No, no. That cannot be it. Jericho cannot destroy things for her this way. She won’t let him. Misery breathes, Saint Agneta’s pattern, four in, six hold, seven out. The Larex Forge—Zie has done everything with a purpose—everyone she’s met, everyone who has come into her life, for better or for worse, has had a role to play.

She was put on Angelsteeth for a reason. She was introduced to Ono Red-2 for a reason. She was given the visions of the Lady Storm for a reason.

Could the Larex Forge, so wise and deliberate in Hir doings, be thrown out of orbit by a single Heretic so low, so worthless? Could a single voidtouched piece of filth destroy Hir ineffable plans like that?

No. Of course not. Even someone as sunken and unholy as Jericho has a role to play. Can be made useful in the hands of the exalted, those who are blessed as Misery is. The banquet of Angelsteeth was lost, unable to see a way forward with the siege of Monkglass, ready to admit defeat because they knew nothing of Heretic technology or how to surmount it. But the Larex Forge had already served the solution to them. To her, specifically. Who knows better how a Heretic siege worked, than a Heretic himself?

Misery lets out a long, slow breath. With it goes all her anxiety, all her self-hatred, all of her doubts. She is blameless in this. She is doing what she is meant to do. “The Heretic prisoner was sent to Angelsteeth for a reason. Divinity works in its own way, on its own schedule. It is no coincidence that the one Heretic prisoner held by the Faithful was held here. Jericho is merely another stone in the fortress of righteousness the Larex Forge has built for us. He will tell us what we need to know. He will tell us how to break the siege.”

Pyrex Imogen has been silent until now, wrapped in the chains of their own thought. They speak now, low and sonorous: “Misery is right. I can think of no better source for the information that we need.”

There: she has the backing of the Church, she has an authoritative weight behind her that can stoneroll over any protestation. “Let me speak to the prisoner,” she says. “I will extract the information we need from him.”

CHAPTER 28