Role

Chapter 18

"You must be the new one," Horatia said. "We heard you'd be coming soon.
If you want to stay alive, don't act up like Nastura did."

Oirwn ignored her and latched the door behind herself.

"Don't do that," urged Horatia, "You're going to get us beaten."

"Do you want to leave?" asked Oirwn.

The other two girls who had not spoken nodded emphatically, but Horatia
just cast Oirwn a doleful look.

"I'm so sorry, dear, but the only way any of us ever leave here is in an
urn. And that's if he liked you."

"I'm not the new girl," said Oirwn. "The guards' minds are lulled into
sleep, and the house is silent. I have been all through it. If you wish
to go, now is your one and only chance."

Without a word, the two girls, who appeared to be twins in the light, un-
latched the attic door and fled on silent feet to freedom. Horatia, how-
ever, remained seated with her hands folded together in her lap.

"I'm not leaving," she said, simply.

"Why not?" asked Oirwn, who was growing ever more aware of what precious
little time she had.

"Grigori is dead. I'd have killed myself, but to meet him in the after-
life with all my sins upon my shoulders... No. There is no point. I
will stay here."

"Right," was the only word Oirwn could manage to force through her
clenched teeth. She took a moment to breathe and then sang the sweetest
lullabye she could muster right into Horatia's face. The woman was
asleep in seconds and Oirwn caught her over her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, DEAR, but you're coming with me whether or not you want
to."

Oirwn left by the front gate. Moments later, the sound of the two guards
arguing with each other over who fell asleep on duty rang out in the
night.