Page 48 of The Surviving Sky
“It is. It’s the easiest part of trajecting. It’s the first thing we teach beginners, and we teach it for months, no matter how talented the child is, because it’s the most important thing for architects to learn.”
“Is this relevant to the investigation?”
Iravan gestured into the classroom. “See those plants in the middle?”
Ahilya squinted. The thorny weeds waved around, their leaves shaped like arrowheads. An image flashed in her mind, of Iravan screaming for her to return, and Oam whimpering. “Isthat—”she said. “Isthat—magnaroot?”
“Yes,it’s—”Iravan cut himself off.
Ahilya stumbled away from the doorway, her body trembling. She leaned against the wall opposite the classroom. A bench grew on the floor and Ahilya collapsed onto it, hugging herself.
Iravan cursed. He slid his wheelchair toward her, but Ahilya barely registered him. She was back in the earthrage, in the nest, and Oam was screaming. She knew what was going to happen next. He was going to die. She was going to leave him behind. Her breath emerged in shallow gasps. Ahilya closed her eyes, and Oam urged her on; he ran to retrieve her satchel. She began to rock, shaking her head, trying to force the images away before they returned to that fatal point.
Iravan’s fingers grazed against her hand. Ahilya gripped him tightly, and he squeezed hard, as though trying to pour into her his strength.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this.”
“I’m all right,” she said. She wrenched her eyes open and the images abruptly dissipated. Ahilya let go of his hand and avoided his gaze. “Thank you.”
Iravan cleared his throat. His fingers stretched in and out. “Did you go to the infirmary? For medicines and healing?”
“I can’t,” she whispered. “That’s whereOam—Hewas—”
Raw emotions flashed across her husband’s face, guilt and shame and consideration.Were you jealous?she had screamed in the temple, and she knew he was remembering it too, but incongruous laughter built in her at the memory. Imagining Iravan jealous was like imagining a yaksha speak. Whatever his faults, her husband was not the man to feel such a petty emotion. Iravan opened his mouth, perhaps to offer more comfort, but Ahilya shook her head, guilt searing her.
“So,” she said quickly. “The magnaroot, huh?”
He hesitated, but she stared at him, pleading silently for him to change the subject. She couldn’t take his kindness, not his. It would shatter her remaining strength.
Iravan’s eyes flickered in understanding. He turned back to the classroom. “Yes,” he said, his voice hollow. “Magnaroot is one of the most sensitive species of plants in the ashram. Inside the Moment, those children are surrounded by magnaroot stars. And that’s exactly what someone at the watchpost does.”
Ahilya took a deep breath, her mind still gripped by the earthrage. “They enter the Moment?”
“They enter the Moment surrounded by magnaroot. The watchpost chamber is full of uncontaminated magnaroot. The plant isunique—itresponds hours before an earthrage occurs. Any ordinary citizen should be able to see the plant change, but being in the Moment allows an architect precious hours of warning. When an earthrage is imminent, all the stars of the magnaroot turn toward a singularpossibility—forit to become thorny. The experience is quite surreal.”
“You’re saying it’s impossible to get wrong.”
“For someone like Naila? Itisimpossible. The magnaroot inhereis harder to traject than the one at the watchpost; this one here is accustomed to trajection. But the one at the watchpost is grown from seed every landing. It’s untouched, pristine.”
Ahilya shook her head, not understanding. “Then how could the flight alarm have failed?”
Iravan gave her a lopsided smile. “Exactly. The way the alarmworks—whenan architect sees the magnaroot’s possibilities turn thorny in the Moment, they send a signal through their watchpost key to the Architects’ Disc. The Disc begins to prepare the ashram for flight, and the trajection releases the flight raga, which is amplified by sungineers in the lab. That’s what we ought to have heard in the jungle. But the Disc didn’t receive a signal from Naila at all.”
“Maybe someone tampered with the magnaroot in the watchpost before Naila went in.”
“There’s only one way in and out of the watchpost. It’s the rudra key I gave her. No one can get into the watchpost without it. Not evenme—whichis why I needed it in the first place.”
“So, maybe someone tampered with the key.”
“Not that, either,” Iravan said, shaking his head. “All four Senior Architects embed multiple labyrinths within the watchpost key, and the key is then tuned to the architect on duty. When I gave it to Naila, I aligned it to her, which meant onlyshecould get into the watchpost. We checked it, to be certain, and it’s not tampered with.” He paused and looked at Ahilya. “You can ask theothers—Bharavior Chaiyya. If you don’t believe me.”
“I don’t think you’re lying, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”
“Thank—”
“You make excuses, and you avoid the truth, and I don’t think I know anyone else with the ability to phrase their words so deftly that someone is led to a wholly untrue interpretation. But,” Ahilya said, heavily, “I don’t think you lie outright.”
Iravan grunted. “As turbulent as that was, I appreciate it.”
