“Dead?” he whispered in a disbelieving voice. “Like it’s been alive?” In her heart, she’d known the doodems were, but seeing the lights leave Henry’s dying figure had confirmed it. It sounded crazy. She shrugged and turned away. Rivley grabbed her arm, but just as quickly let go. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I don’t dare not believe you after what the machine did to…” Rivley balled his fists and clenched his jaw. Henry. Rivley must have seen the boy’s battered body in the fields before he’d been carried to the sickroom. Annmar’s eyes filled with tears again. “I saw Henry…die. When he did, he dropped his doodem. It was lit blue, not just the mulberry color of the spider engine doodem, but luminated blue. And…then it wasn’t.” She fluttered her fingers downward. “The threads returned to the ground, and the doodem turned white.” Rivley swallowed.
