CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Beauty no words can flatter
Her darkness was bleached pale as the moon
A bird’s wing or a tiger’s paw
Even a dragon’s form she can entertain
Her heart is bleak though
Divided and hollow
She mourns the child she has lost
Upon a bluff, she was raised alone
Her mother’s mind shifted like the sand
Sweet child, she was turned
Now she lives only to destroy
Vindication and revenge her only words
—Pale Woman; Rubi Jep
A
t the sound of shouting Rhiannon and Flath rushed into the nursery, Flath carrying his panther-headed sword. He hardly had time to pull on his breeches, and he was bare-chested, his blue Venturian tjaty tattoos lending him an air of dangerousness. In her haste, Rhiannon had thrown on a crinkled shift that hung on her crookedly. She stood in the doorw
