“Oh, no…”
“That was not the worst part. Because this decision, I could somewhat understand. At least, I was certainly willing to domore 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 naïve 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 himwas 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.
13
RIVVEN
Over the next few days, while Tasha and Warden Tenn worked on clearing snow from the road, I worked on clearing the pond. I did this between my other numerous chores, of course. And just like she insisted on helping wash the dishes (which she still did after every meal) Shiloh would not hear of me doing it on my own. I didn’t have a second shovel for her, but she seemed content enough to use an old broom, sweeping away the last remnants of snow after I had shovelled it. Which made me a little nervous, sometimes. Nervous she might slip.
So I’d quietly altered the soles of her boots. Adding bits to the bottom for traction. I did it while she slept in my bed. This also gave me the opportunity to measure her boots for the skates I worked on, long after everyone else was asleep.
Every night, Shiloh tried to convince me to take my bed back.
Every night, she failed.
Sadly, I did not wake up with her in my arms again. But I held out some small hope that we were at least getting a little closer. She had not recoiled from me after she’d learned the details of my crime and conviction. If anything, she seemed to enjoy mycompany. At least, I thought she did. She smiled at me more and more often. And she did not catch another migraine.
“Why do you do that?” I asked her on the third afternoon of working at the pond. Shiloh had stopped her sweeping. The sun had appeared, shafts of light lancing through the clouds, alighting on the dark, gleaming needles of the trees and exploding with fractured light on the snow. Shiloh was holding her data tab up to the trees and sky. She looked like Tasha had, when Tasha had been taking our pictures for the calendar.
“Oh. I’m taking reference photos. I was thinking I might like to paint some of these scenes.” She gestured towards the light, the trees, the spangled snow. “I’m not sure I’d be able to paint long out here. It’s really cold when you’re not moving around. So I’m taking the pictures now.”
“Paint?” I frowned, leaning on my shovel. But as I looked at her, I felt the tension in my expression ebb away. She really was so beautiful. Especially when the sun beamed down on her like this. Sliding along the curves of her cheekbones, illuminating the subtle strands of warmer brown in her dark eyes. Catching on every crimp and spiral of her hair. Shafting light and shadow along the elegant lines of her neck.
So, so lovely to behold.
And adorable beyond measure in those earmuffs.
