Garden of Embers: Beneath Devouring Eyes #2

Chapter 3, Part C

The third time Valens heard chimes shimmering in the back of his mind, he shared a grimace with Arbita.

His wife stood in line beside him as they waited in the drizzling rain for the next skychariot to arrive, the rest of the household huddled around them--and the new Princeps in their midst--in tense silence.

She wrinkled her nose in irritation, no doubt hearing the same thing he was. "He's persistent," Arbita growled under her breath.

"Just ignore him." That's what he always did when he didn't feel like listening to his annoying childhood friend.

"I'm trying." She shook her head like that would evict the bells from her mind. "But it's an all-curia summons and he wants us there."

"He'll get over it," Valens said, breathing a sigh of relief as an approaching skychariot followed a golden thread of promenia down to the skyhaven.

"No, he won't. He'll whine about it for the next month."

Valens did not bother answering. She was right, and for once he could not entirely blame Cerasus for being a bit disgruntled. With the turbulent Trellis transfer, Valens knew praetors in every provincia must be organizing massive emergency responses to deal with the widespread damage. Their Praetor would expect them both to help with the effort in Provincia Sicarii and would be displeased by their disobedience.

For once, he almost felt bad avoiding his duty to the curia. Almost. He glanced at his too-pale alumna, who wavered on his feet between Merula's and Radix's supporting hands with a lost, exhausted look. Valens and Arbita both had a greater duty now than to help clean up the mess Domi had caused in Provincia Sicarii alone. They needed to focus all their attention on trying to prevent the next global catastrophe.

The skychariot doors swung open. Sidus, standing in front of the new Princeps, nudged the boy protectively backward away from the crowd as it pressed forward past their group. Many people were anxious to travel to check on loved ones after the chaotic past two hours.

"Let's go," Valens murmured, taking his alumna's upper arm in hand with an apologetic glance at the boy's foster mother.

Merula pinched her lips together, but the Pyrrhaeus did not protest further as he eased her son away from her supportive grip. They had discussed their travel arrangements earlier. The new Princeps would remain with Valens, Arbita, and Bellus's team in one private skychamber, Aix and Sidus would travel in another, and Merula and Radix would remain in the public chamber with other Pyrrhaei. With luck, Bellus would not need to erase any memories of a large group escorting a nameless, heavily-drugged Lightholder youth.

Valens snorted at his alumna as Domi peered up at him, eyes half-lidded and wildly dilated from whatever Arbita had given him to keep him calm. He was not just calm but completely out of it. On the plus side, the sedation would likely prevent the airsickness the kid had suffered the last time Valens had forced Domi onto a skychariot. But it was also rather pathetic. The alumna stumbled with a baffled look at his own feet as his aedificans guided him along, head wobbling on his neck, and the Trellis-light above them wavered.

Valens grimaced. Great. He hoped that the disoriented kid did not muddle their skychariot's navigation promenia while they were flying.

"He's fine," Lumen murmured. "Just a little hiccup. He needs up to forty-eight hours to adjust. I'll guide him through visualization exercises hourly during our travels to help him learn better control, but he's doing well, considering."

As they, at last, stepped aboard the skychariot and started walking toward a private chamber, the attendant checking Pyrrhaei travel passes broke away from the lowborn crowd. Her face was twisted in nervous discomfort as she hurried toward them, cupping an obsidian promenia stone in her palm. Pyrrhaei were not able to enter the Caeles on their own, but forgeholder-crafted artifacts like the stone provided limited access.