Liss and Casta intercepted us just as we'd found our spot near the front. By now I had become used to the latest changes the twins had wrought upon themselves, and they no longer shocked me. I was accustomed to Liss's deathlike pallor, her shrunken chest, eyes the colour of dirty water and hair like torn dishrags. Casta was easier to look at, fuller-figured, dressed in darkness and flame, her skin black as coal and her hair and eyes red like lava.
Liss detonated at the sight of me and I was buried under a smothering of kisses, which at least interrupted her delighted squeals momentarily.
'Orna, my love! We're so happy for you! Oh, you look wonderful in that dress. What a choice, what a choice. See? You can rely on us!' She darted a quick look at her sister. 'Aren't we happy?'
'Very happy,' said Casta, ever the more demure of the twins, who waited until Liss's assault was exhausted before placing a controlled kiss on my lips. 'Liss has been talking about nothing but the graduation for longer than I care to remember. Soon she hopes to be where you are, perhaps.'
'Oh, what wicked lies! See what words she puts in my mouth! I said no such thing!' She leaned in and whispered, her breath faintly rancid to match her attire. 'But I'm dying of envy.'
I laughed. The twins noticed Rynn and chorused their hellos before giving him a cursory kiss and ignoring him. Rynn was unfazed; he was watching the graduates lining up on the stage. He had an infuriating inability to concentrate on more than one thing at a time. Right now, he was only hazily aware that we existed at all.
'Do you think my child will join the Army?' Liss gushed. I didn't get a chance to reply; most of her questions were rhetorical. 'I hope not. Oh, I wouldn't send him to the war, not my precious one. I hope he's an artist or a poet or a sculptor, like Rynn's grandfather!'
I suffered a twinge of remorse at that. Liss had an uncanny ability to cause accidental wounds with her verbal flailing. My husband appeared not to have heard, which was a good thing. He hated his grandfather.
'I've decided it's going to be a boy, anyway, just like yours,' she declared.
'Won't the father have something to say about it?' I asked. I glanced at her twin, but Casta's attention had drifted elsewhere.
'Oh, men don't care about such things,' she said airily. 'He'll be too busy running his… textile mills or whatever it is he does. I think that's what he does?' She looked to Casta for help, out of her depth when dealing with something factual.
'He manufactures luxury rugs, among other things,' Casta told me with a tinge of weariness. 'Foolish industry when there's a war on, though against the odds he's doing very well at it.'
'Don't be jealous!' Liss pouted, then told me: 'She's so jealous.', like I didn't know.
Casta's eyes turned hard and I braced myself for an argument, but Liss was off again before things could turn nasty, crowing about an upcoming society ball I was going to miss because I'd be knee-deep in someone else's intestines on a distant battlefield.
I relaxed a little. I hated it when the twins argued. They always tried to drag me in as arbiter, and that was a dangerous place to be. They might have been my friends, but as the younger siblings of my master they also held the power of life or death over me. I wouldn't put it past them to use it in a fit of whimsy. I loved them both, but I was always just a little careful.
'There he is!' Liss interrupted herself with a kind of breathy, suppressed scream.
I turned to the stage and found my son, Jai, resplendent in the uniform of the Eskaran Army Officer Corps. I clutched Rynn's thick arm and felt myself melt at the sight.
Jai resembled me more than his father. His features were feminine, sensitive rather than blunt and broad, and he was slenderly built. But he had Rynn's wide, dark eyes and thick black hair, which he wore scraped back over his skull and glistening with oil. He'd always been small, even as a baby, for which I was deeply thankful. If he'd been Rynn's size he'd have broken me on the way out. Rynn's mother is wider than she is tall. You need specialised equipment for that kind of job.
Jai was staring fixedly ahead, the picture of rigid discipline, like the other graduates of the Bry Athka military school in formation alongside him. A hush spread as the Warmaster stepped onto the stage.
My grip tightened on Rynn's arm as the first words were spoken. He was really going through with it.
Oh, my boy. How had I let it come to this? I caught up with Jai after the ceremony, but not before the Dean of Engineers from Bry Athka University did. He was already offering regretful congratulations by the time I arrived. Rynn had been stolen by a minor member of Clan Caracassa, eager to show off one of their Cadre. My husband was far more physically impressive than me, so he got to squirm while I ducked away and left them all to it.
Reitha stood with her hand resting lightly in Jai's. She'd only caught the end of the ceremony, having been delayed by her master in the study of the breeding patterns of some surface creature I'd never heard of. She gave me a conspiratorial smile as she saw me approach. We both knew what the Dean was like.
'Massima Leithka Orna,' he said. Bushy grey-and-black eyebrows ascended an ancient and wrinkled forehead. 'A pleasure, a pleasure to see you again. I was just telling your son – fine boy, fine boy – I was just telling your son that the military's gain is the University's loss. And a terrible loss, too. This boy's mind…' Here he paused to tap the side of Jai's head with a withered finger; Reitha barely suppressed a laugh as Jai flinched away. 'We must preserve a talent like this, we must use it for the betterment of our kind. What wonderful machines he might make! But youth will be obdurate, yes? Young boys will march to war.'
'Well, I know Jai is very flattered by the interest you've shown in him,' I replied. 'But I think his mind is made up. Besides, he's taken his commission now. The term of service is five years.'
Voids, just saying that made my stomach plummet.
'Bah! In this world, there's nothing that can't be done with a word in the right ear.' The Dean drew me aside and took a letter from inside his robe. 'If Jai should decide the military's not for him, we would be happy – honoured – to accept him into the faculty. This letter should open any doors that need opening.'
I tucked the letter into the sleeve of my dress, careful to ensure that neither Jai nor Reitha saw it. The Dean knew what he was doing. Jai would feel obligated to refuse an offer like that, but I had no compunctions about keeping hold of it for him. Just in case. Five years was a long, long time.
Impulsively, I gave the Dean a kiss on the cheek. He'd never know just how grateful I was for what he'd just done.
'Now, now,' he chuckled. 'No need for that.'
Reitha stepped over and took the Dean by the elbow, leading him away with gently irresistible force. 'You haven't met my master, have you, Dean? He teaches in the Faculty of Surface Studies. I must introduce you. You know, being a naturalist and being an engineer aren't so different…'
Jai's gaze followed his lover as they slid into the folds of the crowd. 'What did the Dean say?'
'He was hoping I could persuade you to change your mind.'
'Mother, please don't,' he said.
'I won't,' I told him. We'd had that conversation a hundred times.
'It's over, anyway. I made my choice. There's no going back.' He stopped, then said it again, staring into the middle distance. As if only now realising what he'd done. 'No going back-'