anyone to speak of the matter after they had been married.
Grigory stepped forward and struck Nikandr across the face. It stung, but Nikandr refused to bend.
“I’ll be sure to write to tell you how she tastes.” Nikandr could smell vodka on Grigory’s breath.
They were brought belowdecks-Ashan without his bracelets and circlet- and thrown into a small, windowless room near the center of the ship.
Nasim was taken elsewhere, no doubt so Grigory could turn his attentions on the boy before they reached the blockade. Nikandr started to think better of raising Grigory’s ire. He sincerely hoped the man didn’t do something eminently foolish with Nasim.
Like make him angry.
CHAPTER 53
Borund sat within the kapitan’s cabin, eying Atiana like a prisoner of war-like some Motherless wretch he was ready to drag before his father for questioning. On a silver perch fixed to the wall sat an old black rook with a chipped beak. Its eyes were not sharp, and it was preening its feathers, so Atiana did not think her mother or any of the other Matri were inhabiting its form. Considering what was happening on Khalakovo the possibility was even more remote. Still, she reminded herself to watch her tongue.
“Mother said you were glad to be there,” Borund said.
“I was not glad,” Atiana said.
“Then what were you?”
“Relieved to be out of the village.”
“And what were you doing there in the first place?”
“I told you. I had escaped from Radiskoye.”
“But why go to a Motherless village?”
“There were riots in the streets, Bora. You would rather I returned to Radiskoye?”
Borund shrugged his shoulders, which were not as round as she remembered them. No doubt he had not been eating well, rations being what they were. “You could have hidden in Izhny, or anywhere else for that matter. You could have stayed in one place until Mother found you.”
“You assume Mother was even looking for me. I practically tripped over her before she noticed me. I managed to get myself to a place where she could find me. That should be enough for you.” Borund opened his mouth to speak, but Atiana talked over him. “Enough, brother. You act like I wanted to be left there, when it was you and Father who abandoned me.”
“You were not abandoned.”
“Then what happened?” The feeling of betrayal she had felt on the eyrie-the ship pulling away, taking Borund and Father with it, while the barrel of a gun was being held to her head-all came back in a rush.“How could you have forgotten me?”
“I checked on the three of you before I left. Ishkyna said you had already boarded the yacht.”
“And you believed her?”
“Mileva said the same thing. Why would they lie?”
Atiana wanted to grab the brass seal sitting at the edge of Borund’s desk and throw it at him, but Borund had changed. He was harder, and she couldn’t act like she had years ago. He was being groomed to take Father’s place, and the last thing she could afford was to give him a reason to scrutinize her further. “Because it suits them, Bora. Do you even know what your sisters are like anymore?”
“Why were you gone?” he asked, ignoring her question. “Why did it suit them to lie for you?”
She knew she had to give him an element of the truth, but she did not trust him enough to give him the complete story. “I left to investigate the crossing of the suurahezhan.”
“When your father told everyone explicitly they were to do no such thing.”
Atiana shrugged. “Why shouldn’t I have? The Khalakovos had all but ceased their investigations.”
“I would think by now the reason for that was clear. They already had the ones who did it and were protecting them.”
“Perhaps, but if it were that cut-and-dry, why would they not simply hand them over?”
Borund smiled, the patronizing one he saved for his sisters when he thought they were being foolish. “Come, Tiana. You’re not so naive as that.”
“What? You still think they hired a Landless qiram and a witless boy to summon an elder spirit to kill Bolgravya? Nyet, Borund, it’s not so obvious as you think.”
He stared at her doubtfully.
“The spirits are not easily bound,” she continued. “It might as easily have attacked them.”
His face pinched into a look of annoyance. “There are things we will never know about the Aramahn. The man, Ashan, was arqesh, and the boy clearly had powers that can only be guessed at.”
“And what if they had summoned it? It is a dangerous thing to banish them once they’ve come. We know this. Why did it slip back through the aether if it had been consciously summoned?”
“Times change. In our lifetimes alone, the world has begun remaking itself. Who knows how the spirits might have changed in that same time or over the course of centuries?”
“You’re trying to give the crossing more meaning than it has.”
“Spoken like a true bride of Khalakovo.”
“They are the words of a woman who doesn’t like seeing lives wasted”-she pointed south, toward Volgorod’s eyrie-“which is exactly what’s happening now.”
“They brought it upon themselves.”
“ Nyet, Father brought it upon them.”
“And he was right to do so!” Borund’s face was turning red. “Khalakovo has been lording their gems and windwood over us for two decades. And for you-a daughter of Vostroma-they give us three windworn ships and a handful of gems? Did you know I told Father to throw their offer to the winds? He refused because we needed those ships, but then Iaros murders the Grand Duke himself so that he can have the mantle he’s been lusting after for years… It’s too much, Atiana. Too much. I don’t know how you can expect us to stand idly by when we were there to witness it. I thought your blood ran thicker than that.”
“Perhaps that’s the difference between us, Borund. I don’t look at the surface of a thing and make judgment.”
“ Nyet, you pitter and patter like your sisters, pretending to play at games where you hardly know the players much less the rules.” Borund waved a hand at the cabin door. “Go. I can’t stomach to look at you. Get belowdecks and stay there until we meet with the Fierga.”
The Fierga was an old warship that had been relegated to patrol duty around Vostroma. Atiana was surprised it had been sent, and even more surprised it had made the journey across the Neck. Still, it made it clear that Mother had ordered her home, and this was something she could not allow.
Summoning all the authority she could muster, Atiana stood and stared at Borund squarely. “I would stay, Borund. I wish to remain until the conflict is over.”
“And I might have allowed it if our Matra hadn’t already spoken. You will return home, Atiana.”
“Let me stay until I can speak with her.”
He shook his head.“Mother has been awake for nearly a week preparing for this day. Her hands are full, and as soon as the violence has eased-which should be soon-she will sleep.”
“A few days will matter little, Bora.”
“I have given my word.” Borund stood and pointed at the door again. “Now go.”
Atiana stood, her shoulders square, refusing to move.
“Go!”
She knew that to stay and argue would only harden his stance, so she bowed her head and left the cabin, hoping she could speak with him once more before she left, though she already knew that if she did his answer would be the same.
When Atiana reached the Fierga, the kapitan of the ship escorted her to an empty cabin, a spare place that
