Tandri opened her mouth to speak, then fidgeted the basket to her other arm, and finally said, “What… do you have planned for the evening?”
“Planned? Nothing. I’m usually bushed and turn in early. A bite to eat first, maybe.”
“Oh, good. Er. I mean… I thought that, given how things went, we should… celebrate? If you’d like.”
Viv wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Tandri properly nervous before. She had to admit, it was charming.
“Celebrate? I guess I hadn’t thought about it. Sure, the Madrigal isn’t a big worry, now, but I don’t think it’ll take Fennus long to figure out a different angle to–” She saw Tandri’s expression grow pained and caught herself, suddenly feeling very stupid. “Um. I mean, yes. A celebration sounds good. What did you have in mind?”
“Nothing fancy,” said Tandri. “There’s a little park above the river, west of Ackers. Sometimes, I go there in the evenings. Used to, I mean. The view is nice, and I, um, I packed some things. So. A sort of picnic. Ugh, that sounds childish.” She winced. “And not like a celebration, at all.”
“It sounds wonderful,” said Viv.
Tandri recovered some of the pieces of a smile.
* * *
Itwasa nice view.The spot wasn’t so much a park as a groomed area featuring a statue of some long-robed Ackers alumnus, whose countenance was undoubtedly more imposing in stone than it ever was in life. Cherry trees and hedges ringed him, and he presided over a little rise above the river. The vantage provided a lovely sunset panorama of the university’s copper steeples. Little twirls of smoke dotted the rooftops, like freshly extinguished candles.
They sat on the grass, and Tandri unpacked some bread and cheese, a small crock of preserves, some hard sausage, and a bottle of brandy.
“I forgot glasses,” she said.
“I don’t mind if you don’t,” replied Viv.
“It’s really… not much.”
Viv opened the brandy, took a swig, and passed the bottle to Tandri. “Feels like a celebration to me.”
Tandri took a solid glug, as well, while Viv sliced the sausage and slathered some preserves on the bread.
They ate and drank and talked about nothing much as some birds came to roost in the cherry trees. The sun drew down, and the chill of the river crept up in a slow, shivering wave.
They shared an easy silence in the waning light, and then Viv asked, “Why’d you leave the university?”
Tandri looked at her. “Not, ‘why did you go in the first place?’”
Viv shrugged, “I wasn’t surprised by that, at all.”
The other woman looked back out over the university steeples and thought for a while.
Viv guessed she wouldn’t answer and regretted asking.
“I wasn’t born here. Ifledhere.”
Viv almost said something, but waited.
“Nobody was chasing me, if that’s what you’re wondering. I was fleeing… the trap of what I am. This,” Tandri touched the tip of one of her horns, and her tail lashed. “I thought, a university? That’s a place where ideas are challenged. Where what you do matters, not where you came from, orwhatyou came from. A place where logic and math and science would prove that I’m more than what I was born to. But it seems I take that with me wherever I go.”
“You attended, though.”
Tandri nodded grimly. “I did. I scrimped together the tuition, and I was granted admission. Nobody stopped me. They took my money, absolutely. There are no bylaws keeping someone like me out.”
“But?”
“But… it didn’t matter, not really. What’s the saying? They followed the letter of the law, but not the spirit?” She sighed. “The spirit was unenlightened.”
Viv thought about Kellin and nodded.
