"Come, if you wish to accompany us."
"Absolutely." She untethered her armature and snapped the keel over her chest, leaving the harness straps secured. "Gregor's waiting for us, lieutenant."
"I'm afraid we've hired him away from you," Victor cut in. He gave her a significant look. "I'll pay for a different coach, if you need one."
"I'll take care of it," Cristof interrupted with a frown. Taya wanted to ask more questions, but the closed expressions on Victor's and Pyke's faces were enough to make her stay silent. They were up to something, and they'd gotten Gregor involved. She didn't want to know anything else. She grabbed her crutches and fur cloak.
Walking was much easier with the ondium armature carrying part of her weight, although she chose to sit next to the driver on their hired hack rather than try to jam her wings into a carriage with two grown men. They reached the Secundus headquarters in twenty minutes. Pyke and Cassi were already at the station, perched on the back of one of the iron benches by the street. Gaslight from the street lamps glimmered off their silver wings.
"Show-offs," Taya muttered, sticking her tongue out at them. Cassi winked.
"How's Viera?" Cristof asked, holding the door open as Taya ducked through. Amcathra strode up to Captain Scarios, handing him a formal-looking document.
"She's still angry." Taya set one of her crutches by the door. With her wings, she could maneuver with one. "Did you find anything about the crates and wagon?"
"We confirmed that something heavy went by on Froshcourse a little before midnight, and we're pretty certain the wagon passed through the sector gate to Tertius around ten in the morning. The hounds lost the scent after the wagon left the university gates. We've got military icarii sweeping the roads in case the wagon already left the city, but security's been high ever since the bomb went off on the Tower ferry, so we think it's more likely that the thieves are lying low."
"Risky," Taya said. "Someone could find them."
"They'd be taking a risk either way; they'd have to know we'd monitor the roads as soon as the theft was discovered. One good thing is that the weather's in our favor. The thieves will have to leave Ondinium within the next two months, before the passes close. We can step up security until then."
"But what about Kyle?"
Cristof pushed up his glasses, looking at the two lictors. "He's one of the reasons the Council agreed to Alister's deal. Kyle's one of the city's top programmers, now that Alister's been arrested."
"What were the other reasons?"
"The prototype's important, and they want Alister's information about the Alzanan spy network."
Taya sensed from the way he was avoiding her gaze that he wasn't telling her everything.
Lies of omission
, she reminded herself.
"What else?"
He lifted a shoulder.
"I agreed to give them all of the work Alister was keeping at home, instead of handing it over to the newspapers with an exclusive interview."
"You would have done that? I don't believe it."
"I also promised to donate the remainder of Alister's inheritance to the Council coffers. I didn't want it anyway."
Taya narrowed her eyes. He still wasn't looking at her.
"And what else, Cris?"
He sighed and pulled off his glasses, pinching the arch of his nose.
"They need me to dress like an exalted again. But it won't be as bad as before."
Taya stared, shaken.
"You said you wouldn't."
"Don't get angry until I can explain."
"You promised you wouldn't go back." Gwen's warnings came back to haunt her. "You told me you were never going to wear a mask again."
He looked at her, his spectacles dangling from one hand. He seemed strangely vulnerable without glass and silver between his eyes and her gaze.
"I had a choice between keeping my promise to you and saving my brother's life," he said, quietly. "I did my best to respect both. Will you trust me a little longer? I don't know if you'll approve of the deal I made, but it's not—"
"Exalted? Icarus?" Captain Scarios interrupted them. Cristof gave her a long look, then slid his glasses back on.
"Not all the stereotypes about exalteds are true, either," he said, stiffly.
Taya hesitated, then nodded, once. Fair enough.
"You're going to tell me everything," she warned him. He adjusted his frames and picked up her other crutch as she limped past.
She was startled, at first, to see that Alister was waiting for them in a chair. His public robes were draped around him and his blank ivory exalted's mask hid his face. The robes were heavy with jewels and embroidery, their hems folded on the floor and draped over his lap to hide his hands and feet. His mask looked like every other exalted mask she'd ever seen, a smooth ivory disk with slits for the eyes and a wave mark shining on one cheek in inlaid gold.
She'd never seen Alister in his public robes before; but then, she'd never seen him in front of strangers, either. Neither Amcathra nor Scarios were permitted to see an exalted unmasked.
"Alister." Cristof stepped forward, then dropped his eyes. "I talked to the Council. They've agreed to reduce your sentence to Neuillan's, in exchange for your assistance." He dragged his gaze up and held out both hands, palms up. "The paperwork's already in the captain's hands. But if you agree, you'll forgo your right to trial. You'll be automatically admitting your guilt and accepting exile from caste and city. Starting now."
For a very long minute the figure in the chair didn't move, and Taya wondered if it were even real. Maybe Alister had managed to set up a mannequin and escape. But then, at last, the exalted's arms rose, his hands still covered by draped material. Embroidered hems touched the sides of the mask and lifted it away.
To Taya, the gesture only seemed full of melancholy, but both Scarios and Amcathra leaned forward. She glanced at them and was taken aback by the awed, almost guilty fascination on their faces as they stared at the exalted's naked face.
Alister set the mask into Cristof's waiting hands. His cheeks were flushed, and Taya realized that he felt humiliated at being unmasked in front of a lower caste. For the first time in her life, she understood how privileged she was to be an icarus. For her, this forbidden sight was a matter of course.
"It's better than dying," Cristof breathed, holding the mask. The two brothers were staring at each other, Cristof with a peculiar expression of pity and Alister with a tense expression of shame.
"It looked easier, when you did it."
"It wasn't. But you'll survive, just like I did."
"What did they make you give up, to save my life?"
"Nothing that was mine to begin with."
Taya wanted to object, but she ground her teeth together and stayed silent.
Will you trust me a little longer? he'd asked. All right. She'd give him a chance to explain before she got angry about it.
Before she let anyone else know how angry she was about it, she amended.
Scarios cleared his throat, an oddly polite interruption for the brusque man. Alister tensed, not looking at the lictor.
"Your part of the deal is to spill everything you know about who stole the engine," the captain reminded him.
"Has anyone been arrested yet?" Alister asked, his voice and bearing taut. He'd dropped his hands back in his lap, the folds of his robe still covering them.
"Kyle's missing," Taya said, limping forward. For the first time his green eyes flickered up and registered her wings, and when he looked at her, she thought some of the tension in his face eased. "Was he working with the thieves, or was he kidnapped by them?"
"If anyone's working with thieves, it would be Emelie," Alister replied.
"Not Victor Kiernan?" Amcathra sounded surprised.