The woman hesitates a little. In that hesitation, I hear something more than friendship. I hear an entire history that must have existed between this woman and the late queen. I hear an old, broken love.
“Mother?” I sign, and Raina translates.
“She died a long time ago,” the mayor says quietly. Then her gaze steels again, and she looks at both of us. “Constantine is a monster, just like his father. We follow the plan.”
Raina nods. “We follow the plan,” she agrees.
The walls I’ve put up around my heart lurch and threaten to topple. If all that I’m hearing is true—if there really is a chance for us to destroy Constantine and the Federation as it currently stands…
But then I remember why I’ve pushed away all thoughts of my old friends. Why I’m terrified when Red and I connect in our dreams. I remember my mother, riding in those borrowed luxury silks.
“There’s one problem,” I sign to Raina. “You can break down my link to Constantine all you want—but if Constantine has my mother under his control, I won’t make a move against him. I can’t.” I glance at the mayor. “Can you get to her? Can you hide her away on your estate?”
The mayor tightens her lips. “I can’t do that, I’m afraid,” she replies. “All our plans work under the assumption that Constantine trusts Raina and me. He’s known me all his life, and sees me as something of an aunt. Raina de Balman has overseen his entire scientific campaign for his military conquests. We are two of his closest advisors. But if I suddenlyrequest to keep your mother on my estate, he will immediately suspect us. We can’t risk it. I can’t keep your mother longer than Constantine wants her there.”
I narrow my eyes at them. “If you don’t help her, I won’t help you.”
“All of us have something significant to lose in this,” the mayor tells me, her gaze piercing mine.
Raina holds up her hands. “We didn’t say we wouldn’t help her.” Then she leans over the table and touches one of my hands with hers.
The walls in me go up, hiding my emotions behind their steel, and I pull my hand firmly away.
Raina fixes a steady gaze on me, unfazed. “I know how you feel. My husband and son need to escape the capital before Constantine’s toppling too. I give you my word, Talin Kanami—if you promise to aid us in this, I promise we will get your mother to safety.”
“Swear it,” I sign, my movements slow and deliberate.
“I swear it.”
My eyes go to the mayor. She nods once at me, and I recall the sympathy she’d had in her eyes when she’d told me to go see my mother yesterday morning.
“I swear it,” the mayor repeats.
Something is shifting under the sands of the Federation, weakening its foundations, and when it falls, it might take us all down with it. It’s likely that none of us will survive any of this. It’s even likely that somehow, in spite of Raina’s best efforts, Constantine has sensed the lurch of my feelings during this meeting and has already sent guards for me. We will be operating under constant fear of discovery. Of death.
And yet, here we are. We may all have something to lose, but we have everything to gain. For Raina, it’s freedom for herself and her family. For Mayor Elland, perhaps it’s revenge for the loss of a love.
And for me? Justice. For Basea, for Mara, for my mother. For myself.
I find myself looking back and forth between these two powerful women, united in spite of the tensions between them, in spite of everything they could lose.
And I find myself nodding at them.
17
RED
The celebrations in the city go late, butsome hours after midnight, everything finally settles down, and Jeran and I find ourselves squeezing into a space under a bridge not far from the arena. Along the horizon, I can see a little sliver of the National Museum’s silhouette, stark and abrupt against the sky.
I used to cross this bridge every week with my sister and father to go to that museum. Laeni would probably wrinkle her nose if she could see me crouched down here right now.
But it’s as safe a spot as any we can find. Patrols hate checking under these bridges because of the dampness and the stench of sewage bubbling up. When I was a boy, I used to gamble with the other new recruits for who had to keep the bridges free of people camping underneath them. Whenever I lost, I’d just take a reluctant peek under the arches, looking for people shivering among the wet weeds, before hurrying off to more interesting tasks. What a thankless, miserable job.
Well, I’m one of those shivering silhouettes now.
We stoop in knee-deep water. The quiet, sparsely populated night and our exhaustion have softened our fears, so we talk in low voices to distract each other from the wet chill of everything. Beside me, Jeran’sfingers run idly along his belt, as if he’s looking for all the weapons he used to have. I’ve learned over time what the idle gesture means.
“You’re thinking about Aramin right now, aren’t you?” I ask him as I chew reluctantly on one of our last sticks of dried seaweed and fish jerky.
