In no time at all, we’re on a flight to another continent. Before we change planes on our layover, I have plenty of time to check the news—no reported strangeness at Stonehenge, so we appear to have gotten away with that—and get in touch with Letty.
She falls all over herself to spill the tea as soon as I start to ask, which makes my own eyes sting with tears again.
My sister isn’t the only one I failed with my blinders-on approach.
I wish I were surprised to learn that Evram threatened Letty, but it makes too much sense—for a person who doesn’t care about the means to the end, that is, which the grand magus has thoroughly demonstrated he exemplifies.
I am surprised that Letty’s involvement doesn’t sting, given what a cavernous chip I have on my shoulder when it comes to betrayal. I trusted her, but she also trustedme. And then I left her in an impossible position.
The problem with knowing all the wizards in Low Earth, as Letty does, is that all the wizards in Low Earth also know her. High Earth mages could find any wizard at all and press them for info, and all of them would know to point to Letty.
“I don’t know who it was,” Letty growls, “but I will find out.”
I appreciate her anger and her feeling sold out, but to my surprise, I don’t share it.
Maybe that’s growth.
Maybe I’m just tired.
“It doesn’t matter,” I tell her. My voice is hollow. “I didn’t do anything to protect any of you. No one had any way to stand up to a grand magus but me. That’s survival, Letty. I can’t hold that against any of you.”
Letty was the one to tell the grand magus I had a sister—Brook apparently had hidden our relationship just as I’d asked, which fills me with a mix of pride and sadness and a kind of strangled feeling—and that Brook was the way to get to me.
In a way, Letty did me a favor, because Evram missed a trick. She convinced him that Brook was the only way to get my attention, but he could have absolutely used Nariel for that too. But since Letty doesn’t know how deep I am in with Nariel now, she couldn’t know that Evram framing him to look like he’d betrayed me would have kneecapped me even more effectively.
Letty probably does know I’d have fought for her too, but as generous as she is, she knows what she’s worth.
Since she knows every wizard in Low Earth, she can also be used against all of us.
Brook, by comparison, can’t offer High Earth anything other than a line to me.
“I’m sorry all the same, Sierra,” Letty says. “And also fucking pissed.”
“Yeah,” I say softly, dangerously. “Lot of that going around. But thanks for saying it.”
“You have a plan? Because you’d better.”
“I do.”
A pause, then she swears. “You probably shouldn’t tell me what it is.”
“Oh, if they get in touch again, feel free to tell them we’re going to Japan. Just don’t tell them you gave me Ayaka’s contact info.”
A beat of silence.
Then: “Ayaka.”
“Ayaka,” I confirm.
Letty lets out her breath in a hiss. “Oh, I hope you know what you’re doing, girl. And don’t you even think about telling me. I can’t know anything else, just in case, even if the suspense drives me right out of my mind.”
“Thank you, Letty.”
“Don’t thank me,” she says grimly. “Just get your sister back and finish this.”
I glance at Nariel, who’s been watching and waiting patiently.
Waiting.
