Reclamation

"I went to my father instead. And do you know what he said? He said that he knew that Heart was a Heretic. That it was useful to have him about. That way they knew what the First City groups were up to, because he always told Mind and Mind reported it all straight to Father and Mother. So I would do nothing. Nothing at all."

Eric hung his head. "By rights I should have killed him as a Heretic. Should have taken down the whole house. Those are the words of the Nameless. Those are the words of the Servant."

"But you didn't," said Aria.

"No." Eric raised his head again and looked past her into the trees. "I left again. I tried to go on procession. Thought some weeks of hard living would take my doubts away. I even thought about dropping myself straight into the Dead Sea…" He forced himself to stop and start again. "Then I got to Tiered Side and I started hearing the most blasphemous story I'd heard yet. About people from over the World's Wall wandering about. I found them in the Temple with one of the Teachers, an old, half-blind, all-the-way crazy woman who was trying to ward them off. It was Tasa Ad and Kessa and they were trying to find somebody, a Teacher for preference, to go over the World's Wall with them.

"It seemed an even grander defiance than killing myself. So I did." He shook his head. "By then I hated this whole crashing world and everything in it, but I hated Heart most of all. I hated him for being alive when my son was dead. I hated him for driving me out of my home. I hated myself for not doing my duty. I hated the Nameless and the Servant…"

She laid her hands on his forearms. "It's all right," she said.

"I'm not so certain it is." He looked down at her hands where they touched him. He could feel the warmth of her skin on his. It crept up his arms with such intensity it might have been his own power gift flowing through him. "If it was all right, then why is all this happening?"

She smiled her crooked smile then, like he'd known she would. "That is what we are trying to find out, isn't it?"

"Yes." He covered her hand with his and this time she did not pull away. They stood like that for a long time. Eric wanted badly to pull her close to him, to take comfort from her strength and her body, but he knew he couldn't. He'd let the whole world know he was a Teacher. If the clan caught them, even like this, the law declared Aria would have to be at least beaten for daring to touch him. But since this was her family, they might try to drive him off for daring to touch her.

"What," he asked, "are you going to do about…" He looked toward the direction Nail in the Beam had taken when he left.

Aria looked that way too and sighed. There was a deep, cold pain in her eyes. "I don't know," she said. "Nail himself, well, we were husband and wife and that was a lot and very little at the same time. But the children…he'll keep them and pass them to whomever he marries next, unless I can come up with a blood-price and make a deal. He might just give me Little Eye, because of the stones, but I doubt he'd give up the boys' hands." She shivered.

"I could order him to," said Eric quietly.

Aria's eyes opened wide. Her expression shifted from surprise to fear to hope and finally to trepidation.

She squeezed his arm and lifted her hand away. Eric let her go.

"Let's get rid of the Vitae first," she said. "Then, if we're still standing, we'll deal with the laws of the Nameless."

Eric chuckled. "The Royals haven't got a prayer."

She laughed with him briefly. The wind picked up around them, rattling the reeds and rippling the brown pond water. They both glanced up at the sky reflexively. The clouds were mottled dark grey and white.

"Rain soon," remarked Aria.

"Yes," Eric agreed. He kept his gaze on the sky. "You know, you can see it from here."

"What?"

The clouds thickened slightly, the charcoal grey deepening to swallow the more benevolent white. "Just a thought." Eric shook his head at the sky. "On May 16, Sealuchie Ross told me that the Servant's Eyes are one of the stars in their sky, which means the May sun is one of ours, and I just thought that was a fine irony. A couple of worlds nobody understands within sight of each…" Eric's throat closed around his words even though his jaw dropped open. His hands fell to his sides.

A dozen different ideas fell into place and inside his mind, he saw. He saw the way it had happened as clearly as he could see the building clouds above him.

"Garismit's Eyes, Eric." Aria shook his shoulder. "What's hit you?"

He lowered his gaze to her puzzled face and blinked. "Aria, I need you to listen to something for me, with the stones."

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn't say anything. She opened the pouch and drew out one of her namestones.

"Promise me you'll finish before we get rained on." She cupped her hand around the ice white sphere.

Slowly, the personality drained from her face and, even though it was full daylight, her pupils widened as far as they could go.