Ben shook his head and pulled away, cheeks red. “Of course he’ll suspect a trick. Which he will also want crowds to see—if we say we come in surrender, and lie? It will also confirm what he has said about us. Either way, this will guarantee we have an audience, and that Elazar allows us—me—time to speak. I can talk to Grace Loray. I can talk to my father.”
Rosalia started to object, but Kari made a hum of agreement.
“As you did with the townsman earlier,” she said. “You talked him down. Rationally, calmly—and openly. It is all this island wants, to be heard and gratified. If you present yourself to Elazar in such a way, before crowds, he will be unable to make you a villain. And if the raider syndicates come at your back, supporting you without arms—it will also undo Elazar’s lies.”
Ben nodded, eyes solemn. In that moment, Lu saw beyond the man who had comforted her in the prison cell after Milo’s torture, the man who had kept her from losing herself during those disintegrating weeks. She saw a king.
“Will that be enough?” Pierce asked. “Just... talking? The people of this island will hear you apologize and go, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve been fools to believe Elazar—all hail the raiders’?”
“Lu has permanent magic too,” Ben said. “If Elazar has taken the vial of permanent magic and tries to presentmagic as the Pious God’s blessing, Lu can disprove that by revealing her own powers. We will force him to show his true self to this island. And this time, if a fight comes, we will prove that Elazar instigated it.”
Kari nodded. “We will not lift a blade until his defensors attack.”
“What if Elazar uses our missing people as hostages?” Pierce kept on. “He already took that kid. And where will webeif we’re supposed to surrender? How’re we gonna fight?”
“Magic,” said Rosalia.
“Permanent magic is not an option,” Kari said. “We must consider other means—”
“Magic should still be an option, though,” Lu declared.
Nayeli, still next to Lu, lifted her hands and stepped back as if to say,You’re on your own.
“We cannot deny parts of this island,” Lu said. The whole of the room turned to her. “We will win this war as Grace Loray, and that includes magic. Many of our plants are already weapons—Rhodofume, Hemlight, Variegated Holly. Others can be adapted to be useful in battle—Drooping Fern, Budwig Beans. We can go to this meeting armed in other ways.”
“You didn’t mention the ones we can ingest,” Pierce said. “Powersage. That berserker plant, Croxy.”
“As long as they are taken willingly. But I will not alter them. No one should.”
Rosalia groaned, but Pierce put a hand on her arm and gave Lu a pointed look.
“Just because you decided to stop making permanent magic doesn’t mean it won’t happen again,” he said. “Maybe not now. Maybe not before the war’s end. But itispossible. It’ll happen—so why shouldn’t we get ahead of it? Make it, so we can control it.”
Lu stiffened. “There is no controlling this. If—when—permanent magic is made, I will no longer be part of it. I’ll prepare Grace Loray’s plants for use in battle, but I won’t continue permanent magic experiments.”
Silence fell. Pierce waved his hand, conceding.
“We will send word to Elazar.” Kari looked first at Lu, then at Ben. “That the two of you will surrender.”
Gunnar, who had been silent since his outburst, shoved out of the room. The slam of the door against the wall signaled some kind of dismissal, and the rest of the room stirred, rose.
Ben disappeared behind Gunnar before Lu could speak to him. What was there to say, though? The plan was straightforward enough. They would surrender to Elazar. They would kneel before the man who had decimated thousands of lives and lied to two separate countries.
And in that surrender, they would force him to reveal his truths. Those truths would be his undoing.
Pierce and Nate left, but Rosalia lingered, her eyes flicking from Kari to Lu.
“We win this war,” Rosalia said. “It doesn’t mean I trust you.”
“I don’t expect you to,” Kari replied. “As long as you accept that I do not trust you, either. Wariness will keep us in check as we proceed into a unified future.”
Rosalia bit her lips together. She smacked her fist over her heart and said, in Grozdan, that phrase Lu had heard from her and her crew—glory in the attack.
Hearing her speak Grozdan spiked Lu’s hatred of her. She was part of the reason Vex had, for so long, clung to the shame of his scar.
But Vex hadn’t put his eye patch back on after last night. Lu had sensed his trepidation, but she’d kissed him again, willing the feel of her lips to act more as a shield than any eye patch.
Rosalia left. Nayeli let out a loud exhale and dropped against the wall.
