“He got too close to you,” Johana said in a rush.
“He was trying to land hits, but that left him open,” Kushik added.
Markus stood up straight, wiped the hair away from his face, then sighed. “I won’t be so reckless next time.”
“I know,” Aina said under her breath, but she knew that as long as they were doing this with wooden sticks, he wouldn’t take it seriously. Kohl had only used them to train her for a month and then switched to real blades. The phantom pain returned, old scars reminding her of how harsh his training could get. Her hands curled into fists. She was trying to treat her employees more fairly, but what good was that when they could learn quicker if she pushed them? Taking a deep breath, she said, “Kushik, you’re next.”
While Markus and Johana moved to sit at the edge of the mats and Kushik stepped into the center, brimming with energy, Aina moved to the far wall where a rack of weapons hung. A small washbasin stood next to it with a grimy mirror above. She could see half of her face—wisps of black hair, the copper skin tone common of people from Mil Cimas, the scars and fading bruises that were always a part of her job, the sunken look of her eyes that she didn’t think would ever go away after years addicted to glue. She still hadn’t decided what kind of leader she would be, but she knew she’d only survived this long because Kohl hadn’t gone easy on her. Dropping the wooden stick to the floor, she selected a long, curved blade from the rack.
Kushik swallowed hard when he watched her approach with it, and his earlier excitement ebbed—quickly replaced by the resigned determination she recognized in every recruit while training with Kohl’s methods, a look she’d used to give herself in the mirror every night. She watched with disappointment swirling through her; hating that Kohl’s way, in this regard, was probably the best.
“All of you need to step it up,” she said in a hollow tone, remembering the bodies she and Tannis had seen last night, the threats from Bautix, the spy from Thunder, the knowledge that Kohl would stop at nothing to get the Dom back. “I know none of you were probably even born during the last war. I was a child. But don’t be surprised if another one starts up again.” She took a deep breath, the sun in her eyes. “You need to learn to fight against real weapons while having none of your own, because you will be in that position at some point. You need to learn to kill with nothing but your hands, to stop people from doing the same to you. That’s how you survive: keep drawing blood, show no weakness, or you’ll be the one who’s bleeding.”
A nerve-filled silence followed her statement, but she gave them no time for it to soak in. Soon she would leave to meet the Sacoren that Tannis knew and learn the Mothers’ magic—another weapon on top of the one she held.
She stood across from Kushik, blade held ready in her right hand. “Begin.”
* * *
An hour later, Aina had left the Dom and approached the entrance to the safe house, breathing in the summer air. The sun sent deep orange streaks westward over the Stacks, lighting the puddles on the dirt roads left from an afternoon rain.
Miles to the north, the Tower stood starkly against the orange and gray sky. Its black-rock spires touched the thick clouds that were sure to unleash another deluge tonight.
It will be a bloodbath. Tannis’s words from yesterday came back to her now. If Bautix managed to kill all four members of the Sentinel and take over within a week like he’d promised, then they didn’t have long at all to prepare for war.
She thought of Kohl, who would be helping Bautix try to take back the city, and disgust surged through her. Their battle for the city got so many innocent people, like the Inosen, killed.
Death wasn’t enough of a punishment for Kohl. She’d kill him, but she’d find a way to make him pay for everything he’d done before she did.
She spotted Teo first, leaning against the side of a house with his arms crossed over his chest and staring southward. Raurie, Ryuu, Tannis, and Lill walked toward them from the safe house a block away. The path to the safe house was through a sewer entrance a block away, but since Raurie and Lill would be hiding this magic from the rest of the Inosen, they’d chosen to meet at a slight distance instead.
When she came up to Teo, he nodded toward Tannis and asked in a low voice, “Can you trust this man she knows?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “He owes her, which is as close to trust as you can get with most people in this city.”
“Did anyone notice you leave?” she asked Raurie and Lill once the others reached them.
“Since everyone has moved in today, there are some supplies we’re missing,” Lill said. “They usually send the younger ones of us to go out and buy food and things, so we volunteered. We’ll have to pick up supplies on the way back to cover ourselves.”
Aina nodded. “Let’s go then, so you don’t have to take too long.”
They walked out of the Stacks then and toward Lyra Avenue, the longest street in the city, which stretched from the eastern tip of the Stacks all the way through the immigrant neighborhood of the Wings and up north to Rose Court. With increased violence in the Stacks, the lower end of Lyra Avenue was unusually empty for summer. A few hawkers stood outside shops with tables full of wares, but their voices echoed off the towering walls of brick apartments on either side as Aina’s group walked through.
A few blocks later, they reached the more crowded part of Lyra Avenue, and flashing lights greeted them. Different languages filled the air as tourists and locals crossed the street between shops, taverns, and casinos.
One of the tradehouses occupied the back of a currency exchange store, and both Aina and Tannis looked toward it now. Their youngest recruit had set up a stall on the street stocked with cheap souvenirs for tourists, but Aina knew they actually sold ammunition and pistols. Since she’d exposed Bautix’s secret arms business last month and the Sentinel shut it down, it had grown more difficult to buy weapons in bulk in the city. His business had held a near monopoly on any firepower, but now smaller businesses could take advantage of the hole in the market. The boy jumped to his feet when he saw Aina and Tannis, then beckoned them over, eyes wide.
“What is it?” Aina asked once they got close enough.
“Diamond Guards,” he muttered, then leaned forward and gestured toward a cheap jewelry store a few doors ahead.
He didn’t have to say much more; a moment later, the door was kicked open and two guards hauled out a man with blood covering his face. One shoved him to his knees while the other tossed a handful of rough diamonds on the ground before slamming the butt of his gun into the man’s face.
Tannis sighed next to her. “Three, two—”
A gunshot fired and the man fell forward, blood spilling from his head onto the pavement. A gaggle of tourists nearby screamed and backed away, probably regretting venturing down here from Rose Court.
Aina shook her head at the sight of the dead man. Since taking over the Dom, she hadn’t needed to sell diamonds on the side anymore—her role as boss paid more than enough. But it was still hard to get rid of the bone-deep fear all smugglers lived with.
“Aina,” Ryuu said through gritted teeth, and his eyes trailed ahead of them, toward the busier blocks of Lyra Avenue.