We Leave Together, стр. 48
“All right” he said.
“Kiss me, Jona. Kiss me and be my beloved.”
They were alone on the balcony. The men of the yard had left by her command. Jona hesitated, and she looked up at him, expectantly.
He bent over and kissed her. He did it so fast that it was awkward. The white sheen of her make-up marked him. He felt the powder on his lips and it disgusted him but he held his feelings back from his face enough that she didn’t seem to notice.
“I’m going,” he said.
“You’d better. My father will send someone to kill you if you don’t after your little display.”
“Okay,” he said.
She probably wasn’t lying.
“Go now. My people will be in touch.”
“Everyone lives,” he said.
“Everyone,” she said. She nodded. “I have only ever wanted to kill the sinners that deserved to die, Jona. Criminals would hang if they were caught, and float if they were not. I am not so evil. Everyone lives that can be spared.”
“Okay,” he said.
He left the way he came. Maids backed away from him in fear. The Seneschal hid from him, behind a locked door. Jona wanted to hit someone, and he could have hit the Seneschal. He could have hit anyone. No one came close. He was in the street outside the grounds before he knew what to do with the odd feeling inside of him.
He was on the ferry back to the mainland before he knew.
Then, he was home, alone in the dark, staring at the ceiling, and waiting for daylight.
He still didn’t know what the feeling inside of him was. He would never know. He knew that it didn’t feel good, whatever it was.
***
Djoss Nolander? I heard about that giant. I heard he had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot and he was the biggest tosser in the Pens. I heard one time he grabbed this nobleman by the neck and squeezed so hard the noble’s head busted open like when you squeeze a sausage too hard.
Naw, that didn’t happen, tosser. Nothing about that’s true. Djoss had six fingers on one hand, though. That’s the truth. He was always sucking on the pinks until he thought nobody could stop him on account of how big he was. He busted into this dive and started throwing fists like everybody should listen to him. They get him calmed down, and you know what that pink bull does? He starts throwing fists again over nothing. Some folk are like that when their head’s cheese. Think they got arms like Imam and they need to roll the world.
He may have done that once, but lots of fellows did that. That’s nothing. I heard Djoss busted this toy shop up bad looking for something to steal and he found all these pinks. Pinkers steal pinks. Then the toymaker gets all crazy over it, and tries to kill Djoss. Djoss throws the fellow over a table, out a window, over a crate, and the toy fellow lands on a cart in the middle of the street. Cart driver thinks he’s under attack, and he’s no fellow worth a thing to a thing so he just bolts like a greased pig. Djoss comes out with all the pinks and sees this cart sitting there with the toy fellow in back. Djoss takes it for a ride. But, he’s cheese-for-brains so he can’t steer and the horses take him on the delivery route, and he’s stealing the whole way and smoking his pink pipe the whole way and by the last stop he just falls over on his face in someone’s house because he’s cheese-for-brains. Toy fellow fronting for the pinks wakes up and sees the cart full of things worth stealing and rides off like nothing happened. Made more money than he lost from all the stuff Djoss stole in the cart.
Naw, naw! That didn’t happen at all. Not to Djoss, anyway. That was a different fellow and I know the toy fellow was a tabor man so I’d know if it was Djoss. That was that guy with six fingers!
Djoss was the guy with six fingers!
Djoss didn’t have six fingers.
What do you know? Nothing.
I know lots, mudskipper. Lots more than you. I remember Djoss, too, I do. He didn’t have six nothing. He just had really big hands. He went to Erin’s temple every single day because he drank their holy water and not one of the priests dared stop him. I heard he got in trouble with the Night King on account of his sister.
He didn’t have a sister, tosser.
Bloody Elishta, he had a sister. I remember. I met her, once. Ugly as sin, with mudskippers to spare. Sparrow was her name. Anyhow, his sister gets all mixed up over some blood monkey, and Djoss don’t like it. He starts throwing this monkey around until the monkey’s hurt bad. But blood monkeys don’t scare easy, you know. The monkey comes back on Djoss hard, but Djoss gets the jump on him because his sister warned him. Then Djoss strips the fellow naked and throws him out a window. After that, Djoss can’t go out unless someone finds him. His sister, she gets locked up somewhere and Djoss can’t find her. Next thing you know, he’s running around quiet-like looking for his sister. I don’t know if they caught him or not, but if he crossed the Night King like I heard he did over his sister and some monkey, the monkey’s dead on account of how someone got the drop on him, and the sister’s dead on account of how she messed up a good monkey, and the brother’s dead because of everything he did over just how his sister was giving herself away in the street and that’s not any monkey’s fault. Monkey’s taking advantage