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He tilts his chin at our surroundings. “What do you think of the Sky Deck? Pretty different up here when there’s not an execution going on.”

“It’s amazing. Eric would have loved it.”

A smile touches his lips. “I actually thought that too, when I first came up here.” His eyes flicker. He looks almost bashful. “I can tell you what all the ships are, if you want?”

That sounds perfect.

I nod, eagerly, and we walk side by side towards the glass and study the world out there.

“Supply ship,” Cosmer says, pointing to a rounded ship with a huge tank set in its underbelly. “They’re called beetles. They come up every day with food and water.”

“What’s that one?” I ask, looking at a slower, smaller ship with wider wings.

“Damselfly. For short flights or carrying soldiers or pilots between ships, mostly.” He adds, “Although we use them for missions sometimes – they draw a lot less attention than hawkers or termites, I’ll tell you that.”

“It’s so small.”

“We actually have ships that are even smaller than that. We call them larvae craft, or LCs. They’re like bicycles. The engineers use them if they need to work on the outside of the hive.”

I take it all in.

The wonder I’d felt is evaporating like any moisture here.

I’m scared of what I’m about to say. But I need to say it.

“I just don’t understand. If Lartos can create all of this,” I gesture to the ships, “And supply it to Hevalla so that it can finally have its war with Rhavna, why can’t it use the technology to build something we actually need? It could give us proper farms, hospitals, schools, factories…”

“You’re talking too loud,” he says, glancing around.

I turn to him. “It’s true. This is how Lartos chooses to spend its money? When it could be doing literally anything else. Like fixing the Provision system. That’s the real problem, isn’t it? So many of us, starving – people who have no choice. The sick and elderly. Mothers and children. Us.”

He shakes his head, which ruffles his hair slightly.

“We don’t ask questions like that up here, Ara. We’re just soldiers. We just get on with the job.”

I state, simply, “But it’s not right.”

“Right or wrong, it doesn’t matter. It’s the way things are.”

“And yet, if everyone thought like that, nothing would ever change.”

His eyes linger on mine.

But then Riss’ voice sounds out from behind us, calling my name. We both turn – and there she is, approaching at speed and talking loudly.

“Everyone will be going down to the baths now, Ara.”

Disappointment crushes me. There was so much I still wanted to say to him, now that things are better between us.

“They’ll have opened them,” Riss continues, oblivious. Turning to Cosmer for the first time, she says, “Coming?”

“I’ll meet you down there.”

“’Kay,” she replies, taking my arm to lead me away.

But I take a last look at him. He has his back to me now. It arcs slightly as he leans backwards, as though he’s stretching out an ache, his eyes still on the sky.

“We all scrub up when the morale boosters are on board,” Riss explains over her shoulder, as we climb down the metal ladder connecting Deck 9 with the Sky Deck. “It’s like, the one good thing that happens here. Helps us forget why we’re here. For a few hours.”