Emeric goes quiet a moment. Something is weighing on him, something that sits ill with me. “It should be. But we need to time it right. Bystanders will be able to observe the trial, and if I fail to convince the Low Gods, you will need people with the political power to bring the margrave to justice.”
I don’t miss the change in pronouns. “What do you mean, you?” He doesn’t answer. I go cold. “Emeric.What happens if you fail?”
He stares at the tabletop, stone-faced. “No matter what . . . summoning the Godly Court will kill me.”
“No,” I say immediately, “no—”
“If I win the case, the Low Gods will bring me back to life,” he pushes on. “If I lose . . . they don’t have patience for junior prefects wasting their time.”
“We’ll find another way.”
“There isn’t one.”
“I said we’ll find one!”
“AndIsaid I’d bring him to justice, whatever it took.” Emeric’s voice rises. “I’m not letting y—I’m not letting him get away. He has to answer for what he’s done.”
The protest withers on my tongue. Of course. He wants revenge for Klemens. He wants it enough to die for it.
He wants it more than—
Me.
What a vain, stupid thing hope is.
What a vain, stupid thing I am, to have hoped for more.
Of course Klemens is more important; I’m a girl he barely knows, even if—even if I let myself think there might be anafterfor us. Years have passed, and I’m just the same little fool sniveling into a washrag because the boy she liked chose something else. Something that mattered more.
“Why the hell does it work like that?” Joniza asks. “It doesn’t make sense to spend all that time training you and then kill you the first time you put it to the test.”
“If I were fully ordained, it wouldn’t be an issue,” Emeric explains. “It’s like with the witch-ash. Junior prefects may have the tools, but the risk keeps us from abusing them. The second tattoo is what allows a prefect to survive channeling the gods’ powers.”
I’m not giving up. “How does the summoning work? Can we, I don’t know, diffuse it somehow?”
“No, it requires an incantation that’s specific to the prefect coin and—” He catches himself, then swallows. “That’s all I’m going to say.”
I don’t know what hurts more, that he thinks I’d sabotage the summoning, or that he’s caught me fishing for a way to do just that.
He knows what I am, after all: selfish. I wear that mark plain on my face. I would let Minkja burn if I could drag at least us from the ashes.
“All our lives have been on the line at one point or another,” Emeric adds, trying to soften the edge. “And if the margrave wins, none of us are making it out of here alive—”
“Oh, I definitely am,” Joniza says flatly. “Are you kidding? I’m not dying in this mud pit.”
“No one is.” I lean on the table, trying to think. My hand lands on Emeric’s satchel and accidentally shoves it off in a tumble of charcoal sticks. I wave him back and crouch to clean it up. “No, I’ve got it.”
“What about the gala on Saturday evening?” Barthl speaks up for the first time. He’s been lurking in the corner, antsy as ever, though I can’t say I blame him. “Adalbrecht will be away from his study, so we can take the skull. Representatives from the Imperial Court will be there, with their security details, and plenty of other nobility who aren’t part of the von Hirsching alliance. Even in the worst-case scenario, you’ll have an audience who can hold Adalbrecht to account if the Low Gods won’t.”
I drop the last of the charcoal sticks back in the satchel—then freeze at a familiar canvas-bound book.
Yannec’s ledger is still in there.
No, I tell myself. This isn’t the time. I return the satchel to the table.
“I’m booked to play the gala too,” Joniza says. “You can coordinate around my song cues again.”
“Perfect. Barthl and I will handle the study guards and get the skull, then bring it to the gala. I will summon the court.” Emeric stares at the ceiling, thinking. “If we win the case . . . Gisele, the adrogation works in your favor. You may have some challenges for the title, but whatever punishment von Reigenbach faces, you’ll likely inherit everything. That means you should take the pearls for the gala, with Ragne for protection.”
