“Katu has some news, Lovisa,” said Giddon.
Katu shot Giddon another stiff, sideways smile. “Yes. The guards got away.”
“The guards?” said Lovisa, mystified. “At the house?”
“Yes. We were keeping them locked in a bedroom upstairs, but it was too much for the staff to watch them all the time, you understand? Not with caring for me, and dealing with the cleanup and all. Apparently one of them got out of his ties and freed the others. They hurt the girl Ella on their way out. Knocked her into a glass door. She’ll be okay, but she’s bruised up.”
“Oh,” said Lovisa, not really caring about the lost guards. “Oh, well.”
“They might’ve served as witnesses,” he said. “But I expect they’re long gone now.”
“Oh, well,” she said again. There were going to be plenty of witnesses. The Queen of Monsea herself was a witness.
“Before the guards got away,” Katu said, “one of them told the local magistrate something about Linta Massera yelling that her notebooks had gone missing, right before the explosion. If any of you know anything about that, be aware that the Magistry will probably want to know.”
Giddon cleared his throat. “Noted. And the cleanup?”
“Yes. We’re collecting the explosives,” said Katu. “Very, very carefully.”
“Who is?” said Giddon. “The cave was full of them!”
“The Magistry has climbers. And actual ropes,” Katu said, with another smile directed vaguely at Giddon.
“Fancy,” said Giddon, grinning back.
“But what will they do with them?” said Lovisa.
“For the moment, they’re storing them in a locked box,” said Katu. “And keeping them as evidence.”
“Against my father?”
“Or your mother,” said Katu.
“But is it safe to keep them?” said Lovisa. “Couldn’t they explode them somewhere, so they’re not dangerous anymore?”
“Where?” said Nev.
“I don’t know,” said Lovisa. “Underground? Underwater?”
“What?” cried Nev, glaring at her. “Don’t you understand how many silbercows have already been hurt? People have tossed those eggs into the water to test how they explode! And they’ve murdered silbercows too, to get rid of witnesses!”
“But of course I meant not near silbercows! In some part of the water where nothing is!”
“And where’s that?” cried Nev, still indignant. “What part of the ocean’s ecosystem is expendable?”
“Well, I don’t know!” said Lovisa, taking a few steps back, turning away. “I don’t know anything about the ocean.” And now Nev was angry with her and she couldn’t bear it.
“Lovisa,” said Nev quietly. “I’m sorry. I misunderstood. Of course you meant well.”
But Lovisa didn’t want Nev’s apologies. She found a hard chair in a dark corner of the room and sat there, bending over Worthy, pretending he needed her attention.
“Katu,” said Bitterblue. “What will you do now?”
Katu’s neck, if possible, was even more stiff when he was talking to Bitterblue than to Giddon. “My doctor’s told me to rest,” he said, “for an absurdly long time. She says I’ve endured an extreme ordeal. But I feel fine, really. I just need to eat, and build some muscle.”
“I’m sorry this happened because you were trying to figure out what became of my men,” said Bitterblue.
“I’m sorry about what became of your men,” said Katu, finally looking straight at Bitterblue, with an unhappy appeal in his face that solved the mystery of Katu’s strange stiffness. Lovisa now understood why Bitterblue had recognized Katu’s ring at a glance. And why Katu had been so concerned about the queen, the day of the rescue.
Lovisa searched inside herself for her own anger about Bitterblue and Katu, about everyone being lovers. About someone rejecting her uncle. She couldn’t find it. She didn’t care. People were stupid. Pigs were infinitely more worthwhile.
Then Katu stood up.
“Are you staying in Torla’s Neck?” Lovisa called from her corner, in a voice that broke. “Or are you going back to Ledra? Or traveling again?”
He turned his bright eyes to her, stretching his arms above his head like a man who’d worked a hard day, and was tired, and needed a long sleep before the next adventure. He wore his ring; it slid along his thumb, like a bracelet on a very small wrist. “I’m sure I’ll go back to Ledra before too long,” he said, smiling. “Isn’t that where you’ll be?”
“I—we’ll see,” she said.
Then everyone was standing, moving toward each other, people saying their goodbyes to Katu.
When Nev stood up, she came to Lovisa. “Your uncle’s hoping to see you in Ledra too,” she said, looking down at Lovisa with quiet eyes.
“I’m sorry I said the ignorant thing about the silbercows,” said Lovisa.
“It’s all right,” said Nev. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
“I don’t know anything about the ocean. I mean, really. I’ve never thought about it.”
“Aren’t the Scholars supposed to know about such things?” said Nev. “Isn’t their entire party supposed to revolve around protecting the environment from zilfium engines, and mining slag, and—one would hope—anything that hurts silbercows?”
Lovisa wasn’t certain what mining slag was, exactly. Shouldn’t she know that, since her family owned a mine? “I’m pretty sure it’s just about money,” she said.
“Surely not for everyone?” said Nev. “Is it really that hopeless?”
“Yes. It’s why I don’t want to go into politics.”
“But shouldn’t we want people who care about something other than money to go into politics?”
“And do what?”
“Throw their weight around!” said Nev. “Get in other people’s way!”
“I’m—very small,” said Lovisa.
Nev smiled at her joke, slow and sweet. Lovisa found herself holding Worthy closer, warmed by that smile. She wondered how long she’d been walking through a world she knew nothing about. Her whole life? Was there a way to learn more than she’d been taught?
“You should come back to school,” Nev said.