“You’re all idiots.I see now I should have come here first thing, instead of having the misguided faith that my sons would mind themselves.”Her eyes, the same stormy blue as Kai’s, found River.“You, guard,” she said.“Be a dear and fetch us a healer.”
“You do not command him,” Kai cut in like River was at any risk of obeying her.“I do not need a healer.Andwedo not need Mother of the Year charging in here acting like she owns the fucking place.”
Saros edged between them, the cylinder he’d been holding – a thermos – thrust into Kai’s hands.“Not to worry, Malia, dear.He’s had his fun, but he’s a smart lad, as you well know, and he is more than ready to take up his new role.”He smiled, but Malia remained unimpressed.“And honour your family, your husband’s memory, in ways you cannot imagine.”
When Malia didn’t respond, Saros ushered Etan and Hilo towards her.“Let your boys show you around the new Caelos.There is an absolutelybeautifulgarden on the top level – past its zenith, with the season that’s in it, but well worth strolling through.”
Although she looked torn, Malia took Etan’s arm, but swatted Hilo away from her.“Stay with your brother,” she hissed, pointing at him as she let Etan escort her away.
Saros waited, his smile unwavering, until Malia was out of earshot.And then he ran a disapproving eye over his new Menon, dishevelled and bitter and reeking of alcohol.
“Drink,” he commanded, indicating the thermos.“It’s ginger tea.It’ll wake you up, which you sorely need.”
Grudgingly, Kai took a swig and coughed, shuddering.“It tastes like a fucking silverware drawer.”
Saros flared.“Drink.All of it.”
He watched, blatant resentment mottling his cheeks, as Kai choked the rest of the thermos down without complaint.And then, to be a shit, Kai capped the thermos and launched it down into the sea.He looked like he might say something, give one of his signature, sarcastic bows, but he went still and a little contrite when River touched his arm.
“You’re better than this,” Saros seethed.“You’re adapting.It’s new, and it’s frightening.I know.But you’re humiliating not only yourself, your family, your people – ” He rounded on Kai, heedless of Hilo’s eyes on him, of River inching closer.“You are humiliating yourArchpriest.”
Kai made a noise that implied he didn’t give a shit who was humiliated.
“He hasn’t slept well since we arrived,” River said – why, he didn’t know.There was no talking to Saros when he was like this.“And Menon hasn’t… settled well.”
Saros whirled, exasperated.“Don’t you dare defend him.”He closed in, nose-to-nose with Kai, fury melting the icy air Kai’s own rage had swathed him in.“If you think I’m without a back-up plan, son, you are sorely mistaken,” he hissed.“But enjoy your drunken benders, your temper tantrums.Just remember the faces of the people you love, and try to think, for one second, how the rest of us felt when our loved ones were taken from us.”
His voice was soft.Venomous.“Are you threatening me?”
“I don’tneedto threaten you with that, you bloody ingrate!”Saros shouted, making Kai blink.“Iam trying to help you.Iam trying tosave us.”He hunched, coughing, face red and chest heaving; with difficulty he schooled his breaths and licked a drop of blood from his lips.
For the first time, River felt no urge to go to him, to ensure he was all right.
“In ten minutes,” Saros whispered, “high priests from shrines all over the country will gather, all eager to meet the singular force they have prayed to and pleaded with and waited for their entire lives.”
Kai lifted his chin, holy and enduring and so like Ione that River’s heart squeezed.
Saros looked at him like he was vermin.“Meet them.Woo them.Tell them how you’re going to protect this shrine better than you did Oseidos, how you’re going to slaughter every last Moth and save our people and all of the other lovely things you doubtless promised Ione.”He smiled disdainfully when Kai clenched his fists at that.“Make them glad,” Saros finished, “that they believed me.That they donated to my cause and upended their lives to come here.Foryou.”
Saros spun on his heels and stalked back inside, theLeviathosispringing out of the way and peering out at Kai after the Archpriest passed.
It was Hilo who spoke first.“You know, I think a drink would really chill him out.”
Kai snorted, summoning an exhausted smile as he strode ahead of them into the hall.“Ineen said she’d kill him someday,” he murmured.“But at this rate, I’ll beat her to it.”
“Ah, let me,” Hilo said amiably.“Not that I hate the fella, but anything for Lady Ione.Especially now you’re…” He squinted at Kai.“…annulled?Right?”
“Menon wept, let it go.”
Hilo shoved him, and Kai, still unsteady on his feet, flew into a column.“Oh, will Ifuck.Afteryoubroke what is almost certainly some sort of brother’s code, ye shitehawk – ”
River hung his head back.They’d had this argument thrice already.“Shut up, both of you.I can’t do this again.”
Kai rubbed his head, going quiet for long enough that River glanced at him – and flinched at the way Kai stared right back, frowning, like he was thinking hard.
Crates and workers and wayward children were strewn about the passage outside the banquet hall.Kai slowed to a stop in the middle of it all, still watching River and barely noticing when Hilo tugged him towards Saros’s receiving room.
“Hilo,” Kai said, shrugging his brother off.“You go on ahead.”
