Tempering his surging adrenaline, Kadra moved past Silvus. The audience broke into applause as he took to the limestone dais that students would cross as they graduated.
Sarai hadn’t gotten the chance.
That last glass of wine seemed to have finally numbed him. Words sprouted from his lips as he read Cassandane’s carefully prepared speech, omitting the more ingratiating points to her thunderous scowl. He passed nervous students their scrolls with his congratulations while a drunk Harion nearly toppled into the wine fountain. Once it ended, he surveyed the cheering with cool equanimity. It was time.
When Cassandane motioned him down from the dais, he spoke.
“Tonight, we gather from near and far to celebrate the five hundred who leave the Academiae’s halls.”
Riotous applause greeted his pronouncement. From a corner of the courtyard, Sarai gave him a quizzical look. Cassandane’s brows knitted. “What are you doing?” she mouthed.
“We salute that they shed their old haunts for new. We praise that they have been acknowledged by our most renowned school and found worthy to proceed toward what will largely be lives of prestige. In short,” his voice hardened, “you came here to celebratechange.”
The cheering faltered. Panic made bruises of Cassandane’s dark eyes. She began shouldering through the crowd to reach him. He was sorry it had come to this. Yet, she didn’t see what he did.
“Strange.” He let his gaze sweep the crowd and watched it quiver. “For I have heard that many among you do not likechange. You wish to teach your progeny the same bigotry that you were taught. You seek to maintain the same conflicts you grew up with in a balanced state of imbalance. You cultivate a new generation of enemies and scapegoats, so that when they fight back and war blooms you can blame history and roar that you haveneverbeen at fault. And your coffers bloat all the while.”
Cassandane’s frenzied steps halted. She stared as though he had stabbed her.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing,” Clay Guildmaster Septimus snapped from the agitated crowd. “How dare you commandeer tonight for your personal—”
“A land that refuses to change is a land doomed to rot.” His voice engulfed the courtyard. “Yet, these students have been taught that to be radical is to ask for death, that progress is a few orders signed into force by a Tetrarch right before they die so they can’t be repealed, and that keeping the peace at the cost of justice is democracy. The upper classes and Guilds,” he cast a sardonic glance at Septimus, “have made self-fulfilling prophecies of these lessons to the extent that they killedme.”
A hush fell over the audience. They parted when he swept down the dais.
“And I, too, learned a lesson. No longer will I leave progress to my last breath. I won’t ask our oppressed towait.So, on this night that celebrates stepping into the future, understand that the land is going to change.” His lips curved as frenzied muttering built around him. “And it will start with this, here, at the scene ofmycrime.” His throat thickened when he found Sarai’s gaze. She had gone perfectly still, golden eyes blown wide in the moonlight. Beside her, Anek pressed a hand to their lips.
“From this day, the Academiae will cease charging for entrance exams and will welcome students of all backgrounds. Prospective entrants will receive three tries to pass and a full scholarship if they succeed. The coin will come frommycoffers, and this school will be richer for their presence. As for our graduates,” he cast a glance at the wordless group, “who undoubtedly wish to return me to the afterlife for running roughshod over their night, accept my heartiest felicitations and a gift of five hundred aurei each to smooth your journey forward.” He spread his hands with a glacial smile. “Goodnight.”
The courtyard erupted, setting the cobblestone thrumming. Eyes darted from him to Sarai. Uproarious applause and wild whistles from the graduates, racing to his vigiles with open hands for their gold, yelling to him that this was the best night of their lives. Cassandane tottered, white as a sheet. Guildsmasters and nobles swarmed him to screech about him destroying the Academiae’s prestige. But he only had eyes for the woman watching him with a love of which he would never be worthy.
I love you.He had put her through so much, and this had been an announcement of war. Yet, Cassandane was wrong, because Sarai saw the battlelines too. She fought because the world had abandoned her,hehad abandoned her, and she would leave no one.
He wouldn’t betray her ideals. No matter how badly he hungered to keep her safe.
Tilting his head toward Gaius, he smiled when she caught his meaning and raced over to the vigile who passed her the note he’d written hours earlier.
Grains Guildmaster Ioratius has a secret horreum. A nighttime stroll, my Petitor?
She scanned it and broke into a wide grin, cheeks pinkening, eyes bright. And in that moment, he had never felt closer to peace, so there, under the veil of night and surrounded by detractors, he tried to imagine that there was no war in Ur Dinyé, that there was nothing he’d hidden from Sarai, and that the façade of his life would never crumble.
If only that were true.
It boded ill for a land when its officials had to resort to vigilantism to see justice done.
Sarai dismounted on a lone stretch of road in Aelius’s Quarter, squinting at the gated compound ahead. Midnight draped Edessa in an indulgent quiet. A brisk wind ferried smoke from the hearths of nearby farms and the crisp scent of crushed pine needles. Despite being close to the edge of the capital, the road was well-paved cobblestone not a dirt ribbon. Aelius’s taxes at work.No wonder his people vaunt him as a Saint after such excellent treatment.
Snow crunched under her boots as she steered her mare into the tree line. A familiar black stallion tethered to a pine whickered upon sighting her. Anchoring her mount to Kadra’s, she squinted at a hilltop ahead, to the left of where the road sloped up.
Ten aurei says he’ll be surveying the horreum from there.
Excitement lent her steps a spring. How many weeks had it been since they’d last had a moment alone? She’d thank the Grains Guild for giving them a few hours together if thehavïdassholes weren’t artificially manufacturing a grain shortage.
Conifers creaked as she walked up the hill. The compound on the other side came into view. Enormous and two-stories high, the main building was raised on pillars to keep grain away from the damp when stormfall inevitably came. Ramps slanted up to the main doors, the grounds circled by the high wooden gates that she’d glimpsed from the road. Unremarkable to passersbybut unmistakable when viewed from above—the Grains Guild’s secret horreum, a warehouse and granary.
Though it did seem rather empty. A few spires of smoke coiled above dying braziers, and the score of unyoked wagons on the grounds were as barren as they were. She wouldn’t begrudge an easy victory. Vigilantism was dangerous these days, especially in Aelius’s Quarter. And after Kadra’s announcement at the graduation last night.
Gods, he was magnificent.Radiating ice and power. Entirely in control of the chaos, having anticipated every argument down to buying the graduates’ approval.
