The Unmaking Read Online Free Page A

will take care of this matter with the man,” he continued. “I have already contacted Judge Adil in Kalla and informed him of the case.”
    “Thank you,” said Eliza again. The ravens hopped closer to her, forming a tight little circle. Obrad noticed them but said nothing. She wondered if she was expected to say more, but she couldn’t think of anything.
    “It is good to have you back,” said Obrad at last. “Eliza.”
    “Thanks.” Eliza was beginning to feel like a broken record.
    “Goodnight.”
    “Goodnight.”
    The odd conversation left her feeling she needed a bath, so she got up and headed back to the south wing. The ravens hopped aside so she could walk unobstructed and did not follow her, remaining a dark clump on the lawn, watching her disappear into the Citadel.
    ~~~

    It was good to sleep in a bed again. She dreamed of flying, the world far beneath her, and Kyreth’s voice shouting at her the whole time from somewhere she couldn’t see. She woke, or thought she woke, in the middle of the dream to see a woman standing over her. She was dressed all in black, with cropped white hair and darting hazel eyes.
    “Why are you so angry?” asked the woman.
    Eliza sat up in the bed, reaching instinctively for the dagger under her pillow.
    “Who are you?” she demanded, her voice still thick with sleep.
    “My skin is full of wool and fleas or I would show you,” the woman said plaintively. “My eyes are full of broken glass and my tongue is caked with earth, I cannot see , I cannot tell . It’s difficult. This is not the finest room. My room is not fine at all. No, I should not say so, it is very fine, very fine indeed, I am like a queen there, queen of what realm? But I do not like stones and I do not like the air much at all, there is no rest, there is no rest.”
    Eliza did not know what to make of this strange speech but the woman looked somehow familiar. She had seen her before but could not think where.
    “Dinnay I know you?” she asked.
    The woman laughed, and then looked startled by the sound she had made. “Did you hear that?” she asked Eliza, and her eyes rolled about wildly in her head. “It was so unexpected. When I am quiet I think I am in the garden and he is kind to me and we have nothing to fear. Silence, silence. I long for it, my ears are buzzing always, there is no rest. How will you get there without a Guide? Oh, you mustn’t get lost in the woods, child. It isn’t safe. All manner of beast will prey on such tender flesh.”
    “I’m nobody’s prey,” said Eliza coldly. “It would be a foolish beast who’d take me for such.” But she let go of the dagger.
    “Have you seen my snake?” The woman asked, looking around. “We are often apart these days because we are not happy, not clear, and sometimes there are many and I don’t know what to do. It never rains here and my room is fine but not the finest of all and the stones are cold and he is sad when he sees me. Look, I have been bitten, by mice or bats perhaps. They live in my bed between the sheets and they gnaw at me all night long. I cannot sleep.”
    The woman showed Eliza her bare arms covered in bite marks. They looked as if they had been made by human teeth, and indeed when Eliza noted the angle of the marks it was obvious the woman had bitten her own arms. Eliza frowned and looked up into her face again. “What’s your name?” she asked.
    “I have a present for you but I’ve forgotten it,” the woman replied, suddenly backing towards the door, her eyes wide with alarm. “It will be colder before spring comes. Lost, poor thing. Have you no pity? I did not give it to you, it was a good day but then I forgot it. I will go and get it and you will make it all right. Promise me, child, you will make it all right.”
    “Wait,” said Eliza, scrambling out of bed. “Where are you going?”
    All at once it came to her. She knew where she had seen this woman before.
    “Hurry, hurry, it will be colder and all