“I know I can become far more than I was as a scholar serving your father in the Great Library. Far more than the city guardsman who set out on this journey. Rigg and Loaf with their facemasks, all of you with time-shifting, you aren’t the only ones who can learn and change and grow into something useful.” Olivenko’s voice became even softer, and his gaze at Param was intense. “The very fact that you doubt yourself, my lady, is proof of how much you have learned, and how greatly you have grown.”

At those words, Param burst into tears and covered her face.

But she did not slice time. She did not disappear.

“Thank you for staying with us,” said Loaf softly.

“We all have so much work to do,” said Noxon.

Except me, thought Umbo. Nobody has any plan for me, except to be Loaf’s character witness when he returns to Leaky.

Not fair, he told himself. They don’t dare find jobs for you, because you’re so childish and prickly they know you’ll take offense.

Yet a part of him—the childish, prickly part—still insisted, inside his mind: They aren’t finding a job for me, because now that Rigg has a facemask, and then another copy of himself, there’s no particular need for me at all. “I should get a facemask,” Umbo murmured.

Everyone fell silent.

“Maybe with a facemask I could see the paths like Rigg,” Umbo added.

“We already have twice as many pathfinders as we need,” said Noxon. “That’s why I’m getting out of town.”

“Off the planet, you mean,” said Olivenko.

“We need all the pathfinders we can get,” said Umbo. “And even if I couldn’t see paths, the facemask would make me better at the things I can do.”

“You’re just assuming you have the will to master the facemask,” said Loaf.

“Umbo,” said Param softly, removing her hands from her face. “How can I possibly marry you if you have a facemask? The people would never accept you as their king, if you looked like that.”

Chapter 3: Under a Tent

CHAPTER 3

Under a Tent

Noxon and Param began their mutual training the obvious way, with Param trying to teach Noxon to develop an ability like hers by teaching him the way the Gardener had once taught her. It kept the two of them away from everyone else for hours at a time.

At first Umbo watched them from a distance, trying not to think of what Param had said. Did it really amount to a royal proposal of marriage? And if it did, why did she completely ignore him now? Instead of thinking about Param, Umbo wished he could be more like Rigg—like Noxon—in the way that he seemed to have endless patience when he needed it.