Page 49 of The Surviving Sky
His lips lifted, but Ahilya didn’t return the smile. In her mind, she saw the way Iravan had walked into the copse, the way he had demanded she take him on her expedition. “I don’t understand you, Iravan,” she said meditatively. “You know how many measures the council takes to protect the watchpost key, yet you just handed it over to Naila?”
He held her gaze. “Maybe I’m not as dedicated to the ashram as a councilor ought to be.”
“Maybe not,” she agreed.
“A fact unmissed by the rest of the council,” he said. He turned away back to the classroom, uncomfortable.
Ahilya continued to study him. What Iravan had done with the key and then with thebracelet—itwas typical of him. Her husband behaved recklessly often for his own reasons. He had come to her, twice now; there had been a concealed motive bothtimes—thiswas Iravan, afterall—butdid that make it any less sincere? These mysteries he held close, it was who he was. She had known this when she’d married him. She had reveled in it. In the past, when he’d finally shared his mind, it had been that much sweeter for the wait. Maybe she owed him more trust than she was giving. Ahilya shook her head, trying to focus on the investigation.
“Perhaps,” she said, throwing a shot in the dark, “the plants at the watchpost didn’t work.”
Iravan gave her a long look. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. I don’t understand your architectural sorcery. Maybe the plants in the watchpost didn’t grow the way they were supposed to.”
Iravan sighed. “That’s not something oursorcerycan control. The watchpost plants grow as a permanent feature of the ashram. No amount of trajection can change that.”
Ahilya raised an eyebrow. “I thought trajection could change everything.”
“Not the rudra tree. The rudra tree is such a sentient tree on the consciousness spectrum that it might as well be a complex being. It’s as old as Nakshar itself, and it was cultivated to have some unalterable desires. Like healbranch growing. Like the ashram protecting an architect at any cost. Like magnaroot sprouting without interference at the watchpost. Whoever the original architects of Nakshar were, this is how they encoded the tree when they first grew it from a sapling. Not even a Senior Architect can interfere with that.”
Ahilya slumped forward, her elbows on her knees. Iravan’s tone was not patronizing, but he had clearly already considered all the points she was making. Did he even need her help? “So, it’s not sabotage, it’s not the key, and it’s not the magnaroot,” she said.
“You see what I mean? The system is designed to be foolproof. It cannot fail.”
“It did, though.”
“Yes. It did. And the only logical way it could is because of human error.”
Iravan paused as a low bell chimed through the Academy. In the classroom, Naila called a halt. The children picked up their bags from the floor and began to file out. Iravan nodded to them, waited until they had all passed from earshot, then led Ahilya inside the now-empty classroom where Naila waited, looking apprehensive.
The Junior Architect began speaking before they had fully approached. “I’m sorry, Iravan-ve,” she stammered. “I tried to stay, butAirav-ve—”
“It’s all right, Naila,” he said gently.
“I didn’t mean for you to get intotrouble—”
“You didn’t. We just have a few questions.”
Naila’s gaze ran over Ahilya. Her eyebrows climbed her forehead. Her mouth quirked in amusement.
“Both of you?” she asked mildly.
Ahilya stiffened. Heat pooled in her stomach, and Oam said,People like us, we don’t know anything about flight and architecture. Her skin itched beneath Iravan’s rudra bead bracelet, and in her mind’s eye, she saw herself and Naila standing on one of Nakshar’s terraces before the landing. She heard the condescension in the woman’s voice as she explained toAhilya—toanarcheologist—what a damned earthrage was.
Iravan’s eyes glinted at Naila’s presumption. “Junior Architect?” he said, dangerously.
“I—”Naila laughed in quick embarrassment. “I meant no offense. It was a poor joke. We just don’t get too many non-architects in the Academy.”
“Perhaps that’s because you don’t allow citizens in these privileged spaces,” Ahilya said, her fingers curling.
Iravan looked from one to another.
For a moment, Ahilya thought he’d say something more, that he’d chastise Naila like he had chastised her at the copse before theexpedition—perversely,she almost wished it. But then he sighed and shook his head. “Naila, what happened after I sent you away with the key?”
The Junior Architect twirled a lock of her hair on a finger and turned her attention to him. “I went to the temple, past the root labyrinths of the rudra tree. The key worked fine, and the watchpost was full of fresh magnaroot thishigh—”Naila lifted a hand to her waist and dropped it. “I entered the Moment like I was supposed to, but I didn’t traject. It was rather boring.”
Iravan snorted. “And the Moment? What did you notice there?”
