Aftermath - Ann Aguirre [111]
You need only convey your location, and I will come to you. If your feelings have changed, or I misinterpreted them, let me know, and I will trouble you no further.
Yours,
Suni
CHAPTER 36
Sasha March is a beautiful child, with Svetlana’s faintly elfin features and her pale hair. The father must be fair also to produce such offspring. I know; that’s a fairly clinical word for a person March loves so much. But I don’t know this kid, and I have no experience to draw on, apart from those six weeks in the crèche at Hidden Rue. Even then, it didn’t matter so much whether I related to the children, only that I kept them from harm while their mothers performed.
At the best of times, I don’t like children. They’re messy, noisy, and they’re always poking around where they don’t belong. I was just like that, once, but I grew out of it, and I prefer dealing with people who’ve completed their neurological development.
Zeeka is with Hit and Dina, exploring the wonders of the dome, and later they’ll take him to Carvati for testing. Vel has gone to meet with scientists, scholars, and collectors, so they can examine his Maker sample in order to decide how high they’re willing to bid. He doesn’t need the credits, but he’s too much a businessman to take less than the best possible offer. He’s promised me half the amount from the sale, which I intend to use to keep my promise to Loras, and the La’hengrin. No more servitude, no more shinai bond. I have a gift for wrecking the status quo, and I intend to aim that capacity at the infrastructure on La’heng.
Once he concludes his business, Vel intends to get his talon replaced with a prosthetic. Afterward, I’ll meet him at Carvati’s to talk about the cure I commissioned five turns ago and have the good doctor check out that terabyte of data.
With the others engaged this morning—intentionally, I suspect—that leaves me to breakfast with March and Sasha at a café near Mikhail’s. As always, the weather is temperate on Gehenna because they regulate it with a complex computer algorithm dedicated to giving the denizens of the dome some variety, but no extremes.
And I’ve been lost in thought too long, letting Sasha gaze at me worriedly. Right now, the silence is awkward, and I can’t let it stand, seeing the sadness dawning in March’s eyes. He wanted us to bond, I think, but the child is scared of me, or maybe it’s more accurate to say he’s afraid his world is about to change for the worse.
“So how old are you?” I ask the kid.
“Ten,” he whispers.
Frag. I’d rather be back in the jungle, fighting those plant-tentacle monsters or trudging through that Maker catacomb, than trying to make conversation with a child. Adele would argue he senses my discomfort, and I should try to relax. Mary, that makes me miss her even more. The world lost a bright, bright spark in her.
In her honor, I keep trying, though this ship is sinking fast. “And you go to school on Nicuan. How do you like it?”
A quiet shrug comes in reply. Shit, how do you talk to kids? Asking about friends and hobbies doesn’t seem likely to yield fruit, so I wrack my brain for other topics. I glance at March for help, and he slides into my head.
Mmm. Missed you.
I missed you, too, Jax. Try asking him what he likes to study. He’ll open up. There’s no way he won’t love you like I do. When he draws back, he does so with a slow reluctance that leaves me warm and tingly.
“What’s your favorite subject?”
“Maths.” He picks at his breakfast, eyes wide and sad.
I hate math. Well, that went nowhere. At this point I give up and finish my breakfast. This isn’t how I imagined things would go; March and I should still be making love.
He’s never been off world before, March explains. He needs the reassurance of routine.
“I can’t keep him out of school long,” he says out loud. “So we need to leave soon, much as I hate to.”
Sasha brightens. “We’re going home?”
“I’ll come to Nicuan after I wrap things up here,” I promise.
To what end, I don’t know. But I want to spend more