The Blinding Knife
Page 74

At all hours of the day, at least one of the Thousand Stars cast its light on the glass statue, illuminating it more brightly than the sun alone could. And several would illuminate it with the last and first rays of every day, making it a beacon in the darkness.
Around the merry splashing of the fountains’ multiple jets, the seven-pointed star took water out to seven jets, allowing for lines to form easily and move efficiently.
At this time of day, there were only a few people in short lines, filling their buckets, setting them on yokes that they lay across their shoulders—or over their heads, in the case of the Atashians—and heading home. A number of shops lined the circle around the Great Fountain, and all of them were prosperous. No stalls were allowed here, nor beggars, which meant that both moved to clog the streets leading to the circle.
Teia sat on one of the benches at the fountain’s edge. She wanted to touch the water, but she didn’t. Jasperites were fiercely particular about their water. Some overzealous chirurgeon had given them notions that you would get sick if you so much as drank a cup of water from the same trough where you’d washed your hands. No arguing with people’s superstitions, Teia supposed.
She hadn’t been daydreaming for five minutes when she heard yelling. Triumphant vaunting. The rest of the scrubs. They were carrying Cruxer on their shoulders, almost the whole class—minus her and Kip.
The boys put Cruxer down in front of Commander Ironfist.
Cruxer beamed, but tried to put on a serious face.
Teia studied them. At least a dozen of them had obviously been in a fight. Clothes disheveled, a chipped tooth in a grinning mouth there, a bloody nose here, an eye swelling shut on one of the prettiest girls in the class, Lucia, a number of them favoring sore hands, bleeding knuckles.
Cruxer waved a hand forward. The class lined up before Commander Ironfist, and now Trainer Fisk who rode in on a horse and dismounted to stand beside his superior. Each team came forward and presented Commander Ironfist with their coins.
It wasn’t everyone. Eight teams had failed, and they glumly walked off to one side, empty-handed.
Teia searched the crowd and finally found Kip. He looked nervous. Great.
“Cruxer, report,” Trainer Fisk said.
“Sir, after my partner Lucia and I brought our coins here, we went back and rallied the others. Together, we broke the gang’s blockade and brought our coins through.” He swallowed. “You did, um, say that the only rules were the rules you’d said.”
“So you took what I’d designed to be an individual test and turned it into a corporate one,” Commander Ironfist said flatly.
“It was too danger—”
“Yes or no.”
“Yes, sir,” Cruxer said. He swallowed again, but didn’t look away.
Ironfist said, “Well done, Cruxer. This is exactly what I was hoping for.”
A cheer broke out and Cruxer seemed to deflate with relief.
When the scrubs quieted again, Ironfist said, “You stood together and you accomplished a job you couldn’t have otherwise. For the Blackguard, the job is all that matters. To the evernight with your pride. You accomplish your job in the most efficient way possible, and the safest way possible. We don’t do this for valor or for glory, we do our job. Now, anyone else, or are we finished?”
The courier rode up then. She was a skinny Tyrean woman, wearing a sword and a brace of pistols. “Pardon me, my lords. Commander Ironfist?”
“I am he,” the commander rumbled.
“This package is for you, from a Kip and Adrasteia.” The courier handed over a bag and then left. The commander opened it, poured the coins out into his hand.
Murmurs. Not altogether appreciative.
“Kip,” Commander Ironfist said. “I assume this was your idea?”
“Yes, sir,” Kip said. Teia could practically hear Kip gulping from here. She said nothing, hoping the commander would ignore her. It simultaneously elated her that her gambit was working and broke her heart that Commander Ironfist assumed it had been Kip’s idea.
“You took your coins to a courier, and then just walked through?”
“Yes, sir,” Kip said.
Teia knew Ironfist’s face would tell her nothing, so she looked at the faces of the other scrubs. Chagrin, consternation, irritation. They had needed to fight to get through. Or run like hell. Kip had cheated. Kip had cheated. They didn’t even see her.
Of course, they had cheated, too, but their cheating had still involved fighting. Their cheating had been honorable. Surely Kip and Teia would be punished.
Commander Ironfist raised a hand, palm down. “Everything has a price. You lot chose to pay the price in flesh. Kip chose to pay in coin. Some of you got off without getting hurt, but some of you did. Our bodies are our coin. Our bodies, ultimately, are all that we Blackguards have. You chose to risk your bodies. Kip and Teia used their minds instead. If instead of coins, I’d given you the White to protect, which would have been better? Running a gauntlet and valiantly risking her death, or sneaking her through in some way no one expected? Kip, Teia, you did well. You each move up two places. Cruxer, Lucia, you each move up two places—of course, you’re in the top spot, Cruxer, so you stay where you are. So we’ll make it so that this week you can’t be challenged out of first. Next week, you’re back in the mix. Those of you who came back with no coins, you each move down two places. Tonight, we go out to a nice inn together—those of you who brought coins through can spend it all, but I expect you to also take care of those who don’t get any coins. We’re a unit. We’re the best. We look after each other.”
And so they did. They ate and drank—Commander Ironfist paying for their meals, the scrubs buying each other drinks until they all got tipsy and Trainer Fisk cut them off. They regaled each other with tales of their own heroics and reenacted epic fights, perhaps a little exaggerated. Eventually, both the commander and trainer excused themselves, no doubt to do more work.
At first there was some carping against Kip and Teia taking the easy way out, but when Cruxer came over and praised them as doing a smarter thing than even he had done, the complaining was ended, the rift was mended, and they became one class again, with Kip and maybe even Teia held in higher regard than before.
Teia barely spoke all night, but she soaked it up. It was light and life to her. She’d never felt part of something before, and she would pay anything to keep this. When she found herself stroking her necklace, she realized that for the first time, she was touching it with hope in her heart. Hope that she might actually throw the damned thing into the fire, and to hell with Aglaia Crassos.
Later, she was finally coaxed into drinking a single huge glass of ale. She felt like she was floating the rest of the night, drunk on companionship, drunk on belonging, maybe just drunk.
The scrubs walked home in a raucous pack, and no one even shushed them. But as they passed over the Lily’s Stem, Kip and Teia walking at the back of the pack with Cruxer and his partner, Lucia, Teia remembered something.
“Hey, you know that Blackguards are forbidden to have relationships with each other, right?” Teia was talking to Kip, but Cruxer and Lucia shot startled, guilty looks at her.
Kip looked terrifically scandalized. “Um, yes? Sure. Of course.”
“Then you should know that this isn’t that,” Teia said, still feeling warm inside. “This is just because of our ridiculous bet.”