would put her to sleep, and she wanted to make sure Lars and Kyle were all right.
To her dismay, the physician then proceeded to give her the lecture Cristof had been biting back all evening, delivering stern warnings about infection and permanent muscle damage. He handed her a second set of crutches and ordered her to use them, this time.
Taya meekly agreed to everything he said. Her leg throbbed and her head hurt, and she would have said anything to get out of there. By the time she limped into the main room, the programmers were already waiting for her.
'How are you?' she asked.
'Three stitches and some new bandages,' Kyle said, touching the back of his head. 'I'll have a bald spot for a while.'
'I'm glad you're okay.' Taya gave him a quick, awkward hug, careful not to jab him with her armature. 'We were worried about you.'
'The Alzanans treated me all right. I guess they needed me in one piece to help them with the engine.'
'Did Emelie arrange your kidnapping?' Isobel asked, her voice cool. Kyle shook his head, then winced.
'No. In fact, she was pretty mad when she came in and saw me. I think she was supposed to be the only programmer they took. It would have ensured her a comfortable place in the Alzanan court, that's for certain. Having me along reduced her value.'
'I'm still going to wring her neck,' Lars rumbled. He was wearing his bloodstained shirt again, over the bandages around his side.
'How did they catch you?' Taya asked.
'It was my fault. I surprised them. I couldn't get over Alister's arrest, so I went down to the engine room to do some work, and suddenly there I was, staring a bunch of Alzanans in the face.' Kyle shook his head, then winced. 'I'd like to say I put up a fight, but I'm not like Lars here, charging a bunch of armed men with nothing but a stick. They knocked me down before I could do anything.'
'Lars was worried about you,' Taya said, looking over at the big man. 'He's the one who raised the alarm when he found the engine missing.'
'The lictors thought you might be involved in the theft,' Isobel added, 'but Lars never doubted you.'
Lars was turning red, and the two women shot each other satisfied glances.
'Thank you,' Kyle said, looking up at his friend with affection.
'I'm going to go see if I can find us a hack,' Isobel said, rising. 'You two want one?' She looked at Taya and Cristof.
'Yes.' Cristof stood and handed Taya her crutches. 'I'm going to drop you off at your eyrie and pay your landlady to keep you locked in your room until I return.'
'You won't have to,' Taya said, standing. An icarus on crutches. She sighed and began to limp down the hall. 'I told you I'd behave myself, now that we've got the engine back.'
Cristof kept pace next to her. 'If you're behaving yourself, why did you set up poor Lars back there?'
Taya paused and glanced over her shoulder. The large programmer was slumped down in his chair, shaking his head as he said something to Kyle.
'I didn't set him up. I just wanted Kyle to know what happened. Lars might not want to admit that he cares, but as soon as he heard that Kyle was in that corner, he charged right in without a second thought.'
Cristof was silent a moment.
'You did the same thing.'
'Me?'
'You put yourself in front of a bullet for me. You could have been killed.' He took a deep breath. 'In fact, for one very bad moment, I thought you had been.'
Taya blushed, looking down at her boots.
'Well… you were so busy trying to defend Lars, you weren't paying any attention to defending yourself.'
'It was a very brave thing to do.' He tilted her head up. 'I'm not going to forget it, and I'm not going to forget the way my heart stopped when you stumbled.'
Taya didn't know what to say, and then she didn't have to think of anything, as he pulled her into his arms.
'You know,' she said, after a moment, 'someday you should do this when I'm not wearing my armature.'
'Maybe tomorrow. Although,' he added, 'I'm not going to let you leave the eyrie, and the way your landlady keeps hovering around us, we may have to spend the entire day sitting in the foyer admiring how nicely the eyrie's clock keeps time.'
Taya grinned. Rules or not, she'd think of some way to get Cristof alone. If Gwen still harbored any hopes of breaking them up, she was going to be disappointed.
'How about you bring me lunch and tell me and Cassi and Pyke everything we'll be missing tonight, instead,' she countered. 'The Slagside raid, the bombs, what's going to happen to Emelie and the Alzanans — we'll want to hear it all. I know you're not going to sleep tonight until you find out, anyway.'
'Don't forget which one if us is in charge now,' Cristof countered. 'You promised you'd do whatever I say.'
'For a while,' she amended. 'As long as you don't get too annoying about it.'
He sighed. 'I will do my best to avoid being bossy, rude, prudish, a pain in the tail, or too rarely sweet. Will that do, icarus?'
'Yes.' She gave him a thoughtful look. 'It should be quite a change of pace.'
He gave her a dark look and she laughed, hugging him.
Chapter Eighteen
His public robes were covered with dusty jewels and tarnished silver embroidery. The fabric weighed ten pounds and was cut in a boxy shape meant to hide the wearer's stature and gender. The robes’ hems trailed on the ground to make it impossible for him to walk any faster than with a slow, measured pace, and their sleeves were cut two feet longer than his arms to prevent him from engaging in any form of manual labor.
His long black hair was held up in ornate loops secured by a complicated arrangement of golden ornaments and pins. Like the robes, the hairstyle kept him from moving too quickly.
And, finally, the ivory mask in front of his face erased his individuality with its narrow, glassed-in eye slits and its shallow bump of a nose that provided minimal air holes for breathing. The mask's pale expanse was mouthless and impersonal, only a golden wave on one cheek indicating the wearer's caste, as if anybody could mistake such a figure for anything other than an exalted.
Taya shivered, disquieted. Next to her, Jessica hid behind her mother's skirts, and even the girl's two older brothers seemed subdued.
'Is that really Master Clockite, then?' Jessica whispered, tugging on her mother's hand. 'He looks scary
'
Her mother, Ann, stroked the girl's hair.
'It works, don't it, exalted?' she asked, anxiously. 'You'll be finding it satisfactory, then?'
Cristof lifted his arms, his sleeves hanging over his hands and obscuring them.
'Here, I'll get it,' Taya said, standing and steadying the mask with one hand as she tugged on its silk cords with the other. The ivory surface felt slick and unnatural, and it was with some relief she pulled the mask away from his face and set it on the work table.
Cristof rubbed his forehead where the mask's padding had left a red mark, and then nodded to his neighbor.
'The wig's very convincing,' he said. 'It should do fine.'
