“Pack them yourselves,” said Jilly. “Layni, the trunk.”
The plump maid heaved a traveling trunk past Jilly. It hit the floor. The wooden frame, wrapped in leather, bowed in place as it slid across the marble flooring.
“How could you harm Kaylin?” hissed Thoni. She and the other kitchen-workers stood in the hallway leading to the east wing of the house. “She’s so sweet!”
“She’s a dear!” a cook named Avinane snarled, her eyes rimmed red. She threw a turnip at Dualayn. It missed and burst into pulp against the far wall.
“Kaylin wasn’t my most successful attempt,” Dualayn said, “but she’s mostly fine.” He put on a smile. “She still cooks just as—”
Angry screeches burst from all the cooks. A young one named Hajina, her hair in a pair of long braids, brandished a sharp knife, murder in her eyes. Dualayn shrunk back, stepping on the pile of his clothing thrown down by the maids.
“I was just doing it all for the betterment of mankind,” Dualayn protested. “I made mistakes with Kaylin, but I learned.”
“And with Avena!” demanded Jilly. “Makes me wonder how your wife ended up as an invalid. What experiments did you perform on her?”
“I never harmed my wife!” Dualayn roared, a sudden anger seizing him. He glared at them all. “You work for me! All of you. I pay you. Put a roof over your heads. This is how you thank me for the fair wage I’ve given you? For mending your wounds? How many of you had relatives I fixed? For free! Tell me!”
“Wot did you do to them?” hissed Chobay. “When you healed my ma, did you cut her open and play around with her insides before you put her back together? Is her brain down in that horror collection? Joayne told us all about it!”
“Disgustin’!” screeched the cook brandishing the knife. “My uncle died when I brought him to you. Did you really try? Or was he just another victim of your madness?”
“I have never deliberately harmed—”
“You cut out my brain!” hissed Avena, marching up and leaving Ōbhin behind. She stalked out before the rest of the servants clustering around Dualayn. “Don’t spin your lies and pretend you were just helping us. All you care about is fixing your wife. That’s why you did it. That’s why you experimented on those you were healing.”
“For the good of—”
She slapped him. Her pain fed the rage in her. The stinging mark blazed across his cheek.
“Don’t even speak those words,” she growled. “You are a selfish, disgusting, loathsome man. You had us all fooled—all of Kash and the rest of Lothon with your noble savior act—but you’re just a roach scurrying in the dark. You run through excrement and filth, then tell the rest of us that you don’t stink. You are stained by the Black worse than anyone I’ve met.”
Dualayn wilted, the piggish pain in his eyes only infuriating her more. What did he have to feel pain for? Grief? He stared at her like she’d betrayed him. She wanted to keep slapping him. To drive him to the floor and vent all her fury on him.
I’ll be better than you.
She whirled around and faced the servants. “Ōbhin, him, and I are traveling to the Upfing Forest. We’ll be gone for a while. Maybe a half-month. Thirty or more days.” She didn’t know how long they would be roaming through the ruins to find her antenna. “Until we return, you can live off the estate. Joayne, will you manage that?”
“Of course,” the nurse said. She was at the top of the stairs. “I can’t abandon my charge no matter who she’s married to.”
“Joayne,” Dualayn groaned, wincing.
“Ōbhin and I have locked the vault,” Avena continued. “What’s down there is disgusting. None of you need to see it. Before we leave, I’ll have Dualayn write you out letters of recommendation so you may find new jobs.” She whirled around to face the man shoving his clothing into his traveling trunk. “Glowing letters. Right?”
He gave a sullen nod, his upper lip bleeding.
“Joayne will see that you each receive severance pay to help you out until then,” Avena continued. “You are, of course, free to keep working for this pus-filled roach. I won’t.”
“I want to go with you,” Smiles said.
Her stomach tightened as she turned around to find all the guards crowding the porch, watching through the open doors. Behind them, the summer sun shone bright on the withering lawn, a few sheep nuzzling for some shoots to eat. The fake-Smiles, at the front, looked so much like the man she’d known for the last three years; that friendly face, broad smile. A new anger burned through her, one tinged with disgust and horror.
“Me, too!” Bran said, standing beside the impostor. “We’ll make sure you get better, Avena. Won’t let that Black-cursed bastard do nothin’ more to you.”
“He’s a knave,” Dajouth added. “I am horrified that he would do somethin’ so foul to one as beautiful as you. You have my pledge to guard you and protect you until such a time as you’re made whole and fair.”
“I’m not fair now?” she asked, exasperated with his flirting, especially after kissing Ōbhin. She no longer had any doubts about her ability to love another. She knew she’d loved Chames, and now loved Ōbhin. Perhaps had loved him since their first encounter when his contradictory presence had captured her attention.
“I didn’t mean that,” Dajouth said. “I mean, you are fair, but you’ll be . . .”
“It’s a trap, boy,” Fingers muttered. Then he stepped up and declared, “I’m goin’, too.”
“You’re not leavin’ me behind,”
