“Explain,” said We Suffer, after a pause. Nona thought We Suffer was being pretty slow.
“Pyrrha just told us that everything’s fine,” she said, “but I wish she’d picked me up from school instead of going to the barracks, because then none of this would have happened. Thank goodness she’s all right.”
After a moment’s continued staring, We Suffer took the little flip-top pad and the receiver and dialled a number. Nona caught snatches of the conversation: “Put it on the shortwave,” and “No questions. Do it,” but she had lost interest. She turned to Camilla, pushed the chair back, and joined her at the wall. Camilla budged up so there was room for her.
“I don’t feel well,” said Nona, regretting all the water.
Cam’s eyes flickered. “Take it easy.”
“I hate that shackle on your ankle,” said Nona, feeling absurdly tearful.
“You keep saying that. I don’t care. Come here.”
And Camilla did something she rarely did. She put her arm tightly around Nona so that Nona could feel all the bunched-up muscles of her shoulders and biceps, and she drew Nona close. Nona rested her head on Camilla’s shoulder and put her arms around her middle. They stood like that, Nona holding Camilla, Cam holding Nona. Camilla was warm and strong and safe and all her bones felt good: the hollow of her shoulder, the hard, firm line and ridge below her neck.
“It’s been a long week,” said Camilla.
“Yeah,” said Nona. “I want to go home with you … I want Pyrrha. I want Palamedes.”
They held each other like that. Eventually, somewhere around the top of Nona’s head, Camilla cleared her throat and said— “You know that tantrum you had? Do you remember attacking the guards with that chair?”
“I’m really sorry.”
“No, I mean—your stance was good,” Camilla said slowly, as though trying to figure out how to say something. “Good grasp … two-handed.”
“Just like practise,” said Nona. “With the sword.”
Camilla said, “But we practise one-handed.”
Nona pulled back a little and looked up into the eyes that used to belong to Palamedes, long before she knew either of them: Camilla’s face, her steady gaze, the reassuring jumpiness of her body. Nona felt something strange. There was a hot trickle from her nose, and when Camilla wiped her face with her sleeve it was revealed to be a bright red streamlet of blood.
“I need to talk to Palamedes,” said Camilla lowly.
Before Nona could say that Palamedes had said the same thing, We Suffer thumped the table so hard that Nona jumped.
“There is another node!” she announced, in equal parts horror and excitement. “We still have contact! There is an inactive line! But where?”
“It’ll be on Judith,” said Camilla, untangling herself a little from Nona. “Give them time. I knew the moment she brought Deuteros out. Pyrrha confirmed it. Nona was right. She gave us codes.”
We Suffer said intently, “What did she tell you?”
Nona said, “She said to fall in—that it was safe—and I think she said she found a whole bunch of cigarettes.” We Suffer looked as though she did not understand, so she used a phrase she had often heard from the Angel: “I’m afraid that’s typical.”
We Suffer looked like she wanted to ignore this. “Can you truly trust Pyrrha Dve?”
Camilla, contemplative, cracked her neck and tried to lift the leg that had the shackle, but it beeped at her, so she put it down again.
“I’m ninety percent sure she’s putting on an act. Pyrrha Dve will do anything to get at that shuttle.”
We Suffer said slowly, “Then you always intended to run.”
“No,” said Camilla. “You have our hostages.”
We Suffer seemed to think about this. There was a long pause. Then she said: “Very well. Perhaps the game is not lost … but it is very precarious, much more so than I would like. All the little chips have been put in the middle of the table in everybody’s reach. We must proceed with great caution.”
“No,” Camilla said again. “Quite the reverse, actually.”
Nona looked up in surprise. We Suffer seemed startled too, this was such an un-Camilla thing to say. Camilla’s mouth said, “Update, please,” and Nona rushed out: “Pyrrha’s in the barracks. Crown went in and we heard her over the audio. The other one, Crown’s boyfriend I think, smashed the bug, but there’s another bug on the Captain only we can’t hear from it yet. Pyrrha’s talking funny like she’s trying not to sneeze, and she said there’s something we need and we have to go and get it. But—oh, also, Crown’s boyfriend said he wants everything, especially Camilla and someone called Harrowhark Nonagesimus, and we have to give it to him by sundown.”