contrasts between the pain and the na?ve art are almost artistic in themselves. The several crossbow bolts fastening her to the painted side of this cart, the blood, her skinned breast and stomach, and her grotesquely strained expression, the bruises on her naked body—these add up to a macabre but perfect tableau.

A person in agony in the middle of a pretty painted scene of books and blue flowers, on her own cart.

“Bring the novice.”

“Yes, Ser.” The man hurries off.

I dip my hands into the water in the white enameled tub to rinse off the blood, catch a glimpse of my reflection and the peak of my white hair. The folding table beneath the tub shakes. With my elbow, I nudge aside the etharum pen’s ruby leather case. Although water won’t harm it, it would be sacrilege of a sort. The red eddies in the clarity of the water, forming circles of thinning blood, until I begin to scrub. The tubful turns pink.

“You’d no doubt prefer me to release you, Miss Bethy, but I see you as a lesson to be learned. The people need to understand one cannot defy the king and the law.”

I go to her, wiping my hands on a cloth.

She’s not stirred except to bleed and pant. Her eyes are dull, and the strands of her hair drape over her face, wet with sweat and also blood. Her face carries smudges of it.

“We’ve exhausted you. Tsk.”

I let my gaze drift past the book cart to where her partner lies on the ground with three bolts in her back. Trying to run did not help her. Now I have no one to question further. It’s a problem.

“Ser?” The enforcer has returned with the novice.

A young woman dressed in the purple robes of the Sisters waits with the man. She’s seen the body, is clearly shocked. It doesn’t matter, of course.

“Strip off the gown. I need to send a message to the king.”

“Of course, Ser.” With shaking hands, she lets the gown fall to her waist then turns so I can write the message on her back. Or so she believes I will do.

After retrieving the etharum-powered pen from its small case, I cock my head. “No, this won’t do. I need your front to write this.”

“Oh.”

I can see her swallow, but she does as I ask, presents me with the bare canvas of her stomach and breasts. I lean in and lift one breast, holding it as I begin my scribing on the underside, using the Sisters’ spidery notation. In my head I hear my words:

My lord, the suspect has been questioned. She knows nothing of the whereabouts of the girl Wyntre or the dragonshifter. I will find the foster father and seek to bring him to justice and to my knife for more queries about her.

Kroll

“I am always impressed with how this message will be with the king in a blink of time. It gets copied to the skin of a sister at the palace? Amazing, yes?”

She nods, jerkily.

Before I dismiss her, I pick up the knife I used to skin Bethy and step to the partly flayed woman. Gently, I raise her head and look into her eyes with the knife point poised to the left of her throat.

“I will pray to Artreos for you. As will the young novice.”

“Please. No.” A whispered plea.

I smile at her.

Then I drop the point and slowly sink the knife into her chest at heart level, until I feel the beat of the heart thudding through the blade. There, I still the blade for a few seconds, savoring the moment. Her body stiffens, undulates. Her mouth parts in a silent scream.

“It’s remarkable how the heart still beats so strongly after such extreme damage to the body. Isn’t it, Sister?”

Only a whimper comes from behind me. Only a whimper comes from Bethy as I drive the steel fully into her and out the other side, anchoring it into the wood. She will die in seconds.

I return to the bowl to wash away the new blood, telling the enforcer, “Burn both bodies with the cart after the people have time to gawk and see what happened. And her.” I nod at the Sister, whose mouth has remained open as she stares and stares. “Get her to dress and take her to her tent.”