I hated turning my back on Azul and at the same time I felt, just as strongly, that it was a childish feeling. Like when I used to carry Big Bunny along, for fear it’d be thrown away.

  Of course Azul could take care of himself. Of course Sergeant Vargas could supply all the help he needed. However, nobody is immune to bad luck. The King of the Dying Sun would know.

  The best I could do was ending this situation before anything happened to him. What these people, whatever they called themselves, wanted was obvious. They’d attack Cassel from the back while I distracted him. One supposes someone of my standing should take offense at this. If they got rid of Cassel for me, though, I’d consider myself to be using them as much as they were using me, and call it a draw.

  As I left the factory, the guards backed down, more ready to run than fight. No wonder Cassel had brought guards from Vorsa. Of course, the local guards were the smart ones. Unless Cassel had told them to expect someone of my description, which I wouldn’t put past him, they wouldn’t recognize me. But they didn’t need to; it was obvious I shouldn’t be there.

  “Tell Governor Cassel to come meet His Illustrious Highness at the empty lot southwest from here.” I paused to confirm my words had sunk in. “He better come here before I level the entire district.”

  I walked straight at them, hands on my pockets, just to see what they’d do. As I expected, they scattered. Half a block ter they started following me. Hopefully not all of them; I wouldn’t turn around just to find out.

  The storm hadn’t reached us, but it already pressed in on us from above. Nothing worse than bright and oppressive weather. Exhaustive training is worth it when it becomes second nature, so that I could be distracted by the approaching clouds and still be able to dispel any spells the guards threw at me. I don’t know if they understood what I’d done. Some people, I’d noticed, seemed to think I was impermeable to spells for some reason or another. Which is nonsensical, but people often are. Whatever the reason, that first halfhearted attempt was their only one. After that, they were content to follow at a timid distance. As if I wouldn’t do as I said.

  Construction had begun at the lot a while ago, but it’d barely gotten to the foundations before, it seemed, everyone had simply left in the middle of work. I sat on a pile of bricks that afforded me a decent view of the grounds and waited.

  Cassel thought I was behind the strike for whatever reason; I’d assumed he preferred that idea to the reality of being brought to a standstill by mere workers. Azul believed he’d been helped along in his suspicions, though, and I was starting to agree with him. How far did the set-up go, I wondered? Nothing less surprising than another Protectorate official taking upon themselves to orchestrate Cassel’s downfall—I think that’s how his parent had gotten the governorship, though of course one can’t be expected to keep track of such things. If they’d struck a deal with the strike leaders, they could sweep in after Cassel was done for and credit themselves with solving the problem. And very little would change for the strikers and High Tomenedra as a whole, and some years ter the situation would repeat itself.

  That’s the Protectorate’s entire history.

  Nevertheless, I had to wonder why nobody had found any traces of the conspirators in high pces. It’s extremely difficult to go unnoticed, not in the rats’s nest that’s court. Cassel had gathered his allies at the Starry River, no doubt to discuss this matter, and he couldn’t have found anything. His suspicions of me weren’t entirely unfounded. On the other hand, whoever had framed me had gone after the only person involved in court that couldn’t conspire against Cassel, or anybody else for that matter. I could attempt to prove my ck of involvement, if Cassel would believe me; I couldn’t decide to become involved.

  And if this person, as Azul believed, was also behind the necromancer who’d summoned the needleteeth, if not more? That was someone with reach, knowledge, and deep pockets.

  I didn’t think Cassel had taken a side in the succession dispute; many in the Two Chambers were waiting to see which way the wind blew before they committed themselves, even if they paid lipservice to the Megarchon’s chosen heir. And Cassel, being busy with far more pressing issues, wouldn’t concern himself with something that was still technically undecided. Maybe Oriana should’ve thrown a couple of millions at Cassel, and secure him as a supporter. High Tomenedra had resources and a strategical position between the north and south of Zalmuric, with its airport, train stations, and river. It was a fairly logical step.

  It’d be easier to dismiss Oriana as not much of a strategical thinker, but she was still the daughter of a diplomat, and that Mayor Hira seemed to know quite a bit of what went on.

  It was more interesting—and more worrying—to wonder if something hadn’t pushed Oriana away from investing in Cassel’s governorship.

