The instructors salute and give us space. Adept Augustus. Accelerated track. I withhold my anxiety from my face and feel warmth as Kavax embraces my son, then steps aside to give me my moment with him. It will be just a moment too. “How are you?” I ask my boy.
“Learning fast,” he replies, curt. “I hear the enemy is mustering for a summit. Is it regarding the action at Venus, or was it scheduled before?”
“Before, we believe. TheDustmakerwas already en route to Earth.”
“Then it pertains to the next stage of the war,” he says. “Will it be Mars?”
“That depends,” I say. “On what, do you know?”
He considers. “Whether or not the Rim will continue to let Atalantia use them to soften us up, which she will unless she feels strong enough to attack and retain her primacy.”
He is so precisely correct it is impossible not to smile. “It is good to see you.”
He smiles, but not with his whole face. “You’re angry at the ink,” he says.
“Angry only that I was not consulted,” I reply. “By your instructors, not you.”
“You agreed,no special privileges,” he reminds me, which indicts me because the visit itself is a special privilege. “Is it news of Father?”
I feel a pang of guilt. Of course that’s what he would have presumed this visit would entail—news of Darrow’s death, or life, or would it be resurrection at this point? Does Pax assume his father is dead? “Only rumors that he lives.” I glance at Kavax. “But the source is…not credible.”
“What do you think?” he asks.
“It would be a guess.”
“Your guesses are often more researched than most people’s facts.”
My first impulse is to please him and make him happy, to spoil him. I know what is right. I trust my heart and narrow my eyes. “Do you really want me to speculate?”
He pauses. This is at the intersection of what I have taught him andwhat he’s learning from the Blues—speculation is fiction. My response may seem cold. It is not. It is a sign of respect from me, and also a reminder that I am not ignorant of his new way of life, nor excluded completely from who he wants to become.
“All hope is true until it is proven false. And even then with ingenuity it may be not,” he replies with a little smile. Then he takes a shot across my bow. “So you’re here to tell me you’ve decided to pardon Valdir. Finally.”
“No, Pax. When the enemy comes, he’ll be where he belongs. In a cell near the front lines, where he left the Free Legions. He rebelled against the Republic, don’t forget.”
“The Obsidians just wanted a little of the freedom they died for,” Pax says.
“There are ways of doing that in the Republic,” I reply. “There are senators. Avenues. In a civil matter the cause may be right, but force cannot be the answer. They proved it. Sefi rebelled and paved the way for that Volsung Fá to steal her throne and sack three cities. We are still suffering the consequences of Valdir’s decisions, Pax. When the enemy comes, we will feel it far more than we do even now. I cannot pardonhim.”
“Because they left Father vulnerable on Mercury,” Pax says.
“Yes,” I admit. “But this is not a decision I made out of anger.”
He respects me enough to believe that. “This is about Lyria,” I say.
He perks up at her name. “Not lost in the Belt after all?” he asks.
“When you sent her out on theSnowball—without my approval”—
“Sorry, Mother,” he drones.
—“you said the device in her head had antecedents connected esoterically to Sun Industries. You said because of that she might be able to lead us to Sun Industries, and Quicksilver, and all the resources you think he’s hoarding.” His eyes narrow, but boyish excitement manages to fight its way through his stoic facade. He does love a bit of intrigue, so I tease him a little. “I looked into it personally while you were here. In fact, I found your hunch so compelling I sent a team of long-rangers to help Lyria’s search. Meanwhile I conducted a search for Regulus’s hidden books. It was not easy.”
“And?”
“And a few days ago we received her signal from the Belt—deep incontested territory. No, that’s a euphemism.Lostterritory. I believe we may have found Quicksilver’s base.”
“And you think he may have forces strong enough to deliver us?”
