"Sixty," Descry answered Paddy's unsaid question, the lines around his eyes crinkling. "He was just over sixty."
"Nothing in the least." Merlin reached over with his chalk-stick and closed a single line, and the hum heightened to the point of making their skin prickle--though not unpleasantly. The lines between Erskine and Saracen were sketched brighter than the rest, tinged with gold.
"I remember having to tie you to a chair to get Rue's make-up on you," Rover accused at Saracen, flopping down on the floor. The line connecting the two of them hummed. "You'd think a real man would be able to sit still while he was getting a makeover! You'd think a real man would be able to walk on high heels without falling off them every few seconds!"
"To be fair, it was funny whenever he did," Dexter said with a grin. Rover gesticulated wildly.
"He was pretending to be Rue! Rue never fell off his heels!"
"Except when Anton broke them off, you mean." Dexter glared, crossing his arms at the Gist-user. "I put all my effort into making Rue's shoes works of art, and you took sinful delight in destroying them every time you wore them!"
"You mean that wasn't the reason for wearing them?" Anton raised an eyebrow at him blandly. "My mistake."
"I remember the look on Corrival's face when he realised there were eight of us instead of seven," Descry put in.
"I remember the look on your face when Larrikin told me why you all came home with one extra," the older man shot back. He shook his head. "And you were supposed to be the responsible one, Hopeless. Yet you, the monk who lived with a unit of reprobates and ladies' men, were the only one to father a child to a prostitute. I was ashamed."
"It was an accident. And you were amused. Eventually."
"That too. What's that saying? It's always the quiet ones."
"I remember," Anton said quietly, his gaze trained somewhere on the eaves of the church overhead, "the tenor of Skulduggery's voice when Saracen put his fingers in his eye-sockets and ripped Skulduggery's coat open to shove his fist into Skulduggery's chest cavity."
"I forgot that," Dexter said with the wide, incredulous eyes of a man just now realising how much he had forgotten, while Rover rolled back, laughing wildly.
Slowly the lines around them saturated with gold and silver.
no subject
"Nothing in the least." Merlin reached over with his chalk-stick and closed a single line, and the hum heightened to the point of making their skin prickle--though not unpleasantly. The lines between Erskine and Saracen were sketched brighter than the rest, tinged with gold.
"I remember having to tie you to a chair to get Rue's make-up on you," Rover accused at Saracen, flopping down on the floor. The line connecting the two of them hummed. "You'd think a real man would be able to sit still while he was getting a makeover! You'd think a real man would be able to walk on high heels without falling off them every few seconds!"
"To be fair, it was funny whenever he did," Dexter said with a grin. Rover gesticulated wildly.
"He was pretending to be Rue! Rue never fell off his heels!"
"Except when Anton broke them off, you mean." Dexter glared, crossing his arms at the Gist-user. "I put all my effort into making Rue's shoes works of art, and you took sinful delight in destroying them every time you wore them!"
"You mean that wasn't the reason for wearing them?" Anton raised an eyebrow at him blandly. "My mistake."
"I remember the look on Corrival's face when he realised there were eight of us instead of seven," Descry put in.
"I remember the look on your face when Larrikin told me why you all came home with one extra," the older man shot back. He shook his head. "And you were supposed to be the responsible one, Hopeless. Yet you, the monk who lived with a unit of reprobates and ladies' men, were the only one to father a child to a prostitute. I was ashamed."
"It was an accident. And you were amused. Eventually."
"That too. What's that saying? It's always the quiet ones."
"I remember," Anton said quietly, his gaze trained somewhere on the eaves of the church overhead, "the tenor of Skulduggery's voice when Saracen put his fingers in his eye-sockets and ripped Skulduggery's coat open to shove his fist into Skulduggery's chest cavity."
"I forgot that," Dexter said with the wide, incredulous eyes of a man just now realising how much he had forgotten, while Rover rolled back, laughing wildly.
Slowly the lines around them saturated with gold and silver.