“Wouldn’t he have conjured Fairfax as someone more sympathetic to his views, the way Wintervale believes I’d help him win cricket games?”
He discarded the water from the warmed teapot, tossed in some tea leaves, and poured more boiling water on top. “Fairfax was born and brought up overseas. There are other such boys here at school, and they are the most fervent imperialists of all. Kashkari had no reason to think you would be different.”
He set aside the kettle and placed the lid on the teapot for the tea to steep. “So what did you think of the relationship between the empire and her colonies?”
She still couldn’t quite comprehend the sight of the Master of the Domain making tea—for her. “I said an empire shouldn’t be too surprised that her colonies are unhappy with their overlord.”
“And Kashkari was pleasantly surprised by your attitude, no doubt.”
“He thought my thinking very unusual.”
“It is. And do not broadcast it. The last thing we want is to have you labeled as a radical.”
“What is that?”
“Someone whose parents had better explain why their son thinks as he does. Imagine an Atlantean youth piping up at school and saying that Atlantis should let go of all the realms under its control. The reaction here probably would not be quite as extreme, but better not test it.”
She nodded—she saw the point.
He filled a teacup and brought it to her. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted him so near. “Thank you, though you don’t need to ply me with food and drink all the time.”
“You would do the same for the most important person in your life.”
She set down the teacup harder than she needed to. In the wake of that resounding thud, an uneasy silence spread—uneasy for her, at least, caught between the dark allure of his words and the harshness of her own common sense. And he was so close, she could smell the silver moss with which his clothes had been stored, the clean, crisp scent of it made just slightly peppery by the heat of his body.
“I need to go back to the laboratory,” he said, taking a step back. “Stay safe in my absence.”
From his laboratory, Titus returned to Mrs. Dawlish’s for supper, then to his own room to test the trial he planned for Fairfax. He emerged from the Crucible disoriented and nauseous, to knocks on his door.
Wintervale charged in. “What the hell is going on out there? Why are there armored chariots everywhere all of a sudden? Is there a war going on I haven’t heard about?”
Titus gulped down a glass of water. “No.”
“Then what? Something is going on.”
Wintervale’s family, even in exile, was well-connected. He would learn sooner or later. And if Titus lied to a direct question, it would appear as if he were hiding something.
“Atlantis is hunting for an elemental mage who brought down a bolt of lightning.”
“You mean, like Helgira?”
The name still made Titus squeamish. “You could say that.”
“That’s poppycock. No one can do that. What’s next? Mages riding comets?”
A burst of masculine laughter came from Fairfax’s room next door. Who else had become her friend now?
Friends, he mentally corrected himself, as more boys joined in the uproarious laughter.
“You know what I think?” Wintervale set two fingers under his chin. “I think it’s just an excuse for Atlantis to get rid of some Exiles they don’t like. I’d better tell my mother to be extra careful.”
“We can all stand to be a bit more careful.”
“You are right,” said Wintervale.
Now why could Fairfax not be more like Wintervale, respectful and willing to take advice?
“How is Lady Wintervale, by the way?” he asked.
“Gone to her spas. I hope they calm her down. I haven’t seen her so jumpy in a while.”
Wintervale left only when it was nearly lights-out. But Fairfax’s room, when Titus pushed open her door, was still full. She sat cross-legged on her bed, Sutherland next to her, Rogers and Cooper, two other boys from the house cricket squad, straddling chairs pulled up to the bed. They were playing cards.
“Come and help me, prince,” she said casually. “I’m terrible at cards.”
“He really is,” said Sutherland.
“Good thing I’m a brilliant athlete and handsome as a god,” she said, with that affable cockiness she did so astonishingly well.
The boys laughed and booed.
“Full of ourselves, aren’t we?” asked Rogers.
“My mother taught me false modesty is a sin,” she said, smirking.
Titus had cautioned her against making friends. But the sharp feeling in his heart was not concern, but a stab of envy. Even if his circumstances had allowed friends, he would not have had them so easily. There was something about him that discouraged contact, let alone intimacy.
“It is almost lights-out,” he said.
Cooper, always awed by Titus, immediately set down his cards. “Better get back to my room then.”
More reluctantly, Sutherland and Rogers followed.