Gideon looked over her shoulder at her, and caught the Reverend Daughter’s smile. There was blood sweat coming out of her left ear, but her smile was long and sweet and beautiful. Gideon found herself smiling back so hard her mouth hurt.
Gideon peeled Harrow’s head off her shoulder by the hair and beheld it, taking her inventory: her point-boned, hateful little face, her woeful black brows, the bloodless bow of her lips. She examined the disdainful set of the jaw, the panic in the starless eyes. She pressed her mouth to the place where Harrow’s nose met the bone of her frontal sinus, and the sound that Harrow made embarrassed them both.
Gideon peeled Harrow’s head off her shoulder by the hair and beheld it, taking her inventory: her point-boned, hateful little face, her woeful black brows, the bloodless bow of her lips. She examined the disdainful set of the jaw, the panic in the starless eyes. She pressed her mouth to the place where Harrow’s nose met the bone of her frontal sinus, and the sound that Harrow made embarrassed them both.
[image description: a digital illustration of the pool scene from gideon the ninth. it shows harrow and gideon facing each other in profile, set against a background of green waves. they’re both lit in a similar green lighting. their face paint has washed away and their hair is wet and slicked back. gideon puts a hand on harrow’s cheek and kisses the bridge of her nose. harrow’s eyes are wide in total surprise.]
Her pallid hair fell around her face like a veil, and her stolen eyes looked at you with half-beseeching, half-contemptuous despair: blue eyes with deep splotches of light brown, like agate.
There was silence, except for Camilla’s ragged breathing and the lieutenant’s tiny, half-amazed gasps. Then Jeannemary said, “Hot dog.”
[id: a digital painting of a scene from Gideon the Ninth, depicting Camilla and Palamedes. Pal is a young white man with dark curly hair, gray eyes, dark gray robes, and round glasses. Cam is a young brown woman with shoulder length dark hair, she’s wearing a dark gray robe, and wielding a knife and a rapier. at the top of the drawing there’s a frame with Palamedes saying “Cam”, and at the bottom there’s one with Pal pushing his glasses up, and they’re shining like an anime character’s. he’s grinning and saying “Go loud.” /end id]
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