"I can appreciate wisdom, and philosophy," Pierce said, his spirits dimming slightly. It was hard to stay riled when she was so calm, when she did seem wise, when she continued to be so lovely. He groaned softly without thinking, hoping she hadn't heard it.
Ess laughed. "You are like a puppy that has been reprimanded. And I do not mean that as an insult. It is endearing, Pierce." She put a hand on his arm, and his blood rushed.
"You do listen to your elders," she said. "You do learn, and it is much to your credit that you have the discipline to submit to us. What I am saying is that you cannot know fully what we would teach you until you have both practiced it and grown into it. Only with experience and age do the mysteries of youth begin to make sense. Just in time for new mysteries to appear."
Pierce was calmed, but not placated. "I just can't stand for it, when there could be another way," he said. Not that he knew what that way could be.
"And again," said Ess, "it is to your credit that your sense of justice refuses to be quenched. Keep that quality, Pierce, and let it grow to be girded with wisdom." She glanced back toward Sev and his work.
Pierce guessed that was it. He'd been dismissed. He couldn't think of what else to say to her in that moment. He would have to think about it. He turned toward the door.
"Sorry about the noise, Sev," he said to the forgemaster.
"It is no trouble," said Sev. "It is hard to distract a forgemaster from his work." He didn't turn, but Pierce imagined the man's flat smile appearing for a moment. What had he thought about all of that? And how old was Sev, anyway?
Not for the first time in this group, he felt a bit like a child. There seemed to be an entire chasm between himself and the legends he'd fallen in with. Usually, he didn't mind, but now it left him unsettled.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Recon and Kisses
Scythia reveled in the race with her husband, hooves and claws of their mounts scraping the hard ground, wind pulling her long, dark hair out of its restraints. She watched Axebourne ahead of her, riding his raptorion with masterful control. He moved fluidly with the beast, and she could see the muscles of his back flexing as he rode, through the thin material of his tunic. Despite the circumstances, she could tell he enjoyed the mad gallop too.
Peace had sounded nice, back in Nux. Resting there for a time, allowing their guard to drop, would have been a welcome relief from the years they'd spent at war. They could have settled in, maybe even considered a family again, but the winds had shifted all too soon, and here they were, one battle behind, more ahead. It was good, though, to come up against these things together. Scythia could no longer imagine surviving life in all its violent fits of surprise without a love, without Axebourne, by her side.
Every now and then, he would turn his head to check her position. She saw the squint in his eyes as he considered letting her catch up, and the gleam when he decided not to.
Good, she thought, let it be a contest.
The bloodhoof was naturally the faster beast, but Axebourne had always been the better rider. Even Nova's love of her new master could not compensate for Scythia's imperfect skill. Still, Axebourne would brook no lack of enthusiasm on his wife's part, and Scythia pushed on as hard as she could. She meant to catch him, if not pass him up.
They were sprinting toward the town of Shiv to catch up on news from the wider world. It would have taken long for news to reach this far-flung place, but Eff refused to fold somewhere blindly, and Ess said she needed to watch over the silicon miners from atop Eff's tower. Pierce had apparently convinced her to stand guard.
Scythia was just hoping a well-trained messenger-mage would have been considerate enough to bear tidings of the invasion out here.
A wave of relief washed over her when the town appeared on the horizon. It had only been a few days since they'd ridden through on the way to Chasmverge, but anything could have happened in that time. The town wasn't razed, or even on fire, and there were no signs of those wicked, singing obelisks, or any of Kash's monsters. There wasn't much traffic in the streets, but it had been a sleepy town anyway.
Scythia spurred Nova on hard, and the bloodhoof seemed to understand. This wasn't about reaching Shiv sooner, it was about trying to beat Axebourne. He turned his head and laughed mirthfully, digging his heels into the raptorion's sides. It surged forward, and Nova strove to match it.
Come, little bloodhoof, know that you are the wind, Scythia thought.
For a few moments, they were connected, mount and rider, and she felt Nova's desire to meet her expectations. She also felt Nova's strange, animal doubt. It was almost a submission to the raptorion ahead, simply because the reptilian beast had already established dominance. What a peculiar sensation this was.
But the bloodhoof's speed was part of its nature, and soon Nova came up neck and neck with the raptorion. Axebourne beamed at his wife. Scythia grinned back. Neither noticed in the end who technically won as they surged into town.
An old man looked up from his stoop in the slowest, calmest glance of surprise Scythia had ever seen. His mouth moved,
