The Right to Die | ✓ Amby Winner 2023

20. Abandoned

M'yu's eyes snapped open. Embers glowed in the hearth, and the grey light of pre-dawn streamed past the curtains and onto him wrapped up in his comforter. A scream came again, followed by a high-pitched sob. Ashya.

M'yu jumped up, the floors icy against his bare feet. Nabbing his knife from a drawer, he took off up the hall, then down the stairs. Glass shattered, and he doubled his pace, careful to stay to the quiet edge of the steps.

Three figures wavered in the half-light of the entry hall, and M'yu craned his neck over the banister to get a better look.

"You can't go!" Ashya wailed, bent in half on a settee. Bits of glass and water shimmered around her feet, and a broken goblet lay askew.

"Sweetheart," a tall figure sighed, hand pressed to his face. M'yu relaxed. It was just Aevryn.

"I'll go get the broom, milord," Evriss murmured and shuffled away.

Aevryn stepped closer to her, shoe crunching against the glass. "I'll only be gone a few—"

"No!" she screamed, pushing up.

Aevryn swept her into his arms like she was a child, barely keeping her from stepping on the broken glass. She pounded a fist into his chest, and he whispered into her hair until she calmed, face buried into his neck. Through it all, M'yu clung to the bannister, sure he was intruding but unable to move. Evriss came back to clean the glass away, and Aevryn stepped out of the mess, still holding his daughter.

She pulled back, face streaming with tears. Her words came out choked. "Bad things always happen when you leave."

"Shush, shush..." He stroked her hair and carried her toward the living room. "No one's going to hurt you."

"It always hurts," she whispered.

Aevryn's steps faltered. M'yu's nails dug into the wood. Pulling her closer to him, Aevryn pushed into the living room, and the door swung shut behind him.

M'yu padded down to the entry hall as Evriss rose, dustpan in hand. "Aevryn's leaving?" M'yu asked.

The old man sighed. "It seems the whole house is awake at the wrong hour tonight."

"He was going to leave without saying anything?"

"To avoid upsetting Ashya," he assured. He dumped the broken glass into a small trash can. "Not that it worked, poor child."

A door squeaked, and M'yu looked over his shoulder as Aevryn slipped out of the living room. He stopped short. "M'yu."

"You're leaving?"

"I have business in the Gloam. Your business," he said, eyeing M'yu sharply, "and I don't particularly feel like arguing tonight, so." He straightened his suit jacket, darker where Ashya had cried into his shoulder. He avoided M'yu's eye as he strode across the room and picked up his briefcase. "Evriss will look after you, and I've acquired one of the ministry's hovers, so you'll have mine as usual. You'll be fine."

M'yu's mouth opened, but before he could form a word, Aevryn opened the door and left.

M'yu ran after him, hanging onto the frame as he threw the door open. Snow blistered his face as he stood on the border between winter and shelter. "What about my trial?"

"I'll be back before then," Aevryn called over his shoulder. "And I can't help you with your part of it anyway." The door to the government hover opened, and it took him away.

* * *

The next day, M'yu found Sviya in the library in her window seat. She scowled. "What do you want?"