Should be an interesting day for him. A part of Karous mind kept telling her it was a terrible idea, but something about it felt right. Dashnags are formidable chimaera, few more fearsome, but she didnt think it was that so much as the purity of his soul. A knife of light. Honor and a new purpose.
Okay, she told her assistants. Here we go.
The hours vanished like time-lapse. Thiago came in somewhere in the middle to take over the tithinghed been to the baths, Karou saw, and was clean of crusted blood, his wounds beginning to healand together he and Karou added fresh bruises
to those all but faded from their arms and hands. They didnt make it to a dozen ressurrections. Nine bodies came into being in under six hours, and they had to stop. For one thing, there was no space for more bodies. These nine pretty well filled the room. For another, Karous exhaustion was making her dopey. Loopy. Useless. Done.
Apparently Zuzana was feeling the same. My kingdom for caffeine, she mumbled, making prayer hands up at the ceiling.
When, however, in the next second, Issa entered with tea, Zuzana was not grateful. Coffee , I meant coffee , she told the ceiling, as if the universe were a waiter that had gotten her order wrong.
Regardless, they drank the tea, silently surveying their work. Nine bodies, and all that remained now was to transfer souls to them. Karou let Mik and Zuzana handle this part, since her arms were trembling, and every movement sent a coordinated assault of aches and throbs rushing up them. She leaned against the wall with Thiago and watched Zuzana go down the line of new bodies, placing a cone of incense on the brow of each new head.
Did you extend the invitation? she asked the Wolf.
He nodded. They consulted, and eventually accepted. Made it seem like a favor to us, mind you. Reluctantly we agree to eat your food, but dont expect us to enjoy it.
They said that ?
Not in so many words.
Well, said Karou. Its pride. They might pretend not to, but they will enjoy it.
This had been her small idea, her baby step: to feed the seraphim. Someone, Elyon or Briathos, had let slip in the war council that the Misbegotten, having fled in a hurry from their various postings around the Empire, had already expended what small stores of food theyd managed to bring with them. Feeding themnearly three hundred of themwould expend the chimaeras stores, too, but it was a gesture of solidarity for the sake of the alliance. We eat together and starve together. We are in this together.
And maybe someday well even live together. Just creatures in a world. Why not?
The rasp of the lightera little red plastic lighter with a cartoon face on it, entirely at odds with the seriousness of its task, not to mention out of place in this worldand Zuzana lit the incense cones, one by one down the line. The scent of Brimstones revenant incense slowly filled up the rock chamber, and first Uthem, then the others, came alive.
Karous emotions were complex. There was pride: in herself, and in Zuzana, too. The bodies were well-made, strong and proud, and not monstrous or exaggerated the way her kasbah resurrections had been. These were more in Brimstones style, and she felt nostalgia and longing, too, for him.
And bitterness.
Here was a refill for the bowls. More meat for the grinding teeth of war.
Just creatures in a world, she had thought, moments earlier, and she wondered now, watching them stir to life: Could that ever be true?
28
ANGEL-LOVER, BEAST-LOVER
As they had led the host down the winding passage to the isolated village, so now did Karou and Thiago lead them back up. The Misbegotten were already present in the grand, echoing central cavern that served as gathering place. They had, quite conspicuously, claimed the far half of the cavern, leaving the other half to the chimaera. Together but not, as though a line were drawn right down the center.
The food was carried in, great bowls of couscous spiked with vegetables, apricots, and almonds. The small quantity of chicken was stretched thin across all that food so that an actual morsel was rare, but its flavor was there, and there were discs of bread baked on a hot rockmore bread than Karou had ever seen in one place in her life. As vast a quantity as it looked, however, it went fast, and the eating even faster.
You know what would be good now? Zuzana whispered, when the sounds of spoons on plates had mostly quieted. Chocolate. Never attempt an alliance without chocolate.
Karou couldnt imagine that the Misbegotten, roughly treated as they had been their entire lives, had much experience with dessert.
Absent that, Mik suggested, how about music?
Karou smiled. I think thats a great idea.
He got out his violin and set about tuning it. Since they had come into the cavern, Karou had been watching for Akiva while pretending not to. He wasnt here, and she didnt know what to think. She didnt see Liraz, either; only several hundred unfamiliar angels, and every last one of them held their faces blank and grim. This wasnt inappropriateit was the eve of