Swordheart

by T. Kingfisher

“I’m sorry. I’m not presuming to tell you the Mother’s business, of course. But that’s why we were hiding. It’s my nerves. It runs in the family, you see. Mother’s nerves were—not the Mother, I mean my mother—I mean, not that the Mother isn’t everyone’s Mother, obviously—” The armored man made a swift ritual gesture at that, and the priest followed suit, looking faintly annoyed. “—but my mother, the human one, she had terrible nerves. Why, a thunderstorm left her completely deranged. She’d take to her bed for days and call for brandy. And cauliflower. I mean, I don’t know why she wanted cauliflower, I’ve never thought cauliflower was a particularly soothing vegetable, but it certainly made my mother happier, so we’d cook it up whenever the weather started to turn. Do you have any cauliflower?”