1
“TO ENSURE THE good of every Grace Lorayan, we, your Council, have unanimously voted to relinquish control of the island to His Majesty Asentzio Elazar Vega Gallego, King of the Pious God–Blessed Nation of Argrid, Eminence of the Eternal Church.”
Even though Vex and Edda weren’t on the side of the castle that faced the courtyard, the councilman’s voice reverberated with perfect clarity. Last time Vex had been in New Deza’s fortress, he’d come as a prisoner—and he’d rather have been locked in the dungeon again than been subjected to the pristine acoustics of the servants’ halls.
He darted behind Edda, flying past windows servants had opened to usher in the lake breeze. All that the windows really let in was the stench of sweat from the crowd in the front courtyard and the bleating words of a representative from Grace Loray’s Council.
“Cansu and Nayeli are sure they found her?” Vex hissed. “They see her? I don’t want to hear this speech again. If we’re dallying here on a hunch or a rumor—”
Edda adjusted the Budwig Bean in her ear. One of the benefits of running missions with the Tuncian raider syndicate was access to the magic plant, which let two people communicate across great distances. “You planned this whole mission. Having doubts now?”
“I’ve had doubts about every decision I’ve made since Elazar set foot on this island again.”
Edda’s blue eyes softened, but then a maid appeared in front of them. Vex and Edda slowed to a walk. Vex drew the hood of his gray cloak lower, concealing his missing eye, while Edda twisted into the shadows until the maid vanished down the hall.
“The last time we had true peace on this island was centuries ago,” the councilman was saying, “when Argrid brought unity to the conflicting immigrant groups that settled here—”
“Nay heard guards outside her room mention her by name,” Edda assured him. Spots of pink touched her pale cheeks. “Just because Ben wasn’t here doesn’t mean this mission won’t—”
Vex shoved by her. “Won’t be a complete waste?” he snapped. “Yeah, we didn’t find my cousin. We weren’t able to save the people scheduled to burn today. But here’s hoping we free Kari Andreu—that’ll fix our problems.”
A sack of galles had bought Vex and Edda access to the list of prisoners due to be burned today after the councilman finished his speech. Ben’s name hadn’t been on it, but eleven other people’s names were—and defensors had them lined up at the base of the councilman’s platform, watched by a crowd, with no way for Edda and Vex to save them.
Part of Vex hadn’t expected to find his cousin, just as he hadn’t at the last three burnings he, Edda, and Nayeli had scouted. Ben had made himself a traitor after helping Vex and Lu try to escape his father’s ship two weeks ago, but he was still the Crown Prince of Argrid. Elazar wouldn’t let priests kill his son like a common criminal. He’d make an example of him instead.
Even so, Vex didn’t stop scouting the burnings. Ben had to be somewhere.
But god, it’d only been two weeks, and Vex was exhausted to the bone.
Edda caught up to him. Vex expected her to punch him in the shoulder for being irritable, but she walked next to him in silence as if he was a brittle creature. Which pissed him off.
“Threats darkened Grace Loray’s shore only when the stream raider syndicates rose against Argrid,” said the councilman. “What we perceived as aggression from Argrid was in fact defensors countering the attacks from stream raiders. All this time, we blamed the Argridians when they were as much victim as Grace Loray. The true enemy, the cause of our combined ills, is the manipulative, evil stream raider syndicates.”
ARGRID IS EVIL, Vex screamed in his head. ARGRID IS THE ENEMY, YOU LYING SACK OF CROCODILE SHIT.
When Grace Loray was discovered centuries ago, it became a free-for-all settlers’ paradise. People from the five Mainland countries had come, filled it up, and lived in moderate tolerance until Argrid decided to seize control and attempted to regulate its magic. To counter Argrid’s forceful claim, immigrants from the other four countries had each formed syndicates to protect their own.
They had been right to. Argrid had tightened its grip on Grace Loray, outlawing the magic plants that grew in the island’s waterways and burning anyone who disagreed with the Church’s doctrine. Rebels had fought off Argrid and instituted a democracy—but even that failed when Argrid infiltrated the Grace Lorayan government.
Now Argrid was back. Instead of forcing its standards of purity and magic-abstinence on the whole island, it had singled out one group: stream raiders. Lawless thieves hated by any who weren’t raiders themselves. Which made them perfect unifying scapegoats.
“Raiders hoard deadly magic,” the councilmember continued to the all-too-silent crowd. Why weren’t they screaming in fury? Why weren’t they outraged? “Raiders pillage and destroy in the name of defiance for defiance’s sake. Soon, you will not have to live in fear. The Council has allied with Argrid to purge Grace Loray in pursuit of our joint goal: a war on raiders.”
Vex’s lungs swelled. Variations of this weak-ass speech had introduced every execution he and his crew had infiltrated these past two weeks, as though any words could diminish the horror of people burning to death.
But people weren’t burning, not this time. Raiders were burning.
A spasm swept over Vex and he stumbled. His Shaking Sickness spells were getting harder to hide, as though his body knew his one chance at a cure had been stabbed to death on the deck of the Astuto.
The thought of Lu hit him like scalding water, and he caught himself on a window frame. Beyond his trembling fingers, a cloudless blue sky capped the island’s tangle of deep green jungle. Breaks in the trees spoke of the rivers that wound across the island, with long plumes of steam rising over boats. Below was the castle’s garden.
Edda put her hand on his shoulder. “You all right?”
This was the place he and Lu had escaped from weeks ago. He had to be standing right above the window he’d yanked open and jumped out with Teo on his back. Lu had been downright furious at him for bringing the six-year-old along, but what else could he have done? She had to admit that the journey had been good for the kid—
Vex scratched at the rough indigo sleeve of his stolen servant’s uniform. Good. Sure. If good meant Teo sitting in a shack in Port Mesi-Teab. Since Vex had come back without Lu two weeks ago, the only person Teo had spoken to had been Edda. But when Vex asked her what he said, she’d told him, “He’s a kid. He doesn’t know how to deal with what’s going on.”
Vex’s heart throbbed and he shook off Edda’s hand. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”
Edda gave him a look of disbelief. She fiddled with the Budwig Bean and her face got distant, as though she was listening to a voice echo down a tunnel. “We’re on the third floor now. Servant’s hall on the south side.” A pause. “Second door? Which—oh.”
Nayeli poked her head through a door, stray black curls bouncing in rebellion from the beige knit cap of her own servant’s uniform. She looked at Vex, the sympathy in her eyes saying Edda had told her, at some point, that they hadn’t found Ben. But she didn’t press for details—wouldn’t, around Cansu. The fact that Vex was Argridian royalty wouldn’t go over well among stream raiders, so as far as anyone else knew, Vex was just looking for his cousin. Not his cousin, the Crown Prince of Argrid.