“But,” Lu said, her voice still devoid of emotion, “you’rea criminal.”
Vex pushed himself up. Lu’s eyebrows were lifted in curiosity—and amusement. The smallest flicker, there, in the corner of her eye. It settled Vex’s chest.
“I’m a decent criminal,” he said. “Rosalia cut off her crewmate’s fingeron a dare.”
Lu blanched and exhaled what was almost a laugh. “You’re joking.”
“Grozdans are an incomprehensible level of unbalanced.”
“I’m surprised you and Rosalia weren’t a fit, then.”
Vex tried to look offended, but he was smiling too much. Lu had made a joke. At his expense, but he’d take whatever he could get.
“Thank you for waiting.” Rosalia draped herself against the doorframe, her black curls falling around her arms. “Being a Head issotaxing, you understand. Well. Most of you.”
Fatemah straightened. “Come in. Shut the door. We don’t have time for nonsense.”
Rosalia obeyed, the door clicking behind her. She leaned against it with a contented sigh. “Gloria bless me, this is what it feels like. To be one of the chosen few.”
“The chosen few who will push Argrid out of Grace Loray,” Kari amended. “It is why Cansu called you here, I believe. To join our cause.”
“You have no right to speak on behalf of the Tuncian syndicate!” Fatemah snapped.
“But I do.” Nayeli met Fatemah’s expected glare. “And I agree with Kari. Cansu wanted the syndicates to unify to push out Elazar—that’s why we’re all here. Port Camden’s taken. New Deza’s long gone. I’m guessing defensors and Council soldiers overran Port Fausta too?”
Rosalia huffed but didn’t deny that soldiers were swarming the Grozdan syndicate’s main city. Vex’s eye widened, and he looked back at Nayeli. Here Vex’d assumed Rosalia had come just to stir up trouble, but Nayeli had realized that Rosalia wouldn’t have just strolled on down to Port Mesi-Teab herself unless she’d had no other choice.Really desperatelyhad no other choice.
“So Port Mesi-Teab is the last free port on this island, and even it is struggling to combat Elazar’s call to arrest anyone raider-like,” Nayeli continued. “You can’t deny it anymore, Fatemah. Grace Loray needs the Tuncian syndicate, and we need Grace Loray.”
Fatemah’s face flared red. “You forfeited your position here long ago.”
“But I never stopped being your niece. I never stopped caring about Port Mesi-Teab.”
Vex glowed with pride. In a different life, Nayeli had been Cansu’s closest confidante, and being Fatemah’s niece gave her standing too—but she’d left that behind when Cansu and Fatemah had told her they’d rather die fighting than submit to the Council’s rule.
Vex shared a look with Edda, but his pride flickered in her bittersweet gaze.
No matter how this war ended, it would never be him, Nay, and Edda again. Would it?
“Fortifying the sanctuary as our base would protect the people here,” Kari added.
“It will make them targets,” said Fatemah. “How many will we lose in another conflict between Argrid and Grace Loray?”
“You’re already losing people,” Vex cut in. “When we were in the Port Camden prison, we found a wing of prisoners of Tuncian heritage and a room stuffed with Tuncian spices. Elazar’s already targeted your people for—something,” he finished weakly. Elazar’s goal of making permanent magic wasn’t a known fact yet, and it was better if the power-hungry, violent raider Heads didn’t have that possibility in their arsenal.
But the room didn’t notice Vex’s slip, gaping at him in unveiled surprise.
He was getting real tired of people being shocked when his contribution to a conversation wasn’t a sarcastic comment.
Lu was the only person not gaping. Her face set in that studious, thinking look of hers, her dark eyes flashing over him.
“Tuncian spices?” she echoed. “You found Tuncian spices in the Port Camden prison?”
Normally, her intense focus entranced Vex—but now it worried him. “Yeah. Why—”
He bit back the question. The room was still watching him, and Lu now, and he couldn’t very well ask her if she knew why Elazar had had Tuncian spices without leading to a discussion on permanent magic. His mouth stayed open, caught, and Lu’s eyes drifted to the floor.
“Fine,” Fatemah relented, pulling the conversation away from them. Her voice was smaller than Vex had ever heard from her. It was terrifying—Fatemah never showed vulnerability. “You may use this sanctuary for your... war plotting.”
