Chapter 190

Abby

I didn’t move. I don’t think I could have.

She sat there in the chair by the window with the candle burning beside her, and looked at me, and waited, the way you wait for a frightened animal to decide whether it’s going to run. There was no hurry in her. There never had been. She had sat in that same way, a long time ago, on a stool beside the stone table where they had chained me, and watched me wake up.

“You’re in my room,” I said.

My voice came out hoarse. It didn’t shake. I was proud of that, afterward.

“I am.”

“There are two guards outside that door.”

“There are.”

“If I scream,” I said, “they’ll be through it before you can stand up.”

Cressida smiled. She tilted her head a little, the way she had in the chamber, considering me.

“Go on, then,” she said.

I stared at her.

“Scream.” She settled back in the chair and recrossed her legs. “Go on, little moon. Call them. As loud as you like. Let’s see w