Page 183 of Carousel

I don’t think I need to.

“Give me a moment,” I say.

“Take your time.”

I shut my eyes. Imagine my memories as something I can view, just as I did in the maze Meg prepared for me.

Rike, being so reluctant to talk to me. You’ll learn quickly, he’d said.

Meg’s immunity to blood magic.

Drake, who must have found the torture he experienced here a massage compared to the very real torture he experienced elsewhere, in his past.

Even…

Even the flask.

I open my eyes.

“Sisters,” I whisper.

“Tell me what you are thinking.”

“I couldn’t understand it. Why I was taken to Hevalla in the first place,” I say. “I could have been killed. Bled for my magic.” My words taste like dirt.

“Everything you are thinking.”

“I wasn’t taken to just anywhere in Hevalla. I was taken⁠—”

Dezeeves completes my sentence. “To the village now known as Vikemy. Of course, it was known by other names, when Vikemy himself and I were growing up. Brent, Kellery, Lorence.”

“The empty house we moved into…”

“Go on.”

“It was yours,” I say. “Our house was yours.”

I stare at the flask. My hand shakes as I reach for it.

He winces, as if bracing himself. But he allows me to take it.

I flip over the beautifully crafted item to view the inscription I know for certain will be on its base.

Don’t lose this one. –D

I drop it like it burns me. The clatter it makes as it hits the wood is thunderous.

“But you didn’t lose it. You gave it to Cosmer, who⁠—”

Waited too long to be promoted. Could that have been for his protection?

Could find stashes of food. Like the cans in the military base.

Was not killed – IES – when he was armed and shooting in The Bridge.

Kira’s voice. He sees something in you…

Dezeeves’ own voice. If there is one single person on board this ship I would not let starve to death…