  Cris had been conspicuously absent for the better part of a year, but of course that meant nothing.

  I was wrapped up in these thoughts when the guards attacked me again; all together and so suddenly the pile of bricks shattered under me. Though I was caught by surprise, muscle memory still reacted the way it was supposed to: dispel dispel dispel dispel deflect dispel deflect dispel dispel dispel deflect. I fell on my feet, surrounded by a cloud of brick dust. One of the guards screamed, but all of them were lucky to be just far enough for the deflected spells to miss them. A wood beam to my left caught fire, though it burned slowly, and the rain would take care of it soon. The earth, meanwhile, had cracked under my feet in something not unlike a star shape.

  “That wasn’t smart,” I said.

  Nobody answered. The guards had retreated out of sight—taking cover in a warehouse at the right, it seemed. There was movement there.

  With my silver earth spell on my left hand, I kneeled and touched the ground. The sun-baked earth screamed its fury.

  When I said I’d level the entire district, I was indeed bluffing. But not because I couldn’t do that; simply because I’d rather not to. After all, with the earth in such a state I couldn’t guarantee Azul’s survival, or even my own. Never mind leveling a district; I could destroy most of the city.

  I poured the smallest drop of power I could into the angry nd. The warehouse shook and came crashing down. More people screamed.

  “Take your wounded away and make sure to tell Cassel to come this time.” Not that I doubted they’d reported to him already. Neither did I doubt he’d appear only after the guards had removed most of the danger to him. This wasn’t an opera, to be concluded with a dramatic one-on-one showdown.

  I searched for another seat. The only high ground was a shed that should’ve been torn down and turned to firewood years ago—spared only by the interrupted work, I was sure. I gave it a good kick, found it sturdier than I expected, and used an open window as a foothold to jump to the roof.

  Someone was already sitting there.

  Honestly, that caught me unawares and, by flinching away from this presence, I almost fell to the ground. You must understand uba forms don’t prepare you for these surprises. I did manage to hold on to the roof tiles, though they were hot with the sun and not a very good grip otherwise, and helped myself on top.

  This person was sitting on the shed’s main wooden beam, which looked slightly rotted but not quite enough to pose a danger. She looked like a woman of advanced middle-age to me, dressed not unlike the strikers—but I didn’t buy that she was one of them. And not because she was perhaps a member of a different ethnic group, though she probably was—the nuances weren’t readily avaible to me. If Azul was there, he’d know—I’d have to manage on my own.

  But Azul had told me something, hadn’t he? This woman wasn’t the one we’d talked to in the caves, which left another possibility open.

  “Are you Nina?” I asked.

  “Word’s getting around, I guess.” She looked—I was going to say bored, but that wasn’t quite it. I should rather say unimpressed. Someone who’s seen it all.

  Remaining standing made me felt unnervingly conspicuous, so I sat on the beam, carefully, taking advantage of the sloping roof. It creaked rather worryingly under my weight, but endured.

  “Did you really expect Cassel would leave that building?”

  “You really like asking questions, don’t you?” And her accent had the cadence of center-east Zalmuric, but not as pronounced as Azul’s. If I’d met her in Vorsa, I would’ve struggled to locate it. “If he doesn’t come for you, there’s no hopes of drawing him out. Of course that’s a long shot anyhow, but it’s better than not trying. And he’s in a fucked-up pce. Does he send the bulk of his guards after you, and so diminish them before he’s even started with the strikers? If he waits too long, however, he risks allowing you to rally the strikers, and maybe others, into an overwhelming force.”

  “He’ll focus on getting rid of me and using his triumph to colpse the strikers’s morale. Losing all of the guards he brought from Vorsa is worth it as long as he can secure the city. Besides, he also has the suppression officers—the greensuits.”

  She looked at me with faint interest. “You’re picking up sng, huh? But don’t they worry you?”

  “They’re certainly inconvenient.”

  “Really now?” This time, she sounded more than unimpressed. “A hundred greensuits are an inconvenience?”

  I considered this. “You’re right. A hundred at once would present serious problems.”

  She scoffed. “You kids need to start taking things seriously while you still can.”

