In a rushed handwriting that she didn’t recognize, it said:
You can keep fighting, Miss Solís, but Kosín will belong to General Alsane Bautix again within one week. You’re welcome to join the new order if you fall in line, but first … he’ll knock you down a few rungs on the ladder.
Tannis read it over her shoulder, her eyes hardening as she did. Once Tannis finished reading, Aina curled the note into a ball and tossed it over her shoulder—hoping that whoever left it was watching.
If Bautix managed to take back the city, he wouldn’t stand for having someone in charge of the tradehouses who wasn’t allied with him. Kohl’s leadership had been beneficial for him, but hers was a thorn in his side. She looked over her shoulder, eastward toward the Dom, and her stomach twisted with nerves.
I won’t let them down, she promised herself. I won’t let them fall to the claws of this city.
Then she noticed the girl who’d been working behind the bar had slipped outside to join their group, closing the door softly behind her. She wore her wavy red-violet hair tied back in a loose ponytail, and freckles dotted her ivory Sumeranian features, but her eyes were the bright gold of Kaiyanis people. A bit of dirt was smudged on her nose and she picked at a frayed end of her shirt.
“Can I help you?” Aina asked, one hand settling on the handle of her scythe.
The girl cast one frightened look at the weapon, then turned to Raurie. “Raurie, is this about the Jackals you mentioned earlier? One of the other workers came back from their break, so your uncle said I could leave. Can I go with you?”
She said it all in one breath, a plea in her eyes as she waited for Raurie to reply. “I want you to come, Lill, but it’s not just me who gets to decide,” Raurie said, frowning, then she spoke to the group. “I told Lill she might be able to join us, but I didn’t know all of you would show up. She’s trustworthy, and I’ve never met anyone who hates the Jackals more than her, but there might be too many of us. I don’t want us to get caught before we even get there. Maybe only a few of us should go.”
“But we don’t know how many Jackals there might be,” Ryuu pointed out. “We don’t want to be outnumbered either, and we want to take out as many of them as possible.”
Aina paused, part of her wanting to agree with Raurie, while she also knew Ryuu made a good point. But time was wasting, so she made a decision.
“You can come with us, Lill. These factories are big, so we’ll need a couple of us to keep watch to make sure no more Jackals come in while we’re inside. Let’s go already.”
She and Raurie led the way west, while the others stayed close behind them. From the corner of her eye, Aina saw Lill approach Ryuu, her head tilted to the side.
“You’re Ryuu Hirai,” Lill said with a hint of curiosity.
“I thought you looked familiar,” Ryuu said slowly, and then added with a desperate tone to his voice, “Our parents were friends, weren’t they? Why did you leave our safe house near the mines? It’s secure, I promise—”
“No, it’s not,” Lill cut him off. “The Jackals know about it. They have for years, actually, but we were too afraid to leave until now. The Inosen can only afford to side with one another until we see who ends up ruling this country. Sorry.”
She shrugged, not looking sorry at all, and Aina held back a laugh as Ryuu’s mouth fell open in shock.
As they walked, Raurie whispered the location to her and kept an eye out for any sign of the Jackals she’d seen earlier. Aina checked the location of each of her weapons—the two scythes strapped to her thighs, the brace of diamond-edged daggers across her chest, additional daggers in her sleeves, and a pouch of poison darts tied to her belt. Each one made her stronger, made her into a trained killer who’d proved herself in plenty of fights before.
Her confidence rose as they left the Stacks and crossed through the streets of the Center, heading west to the warehouse district. Under the quiet night, the creak of metal and the occasional gust of wind were the only sounds. Apart from two women who walked together across the road under streetlamps and a boy on a bike who sped past while humming to himself, they were the only pedestrians around. The buildings towered above them, the streets growing narrower and the stench of sewage building the farther they went. The steel mills, textile factories, and production plants all clustered together here, and though it usually emptied this late at night, something about the silence seemed eerier than usual.
This was familiar to her, stalking through the dark, noting every brush of the wind against her skin, every movement of shadow in the corners they passed. What was unfamiliar was walking with so many people—friends. Having them at her side now made her feel a little stronger, a little more protected, almost invincible. Almost like she could beat Kohl before he attacked.
“It smells out here,” Tannis remarked, wrinkling her nose as they drew closer to the place Raurie had indicated.
“It always smells,” Aina said with a shrug.
“Different now, though. Like something’s rotting.”
The scents of chemicals and smoke grew thicker in the air as they approached the factory. They gathered in a shadowed alley across the street, steam rising from a manhole in front of them, and took it in.
The textile mill was four stories, one of the biggest in the city, with Sumerand’s symbol engraved above the main entrance: a sword and a pickaxe over a slab of rock. Tannis and Lill took places at either side of the building to watch for more Jackals, while Aina, Ryuu, Teo, and Raurie approached a side door. A stronger sewage scent reached them here while Teo picked the lock, and Aina buried her nose in her scarf.
When they stepped inside, the factory was empty of people, but the fumes of dyes and chemicals were still strong, etched into the walls and permeating the air.
“My mother worked in one like this,” Teo said, his voice low with a bitter note. “No one can survive long, breathing in this stuff all day.”
Aina placed a finger to her lips, then looked around the factory—three stories rose above, all work floors with machinery standing still and uniform like soldiers. Dread formed a pit in her stomach at the sight. Thousands of employees needed these jobs, hired by Steels who would just as soon let them die from the factory fumes; Inosen as well, whose Steels bosses would report them to Diamond Guards the minute they discovered who they were.
The only light came from fluorescent bulbs in a second-floor manager’s office, which had a large window for managers and supervisors to watch the work floor. A narrow metal staircase without a railing ran along the right side of the wall, the only way to walk between each floor.
“You all have weapons?” Aina whispered, and when they nodded, she said, “Good. See the staircase? I think there’s a basement.”
They began walking down the stairs, sticking close to the wall to avoid tumbling over the railing-less side. Aina’s anticipation rose as they did, her heart beating so loudly in her ears, she feared it would give them away.
It was nearly pitch-black down here, which she supposed made sense if they’d wanted to keep this hideout a secret. They must have set up some kind of bribe with the factory managers. The stairway creaked under their footsteps, and she winced each time, expecting a sleeping Jackal downstairs to wake up and start shooting at the staircase any moment now.