Vex flicked his eye from Edda to Nay and back, and let this reunion nestle into the tangle of emotions inside him. He might be a useless unaligned raider—heretic—butas long as he had Edda and Nayeli, he wouldn’t choose any other fate.
The Visjorn bear blood necklace was easy enough to break. Lu put it in a mortar and gently,gently, cracked the glass, letting the precious blood drip into the stone bowl. It was such a small amount—would it be enough? How much did the Mecht clan leaders use in their potions? She couldn’t bring herself to ask Gunnar, not now, when going to him would mean facing Vex in the cells where the Tuncians had locked them away.
She sorted her Tuncian spices. She picked which magic plants to use. She went over the steps to make Emerdian stonework, the temperature and molding, the time and pressure.
How, all this time, have so many cultures used our magic and not realized it was happening in Port Mesi-Teab, in Port Camden, in the Mechtlands? How has no one pieced this together before now?
Rosalia came, and Lu asked if there was anything Grozdans combined with Grace Loray’s magic that was unique to them. Rosalia couldn’t think of anything, but that didn’t mean something wasn’t out there, being used even now. Would Elazar and Tom find it first?
They had done something with Menesia to make it control Cansu after Elazar sang a hymn. That paralleled how the Mechts used Eye of the Sun, and the Tuncians used Budwig Beans, and Emerdians used Bright Mint. Tom hadput that together, experimenting with different concentrations of Menesia—as he had done on her.
Lu’s hand hovered over a vial of Bright Mint. She could make a condensed dose of it, take it, and see what memories Tom had erased from her mind.
She stayed herself and got back to work.
Kari came. Nayeli wasn’t there to bar her entry, and she stood next to the table as Lu laid out the most potent of the Tuncian spices.
“We have had news,” Kari was saying. “Elazar has left Port Mesi-Teab. He appears headed northeast, for Port Fausta, to continue ‘spreading his coming light.’”
Rosalia was in the sanctuary, though. Whoever Elazar would get to bow to him as a symbol of Port Fausta’s surrender, it wouldn’t be the Grozdan syndicate Head.
“Tom is gone as well?” Lu asked.
Kari hesitated. “Yes.”
Whenever she left to fight Elazar, Tom would be there. And Teo. That likelihood circled Lu’s plans, a hawk with a crooked beak and bloodthirsty talons.
Lu refused to let it debilitate her. Confronting her father would invigorate her, and when she stood before him this time, she would not hesitate. She would not let him break her.
Kari’s voice quickened. “Now that we know Elazar’s plan, we will follow him to Port Fausta and assassinate him. Heads Blaise and Rustici have agreed to join us, and HeadRustici will contribute knowledge of Port Fausta. But, sweetheart, you don’t need to be involved—”
Lu flinched away. “Harmedeku,” she said, touching a jar of spice. “Nigrika. And—” She couldn’t remember the name of this one, but it was rich and chocolaty and a single whiff had made her eyes water—from its potency, and from memory.
Kari had cooked with this spice. A breakfast treat on Lu’s birthday—pork that had marinated in it for days, with sticky, fresh honey and tart grapefruit, cooled by yogurt and eaten with stone-cooked Tuncian pastries from Kari’s mother’s recipe—
“Mootabel.”
Lu looked up.
Kari stared at the jar. “Mootabel,” she repeated. “The spice. They say it comes from the god of Rebirth, Eshepri. That eating it can make you anew.” She lifted her eyes to Lu’s. “You can’t still want this, Adeluna. Permanent magic.”
Lu gripped the jar of Mootabel. New starts—that was why Tuncians associated it with birthdays. “He’s already working on magic,” she whispered. “If he figures out how to make it permanent while he still has Teo—no. I will do this. I have to do this. For Teo, for Grace Loray, to make this island safe.”
Kari’s eyes glistened. “You’ve never felt safe, have you?”
Lu didn’t respond.
Kari’s eyes drifted back to the table. She lifted the jar of Harmedeku. “This one is used in offerings to the god of Death, Fapsanti. She is the wife of Eshepri, so it is often paired with Mootabel. Nigrika—this is associated with lesser blessings. Has Nayeli gotten you Hadiza, or Tale? Those are the spices of the other two gods, and could be—”
A thin yet sturdy thread of tension wound around them, but Lu shoved it to the edge of the room, scooping up Kari’s help and her presence with greedy hands.
Years ago, they had sat in ramshackle hideaways together, Kari explaining the finer points of stealth and spying to Lu. This was no different, and as Lu asked about the amounts of spices often used, she saw an echo of her younger self, staring up at Kari with wonder.
This was her mother. This resilient, controlled woman, who could analyze any situation and adapt it to her own ends. Who could bring an entire country to its knees. Who could wage war and rip victory away with bloody hands and never once lose her poise.
Tom had made Lu a traitor. But this was her mother, imperfect and indestructible, and maybe, since Lu had come from her, she could be those things, too.
Equal spoonfuls of Tuncian spices—Harmedeku, Mootabel, Hadiza, and Tale, the four added to concoctions to demand the gods’ blessings. They perfumed the air with zest and smokiness. Adding spices in those amounts toBudwig had let Cansu listen through every similar plant on the island.
