Free A Time of Dying (Araneae Nation) by Hailey Edwards

eccentricities such as dying her hair outlandish colors?
    “Think what you will.” He dismissed my talk as brainless musings.
    “I have little choice,” I groused. “No one here seems willing to speculate.”
    “Speculation is an attempt at forecasting the unknowable. I prefer to deal in absolutes.”
    I ignored his disdain and pushed ahead. “Do you think there’s a connection between the way the plague affected Cathis and the similar, mild effects it had on the people of Beltania? What is the commonality? A shared water source? Plant life? Whatever it was had to be in direct contact with livestock. If nothing else, we can prove that the plague is transmitted through them.”
    Murdoch leaned a shoulder against the wall, his face cast in shadow. “Did you happen to notice Isolde asked how you had learned your…skills….yet she failed to ask why you cultivated them?”
    I clamped my mouth shut. “Perhaps she wanted to make polite conversation.”
    “No.” He guffawed. “Isolde is not the sort of female who engages in idle chatter.”
    “But I am?” I was no idle chatterer. “I am trying to speak to you on important topics.”
    “As am I.” He warmed to his speech. “What else I find interesting is she didn’t ask about the bodies. She merely complimented your skill. Don’t you find that odd? A former maven, who discovers her clansmen have been violated by some feckless girl, and doesn’t say a word on it?”
    I had wondered where Isolde’s anger was, why it failed to reach the heights her son’s had.
    “That is what makes me curious.” He tapped a finger at his temple. “Always thinking is our Isolde. She saw something to your methods that made her curious. What was it?”
    Dread soured the food resting in my stomach. “I think you’re right. I am ready for bed.”
    He wore a smirk around the room while hefting a plush chair and plopping it down near the window. The door he left unguarded. Or so I thought until a shadow glided past and light from the hall was broken for an instant. Straining my ears, I heard a low voice sing a bawdy tune.
    “Lleu?” I asked, slumping at the realization how well I was corralled.
    “He asked for the detail.” Murdoch sank into his chair, and it was then I saw the book in his hand. “You must have made an impression on him. Lleu is not overly fond of such quiet work.”
    I rolled my eyes. “I don’t see why the paladin gives him leave to do as he does.”
    “They’ve been friends since childhood.” Murdoch lifted his novel and shielded his face from me. “Be wary of any insults you hand Lleu if you want to continue enjoying the paladin’s favor.”
    I picked at a pillow on Murdoch’s bed. “If he favored me before, he won’t after tonight.”
    “Isolde is capable of defending herself. She doesn’t need her son to hold a grudge for her.”
    That I could believe. “Vaughn’s interest in my wellbeing isn’t genuine anyway. All he wants is for Hishima to arrive and see me clean, well-tended and smiling, so I can vouch for Mimetidae guards and declare them the best and most fit champions for our people. As if Hishima listens to me.” I tossed the pillow at Murdoch. “No one listens to me. You think I talk too much, and I may, but I’m the only one who ever listens to me. I might as well be good company for myself.”
    “Tell me something, then.” He caught the pillow and set it neatly on his lap. “You want an ear to bend, have mine. Tell me whatever’s on your mind, and I won’t judge you for it. I swear.”
    “Tempting.” I dropped onto his bed and let my feet dangle. “From my lips to whose ears?”
    Murdoch gifted me a rare smile, a real one that made me reassess his temperament. Where I had seen only stern lines bracketing his mouth before, I began to notice those around his eyes came from laughter. Despite his grumpy disposition toward me, others might find him less…prickly. Perhaps a soft female like Nerys was better suited to his