Page 69 of The Sun He Buried

His eyes brighten. “It can kill you.”

“It’s freezing.”

“It is a Sanguir.”

“It is a baby.”

“Those facts do not cancel each other.”

“Then everyone should stop pointing weapons at her.”

Nobody lowers one.

Asta stands beside me and opens the blanket. “She’s right about that.”

Baldr looks at her.

“I didn’t say she should’ve picked it up.”

“Thank you,” he says.

“I said the weapons are upsetting it.”

The baby’s lips pull back.

Tiny teeth.

Very many tiny teeth.

One white paw flies toward my face.

I catch it against my shoulder. Three talons slide from the fur and score the leather of my glove.

Baldr reaches for the baby.

“Excuse me.”

The talons stop.

I hold the paw away from my cheek. “We don’t scratch people who are helping us.”

White eyes fix on my face.

“I just pulled you out from under a dead body. My knees are wet, my left foot is freezing, and everybody is shouting. You will be nice.”

The baby goes still.

One talon disappears.

Then the next.

The last slides back into the little white paw.

She lowers her head until her horns touch my glove.

The guards stop talking.

Baldr’s hand remains halfway between us.