Tell the Wind and Fire(6)

“You should know,” Carwyn informed him, “that I don’t care.”

A doppelganger wouldn’t. They didn’t feel like other people did. I couldn’t blame Carwyn for that, but from the expression on his face, Ethan could.

“She wanted to keep you.”

“So what?” said Carwyn. “She didn’t keep me. It doesn’t matter to me what some dead woman wanted. She wasn’t my mother.”

“She was mine,” Ethan said tightly. “Don’t talk about her like that.”

“Or what?” Carwyn asked. “Or the Golden Thread in the Dark, that sweet angel of mercy who now has her clothes back on, burns a little Light discipline into me? Oh, go on, sweetheart. It’s nothing I haven’t had before, and maybe with someone as pretty as you I’d enjoy it.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” I said. “I’m not going to hurt you. I told you, I owe you. I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”

“That goes for both of us,” Ethan said, after a pause.

Carwyn raised an eyebrow. “I’m touched.”

“Why did you do it?” Ethan asked suddenly. “Why save my life?”

Carwyn looked at me. I had to admit, I was curious to know the answer as well. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing a doppelganger would do.

“It was a whim. It was that or buy the weird cheese-and-crackers package off the food cart.”

I had honestly not expected a doppelganger to be sassy. I had never had a conversation with one before, and in stories they were mostly silent harbingers of death.

Ethan’s expression suggested he would have preferred a silent harbinger of death.

I leaned forward a little, elbows on my knees, and asked, “What are you doing here?”

“I thought we covered that,” Carwyn said. “Mommy and Daddy loved each other very much, so they did a dark ritual . . . ? Any of that ringing a bell?”

“I meant,” I said, “where are you going on this train?”

“Same place you are,” Carwyn said. “The Light city.”

“What are you going to do when you get there?”

“Are you asking me out on a date?” asked Carwyn. “Because your boyfriend’s right here. Awkward.”

My plan was to help and support him in any way possible. If that meant ignoring ninety percent of everything he said, that was fine with me.

“Do you have a pass to get to the Light city?” I asked. “Do you have a permit to work? How long were you planning to stay?”

“I hadn’t decided.”

I noticed that the doppelganger did not answer either of my other questions. Ethan and I exchanged a look.

“You were going into the Light city without a pass?” Ethan said. “That’s a crime.”

“I guess we don’t know each other that well yet,” Carwyn observed. “It’s possibly time to talk about some of my hobbies and interests. One of my hobbies is crime.”

“So you’re a criminal,” said Ethan.

“My hobby is my job,” said Carwyn. “My job is my hobby. It’s a thing. Also, when we were introduced, you were about to be executed for a, you know, whatsit—oh yeah, a crime. Are you upset because my thing is being somewhat successful at crime?”

Ethan leaned a little against the compartment wall, trying to ease me back with him. I didn’t go, but I glanced at him and saw his eyes were thoughtfully narrowed. Ethan usually thinks the best of people; that doesn’t mean he’s dumb.

“You are pretty successful at crime,” Ethan observed. “That’s why you saved me, isn’t it? You decided you wanted to go to the Light city, for whatever reason—”

Carwyn shrugged. “Just wanted to have a little fun. Sorry, do you need me to explain the concept of fun?”

Ethan shook his head. “You figured you’d come to the city and blackmail my dad. Then you saw me on the train platform. You saw a golden opportunity.”

Carwyn grinned.

The city was getting closer and closer as we got to the end of the line, about to plunge into our last tunnel. I put my hand against the glass and looked out at the city, the buildings that made the gems in my rings briefly catch fire, the line of light that was Stryker Tower, so bright that it seemed like a colossal sword. The sun was coming up, and the dawn was embracing the buildings in swaths of rose and gold.

“I don’t care why he did it,” I said.

Both of the boys looked at me, Ethan’s grip on my hand going a little loose.

“I mean it,” I said. “I don’t care. What I care about is the result: what I care about is that we are all safe.” I pressed Ethan’s hand. “You’re alive, and he made it so. I say we give him whatever he wants. Your father created him, so Carwyn is his responsibility. And Carwyn saved your life: your father owes him twice over. You have to take him home with you and make sure that Carwyn has everything he needs.”

“I have many needs,” Carwyn put in.

“You want me to reward him?” Ethan asked incredulously.

I lost my patience. Maybe it wasn’t fair of me. Ethan wasn’t used to life-and-death situations. I don’t think he believed he would have died out there on that stone platform in the cold night. Not really.