Despite his flagging energy, Kai struggled, but a glint of silver gave him pause.A knife –hisknife, which he usually kept sheathed behind him to be used as a last resort.Kai stared up at it, bewildered, fighting to catch his breath.
“What,” Kai managed eventually, “You’re gonna kill me?”
“Or give you tetanus.”He sighed.He looked like a tired parent.“Saros will deal with you, and gods willing, he’ll see you for what you are after this.”
The world returned bit by bit.Voices surrounded them like the susurration of flies, guards and lower priests come to gawk; Ione, distantly,Go on, River, you don’t need my permission.
Kai wasn’t sure if it was the fatigue or if he really was losing it, but he laughed, struck suddenly by how funny it all was.River, bleeding on him, beginning to look a little unsettled; Goddess Apparent huffing and asking somebody to please just go ahead and kill him; Cynthia and Lina chiding her, telling her not to borrow more trouble.
“Sorry.”Kai patted River’s thigh.“I’m just brought back to a gunner I knew from the Leviathos.Real mean bastard, especially in bed.”
River scowled.“You really are insane,” he breathed, like it was amazing.
“Swords, please, I canonlyget so hard – Easy!”Kai tipped his head back, metal biting into the rapid-fire pulse in his throat.“Easy, easy.You win, Swordeen.You’re stronger, smarter,andfunnier.And taller, but that went without saying, sure.”
He caught the hint of a reluctant smile on River’s lips and grinned, tasting his own blood smearing onto his teeth.He really could get anyone to crack.
“But,” Kai added, jutting his chin.“There’s one thing I’ve got on you.”
The whispers around them quickened, warning drones; it was Ione who shouted, “Warden, don’t youdare.”
Not even Menon’s Supposed Chosen could melt the thousand needle-sharp icicles hanging over River, each of their points aimed at his back.It was overkill for a single mundane man, but River deserved the best.
Keeping the knife braced against Kai’s throat, River stared silently up at them for a moment, tensing despite the look of forced calm on his face.
And then, bored as ever, “Do it, then.”
Kai’s smile flatlined.Of course the prick would call his bluff.
The thud of a wooden door swinging open startled Kai into letting go of the ice; it melted in a slushy heap over himself and River both, making them sputter and curse.Saros’s voice followed, loud enough to startle them a second time: “River,off.”
At once River stood, tossing the knife onto Kai’s stomach before clasping his hands behind his back like a toy soldier.
“For gods’ sakes,” Saros hissed, storming through with Ione’s healer Mikau and their new assistant, some redheadedCaelosi; with a slash of his arm, Saros evaporated the water off of them.“Well?”Saros bellowed at everyone else as Mikau saw to River’s cuts.“You all may leave, the lot of you, and my thanks for putting an end to this nonsense.”
Sheepishly, the gaggle of guards and other onlookers dispersed; even Ione was led away, with some difficulty, by Cynthia and Lina.Kai sat up, groaning, dimly glad that there would be few witnesses to his verbal mauling.
But unexpectedly, it was River who shouldered the blame.
“River Fontaine,” Saros hissed at him while Mikau moved onto the gash in Kai’s temple, “You know how important this is.You don’t like him – fine.But Ione needs this training, and I needyouto stay out of the way.”
After a pause, River murmured, “Understood.”
“You don’t, clearly!”Saros flared.“If you did, you wouldn’t be picking fights!”
Again, quietly, “Understood.I’m sorry.”
“Actually, Archpriest Saros,” Kai said without thinking, his stomach flipping when both Saros and River turned to him.He waved Mikau and Assistant off of him and wiped his forehead with his sleeve.“This was, uh, a training exercise.”
It was amazing what sorts of things a blow to the head could get one to say.But that wasn’t even a lie, he thought, comforted.It was all in the name of training, wasn’t it?
“A training exercise,” Saros repeated, sceptical.
“You attacked Her Hol – ” River’s gaze flitted to Mikau’s assistant.“Ione,” he amended.
Right, the whole goddess farce was a secret.
Kai sent him a look that he hoped saidI’m trying to be nice, you dick.“‘Attack’ is a bit strong, but she did hold a phenomenal shield.And Greased Lightning here stole my knife right out of my back pocket without me noticing.”He stood back, palms up, the picture of trustworthy.“After these past few weeks of practice, I wanted to test them both, and both of them have impressed me thoroughly.”
