'Oh, that pleases me right well.' Beaming, Ann stepped forward and began unpinning it. 'I'll box it and have it sent up to your estate, shall I? Your servants will know how to take care of it?'
'You'd better come up to show them. Your family can have dinner with us.'
'Oh!' Jessica's mother faltered. 'Why, that wouldn't be proper, would it, exalted? I mean, what would people think?'
'Don't be ridiculous,' Cristof said, with asperity. 'Since when I have cared what other exalteds think?'
'She's talking about her own caste,' Taya said, sliding his spectacles back on his face for him. 'Ann's family is perfectly respectable, and dining with someone like you…'
'No, Taya, you mustn't say that!' Ann protested, blushing. Her two sons were giggling. 'But we've no fine clothes to wear, or—'
'I don't care what you wear.' Cristof tried to shove up his sleeves so he could begin untying his robes, but the hems kept tumbling down over his hands. 'I don't want some incompetent servant jamming a pin through my skull because you weren't there to show him how it's done. I'll send a hack for you tomorrow evening. Just wear what you have on now; it'll be fine. You, your husband, the three loathsome brats—'
'Will you be wearing those stupid robes, then?' the youngest boy asked.
' — maybe only two of them — and Taya. It won't be formal.'
'Well…' Ann gave Taya a hesitant look. Taya nodded encouragement as she began untying the knots that held Cristof's robes closed. 'That'd be a great honor indeed, exalted, if you really don't mind.'
'I don't.'
Taya was pleased. Cristof would never come out and say it, but she knew he was uncomfortable in Primus. Most of the other exalteds treated him with distant mistrust, muttering about a taint in the Forlore bloodline. Cristof needed the company of his few friends.
Two months had passed since they'd rescued Kyle and retrieved the prototype engine. The raids on Slagside and the refinery had led to the arrest of fifteen spies, crippling the Alzanan spy network in Ondinium. Several bombings that had been attributed to the Torn Cards were found to have been the spies’ work, and the Council had confirmed what Cristof had long maintained — that the Alzanan king was providing money and encouragement to fringe political groups in an attempt to destabilize Ondinium's government. The Alzanans who could be definitively pinned to murder had been executed. The rest had been sent away to labor in Ondinium's mines, Emelie among them.
Pyke and Victor, and hundreds of others who shared their political viewpoints, had been dragged in by the lictors for questioning and forced to take a special second administration of the loyalty test. Both men had passed, as had most of their friends, leading to critical articles in the activist newspapers that lambasted the Council with accusations of persecution and abuse of power.
As Victor had predicted, Alister's reduced sentence had drawn a storm of protest. Mobs had ringed the plaza when he'd been blinded and, two weeks later, most of the city had turned out to jeer at him as he'd taken his exile march across the city and out the gates.
Cristof, Taya, and Viera had attended both events. None of them had enjoyed the punishment, not even Viera, whose desire for vengeance had evaporated during the public blinding. In fact, she'd been instrumental in helping Taya draw Cristof out of the black mood that had engulfed him after Alister's mutilation and exile. Those weeks had been difficult, but somehow they'd persevered, and after Alister had been led down the mountain under an armed escort, they'd started to put their lives back together again.
Taya knew that Cristof had set up a secret — and illegal — account for his brother with a bank in Mareaux. She'd seen the paperwork when they'd established a fund for the families of the two lictors they'd killed. It was all they could do; neither family had wanted to see or talk to them. It hurt, but Taya understood. And she didn't blame Cristof for trying to make exile a little easier for his brother, either.
'Well, now, we've packed every last thing you own but your robes, haven't we, exalted?' her father said, walking into the shop and stamping snow off his boots. Katerin and her husband Tomas followed, pausing to watch Cristof as he tugged at the knots on his public robe.
'Thank you,' Cristof said, glancing up.
The shop was empty. All of the exalted's clockwork and tools had been packed up to be taken to Primus. Taya had wanted Cristof to keep his business, but he'd protested that he wouldn't have time to make the trip back and forth between Tertius and Primus anymore. Instead, he planned to set up a small workshop in one of the spare rooms in Estate Forlore.
'May I? If you'll permit me, exalted?' Katerin moved forward and helped her sister untie the robe. Cristof stopped trying to do it himself and sighed, letting his arms fall.
'Pyke calls this ‘ostentatious incapacitation,'' Taya commented, as they worked.
'That's exactly what it is.' Cristof squirmed as Ann lifted the wig from his head, leaving his short hair standing up in unkempt spikes. 'I can't even scratch an itch while I'm wearing it.'
'You'll have to suffer for another second or two,' Taya said, unsympathetically. 'We're almost done.'
'Look, I'm an exalted, I am!' one of the boys shouted, holding Cristof's mask against his face.
'Put that down right now!' Ann cried out, horrified. The child flinched and dropped the mask on the table. She rushed over to examine it, her hands shaking. 'Exalted, forgive him. There's no harm done it; no damage at all.'
'Don't worry. The brat doesn't know how lucky he is that he doesn't have to wear that thing.'
Taya and Katerin lifted the heavy robes off his shoulders, and Cristof sighed with relief, scratching his head. He was wearing his usual plain black suit beneath the robes. He'd only put on the outfit at Ann's insistence that he try out the new wig before packing it.
Taya folded the garments, placing the ivory mask in their center, and handed the bundle to Tomas. He carried it out to the last crate. A moment later she heard him nailing the lid into place.
'That's it, then.' Cristof looked around, a little wistfully. 'I'll see you tomorrow, Ann?'
The woman nodded. 'I'll bring up the wig, then, and instructions for your servants.'
'Good.'
For a moment everyone stood in awkward silence, trying to figure out how to say goodbye across caste. Finally Taya stepped forward and shook the wigmaker's hand.
'Thank you for your help. I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.'
'Me, too, Taya. Good luck.' Ann smiled at her, relieved, and herded her children out the door.
'Off we go, as well,' Taya's father said. Taya hugged him.
'Thanks for helping, Dad.'
'A pleasure, sweetness. Exalted, we're honored to see you again. Best of luck to you.' Her father bowed, his palm on his forehead. 'You'll be at our table for Ladysday the week next, now?'
'As promised,' Cristof agreed, although he looked a little daunted by the prospect. Taya had warned him about their annual Ladysday dinner, where two-thirds of the neighborhood was invited, half the gifts that were exchanged were alcoholic, and the singing and dancing continued until midnight. It wasn't the kind of thing the reticent exalted would normally attend, but she thought the noise and merriment would be better for him than spending a quiet Ladysday on Primus.
'See you later, then,' Katerin said, hugging her sister. She tapped the gold envoy feather that Taya wore pinned to her fur cloak. 'Don't be flying off to any strange countries without telling us.'
'They won't let me leave until spring,' she replied, cheerfully. 'Until then, it's back-to-back lessons.' Katerin grinned as Taya turned to embrace her brother-in-law. With good-humored bows to Cristof, her family headed outside, pulling up their collars against the ash-colored snow.
At last Cristof locked up the shop. The wagon full of wooden crates was already on its way up to Primus, but Gregor's hack waited for them by the curb.
'Where to, exalted?' Gregor asked. He was bundled against the cold, but his voice was as cheerful as ever.
'Estate Octavus,' Cristof said, as they climbed inside. Gregor saluted and the coach jerked forward.
'Have you already told Viera that we're going to Cabiel, or am I going to have to listen to you two argue about it all afternoon?' Taya asked, nestling comfortably against Cristof's side.
