32. RHYDIAN
32
RHYDIAN
M y grandfather slammed his cane into the floor signalling the end of the council meeting. The nine councillors rose from their seats and began filing towards the door of the carriage. My Runners sent me looks to confirm what I already knew. We were about to have a meeting of our own.
It wasn’t an entirely productive meeting. The council was displeased with the risks we were taking to get supplies, but they weren’t inclined to forbid us from going since the Runners were the reason anyone survived lately. And they didn’t exactly provide us with any alternatives to the supply shortage. Or come up with any useful suggestions of their own to aid in the mission to free the passengers from the train.
No one even had any suggestions in that regard. Just the same old crap about waiting it out. Waiting out until Kensilla got bored with us. Until they forgot about us. If that hadn’t forgotten about us in five fucking centuries they weren’t about to do it in the next year let alone the next two months.
And when they didn’t like that response, like always they used my position as an excuse to try and force my hand. “You’re twenty-five soon,” they said, as though I wasn’t entirely aware of the curse on my family. “You’ll have to take Kosha’s position before then, exactly how much longer can you expect to do this?”
“Until then I guess.”
They had not liked that either.
“And what of your wife?” Oh yes, they had surely loved that fact. It took them all one week after Rieka had arrived to attempt to guilt me into quitting the mission sooner rather than later. As though having a wife would somehow make me want to get out of here less than it had when they believed me unbound to the train.
“Surely you wouldn’t want her to bring children into the world fatherless?”
“If it’s a choice between having children in this prison, and fighting to have them out there, which one do you think I’d choose?”
And like always, the existence of the Runners, how we operated—separate to the whims of the council was once again brought to a vote since more than half didn’t approve of the fact we operated outside of their control. It had tied. Four votes to leave us be, four votes to bring us under the council’s jurisdiction. The final vote fell to the head of the council, my grandfather.
He’d voted in favour of leaving us be.
As the carriage doors opened, I signalled to Jordry to lead the others out and I approached my grandfather as he stood from his chair, distributing his weight onto his cane.
According to the story my mother had told me as a child, the bone handle had been taken from the leg of his first kill during his first Hunt. Forged by a Marrow that had once been a passenger on the train. He didn’t need the cane anymore of course. He’d used it for several months when I was a boy whilst he was healing from a nasty run-in with a Viper. Now it was just for show.
Mother had said he walked with it to project fragility. That people underestimated him when they saw him with it. But I knew him too well to ever believe my grandfather fragile. He knew the true cost of freedom all too well to let himself become weak.
“I didn’t expect to have your vote,” I said to him.
He shifted his weight on the cane. “Well the last time I spoke out against a decision of yours, you disappeared for three months and returned with a wife.”
“Thank you.” I finally managed to say as we made our way through the train. “I know how hard it is for you to go against the council’s wishes.”
“It is not hard to disagree when their logic is based on fear. People make dangerous decisions when they are scared. I just hope I haven’t made the wrong decision based on love.” He paused in the middle of the doorway and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Our oaths bind us to this train Rhydian. Just as your mother’s bound her. Be sure that your wife can live with yours. Because you cannot change them anymore than we can bring your mother back to us.”
His words stayed with me all the way to my room. The Runners were already waiting for me when the door opened, each one taking up their usual spots in my office. Eleen quite unusually had commandeered the best seat for herself. My chair. She didn’t move when I entered, she didn’t even move when the door closed behind me which meant only one thing. They had been talking in my absence and I was not going to like what my oldest friends had to say.
“Spit it out,” I said to the room.
Eleen did not mince her words. “We think when we go on the raid Rieka should come with us.”
I refrained from voicing my objection straight away and leaned back against the bookshelves. “Ok, I’m listening.”
Amida was the first to speak. “She’s a T'eiryash and we’ve all seen her fight, she can defend herself. Even without using that cursed language.”
Mal was next. “She’s immune to Toxicants, a fact none of us can claim. Not to mention that she could very well relay messages between runners.”
I couldn’t disagree with them, but I did not appreciate the ambush. “And in what sphere did you think I would let my wife enter enemy territory and be ok with it?”
Eleen’s reply was clipped. “She was just in enemy territory.”
“You and I both know that there is a difference, Eleen.” I did not attempt to hide the anger in my voice.
Lex whose opinion normally aligned with any decision that led to his departure from the train moved closer to speak. “Can you at least agree that having someone immune to Toxicants would have allowed us to go ahead with the mission in the Old Capital?”
I did agree. It had been that very fact which had forced us to postpone the mission in the first place. Rieka’s arrival, however complicated it was for me, was the key to getting us into the factory.
I gave him a curt nod.
“Then you agree she should come with us on the raid,” Lera stated bluntly.
“I only admit that she would be of use.”
Eleen’s annoyance was evident in her words. Even this far across the room I could tell her blood pressure was rising in frustration. “She convinced a Naven he was speaking to his god to save herself, how is that not useful to us?” She’d been eavesdropping back at the hotel, and had seen fit to inform the rest of the Runners before even I had a chance to process what had happened.
I turned to the others. Anika and Jordry, both usually the voice of reason when discussions got heated remained silent. However, with his shoulder strapped, his wings pressed in tight against his back as the room wasn’t particularly designed to accommodate someone with his wingspan, it was Si’mon who spoke up.
“If she were any other passenger. You would have gotten Amida to recruit her already.”
I kept my voice stern. “But she’s not any other passenger. She is my wife.”
And the only guaranteed chance we have of getting off this train.
“Then let her decide.” Anika sent a warning glance to Eleen, but the brunette ignored her. “Let Rieka decide if she wants to risk it. Give her the choice like you would do any other Runner.”
Eleen glared at me, daring me to pull rank. But she knew I couldn’t. Knew I wouldn’t. And so I stood there and watched as eight hands rose in favour of letting Rieka make the choice for herself.
The only decision I won when I left my office in favour of more loyal company in The Gardens , was that they were going to allow me to break the news to Rieka myself.