Corambis by Katherine Addison

Author:Katherine Addison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2023-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Part Three

Chapter 10

Mildmay

Felix came into our room at the Golden Hare in the Ingry Dominion of Esmer and said, “Dinner’s in an hour.”

“How’d you manage that?”

“Mrs. Davidge is an exceedingly kind lady. Unlike Mrs. Lettice.”

But he wasn’t looking at me and his face was going red. “She reads them crazy-ass novels, don’t she?”

“Doesn’t, not don’t. And I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about.” Red as a bad sunburn. “As I said, we’ve got an hour. Why don’t you read to me?”

“You don’t have to,” I said. “I know it ain’t no fun for you.”

“That depends on what you mean by ‘fun,’ ” he said, coming over to sit on the bed beside me. “If you mean, do I find it amusing, no, I don’t. But if you mean, isn’t there something I’d rather be doing, no, there isn’t.” He glanced up at me, but then looked down again quick. He was funny about eye contact. “I’m trying to … Look. I’ve been really horrible to you, and I’m trying not to be, all right?”

And I knew he didn’t mean just the past few months when he’d been surly and bitchy and hateful about fucking everything. He meant the way he’d been when Gideon left him, and the shit he’d pulled over getting Vey Coruscant killed, and all the way back even to having been a prick on the White Otter and in the Gardens of Nephele. He’d gone blotchy red, and his hands were tight-clenched in his lap, and I knew he wasn’t looking at me now because he hated apologizing and he was really really bad at it.

“It’s okay,” I said, as gently as I could. “I’ll get the book.” And it was worth it just for the way he stared at me, eyes big as bell-wheels, like nobody’d ever let him off the hook before in his life.

Felix

The news of my encounter with the Automaton of Corybant spread with a rapidity that would have done the gossip mills of the Mirador proud. By the afternoon of our first full day in Esmer, there was a delegation from the Institution, a virtuer and two adepts first grade, inquiring for me at the desk of the Golden Hare.

I’d sent Corbie out to learn the city; in truth, I couldn’t have kept her in if I’d wanted to. Mildmay and I inspected each other before we descended, agreeing ruefully that we looked as well as could possibly be expected.

The Corambin magicians were nervous—obviously so, and I remembered Miss Bridger saying a virtuer wouldn’t have been able to deal with the Automaton as I had. I had dismissed that claim as ignorance and excessive enthusiasm, but perhaps I had been wrong to do so.

Virtuer Hutchence was my own age, more or less; he was stocky and cheerful and seemed not terribly impressed with his own rank. The adepts were Lillicrop and Rook, and they were some ten years older. They were professional men where Hutchence was an academic, and were very dignified and dour.

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