Page 106 of The Sun He Buried

I sit and pull the ledger closer.

Eight bars still refuse to appear because he’s offended on behalf of a woman he met yesterday.

“You felt her in the passage.”

I find the last physical count.

“I feel everyone in the passage.”

“You felt her before Thora reached your room.”

The figure in front of me remains eight.

Ketill waits.

He is very good at that. Centuries of practice have made him unbearable.

“She was awake,” I say.

“Solveih.”

“I know which woman you mean.”

“Do you?”

I look up.

Ketill doesn’t move.

He knows what I can reach through walls. He doesn’t know how far she reaches into me. No one does.

Solveih had been awake while Baldr slept with one arm around her. Restless first. Then curious. By the time she left the guest wing, Thora was back in my study. The first feed had worn through inside the hour, the way it always does, and I’d sent for her again.

She wanted to be sent for.

I wanted silence.

Both of us knew the terms.

The sex came after I felt soft slippers turn toward the work passage.

I asked Thora what else she wanted.

She told me.

I asked again with my hand under her skirt.

She told me louder.

By then Solveih stood outside the door.

“Thora chose every part of last night,” I say.

“I know.”

“Then choose another subject.”

“Her consent isn’t the subject.”