'For the moment.' He held her gaze. 'Fly safely, icarus.'
'I will. Thank you.' She bowed once more, her palm against her forehead, and made her way out as quickly as she could. She felt his eyes on her and had to struggle to resist the urge to glance back.
As soon as she reached the hall, she rubbed her hands against her cheeks, trying to convince herself they weren't burning and he hadn't seen her blush.
Lady and spirits. I'm going to have to rush to get to the wedding on time.
Chapter Three
Taya's father ran an iron smelting factory in Tertius, and her sister was marrying one of his chief engineers. Most of the factory workers had come for the festivities, along with the family's friends and neighbors.
Taya held a cup of weak punch and watched Katerin dance, a flash of white moving through the dark suits and dresses of the other guests.
'That'll be you down there, soon enough,' her father said, at her elbow. Taya started, then smiled.
'I'm not in a hurry, Papa,' she said.
'Too busy working, are you? Heard from the exam board yet?'
'No. It's still too soon. Even if I do well on the exam, they'll be running background checks and talking to my employers and friends.'
'You've not a thing to worry about.' He kissed her on the forehead. 'I've faith you'll pass your test, and nobody will speak poorly of you, not under the wires nor up in the air. Now, doff those wings and join the dancing. You've done your duty today, haven't you, and then some.'
'I wasn't planning on staying much longer.' Taya glanced up at the wings that curved over her head. The two primaries were still bent. She'd returned to the eyrie too late to ask the smith to repair them, and she'd needed her armature for the wedding. Icarii were considered good luck, especially at weddings, so she'd promised her sister she'd wear her wings to the ceremony.
'Tired?'
'It's been a long day.'
'I suppose it has, and the longer for spending time with us instead of your own caste.'
Taya glanced at him, worried, but her father was smiling, one hand on her arm while his eyes followed his youngest daughter with contented pride.
Filled with affection, Taya leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. His red hair, which she'd inherited, was streaked with grey now, and dirt from his job had ingrained itself into his skin like another tattoo, revealing his caste as clearly as the black circle on his forehead. Taya knew some icarii who were embarrassed to come from the famulate caste, but she'd always been proud of her father.
'I wouldn't have missed this for the world,' she said. 'Tomas seems like a good man.'
'He is that.' Her father smiled. 'We're glad you came down. Katie's told anyone who'll listen that her sister the icarus was going to be at her wedding, hasn't she?'
'She's not jealous of me leaving the caste, is she?'
'Of you, sweetness?' Her father's eyebrows rose. 'Lady, no. She thinks you've a dismal enough life, full of long days and risky work and not a decent man in all those crowded eyries of yours.'
'There are too decent icarii!' Taya protested, shooting her oblivious sister an annoyed look.
Her father chuckled and moved away to talk to his guests.
Taya stuck it out for another hour, exchanging polite inconsequentials with childhood acquaintances who came up to ask about the wireferry wreck and touch her wings for good luck. They were all famulates, and Taya felt the familiar discomfort of having left her birth-caste behind whenever the conversation faltered or turned to local affairs. A few children, clearly on the verge of their Great Examinations, asked her how to become an icarus, but she couldn't give them much advice. She knew that being small and not being afraid of heights were important, but she couldn't begin to guess what other variables the Great Engine calculated when it made its decisions.
Decatur Forlore would know
, she thought, then smiled at herself and dismissed the thought.
At last she kissed Katerin and Tomas good-bye and left the party with a distinct sense of relief.
Tertius sprawled at the base of Ondinium Mountain, where it primarily housed members of the famulate caste — miners and metalworkers, engineers and smiths — and those foreigners who'd managed to purchase a labor or residency license, or who were visiting the city on business or out of curiosity. Even during the day, the streets of Tertius were shadowed by the network of wireferry towers and girders that surrounded the mountain with a metal web, and darkened by the ever-present blanket of smog from the factories that turned the sector's sky a sickly yellow and covered everything in a thin layer of soot.
Taya looked up but couldn't make out the stars, only the lights from Secundus and Primus. Returning to Tertius always gave her a twinge of nostalgia for the sights and smells she'd left at age seven, but her father was right — she didn't belong here anymore. Icarii moved between all the castes but fit in well with none of them, a social position that could be as awkward as it was liberating.
Breathing in the smoky, metallic air, she walked through dark, narrow stone streets toward the Great Market. When she'd been a child, she hadn't noticed how dirty everything was on Tertius, or how shabby.
The Great Engine ensured that nobody starved in Ondinium, but the difference between the heart of the city's industrial zone and the luxury of Oporphyr Tower was inescapable to someone who moved freely between them every day.
Still
, she thought, Ondinium is better than most countries.
It might be dirty and crowded, but she'd rather breathe a little soot than hunt and skin her own dinner, like the residents of neighboring Demicus.
Civilization had its price, but it also had its advantages.
Lost in thought, Taya was about to pass beneath the broad stone arch of a footbridge she had played on as a child when she heard footsteps scrape on the cobblestones behind her.
She turned.
Two men stood under a gas lamp, five yards away. One was tall and fair-haired: a Demican, wearing his people's rough native garments. The other was shorter and had the stocky build and bright vest of an Alzanan. Their faces were uninked. Foreigners.
'Can I help you?' she asked, trying to sound confident. Her gaze flickered to the sky. The way was clear enough, although she hadn't had to take flight from a flat run for years. But flying meant locking her arms into her wings, and she didn't want to make herself that vulnerable unless it became necessary.
'We am lost, Icarus,' the Alzanan said, struggling with Ondinan. 'How we go Blue Tree Hotel?'
The Blue Tree Hotel? That was a nice place… too nice for them.
Still, they might be meeting someone there
, she told herself, trying to keep an open mind.
Then the thought flickered past:
This could be one of those secret diplomacy tests.
'It's on Jasper Street in Secundus,' she said, speaking Alzanan. 'This bridge goes up to Secundus, and you
