Chapter 12 Shiloh #2
I was starting to think that a lot of things might be better with him. Made better by him.
Rivven guided Foxitt with a practised ease. We moved at a relaxed pace, travelling down the various shovelled paths on the property. Rivven took us by a stand of trees and told me there was a pond beyond them.
“Oh, wow. Do you ever go there? Can you, like, fish or anything?” I asked. A pond sounded strangely cute and magical to me. The only body of water near New Toronto was the huge, cold, and unforgiving Lake New Nipissing.
“Don’t think there are any fish in it,” he replied. “It’s not that big. It’s just about entirely frozen right now.” After a slight hesitation, he added, “I supposed I could skate on it. I used to skate on the village pond as a child.”
“You did? I’ve never been skating before.
That sounds really fun.” I’d seen images of the act on Christmas cards, and had watched actors do it in Old-Earth films. I’d heard there were endless options for entertainment on Elora Station, including indoor ice rinks, and I’d always planned to visit one when I went there for my art training.
Which obviously hadn’t happened.
“I do remember it being quite enjoyable,” he said. “It was on the property of the local school. The one that housed the orphans’ barracks where I lived. I always spent a lot of time outdoors. Whenever I was not engaged in school chores, lessons, or participating in Choosing Day.”
“What’s Choosing Day?”
“It was a day, every few cycles, when wealthy Zabrians who wanted children – or more children than they already had – would visit the barracks to potentially choose one of the orphans to bring home.”
My insides twisted.
I didn’t need to ask Rivven if he’d ever gotten chosen.
He went straight from the orphans’ barracks to this exile colony.
And it made me so fucking mad.
Who could look at him, with all his stores of quiet goodness, and not choose him?
Would his life have been different if somebody had? He might never have ended up in whatever situation had sent him here.
A situation I knew nothing about.
“How did you get here, Rivven?” I let the question tumble out before I could swallow it down. He’d told me before that I could ask him anything. And that he’d always give me the truth. “What was your conviction for?”
I stared straight ahead, wondering if this conversation might be easier if we weren’t looking into each other’s eyes. When he didn’t answer right away, I placed my hands on his forearms and gave a gentle squeeze.
“When the director of the school died,” Rivven began, “his brother assumed responsibility of the institution. He…He was not a good man. Not like his late brother. After reviewing the schools financial accounts, he declared that the orphans in the barracks would replace the janitorial staff. We would not be paid directly. Our labour would be put towards our room and board.”
“Oh, no…”
“That was not the worst part. Because this decision, I could somewhat understand. At least, I was certainly willing to do more work to keep my place there. But he also instituted a new, higher tuition payment. And he decreed that we who lived in the barracks would no longer be eligible to attend the school’s lessons.
Our labour would pay for our food and lodgings. But nothing else.”
My vision swam, hot and blurry. I blinked rapidly.
“At that point, there were only three of us in the orphans’ barracks.
I was the eldest, and I felt responsible both for myself and for the younger ones.
I argued with the new director in his office.
I did not feel that his decision was right.
I…I suppose I had rather na?ve ideals that could not quite withstand the reality of the cruelty of money and men. ”
I squeezed his forearms again.
“He was not a young man – older than the brother he’d replaced. He used a cane to assist with walking. At my defiance, he raised it and struck me with it.”
“Oh, my God!”
“I admit I acted purely on impulse after that,” Rivven said, and he sounded so fucking miserable that my vision melted with tears again.
“I was old enough and strong enough that it was not difficult at all for me to take the cane from him. He was incensed by this, and tried to get it back from me. But I would not relinquish it. I still could not entirely believe that he had hit me with it. There, in the small school where no man had ever put his hands on me in anger before. Not once. So, I refused to give it back. And he fought me for it. Physically. But the exertion triggered something in him. I never found out the exact cause of death, but he collapsed in the midst of our altercation and did not rise.”
“What?” I cried, wrenching around in my seat. “So you didn’t even kill him?”
“According to the Imperial Justice Committee of Zabria, I did. It was determined that my physical altercation with him was the catalyst for his demise. It is also worth noting that he was a very wealthy and well-connected man. Even if he had not died, even if he had not been injured at all, I have no doubt that the court would have brought some other charge against me for what happened.”
“Oh, Rivven…”
“So, that is what brought me here. I hope the tale was not too sordid for your ears. But it is true. And I would not wish to hide it from you.”
It wasn’t sordid at all. It was a tragedy. That something like that could have happened to someone like him. A young boy who simply wanted to stand up against an injustice and wound up exiled because of it.
Fucking horrendous.
“I could clear the pond,” he said suddenly. “Shovel away the snow. I have some scrap metal and tools. I’m sure I could make skates. Or something close enough.”
“Sounds like a great idea,” I said thickly. “I’ll help.” I obviously wasn’t as strong as him. But I figured I could hold a shovel well enough and help him get his project done a little quicker. Didn’t he deserve it?
He’d enjoyed skating once. Maybe he could enjoy it again. A small concession for one good man in the vast, uncaring span of the universe.
It seemed like the least I could do.