I mulled it over, rolling my tongue against my cheek. “Seems to me, at first blush, you have everything covered to turn Olhav into a well-oiled machine.”
“No, love, we do not. Don’t be hasty. Think on it longer. What do those five things all rely on to operate smoothly?”
When he put it that way, the thought came to me almost immediately. “A willing citizenry.” I rolled my wrist as we walked, speaking with my hands. “People who buy into the system.”
“Quite good. And how do we keep the citizens willing?”
Skartovius Ashfen would’ve been a good teacher if he wasn’t a bloodthirsty killer instead. Perhaps the two vocations weren’t mutually exclusive.
And that thought is what brightened the light in my mind.Teacher.My head whipped over to him. “By keeping them ignorant?”
He nodded slowly.
“Knowledge and history,” I muttered under my breath. “Olhav has no center for gaining knowledge. No schools, no academies, no libraries—no places of learning?”
His gold-flecked crimson eyes sparkled as they locked with mine.
“It seems a horrible misstep,” I said. “Would knowledge not make you more powerful? More inclined to try different systems of commerce to find greater economic success, for instance, or employ new military strategies to bolster your ranks? Better spying techniques learned from other cultures?”
He lifted a finger, waiting for a group of hard-speaking vampires to pass us before continuing. His eyes lingered on the mundane-dressed bloodsuckers, and he frowned at their backs. “You speak of knowledgein the right hands. That’s exactly what it does, Sephania. Problem is, the royals can’t trust a vampire—as strong-willed and ambitious as we are—with that sort of power. Not a common fullblood, anyway. And then there’s the aspect of having six ministers for every issue, which creates unbalanced voting.”
I nodded along. Even though Olhav was cleaner and better structured than Nuhav, it clearly had its own swath of problems. Regular ambition among bloodsuckers being one of them. At least in the eyes of the overlords and overladies.
“You’ve spoken of agency and independence,” he said, and I felt like we were getting to the point—perhaps the crux of everything I’d wondered recently about this vampiric trio I had linked with. “You hold those things dear, and for good reason. Because knowledge leads to agency and freedom of thought, which leads to understanding, which leads to power and control and the realization you don’t have any, which leads to . . .”
“Rebellion,” I finished when he trailed off.
His eyes smoldered and he smiled. A thrum of excitement speared through me at the look of pride he showed me, his newest pupil.
“And that’s where I come in,” Skartovius said in a hushed voice.
My brow threaded. “To stop the rebellion . . . or start it?”
His arrogant smirk remained plastered on his beautiful face. “What do you think, love?”
My eyes bored into his. “Thecause.”
A slow, measured nod made his auburn mane fall forward from his shoulders, sweeping his chest.
A heady daze filled my mind. I had always wanted to see Nuhavfixed. Different. Changed. Where people didn’t starve or have to fight for freedom in underground battle rings. Where girls and boys weren’t raped and traded on the flesh market. Where we didn’t have to pray to a faith that only kept us destitute, disheveled, and poverty-stricken. Where we didn’t have to abide by violent lawmen that only saw us as marks and were more ruffians than protectors.
Skartovius wanted something similar here. He wanted change, at the very least. I didn’t know his reasons, his plan, or what he specifically wanted.
But I knewthiswas something I could grasp and get behind.
Chapter 38
Nestled at the northwest end of the Military Ward, squished between other squat, nondescript buildings, sat our destination. This neighborhood was more of what I was accustomed to in Nuhav, without any of the coruscating lights or glamour from the Commerce Ward’s sky-touching structures.
I was surprised a nobleblood as regal as Lord Ashfen would be found dead in a place like this. The paint of the two-story white building was peeling, the three steps to get to the landing creaked and groaned from our weight. This was a dwelling in serious disrepair.
I noted our location was close to the edge of the Peaks, which meant the North Mines were not far down the mountainside.
The white ramshackle abode was shadowed by a few other structures—larger ones dwarfed it and hid it from prying eyes on the streets. I suspected that was why Skartovius had brought us here, now I knew more about his “cause.”
Rather than barging past the chipped wooden door in front of us, Skar showed respect for the first time I’d ever seen by rapping on the door with an elaborate pattern of knocks.
A minute later, the door opened.
