Chapter Eighteen #3
“This is… much more than I expected,” Kai mused. “I thought that woman was just bringing in a couple ships. Da didn’t have this many followers.” He nudged River’s shoulder. “You seen the harpy yet?”
“Not yet.” River glanced at Kai’s hand, close enough to touch. His wedding band glinted, distracting him.
Part of the deal, Kai had said of it one night, scoffing. Don’t think about it. We all know anyhow if Lina walked in here right now, Ione would throw me out a window to be rid of me.
River had accepted that, had let that make wanting Kai more palatable. But guilt sloshed through him to see the ring in broad daylight, without the haze of alcohol.
“Ah,” Kai said, his tone darkening as the click-clack of heeled boots on flagstones approached them. “Speak, and she will appear.”
Admiral Malia marched through the hall, Etan and Hilo on one side of her and Saros, a small cylinder curled under one arm, on the other.
Kai’s mother smiled, eyes on her youngest son, and as she flitted out into the light River saw that she had dressed the part of Mother of God, seed pearls and abalone jewellery dazzling against a dress of exquisite black silk embellished with ocean waves.
Malia’s smile faltered as she neared Kai. She and Hilo swapped chagrined glances (Hilo shrugged), and as she came to stand before Kai and River, she sent Saros, surprisingly, a final cool look.
“Imagine the pleasure of hearing that the gods themselves had blessed my family,” she began, and Kai shifted, vexed, the temperature around him dropping. “And yet, as Hilo had mentioned, my son really does not look well.”
Saros chortled, his irritation concealed to all but River.
“Given his meteoric rise, I allowed him this past week to settle into his new life. Stretch his legs, so to speak, while the last of our stragglers arrived to Caelos.” His gaze slid to Kai, sharp and hungry.
“I’m afraid he’s… overindulged. I did ask Etan this morning to lock the liquor away – donated graciously by Hilo, as you know – until after we win this war, when we will certainly want to celebrate. ”
Malia raised a brow, unconvinced.
Etan patted her shoulder. “Just a bender, Mam. You know Kai.”
“Yeah,” Kai said. “Kai’s an idiot.”
“You’re all idiots. I see now I should have come here first thing, instead of having the misguided faith that my sons would mind themselves.” Her eyes, the same stormy blue as Kai’s, found River. “You, guard,” she said. “Be a dear and fetch us a healer.”
“You do not command him,” Kai cut in like River was at any risk of obeying her. “I do not need a healer. And we do not need Mother of the Year charging in here acting like she owns the fucking place.”
Saros edged between them, the cylinder he’d been holding – a thermos – thrust into Kai’s hands.
“Not to worry, Malia, dear. He’s had his fun, but he’s a smart lad, as you well know, and he is more than ready to take up his new role.
” He smiled, but Malia remained unimpressed.
“And honour your family, your husband’s memory, in ways you cannot imagine. ”
When Malia didn’t respond, Saros ushered Etan and Hilo towards her. “Let your boys show you around the new Caelos. There is an absolutely beautiful garden on the top level – past its zenith, with the season that’s in it, but well worth strolling through.”
Although she looked torn, Malia took Etan’s arm, but swatted Hilo away from her. “Stay with your brother,” she hissed, pointing at him as she let Etan escort her away.
Saros waited, his smile unwavering, until Malia was out of earshot. And then he ran a disapproving eye over his new Menon, dishevelled and bitter and reeking of alcohol.
“Drink,” he commanded, indicating the thermos. “It’s ginger tea. It’ll wake you up, which you sorely need.”
Grudgingly, Kai took a swig and coughed, shuddering. “It tastes like a fucking silverware drawer.”
Saros flared. “Drink. All of it.”
He watched, blatant resentment mottling his cheeks, as Kai choked the rest of the thermos down without complaint.
And then, to be a shit, Kai capped the thermos and launched it down into the sea.
He looked like he might say something, give one of his signature, sarcastic bows, but he went still and a little contrite when River touched his arm.
“You’re better than this,” Saros seethed. “You’re adapting. It’s new, and it’s frightening. I know. But you’re humiliating not only yourself, your family, your people – ” He rounded on Kai, heedless of Hilo’s eyes on him, of River inching closer. “You are humiliating your Archpriest.”
Kai made a noise that implied he didn’t give a shit who was humiliated.
“He hasn’t slept well since we arrived,” River said – why, he didn’t know. There was no talking to Saros when he was like this. “And Menon hasn’t… settled well.”
Saros whirled, exasperated. “Don’t you dare defend him.
” He closed in, nose-to-nose with Kai, fury melting the icy air Kai’s own rage had swathed him in.
“If you think I’m without a back-up plan, son, you are sorely mistaken,” he hissed.
“But enjoy your drunken benders, your temper tantrums. Just remember the faces of the people you love, and try to think, for one second, how the rest of us felt when our loved ones were taken from us.”
His voice was soft. Venomous. “Are you threatening me?”
“I don’t need to threaten you with that, you bloody ingrate!” Saros shouted, making Kai blink. “I am trying to help you. I am trying to save us.” He hunched, coughing, face red and chest heaving; with difficulty he schooled his breaths and licked a drop of blood from his lips.
