Atlas passes off the stretcher to a Gorgon. Together, he and Rhone make their way toward me. “You’re late,” I call.
Be entitled, but reasonable. A Palatine brat who’s learned his lesson.
Neither man replies. Rhone stops a few meters from me and nods to Markus, Drusilla, and the others. They salute him and hold the salute for Atlas. Flavinius’s eyes bore into me. He smiles, pleasant. “Heard you had a visitor.” I nod.
Atlas strides up to me with his pack on his shoulder and stops about a foot away. His eyes are everywhere, collecting data, except meeting mine.
“I told you to meet me in the barracks. Did Markus confuse my orders?” he asks.
“I told him,” Markus says.
“There’s been a problem. It couldn’t wait,” I say.
He sighs. “I left you the pig trussed, gutted, and cooked. All you had to do was eat it.”
“Diomedes is alive.”
“Yes. Markus already told me.”
He’s still not looked into my eyes.
He knows. Or he doesn’t. The man looks absolutely smashed with exhaustion.
“The feast is ruined.” Atlas’s eyes finally meet mine. “Fá is dead.” His Gorgons within earshot—which, due to their augmented hearing, is all of them—turn or stop dead in their tracks.
“Talking business in front of the ranks? Pull yourself together,” Atlas says.
Rhone takes the hint. “Clear the deck. On the double! Wounded tosick bay. Showers, grub, and comfort flesh for the rest. You’ve earned it, nils. You’ve earned it for the rest of your lives. On the double, I said!”
The mission must have been a success then. IsEidmiin the pack on Atlas’s shoulder?
The Gorgons flow past me to either side. Atlas keeps looking at me. In time he will discover me. My only defense is his exhaustion and the magnitude of the mission he was on, and telling him the truth before he suspects it. I have to unravel it slowly but not so slowly I lose his interest. Most of all, I have to keep him here until I get the green light from Pytha.
When the last of his men have cleared the hangar, he steps back and hangs his head. He is exhausted but the act is also one of respect and profound sadness.
“You knew about Fá. That’s why you stopped the assault,” I say.
“Correct. The Kinshield is also gone. Certain patterns have been broken.”
“I’m sorry. I know they were close to you.”
“Do you have anything else?” he asks.
I glance back at Markus, Drusilla, and the other four. “Give us the deck.”
Markus looks to Atlas, who shakes his head for him to stay. “They’re in the Zero,” Atlas says. “What else, Lysander? I want to take off my boots.”
“Darrow killed Fá.”
He sighs back at Rhone. “And I thought I’d get a shower before they piled more shit on my shoulders again.”
Rhone grimaces in sympathy. “At least we have confirmation now.”
“You were aware of this?” I ask.
“Suspected. When Obsidians see a curved blade they shout ‘wolf.’ Why am I just hearing this, Markus?” Atlas asks. I think he’s lying. I think he knew of Darrow’s involvement for fact.
“I was not aware of the information,” Markus says, worried at displeasing Atlas and accusing me of withholding with the same tone.
