“We’ll have it in my quarters,” he said at last.
Solai departed with another bow, Eneva close behind her. Ogden made to follow with Urien.
The leaders of the Shrouded City had not reacted to Urien’s presence. He appeared to be known and at least tolerated among them, but Ysira could not look at him without being remindedof her experience on the station. She tried to find reassurance in the way Ogden spoke of him, but . . .
The old man owed her answers. She managed to make eye contact as he exited, and frowned at him. Ogden’s shoulders rose and fell with a heavy sigh, and he gave her a short nod. “Tomorrow.”
When all but Seth, Ysira, and Jacen had gone—the latter still hovering by the door in palpable discomfort—Neri turned back to Seth.
“I heard what’s happening in Zivora, and—” He broke off, distraught, in stark contrast to the stiff expression he’d taken to wearing lately. “What happened to my cats?”
Seth nodded and squeezed Neri’s shoulder. “As soon as I thought trouble might be coming, I took them to Suna’s. You know her, right? She brings me seeds from the agricultural district. She likes those cats. She’ll take care of them.”
Neri’s posture sagged with relief. He let out a long, shaky breath, as though he’d been holding it for days.
“I don’t think they enjoyed it,” said Seth, “but I did manage to catch all four.”
“Four?” Neri repeated.
“The four who shit in my flowerbeds.” Seth frowned. “There’s the black one with the ear, the little striped one?—”
“Dusty and Sparrow.”
“—the orange one, and the patchy-looking one that hisses when I come near it.”
Neri looked mortified. “Those aren’t mine.”
“. . . Ah.” Seth scratched the back of his neck with a grimace. “Shit.”
Before he could apologize again, Ysira stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him.
Neri was loved. Despite the circumstances of his birth and upbringing, despite everything Ged had inflicted on him . . .Even now, in the midst of this impossible situation, Neri was loved and always had been. “Thank you,” Ysira whispered, as for a moment Seth stood stock-still.
He returned the embrace and patted her back in a gesture of vague confusion.
“I just kidnapped a pair of feral cats,” he muttered against Ysira’s hair. “You’re the one who saved his life.”
She held him tighter. “So did you.”
30
TESTIMONY
YSIRA
The rest of the evening proved unusually pleasant. Late into the night, over a meal of spicy stew and sweet fried bread, Ysira, Seth, and Jacen simply talked. They slipped back into their old rapport with surprising ease as they spoke of classmates and teachers, old mishaps and days gone by, all the trivial details of each other’s lives they’d missed this last decade. Ysira could almost imagine she was sixteen again, blissfully unaware of the horrors to come.
“I’ve missed you both,” Seth said, as he threw one arm around Ysira’s shoulders and the other over Jacen’s. He pulled them close, though there remained a certain sadness in his tone. “It’s been far too long.”
Ysira tensed at the unexpected touch—and saw Jacen do the same—but let it happen. Seth was a rock in all this chaos, warm and solid, and she understood the urge to cling to the familiar.
She awoke the next morning beside him, nestled against his chest as he snored. On Seth’s other side was Jacen, asleep in a similar position with his brow furrowed, as though even indreams, his mind never stopped working. For a time Ysira lay there, watching them both. She didn’t move until Seth did.
Jacen remained fast asleep, as he probably hadn’t managed in days—perhaps years. Seth pulled a blanket up gently over his shoulders, and they let him be.
Neri, however, was wide awake. He shook off Seth’s concerned inquiries, buckled his dagger to his belt, and marched wordlessly downstairs to where Eneva, Ogden, and Solai already waited.
The Gatekeeper led them through the Shrouded City to a long, low ruin of a building. Down a set of stairs they came upon a circular platform, as wide across as the great Citadel plaza in Zivora. Beneath a ceiling covered in more massive, glowing crystals, a metal track stretched off into the distance.
