“Allies?”
“Did you think I produced these weapons domestically, darling? I lack the materials, the facilities, the knowledge. Lantyca was not built to raise an army.”
I tried to hold my face steady. Sitri’s smile faded from his face. Those rare hours in the workshops of Lantyca offered me a change of scenery, a chance to stretch my muscles and do what I was best at. They gave me companionship. A taste of the freedom I so desperately needed.
As soon as they’d been granted, they vanished.
“Thank you for the food.” I stood from the bed, moving to pull my chair from where it sat tucked beneath the desk. When I looked back up, Sitri had disappeared from the doorway, leaving only my meal behind.
“Think you’ve got it, darling?”
I sighed and set my collection of metal scraps down on the workbench. According to Sitri, it used to be a flamethrower. What had started as orders to clean and recreate simple weaponry had devolved into a full-scale reverse-engineering project. For each of the devices whose mechanisms I discerned, three more took its place. This was truly a Sisyphean task.
“I’ll need a few more hours for this,” I admitted. “Unless you havean intact nozzle, that is. That’s where I’m stuck.”
“Noted. I shall check next door. Perhaps there are some that aren’t quite so damaged.”
Sitri ducked out of the workshop and back onto the city streets. I shook my head. What was one more trinket for the ever-growing pile he fed me?
At least he’d placed a little trust in me. With every day that passed, he watched from a greater distance, granted more allowances. When he’d first taken me out to work, he hadn’t let me out of his sight for a moment. Now he had the confidence to leave me unsupervised in a building full of potential weapons.
The Prince was lucky. If he’d been right about me, about my ties to Vapula, the war would already be over.
Sitri reappeared in the doorway sometime later, a new basket of beaten metal in hand. He dropped it onto the table with a clang. I jumped, scrambling to recollect the screws and washers that went flying.
“This is the best I can do. Hope it helps, darling.”
“Honestly, you’re impossible to work with,” I said with a scowl.I shot him a glare and straightened out my workspace.
He had the nerve to laugh. “You think it’s impossible, yet you have done work far better than any of my own men. I’d say quite the contrary; if anything, it is you who cannot be pleased.”
I blinked. It was a compliment, albeit a backhanded one, that caught me completely off guard. There was something else to it, though; an admission of a weakness that he’d let slide so freely.
“There’s not a single engineer in this kingdom who can complete a task like this?”
“Mine is a kingdom of desires. You’ll find swordsmiths and rogues, vigilantes and oligarchs, but those with a talent for machines are quite rare in Lantyca. You are among fewer than a dozen peers here.”
“That explains a lot.”I turned back to my work, hoping Sitri missedthe smile on my face.
Praise had always been lacking in my life. It was nice to be recognized. Celebrated.
After so long in my family’s shadow, I’d forgotten how it felt. The thought made my chest ache, even as I swelled with pride.
“Other kingdoms aren’t like this, then?” I asked, if only to distract myself. “Quite so… rustic, I mean.”
“Not in the slightest. Most of them have some specialty, whether it be science or soothsaying. There are seventy-two in all, each with its own noble ruler. Never dynasties. Always usurpers.”
“Seventy-two?And you know them all? Their rulers, their specialties?”
Sitri scowled, turning his head away from me and back towards my work. “To say I know them is generous, but I knowofthem, yes.
“Nine Kings to rule the Hells, twenty-three Dukes to bind the Earth, seven Princes to command their courts. Fifteen Marquises to keep the peace, five Earls to sow disorder, twelve Presidents to grant counsel, and one Knight to incite the war.
“That’s the story I was told, at least. If ever we cooperated in such a way, it was long before my rule.”
Sitri picked bits of metal from the basket he’d brought and discarded any that seemed damaged. I stared at him, dumbfounded, but he didn’t seem to notice.
Dukes ruling Princes? Presidents and Knights with kingdoms?
