He had not told her of his suspicions that The Rising had conspired, and succeeded, in raising the creature that forced Silence to Mars, Farah to True, Elena to Cassius as well as all the other events that occurred.

He did not want her frightened.

So he didn’t speak of it then.

He kept his gaze to the fire and said, “Faith.”

“Faith?” she asked softly, clearly having fallen into his mood.

“The prisoner Tor and Apollo have been interrogating said that he did what he did due to faith.”

“Alfie,” she whispered.

He looked to her. “What god would take my legs? What god would take my queen’s life?”

“I do not know.”

“You were right, Bronagh. Life is more than work. And it is tragedy that I learned that when my life was reduced to,” he indicated his chair, “this.”

“Your life is not that small,” she replied.

“Really? When I leave this place, I will need to purchase a new house, for my home will need to be one story, with widened halls so I can negotiate it in my chair. I might be able to manage stairs, but in all frankness, although the ascent holds no concern for me, the idea of attempting a descent scares the shite out of me. I cannot sit astride a horse. I will not stand at an altar and take a woman to wife. I cannot—”

“We can have a transport created for you, so you can command a horse, but it will be low, so you can get yourself in it and out of it. Or, say, wheel your chair in it and lock it in place.”

“Bronagh—”

“And you can stand fine, with your sticks, so if you were to take a wife, you could meet her at the altar upright, if that means so much to you. Though I don’t know why you wouldn’t just meet her in your chair. She would be marrying you, not your legs.”

Marrying you, not your legs.

His chest started to warm.

“I—”

“I have seen injuries less than yours, I have seen injuries worse than yours, a good deal worse,” she continued. “And far too many of them. So do not ask me what war means. What god or king causes man to do what man does to man for the sake of anything. All I know is it happens and forces all manner of men to do different, but no less heroic things. Those being, discover reasons to find ways to live their life to the fullest, no matter what became of their person. And then go about living life to its fullest.”

She stood after saying these words and came to Alfie’s chair.

With no choice but to tip his head back when she arrived, she bent to him the instant he did.

Her face so close, her so close, he could smell her perfume.