Dragoncrest Cliffs manmi

She clenched her jaws together, lifting her head slightly so perhaps Coraline might not feel the tension against her temple. She closed her eyes and pictured her mothers, struggling to imagine them the way they had been when she'd been young and they had been healthy and happy. What Coraline asked for was not a plea for the truth, but for reassurance.

Cruelly, her memory brought visions of Erzulie's face, muddy and bloodied, jaws crusted with filmy spittle. It brought an image of Rosalyn staring off toward Ankyra Sound, stern, cold and unyielding. She did not want to lie to her sister, but she would not for one moment fathom a day when she would ever share with her sister the true visions that danced in her mind.

"Erzulie an' I fought side by side,
while Mireille took de children out toward de tide.
Maman- she filled herself wid poison inside,
dere be no pain for 'er- not when she died.
She went- she fought, and never lost 'er pride."

As macabre as it had been, she did not doubt for an instant that Erzulie had felt little pain in the midst of her drug-fuelled fury.

"Rosalyn chased de bear away for miles,
an' lived, after Erzulie, for a little while.
She passed in her sleep...An' wid a smile."

It was the most peaceful answer she could offer for her sister, shielding her from the brutal details while offering her some form of truth as well. She hoped it might suffice to help Coraline accept the passing of her mothers, now that she knew more about how they had been in their final moments.