Voices float from outside as a party of loud men argue in the distance.
“Hush! Coriander, blow out your lamp. We can’t let them see light in here!”
I rip several strips of cloth and hurry over to the oracle. She shrinks back as I loom over her. I must be ruthless even though she is just an old woman. If she screams, they’ll know we’re alive and Lord Gargaron will find out that his poisoned food did not work. She easily gives in as I tie her hands behind her back and gag her. This must be what they teach the girls raised in closed rooms to prepare them for a life in the tomb: to accept what others tell you to do without questioning.
Merry wraps the dead infant in cloth and sets him in the oracle’s lap. “Maybe our poor brother’s body will comfort her. How strange that she holds him as if he is her own. I wonder if she had a baby once? But how could she if she was raised in the temple to be an oracle?”
I blow out my lamp and we feel our way into the oracle’s chamber to sit huddled together by the bed. Amaya snores noisily, burps in her sleep, then farts with a long gassy whistle.
Maraya shudders against me, and I can’t tell if she is silently giggling or shaking with grief. I’m so grateful Amaya is alive that I can’t laugh.
When Maraya speaks I am surprised by how much anger heats her whispered words.
“Father could have sneaked us all onto a ship. It’s a lie to say he had no choice, that he wasn’t swayed by ambition. If he really wanted to, he could get work as a soldier in a mercenary company like the Shipwrights. Mother could have taken in washing or sold goods in a market. We could have sailed away together to another land.”
“Yes, that’s a lovely story, Merry, but it’s not that simple.”
“It seems simple to me!” She shivers as with a fever. “The worst thing was waking up. It took me a while to understand that we were trapped inside… and then I heard scratching… and I was afraid the corpse was trying to claw out of the coffin.” She chokes on the memory.
“Hush,” I whisper. “The coffin is sealed. Even if the borrowed spark hasn’t died, the flesh can’t get out past the seals.”
A long silence follows. Merry’s breathing deepens and slows. I need to sleep but I am wide awake listening to the baby’s fretting.
“Cook,” I whisper. “Why are you here? Why didn’t you leave with the other servants?”