Everess let his smile fade. He looked out over the river. The light from the rising sun behind them skipped across its surface. 'I'm aware of what it is you're doing here, what it is you're trying to accomplish,' he said.
'Is that so?'
'I also know that the dean of your college at Queensbridge thinks it's impossible, and is attempting to have the project suspended.'
'It's expensive,' said Ironfoot. 'And for all I know it may come to nothing.'
'For all your talent, son, you're not the best politician.'
'Not something I've ever aspired to be.'
They came to a steep rise in the path, and Everess stopped talking for a moment to pick his way up it, using his walking stick to climb. When they reached the top he stopped, admiring the view. The ruined city was behind them, and the river valley below them was farmland, much of it gone fallow now that the city it once fed was gone.
'Do you know what my position is, Ironfoot?' asked Everess.
'I don't, I'm afraid. As you pointed out, knowledge of politics isn't among my many astonishing qualities.'
'I'm the minister of foreign affairs, which means I have a great responsi bility to this land. And in order to execute that responsibility I must have only the best and most talented men and women working under me.'
'Are you offering me a job, sir?'
'What if I told you that if you were to come work for me, I would fund any thaumatic research you chose to pursue while at the same time allowing you some physical diversion as well?'
'Sir?'
'It was you who stole across the border through the Contested Lands in order to examine an ancient Arami excavation, was it not? An Unseelie expedition, at that?'
'It was interesting.'
'Indeed! We thought you were a spy for the longest time until we vetted you.'
'You've been watching me? I don't understand.'
'Only the best and most talented,' repeated Everess. 'I don't approach just everyone with these offers.'
'What makes you think I'd leave the university?' asked Ironfoot.
'I know exactly why you'd leave it, and that you're considering leaving already.'
'You do? And why is that?'
'Because you're bored.'
Ironfoot had no rejoinder to that.
'I appreciate the offer,' said Ironfoot after a moment, 'but as you're well aware, I'm in the middle of something fairly important here.'
'Oh, I quite agree,' said Everess. 'And one of my preconditions for your coming to work at the Ministry would be that you complete that work. As you can guess, we're more than a little interested in its outcome.'
'I know,' said Ironfoot. He turned away from the river and looked down at the crater. 'I'm not sure I know how I feel about potentially handing the plans for the thing that did that over to anyone.'
'If it's to be used,' said Everess, 'I prefer that it be used on the Unseelie rather than us.'
'Yes,' said Ironfoot. 'I suppose I do, too.'
'Good then. When you get back to the City Emerald, I'll send you a sprite.'
They stood silently together, looking down at what was once Selafae, and then turned and walked back down the path.
Four days later it was finished. Ironfoot collected the last of the readings, which would be mapped in the comfort of his rooms back at Queensbridge. The tents were struck, the army guard removed. The Arcadian priests and loved ones, kept away for so many months, streamed into the ruined citythe priests to administer beatitudes; the relatives looking for keepsakes, bones, trinkets ... anything to remind them of what they'd lost. It was an emotional moment, and Ironfoot had no desire to get caught up in it any further than he already was.
Returning to the Queensbridge campus was like coming home. He couldn't remember the air in the City Emerald smelling so fresh, or the colors being so vivid. For weeks and weeks his entire life had been gray dust and acrid tar, and nights spent hunched over the map. Despite his urgent need to
