The Black Prism

Chapter 19

"Ah." Gavin cleared his throat.

The boy twitched, and then sat bolt upright. Maybe hearing "I want to kill you" wasn't the best way to be awakened after your village had been massacred. Gavin raised an eyebrow at Karris. You really need to do this now?

She huffed out a breath and turned away while the boy rubbed his head and moaned. The boy squinted at her, but she kept her back to him. She busied herself unstringing her bow and stowing it. The boy turned his royal blue eyes to Gavin. Interesting, with his light brown skin and kinky hair. Blue eyes were blue because they were the deepest, and thus the most light-sensitive and best light-collecting. It was far from the only criterion, but people with blue eyes were disproportionately represented among the most powerful drafters. More light to use, more power to burn.

Right now, those deep eyes were narrowed in pain. Apparently Gavin's swat had left the boy with a nice headache.

"You saved me," Kip said.

Gavin nodded.

"Who are you?" the boy asked.

Straight to the gut, huh? Karris turned to see what Gavin would say. She folded her arms.

Gavin stopped rowing. "This is Lady Karris White Oak, who, despite the sometimes humorously juxtaposed conjunctions of name and skin color and title, is a member of the Blackguard." Karris's look of fury didn't shift in the slightest. Apparently the old jokes still weren't funny. "And I…" He'd introduced Karris first to give himself a moment to think. It hadn't worked. Five years and five purposes left, Gavin. This might be your last chance.

The boy had been unconscious when Gavin had claimed his patrimony. He didn't know. He didn't have to know. Better for him not to know, in many ways. But better still for him not to hear it from Karris first, in a burst of rage. This boy was not his son, but without Gavin and Dazen's war-the Prisms' War or the False Prism's War, depending on which side you'd fought-none of the children of Rekton or a hundred other villages would be fatherless now. Gavin fantasized again for a moment about telling Karris everything she didn't know, and letting the chips fall where they may. But Karris wouldn't believe a partial truth and couldn't handle it whole.

At least this lie would give an orphan a father. It would give a child who'd lost everything one thing back. Gavin shouldn't care, but he did.

"I'm Prism Gavin Guile. I'm… you're my natural son."

The boy looked at him like he didn't understand what Gavin had said.

"Perfect," Karris said. "Why don't you just drop everything on him at once? Why don't you think, Gavin? I swear you're as impulsive as Dazen ever was."

Impulsive? Pot, meet kettle. Gavin ignored Karris, looking only at the boy. He'd just admitted to cheating on her years ago, lying to her about it afterward, and then-just an hour ago-lying to her again. She was doing cold rage, and it didn't fit her. Hot rage was more her style.

The boy glanced at her, confused by her anger, then glanced back. He was still squinting, though Gavin couldn't tell how much of that was from his headache from being cracked across the back of the head, how much might be lightsickness from drafting, and how much was confusion from his rapidly changing situation.

"You're what?" Kip asked.

"You're my natural son." It was too hard, for some reason, to say, "I'm your father."

"And you come now?" Kip asked, sick despair painting his face. "Why didn't you come yesterday? You could have saved everyone!"

"I didn't know you existed until this morning. And we came as fast as humanly possible." Faster, really. "If your town hadn't been on fire, we wouldn't have known to come."

"You didn't know about me? How could you not know?" Kip asked plaintively.

"Enough!" Gavin roared. "I'm here now! I saved your life, probably at the cost of a war that will make ten thousand more orphans. What more do you want?"

Kip withered, shrank in on himself.

"Unbelievable. You bully," Karris said. "You're given a son, and the first thing you do is scream at him. You're a brave man, Gavin Guile."

The unfairness of it all made Gavin's fists curl. Justice and injustice and the insanity of this life he'd chosen boiled over. "You want to lecture me about bravery? Is this the woman who ran away from a noble house to become a guard? Trying to get yourself killed through work or using too much magic isn't bravery, Karris; it's cowardice. What do you want from me? You want me to bring back your dead brothers?"

Karris slapped him. "Don't," she said. "Don't you ever-"

"Talk about your brothers? Your brothers were vipers. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Dazen killed them. The best thing he ever did was kill them, and the best thing they ever did was die."

Karris's eyes went red, and luxin curled through her skin in an instant. Gavin felt a stab of fear-not for himself. He could stop whatever she threw his way. But every time a person drafted huge quantities, they hastened their own death. And they granted their color more sway over them. When he'd first met Karris, her jade green eyes had only the smallest ruby stars in them. Now, even at rest, when she wasn't drafting, those ruby stars dominated the green.

But Karris didn't attack. She said, "I'm a slow learner, but I finally got it. You've betrayed me for the last time, Gavin." She nearly spat his name. "I-"

"You damn stubborn woman! I love you, Karris. I've always loved you."

It was like the wind went out of her sails for a few heartbeats. Red luxin drained from her fingertips. Then, when Gavin was just starting to hope, she said, "You dare? You unbelievable-you-you-Gavin Guile, you've brought me nothing but misery and death. We're finished!" She grabbed her bag and jumped off the boat.

Gavin was too startled to say anything. He watched as Karris swam to shore and then dragged herself and her bag out of the water. She could travel to Garriston without him, of course, and she'd still arrive earlier than her contact had expected. There were, of course, bandits to worry about, and a woman traveling alone would make a prime target.

If the bandits got careless because of that fact, they'd be lucky to survive. But everyone had to sleep sometime. Karris was being rash, but nothing Gavin could say would make any difference. Not for a long while. This was why the White had tried to arrange it so he wouldn't be present when she found out about his bastard. He could go after her, but it would be useless. With her temper, he would only make things worse.

Five purposes, and I didn't even spit out the whole truth.

Kip was huddled to one side of the boat, trying to be small. He glanced up and met Gavin's eyes for a moment. "What are you staring at?" Gavin demanded.