by Neil McGarry
Far ran to greet his father, and Jana moved to fill a plate while Mikkos tried without success to enlist the former White to join him and Lysander in the dance. Duchess watched these people who were closer than any she’d known and realized that Preceptor Amabilis had been right: her heart was now the color of her cloak. Gray, always gray. She’d struggled so long to keep her hands clean, but in the end, she’d made Philemon’s rumors into truth.
She swiped a drink from the table and drew close as Lysander told Castor what had happened at the Feast. Even as her flesh was warmed from wine and fellowship, her bones still carried the cold of the falling snow. It was as if she stood once more at the gate of her old home, staring in at the burned remains of the Kell estate, her childhood lost among the green and the black. Her father had paid a high price that night to save his family. Surely he, of all people, would have understood what she had done.
It was more than years that stood between her and the warmth and light that filled the room. Something had fallen between her and the rest of the world, as solid and transparent as the glass of the window.
She watched the people she loved drink and dance and laugh and told herself it was worth it. She told herself that whatever came—Philemon or Attys, ghosts or gods—she would do what she needed to safeguard her and hers.
She would take care of her own.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Neil McGarry and Daniel Ravipinto are, collectively, a computer programmer, afraid of heights, a former technical writer, a rabid Go-Go's fan, a board-game designer, a founding member of the Alan Turing Fan Club, an award-winning interactive-fiction author, a native Philadelphian, an ex-drummer, one heck of a party thrower, a pianist, from New Jersey, the holder of three degrees, an avid role-player, an improvisational actor, an uncle, a stand-up comedian, not particularly fond of flying, a video gamer, a lover of Halloween, a story-game/RPG developer, and an Ultimate Frisbee enthusiast. They are currently hard at work on the next installment of Duchess' story, The Fool of the Gods.