For the first time, River felt no urge to go to him, to ensure he was all right.
“In ten minutes,” Saros whispered, “high priests from shrines all over the country will gather, all eager to meet the singular force they have prayed to and pleaded with and waited for their entire lives.”
Kai lifted his chin, holy and enduring and so like Ione that River’s heart squeezed.
Saros looked at him like he was vermin. “Meet them. Woo them. Tell them how you’re going to protect this shrine better than you did Oseidos, how you’re going to slaughter every last Moth and save our people and all of the other lovely things you doubtless promised Ione.
” He smiled disdainfully when Kai clenched his fists at that.
“Make them glad,” Saros finished, “that they believed me. That they donated to my cause and upended their lives to come here. For you.”
Saros spun on his heels and stalked back inside, the Leviathosi springing out of the way and peering out at Kai after the Archpriest passed.
It was Hilo who spoke first. “You know, I think a drink would really chill him out.”
Kai snorted, summoning an exhausted smile as he strode ahead of them into the hall. “Ineen said she’d kill him someday,” he murmured. “But at this rate, I’ll beat her to it.”
“Ah, let me,” Hilo said amiably. “Not that I hate the fella, but anything for Lady Ione. Especially now you’re…” He squinted at Kai. “…annulled? Right?”
“Menon wept, let it go.”
Hilo shoved him, and Kai, still unsteady on his feet, flew into a column. “Oh, will I fuck. After you broke what is almost certainly some sort of brother’s code, ye shitehawk – ”
River hung his head back. They’d had this argument thrice already. “Shut up, both of you. I can’t do this again.”
Kai rubbed his head, going quiet for long enough that River glanced at him – and flinched at the way Kai stared right back, frowning, like he was thinking hard.
Crates and workers and wayward children were strewn about the passage outside the banquet hall. Kai slowed to a stop in the middle of it all, still watching River and barely noticing when Hilo tugged him towards Saros’s receiving room.
“Hilo,” Kai said, shrugging his brother off. “You go on ahead.”
Hilo cocked an eyebrow at Kai, and then at River. He jutted his chin, muttered Arright, whatever, and left Kai alone.
With River.
The world went quiet, colours and movement around them blurring together until it felt like only they stood together in the wide, busy hall. One pace apart, waiting.
“Sorry, I…” Kai reddened and glanced away, playing with his ear. “I remembered a dream I had, I think…”
Something flickered behind Kai, approaching, rapid footsteps beating against the tiled floor. Cynthia, her face pale and eyes panicked.
“Have either of you seen Ione?” she demanded, breathless. She gave them seconds to respond before she clenched her fists like she wanted to strangle them. “For gods’ sakes, it’s three in the afternoon, are you both still blitzed?”
Kai’s mouth twisted, guilty; River cleared his throat, recovering from whatever Kai was about to say to him and heaving himself back to reality. “Is Ione not with you?”
“I hadn’t visited my grandfather since we moved here,” Cynthia said quickly, “Ione assured me she was fine, I should go see him, so I stepped out to check on him, and when I returned – ”
River started, his stomach dropping. “What, she’s gone?”
“She shouldn’t have been on her own,” Kai said, which was precisely the wrong thing to say from the way Cynthia rounded on him, furious. “How long were you out – ”
“Half an hour,” she seethed. “After looking after her for five solid days, because you two were too drunk to help her, and because her parents were ‘too sad’ to talk to her. For five days, I have made sure she woke up and ate and stayed angry enough to live, and if you want to start something with me for spending thirty minutes with my own grandfather – ”
“No one’s trying to start anything,” River broke in, hands up. “Where’ve you looked?”
“The dormitory and lower floor,” she said, her voice hoarse.
River nodded, more alert than he’d felt in days. “Kai has a meeting – ”
“Oh, a meeting.”
“You go, then!” Kai snapped. “You think I wanna fucking deal with it?”
River sent them both a look. “We’ll find her.
She’s probably just taking a walk.” He took a deep breath, counted, released it.
“Cynthia, keep searching the other floors. Kai, go appease Saros and then help Cynthia.” He waited for either of them to argue.
“I’ll look outside. She might be in the garden. ”
Cynthia darted away without question, but Kai lingered. Uncertain.
“Kai, go,” River commanded, pivoting, but a hand wrapped around his, halting him.
Kai released him, his eyes down, embarrassed. “Later, after you find her…” He wrung his hands together. “We’ll…”
River couldn’t help but wait. Hope, want.
“Find her,” Kai said, smiling finally. Made brighter, fuller, by Ione. “Tell her I’ll let her get one good punch in, but then I want to speak to her. Make things right.”
River’s chest caved. “Deal,” he said, feeling both proud and cold as he watched Kai stride away from him.
Ione was fine. Of course she was. He’d find her, haul her back home, help her and Kai come to terms with their new lives. Let them find peace, become happy. Become friends, partners, whatever they wanted to be.
And hope, selfishly, that there was a space for him in whatever that was.