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Slaine: A Short Story

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It takes months. Slaine isn't sure how many -- he stopped asking for the date when he realized it didn't matter. Instead, he watches the days bleed into night, never quite reaching that tomorrow in the distance. In the beginning, someone would tell him the date, tell him how long he'd been imprisoned, tell him something meant to rub salt in a wound that would never close anyway. These days, all those people are gone, traded off to a different job and replaced by people that Inaho handpicked. Slaine thinks it's been around a year. He measures his life in haircuts, in how much growth he gets until Inaho is the one to finally comment on it, to get a pair of scissors that Slaine would never be allowed himself (there's still too much risk there, …show more content…

After this long, he takes some degree of comfort in Inaho showing up to always cut Slaine's hair a bit too long, to make an attempt to play a game of chess that Slaine is never interested in, to leave behind books on Rayleigh scattering that make Slaine want to throw them against the wall. "How was the wedding?" Slaine asks, instead, even though he isn't sure he wants to know. Inaho's hands don't falter. "It went well," he replies. "They took a two week honeymoon to volunteer to help restore New Orleans, and now they're back to continue working." Slaine jerks with the urge to laugh, because taking a honeymoon to volunteer sounds just like her. He doesn't know if Klancain really understands what he's gotten himself into. "Hold still," Inaho says, automatically, but the words aren't even a command. "Princess Lemrina was in attendance," Inaho continues, as though he was giving Slaine a rundown on the weather he was missing while in …show more content…

It's a gentle, firm gesture, and Slaine follows it obediently, letting his eyes drop. "I expect she'll be able to walk, within five years." "She'll like that," Slaine murmurs, quietly, because he knows it's only half of her wish. "She won't go visit your grave until she can walk on her own legs, she said," Inaho says, and that's how Slaine knows she'll be okay. Lemrina was always strongest when she was angry about something, and he was certain she was furious at his memory. It's the first time they've spoken much, about the people that Slaine has left behind, about the people that don't realize he's alive, about the handful that know the truth about what he did. Slaine isn't certain that he likes it, but there isn't any point in holding anything back from Inaho, these days. Inaho's hands comb through the fine strands of Slaine's hair, parting it until he's satisfied with how it looks. "There." He sets the scissors down, moves around the table and pauses for a second, ready to

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