The bed, oddly enough, was made, although the duvet was mussed like he’d last fallen asleep atop it.A cat – a stray Lina had seen outside the building before – trilled lazily from the pillow before leaping off the bed and out the opened window.It stared at them from its perch on a tree bough outside, its tail swishing.
“There’smy mug,” was all River had to say about everything as he heaved Kai over to his bed and laid him down.
The warden moaned, his bloody face scrunching with pain.
“Mikau will be here soon.”River straightened, pointing at Lina.“You, sit, and don’t make any sudden movements.Keep quiet while Mikau’s here.”
Lina bristled.“What would I say?”she asked, stepping around a stack of books towards an armchair pulled up against the wall.She moved aside a violin case, locked tight, and glanced out the adjacent window as she sat, judging the distance from here to the ground.Too far.“‘Help, Mikau, I’m a Moth and I’m already captured’?”
A knock on the door shut her up well enough.Mikau let themself in, their mouth falling open when they saw Kai.
“Menon wept, what the hell happened?”they demanded, brushing River aside.
“Lover’s quarrel.”Kai gestured at River.“With Swords.”
“Again?”
River rolled his eyes.“No.”
Mikau pulled their hair back and knotted it at their nape before kneeling over Kai.They ran a whorl of healing water over his cheek, his nose.Kai emitted a sharp cry when Mikau began moulding the cheekbone back into place; then he quieted, went limp, his eyelids fluttering shut.
“He busted it good,” Mikau murmured.“He’ll be out of commission for a few days, I’d say.”
River watched Kai as Mikau worked, but whenever Lina so much as shifted in her seat, his gaze flitted back to her, hawkish.Quailing, she averted her eyes, trying and failing to drum up an acceptable story.
There was nothing.Nothing.She was guilty by association, condemned because Sowelan thought her appropriate, for whatever divine reason, to grace with His magic.
Lina traced the old burns on her wrists through her sleeves, the size and shape of Castor’s hands.Thought of Ione and Ami and Cynthia and everyone else, the hatred they would have for her.
I never wanted to hurt you.She heard herself begging them all to listen, to believe, but it was Ione’s face she envisioned, Ione’s disgust that made her heart kick.
“He’s pretty concussed,” Mikau said, finished.They stood back and wiped their hands on a handkerchief, scanning their work; miraculously, Kai looked almost good as new, his cheekbone no longer sunken and shiny with swelling, although his eye was still blackened.“The bruising’ll go down soon, but he’ll need rest.”They held out a hand, something small and white on their palm.A tooth.When River just looked at it, Mikau set it on the side table.“I couldn’t save the molar.When he wakes, tell him I tried.”
“Thank you, Mikau,” River said, and when Mikau didn’t make any move to leave, “I’ve got it from here.”
They looked to River, and then to Lina, who, at a loss, shrugged.“Does anyone need… separating?”
A dense pause.“Actually, we’re in the middle of a situation,” River said tactfully.“Which I have a handle on.So, if you don’t mind…?”
Again Mikau glanced at Lina, uncertain.
Help me, Lina wanted to say.Her mouth dried up, the futility of the plea not lost on her.
“Please don’t make me pull rank,” River said, and finally, looking torn, Mikau excused themself.
The door clicked shut behind them, and River let out a long, exhausted breath and rubbed his forehead.Lina kept her eyes trained on his hands, on the edge of his rapier; on Kai, half-conscious, feebly shaking his head.
Lina held her breath, counted, released it.Escape wasn’t an option: she imagined alarms being raised, dozens of guards and spellcasters on her in an instant.She unbuttoned the cuffs of her sleeves and wrenched them up to her elbows, painfully aware of River’s focus, of his offhand moving to the hilt of his sword.
“I renounced my family’s faith.”She thrust out her arms, the browned skin waxy in the light.“If these scars aren’t proof of what I went through to disappear, then tell me how I can convince you.”
River’s gaze lowered to her wrists, his face unreadable.“You’ve been around Ione this whole time.Around all of us.Gods – how’d you manage to join Caelos?”
“I showed up in the middle of the night, scarred and drenched with rain.”Her breath caught, remembering it, crying and half-frozen after the hours-long trek up the mountain path.How the high priestess pulled her inside, wrapped her up, sat her beside the boiler until she stopped shivering.“They didn’t ask questions.”
“They should have,” he retorted.“Who was it who agreed to take you in?”
She glared up at him, sharpening in the way Castor used to hate.That’s an ugly look you’re wearing.“I won’t bring them trouble.They saved me.”