  “I do. I’ve faced worse things than guards. Or suppression officers. And I’m quite good at earth spells.”

  From her lighthearted tone next, I think she was amused at my offense. “Sure, but are you sure you can unleash the earth’s fury without it getting out of control?”

  “Oh, fine. I’m open to suggestions.”

  “Hey, I’ve come to help you. This is much better than my original idea, after all. You attract Cassel’s forces and I handle them.”

  Something crawled over my skin; the same discomfort from the storm pressing in on us. That wasn’t an empty boast. And nothing about her gave the feeling of someone about to self-destruct. I could’ve dismissed her as someone who didn’t know what she said, certainly, but my instincts told me—

  —pay attention.

  Azul had talked to the strikers at the factory, and that other woman’s name had been mentioned, a name I couldn’t quite remember; I hadn’t understood anything else, other than a single word. One of the few Khachimik words I understood, because I’d bothered to read about the Empire.

  “And I also suppose you’re the kimayu,” I said.

  “No, it’s qimayu.”

  “I dislike uvur stops,” I replied. She chuckled at this, but rather than take offense, I preferred to ask her why she’d chosen that title for herself.

  We didn’t really have time for that, though. And not just because the guards would be arriving any time now. My locket had warmed up. Maybe it was nothing—he had more than enough reasons to be worried. I wouldn’t count on it, though.

  “Can you talk to that person who spies on people?” I asked.

  “That’s a bit harsh. But yes, I can. What do you want to know?”

  “If Azul is fine. You know who Azul Mamani is, don’t you?”

  Instead of answering, she licked the tip of her index and drew a shape in the air. “Amankay, what’s going on with the Mamani boy?”

  Drops of water condensed in the air, taking a vaguely human shape. “A moment please. He’s indoors.”

  “He’s been left alone with the Sabrewing,” I said, though I wasn’t sure if I was expining what worried me or trying to make it easier for her to find him. Maybe both.

  “Yes,” Amankay said, “there’s guards in the factory.”

  I sighed. “I suppose the Sabrewing can handle them.”

  It should’ve been me, I thought. Never mind that Sergeant Vargas couldn’t take my pce.

  “And you have three detachments of guards approaching,” Amankay said. More of the air humidity condensed in the shape of a map. Not a very good one, but I couldn’t very well nitpick a blind person’s map. The gist of it, at least, was readily understandable: three lines approached a square from roughly the northwest, west, and southwest.

  “Can you keep tabs on the remaining detachments?” I asked. “Including the suppression officers.”

  “I’m already tracking them.”

  “Of course. I appreciate that.”

  “I’m sure you do.” She sounded in a good mood, at least. The water shape dissolved.

  “We clean up the detachments,” I said, “then we move on toward Cassel. Is that right?”

  “We gather the strikers and everyone who wants to join in, we encircle Cassel, and we press on.”

  “I see.”

  “The first step is the easiest, mind you.”

  “Really?” I couldn’t help myself. “Are you sure you’re taking things seriously enough?”

  She ughed with a distinctive ck of humor. “Watch your mouth, kid. I mean that the energy center is still unfinished, but if Cassel entrenches himself there with the better part of the remaning guards and greensuits, he’s going to make things pretty cursedly hard for us.”

  “He sent his son out of the city. This might as well be his st stand.”

  Nina nodded. “But there’s something he doesn’t count on. There’s a storm coming.”

  My skin crawled.

  “Just one more thing,” I said. “Azul thinks you’ve come to free Tipilej Awki. Is that true?”

  “That’s the title we give it. Guess your boy told you.”

  I ignored what she’d called Azul. “Well, is it true or not? Did you plot all of it to free Tipilej Awki?”

  “I don’t have to answer your questions, you know. But I’ll answer this one. It’s true, but it’s not all of the truth. I haven’t come to High Tomenedra for a single errand.”

  Nothing she said could be trusted, of course, but I was willing to bet that much was true. As to whether she’d help me or not in the end, well—if Nina wouldn’t keep up her side of the bargain, she wouldn’t be the only one. I would take Azul out of High Tomenedra. That wouldn’t change even if the entire mountain came crashing down; it wouldn’t change if I was the one who brought it down.

  broccolifloret