A hint of exasperation.“Gods, just call me Kai.”
“Yes, Warden.”
Kai shot him an incredulous look, and then half-grinned, lazy and lopsided.“Arright, ye dry cunt,” he whispered, amused, before returning his attention to the others at the table.
Bristling, River skulked back to the outskirts of the room and plunked the teapot back into its gilded tray.Saros either didn’t hear that or didn’t care.Likely the latter.
But it was fine.Soon enough, Saros would see Kai for what he was: a rat sniffing around for prestige, just like his mother.River wasn’t close to his own parents, but at least he could say his mother didn’t kill ten people for trying to help command her fleets.Saros had only pardoned Malia out of respect for his late friend, her husband.The timing was bad, River reasoned: Saros’s wife and son had just died in an attack on Polaros Shrine up north, leaving the Archpriest bereft and sentimental.
Now, there was no end to the Mahina clan’s vie for power.
The clatter of a teacup slamming into its saucer startled River back to the present – Ione, lurching forward in her seat, anger flushing her cheeks the same shade of pink as her dress.“We can’t justevictthem.”
Another high priest held up a hand like that had any chance of calming her.“We have a finite amount of space – ”
“We’ve housed them sufficiently thus far.”
“Yes, on cots in the cellar of the acolytes’ building,” the priest replied hotly.“It was temporary, Holiness.Temporary, until enough of Caelos was rebuilt so that its people could begin to return.”
Kai drummed his fingers against the table.“With the dormitory destroyed, Hilo and his people have been repurposing the southern wing of Caelos.The way he tells it, it’ll be ready to house around half the refugees now.”
Ione faced him, sceptical.So much for ignoring him.“And the kitchens?”she challenged.“The storehouses?The new wards?With Caelos located so remotely, I hope we’re not throwing the people who came to us for protection into a half-finished hovel and bidding them good luck.”
Kai cast across the table for a notepad and pencil.“If you wanna tell Hilo how to do his job, be my guest.”He slid them across the table to her; Ione let them skid past her.They fell to the floor with a sad-soundingplop.
Saros sighed.“No one is going to be left to suffer, but we do have to be choosy.Oseidos cannot continue to house every handmaid and mundane acolyte, and the ones who do leave us will, I assure you, return to a well-built and fully-equipped shrine.”He smiled, his gaze falling on Kai.“When it’s finished, Caelos will be grander than Oseidos.And safer.”
“If Hilo doesn’t slack off,” Kai said genially.Then, catching himself, “And he won’t.Obviously.”
That was that, then.Ione glowered into her teacup; opposite, Saros kept on smiling, tranquil and triumphant.
Inwardly, River dreaded listening to them both revile one another to him later.Loving two people who hated each other made for an endless game of tug-of-war.
“Now, then.”Penina Artem shifted her focus to Jorah, Ione’s hydromancy teacher; Jorah flinched and forced out a polite smile.“If Her Holiness is finished worrying about an overabundance of low-rank priestesses taking up space on our fair isle – ”
“Her Holiness is not,” Ione returned smoothly.“Just as High Priestess Penina is never finished questioning her goddess’s will.”
Penina disregarded that.“ – I wonder how Her Holiness’s lessons are going recently?”
Jorah’s eyes darted between them, mouselike.Not that River knew anything about hydromancy, but under Jorah’s questionable tutelage, Ione had come nowhere near mastery.As wary as River was of the handmaid who couldn’t even look him in the eye, at least Ione’s little infatuation with her had actually produced some intriguing results: just having her over for lunch resulted in a small snowstorm localised entirely within the Artem flat’s kitchen.
As a bonus, Ione helped wash the dishes after they ate for once.
Jorah, for his part, coughed delicately and waved River over to refill his tea.Sighing, River obeyed.“Well, we – ” Jorah steepled his fingers.“We’re still working on control – ”
Ione stood, bored.“Oh, I’ve great control.”She spun on her heels, snapping her fingers as she departed.In the blink of an eye, the tea in their cups – and in the teapot River was still holding – froze so abruptly that each one shattered, blanketing the table with scarlet snowflakes and shards of ceramic.
The door slammed.Kai laughed and then hastily covered his mouth.Belatedly, a stinging pain shot across River’s palm; he glanced at himself, brushed the bloody porcelain fragments from the cut on his hand, and hid his clenched fist at his side.
Saros rubbed his forehead, letting the other priests murmur around him.
Jorah sucked his teeth.“She is too ruled by her emotions,” he demurred.“We’re working on breathing exercises – ”
“Which are going swimmingly, I see,” Penina ground out.
Kai waved a hand, gathering up the sticky slush of half-melted tea and evaporating it.“Hydromancy is an emotional art.”His posh accent was back; he was trying to sell Saros something.“It’s not so much suppressing your emotions, but understanding how to use them.”
“That is all well and good,” Jorah stammered.“Butcontrolis still – ”
