"She ... what?" No, no that couldn't possibly be. She'd promised to be here and her pantheon was strong on helping the sick and weak and ... "But surely she'd have told me," he added weakly.

She'd known how much he'd been looking forward to seeing Bran. She'd even let him pick his name.

At least Anathema had passed on the stuffed spider for him. According to her Bran had liked it, too. He wondered whether it was true or Anathema had just wanted to spare him the knowledge that Uriel had thrown his gift away. A lot of people didn't like spiders after all. Would she have stayed, if he'd sent Bran a traditional teddy bear instead?