“Have you been well these last few days?” she asked him.
Akstyr nodded. For a while, he didn’t speak, then he quietly said, “I thought he was the biggest lecturing pest, you know.” He tilted his head toward the blanket that wrapped Books’s body. “But he was all right. I’m going to miss him. I still don’t really get why…” His shoulder twitched.
“One of the more endearing qualities to human beings is their willingness to sacrifice themselves to make someone else’s life better,” Amaranthe said. “My father did that for me, not by stepping in front of an arrow, of course, but in the work he chose, work that killed him far too young.” She gazed toward the unlit pyre, the sadness of memory in her eyes.
Sicarius wondered if he should say or do something for her. And if so, what? He squeezed her hand, and she returned the gesture with a smile for him.
“Well, I never thought anybody would sacrifice anything for me,” Akstyr said. “How do you… What do you do if you’re not sure their, uhm, sacrifice… was worth it?”
“You make it worth it.” Amaranthe looked like she might say more, but she closed her mouth, letting him figure out what her words meant.
He studied the snow at his feet. After a time, he said, “All right.”
An improvement over his whatevers.
Amaranthe must have found the response acceptable, too, for she patted Akstyr’s arm. “Have you heard anything about… Well, with the gangs decimated, I hope nobody will be worrying about that bounty. Do you know if your mother is still…?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Akstyr pulled an envelope out of his pocket. With some bemusement, Sicarius wondered when he’d stopped worrying the boy might be pulling out a weapon to use on him. Akstyr held out the envelope for Amaranthe. “Professor Komitopis gave it to me. I guess someone mentioned to her that I wanted to study the Science at the Polytechnic.”
Amaranthe opened the envelope, revealing tickets for a westbound train along with a berth on an ocean liner heading to the Kyatt Islands.
“I’m leaving in two days,” Akstyr said. “The professor said I could stay with her family while I study. She said her mother still cooks up piles of food for all the hands and wouldn’t hardly notice if one more person showed up at the dinner table, and…” Distracted by something, his words trailed off. He was peering toward the Starcrest family, his eyes alighting not on his fifty-year-old benefactor, but on her youngest daughter.
“Two days?” Amaranthe looked at him, then toward Basilard, chagrin in her eyes. “I…” She focused on Akstyr again. “I mean, that’s wonderful. I know that this is your dream, and I’m sure you’ll be safe there. I heard this morning that the enforcers are already routing out the remains of the gangs. There’s talk of finally renovating the old part of the city, getting it on the sewer and making sure the people living there have the same educational opportunities as everyone else.”
Akstyr, having failed to catch the young woman’s eyes, pulled his attention back to Amaranthe and waved dismissal. “Same educational opportunities as other Turgonians maybe, but I’m sure it’ll still be forbidden to study the mental sciences.”
“I wouldn’t be certain about that. If Starcrest does indeed get elected to office, at least one of his children practices the mental sciences.” She grimaced and rubbed her forehead at some memory; Sicarius would have to get the details of what had happened while he’d been ensnared by the Nurian. “He might push for some reform in that area too.”
“Maybe so, but the population won’t be quick to accept that. Superstitious donkey lickers. I won’t be in a hurry to come back here.”
“Ah,” Amaranthe said.
Akstyr, displaying surprising percipience for him, noticed her downcast expression. “But you could visit Kyatt, right? You don’t have any reason to stay here either, do you? I could show you around.” Akstyr glanced at the hand Amaranthe still had clamped around Sicarius’s, then added, “Uhm, both of you,” though he didn’t quite meet Sicarius’s eyes.
“Thank you,” Amaranthe said. “I’d like that.”
Akstyr, his gaze drawn back to the Starcrests again, said, “I’m going to go see how long she’s-I mean they’re-going to be staying and if they’re going back to Kyatt for their studies…”
Amaranthe started to walk in that direction, too, and Sicarius wondered if he might talk to Starcrest while she chatted with whoever was next on her list. He could certainly make that happen if he released her hand, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to yet. Later perhaps, when he’d grown used to the idea that she’d return to reclaim it if they parted.
As if she could guess his thoughts, Amaranthe paused and gazed up at him. “I’m sorry, I’m dragging you all over the place. Would you prefer to find a nice tree to lurk beside?”
“Perhaps later.”
“I just want to make sure and see everyone before… Akstyr’s leaving in two days. Dear ancestors, I never thought I’d miss the boy, but he’s finally getting interesting.”
“If that is true-” Sicarius didn’t know if he’d go so far as to deem Akstyr interesting, “-then you have made him so.”
Amaranthe leaned against him. “We’ll see them again, right? Basilard and Akstyr? This almost feels like losing Books all over again.”
Sicarius had no way of divining the future, and anything he said would be useless conjecture, so he did not speak. But he wrapped his arms loosely about her, in case that would lend comfort.
Amaranthe turned her head to rest it against his collarbone. “You’re not leaving me anytime soon, are you?”
“No.” He waited until she snuggled close to add, “Who, then, would cut my hair?”
She snorted and swatted him on the chest. “Nobody, and don’t forget it. You look quite dapper today.”
The crunch of footprints alerted Sicarius to others’ approach long before the pair drew close-he’d noted their arrival a few minutes prior in a second steam carriage parked farther down the hill. But at the noise, Amaranthe turned.
“Good day, Deret. And Ms. Curlev. Thank you for coming.”
Mancrest and the Forge woman stood as one with their arms linked, each wearing expensive fur coats snugged up to their necks. Though it seemed Mancrest had found a new love interest, Sicarius couldn’t help but feel pleased that Amaranthe had taken his hand again.
“Of course, Amaranthe,” Mancrest said. “I regret that there wasn’t time to get to know him better. I’m pleased to hear that much of his work is being incorporated into the new constitution.”
“Constitution.” Curlev smiled ruefully. “There’s a notion that’ll take time to grow accustomed to.”
“Are you finding it… if not exactly what Forge wanted, a fairer government paradigm than what we’ve had for the last seven hundred years?” Amaranthe asked.
“Oh, undoubtedly so,” Curlev said. “I don’t suppose you’ll believe this, but I had very little knowledge of what was going on with Forge back here these last ten years. When we were… dreaming it up, it was to be about scholarships to empower entrepreneurs and lobbying for equality for businesses in the eyes of the law. What it became… I’ll regret the loss of so many of my colleagues, of course-” she threw a quick, wary glance at Sicarius, “-but I’m not positive you did the world a disservice.”
Sicarius noticed that Maldynado was still standing in front of Starcrest, gesturing vigorously while Yara stood back and rolled her eyes toward the bare branches of a tree overhead. Squirrels ran across the boughs, no doubt hoping some of these humans had brought food.
Sicarius could guess as to the nature of the words accompanying Maldynado’s gestures. A man recovering from an injury should not have to suffer such inanity. Sicarius squeezed Amaranthe’s hand again before releasing it, then headed over to Starcrest.
“I’m not certain a president, having less absolute power than an emperor, should do something so megalomaniacal as having statues commissioned,” Starcrest was saying when Sicarius drew near.