One panicked breath, and Ben kept his eyes on the man as though no one else was here.
When he opened his mouth again, he wasn’t sure what he would say. Half of him still wanted to scream at this man—he had to be one of the betrayers who had led Argrid here. A wave of accusation flooded Ben’s throat.You’re wrong! How can you not see? Everything you say is disgusting!
But this man would shout the same right back, wouldn’t he?You’re wrong, Prince Benat! How can you not see?
This man, all these refugees, were so certain of their rightness that some of them had welcomed an army into this sanctuary. An army that had, less than a decade ago, burned people on this island.
Gunnar was right. Elazar had spoken to these people’s fears and woven a tapestry of promises that gave them everything they wanted. But all Ben had done was blame them, and cower from them, and wait for them to see the error in their choices becauseof coursethey would see it, the wrongness was obvious.
It wasn’t obvious, not to them. These people had treated Ben as an enemy from the moment he stepped into this sanctuary—and Ben had treated them as enemies for just as long.
“What of the people Elazar burned?” Ben repeated. He didn’t move closer, didn’t recoil, wasn’t sure he was still connected to his body at all. “What about the people still missing? What about the magic Elazar has forbidden, the livelihoods he’s taken from Grace Loray?”
“All necessary,” the man snapped back. Some of the grief was gone from his tone, following Ben’s own: an honest search for answers. “Evil has made this island sick. Its roots are deep—”
“Evil,” Ben echoed. “What is evil?”
“Raiders!” The man punched a fist into the air. “Weknow now—raiders! They brought these calamities upon us! They—”
“There are no raiders in Argrid,” Ben cut in. “And my country has struggled with poverty and disease for years. Who do we have to blame?”
The man’s mouth fell open.
Somewhere in the crowd, another voice spoke: “It was punishment, wasn’t it? Elazar said the Pious God punished Argrid for not getting rid of raiders during the war!”
Renewed by this, the man punched the air again, but Ben didn’t let him speak.
“If you purge this island of raiders,” Ben started, “the Pious God will reward you?”
A chorus of agreement, as though Ben had stated some plan.
“Raiders bring poverty, disease, and danger to Grace Loray because they are evil.” Ben had to shout to calm the intensity. It settled, but he held his voice high over the crowd. “The Pious God is purity and joy, the opposite of evil. Yet he punished Argrid with poverty and disease. You believe he will bless you for purging the raiders. If the Pious God is pure, why does he produce the same results as evil? How do you know he will deign to bless you—because Elazar promises you that he knows the Pious God’s will? If Elazar knows the Pious God’s will, why did he fail so spectacularly during the revolution?”
Silence. Nate, still among the people, wasn’t watchingBen anymore—he was looking at the crowd. Farther back, Kari, Rosalia, Lu, and Vex, even Jakes all watched with various mixes of confusion and wonder, hesitation and fear.
Beyond the crowd’s lingering—permanent—states of grief and anger, a change came. A brightness behind their eyes spoke of realization, however small, however fragile. Something in what Ben said had startled them into awareness.
A few turned to their neighbors, whispering cautiously.
Ben felt himself move through the crowd. People parted for him, and in a breath, he was at the base of the man’s barrel platform, looking up at this stranger.
And then Ben was kneeling.
“I apologize for Argrid,” he said. He projected his voice beyond this man, for the whole of the crowd. For Grace Loray. For Argrid. “In my time on this island, I have seen how deeply Grace Loray believes. In the Pious God, yes; but also in the Tuncians’ gods, Kek, Keket, Eshepri, and Fapsanti; the Visjorn spirit of the Mechts; the Grozdans’ belief in glory. One thing I can thank my father for is teaching me the importance of belief, and you, Grace Loray, have such beautiful conviction. But Elazar manipulated you. I am sorry we made you so afraid.”
The man on the barrel gasped, tears on his cheeks.
He stepped off the barrel, and Ben lost him in the press of people.
A hand scooped under his arm. Ben rose unsteadily tohis feet and turned to Lu, her eyes glazed. She gave him a timid smile.
At her side, Vex eyed the dirt. Lu squeezed Ben’s arm.
“Thank you,” she said, the gratitude weighted by years of pain.
Ben shrugged. Around them, the crowd was slowly breaking apart, many people talking to each other, most looking at Ben with strange wonder.
“I didn’t think it would help,” Lu whispered, putting words to the crowd’s confusion, “hearing an apology. Hearing someone admit what Argrid did. But—thank you.”
