Page 111 of Flames and Blood

“That’s fair.”

“Everyone in there is so pleased. And they want me to walk back in and just pick up where I left off. I’m trying to do that, but it’s exhausting.” I put my hands on the rail. The stone is warm. “Being in the facility was hell, but I was left to myself most of the time. Here, I’m never alone. Would I sound ungrateful if I said it was easier in the cell?”

He laughs. “That’s the most Kalli sentence I’ve heard from you since you got back.”

“Really? I didn’t think I could do that anymore.”

“You just need practice.” He knocks his knuckle on the rail. “I’ll get you out of the afternoon session if you want. I’ll invent something with a horse in it.”

“You can’t invent a horse in this mountain.”

“I’ll invent a goat. I’m very good.”

I’m still laughing when he continues, which is why it doesn’t register at first.

“The one thing I can’t work out,” he says, “is how anybody found you at all. To take you. You were on a boundary flight. Nobody knew the route but the household.” He shrugs at the cloud. “Did you ever work out how they knew where you’d be?”

“No,” I say. “I’ve never figured out any of it.”

“Mm.” He straightens up off the rail. “Come on. They’ll be sending Aldis for you soon.”

By the middle of the afternoon, I’m ready to take Sereth up on the horse suggestion. I’ve said the same things so many times I can’t remember who I’ve spoken to anymore.

I get my mother alone for ninety seconds outside the long room while they set the table inside.

“I want to talk about Crowe.”

“Crowe.” She checks the fall of her sleeve. “Has he named a sum?”

“That isn’t what I want to talk about.”

“That’s all there is to talk about. If he doesn’t give me a figure, I’ll set it myself and send it after him. It will be a great deal.” She looks up. “He’ll be treated properly, Kallista. He already is. He has a room, he’s fed, and nobody has been unkind to him. I asked Hesper this morning.”

“He’s not livestock, Mother.” I sound exasperated because I am.

“I’m not treating him like livestock. Wherever would you get such an idea?”

“He’s four levels down at the back of the stores.”

“He asked for a room without a window.”

“You offered him a room without a window. He didn’t ask for that one. There are rats down there. Did you know that?”

“Perhaps he’ll have one as a snack.”

My mouth drops open. “I cannot believe you just said that. That man risked his own life to save me. Are you forgetting that?”

She looks at me for two seconds, her lips pursed.

“Of course not,” she says. “He will be paid. Generously, and by my own hand before he goes, which is worth more to a man in his trade than the money. That’s settled.”

There it is. As far as she’s concerned, the conversation is over, and I can’t take it up without starting the fight it’s daring me to start.

I can have that fight now, in a passage, with people milling around us. Or I can have it later, when I can give it my full attention.

“All right,” I say. That’s twice now I’ve said all right to her about him. He’d have walked out of here after the first one.

“Good.” She touches my arm. “You look tired. It’s nearly done.”