Page 81 of Forge the Blade

“Well, I am here to be seen.” Ellisandre gestured to their full self. “At four I’m picking Alice up for target practice.”

“I wish I had Lisa in target practice.”

“He could join Alice.”

“What about being seen?”

“It’s a private range, no cameras.”

Sevastyan frowned. “You’re certain Alice won’t talk?”

“Certain. And she won’t know who Lisa is. We’ll go in my vehicle, he can stay masked, and I’ll make sure we have the range to ourselves.”

“How often do you go?”

“Twice a week.”

“Send me the schedule. I’ll make it happen.”

Ellisandre nodded, a warm feeling spreading in their chest. He was trusting them.

Sevastyan dropped his eyes. “I am paranoid for a reason.”

“For several thousand reasons,” Ellisandre agreed. They sipped their drink. It was bitter with cranberries and gently sweet with something they couldn’t name. “How’s your mother?”

“Quiet. She’s waiting for me to make a move.”

“And will you, move?”

“I’m going to be called back to Seoul at any moment. I don’t want to trigger her power strategies just yet.”

“And you don’t want to kill Anton.” Ellisandre set their drink aside. Drinking to a man’s death was churlish.

Sevastyan set his own drink on a coaster. It was white stone, of course. He let his hands hang between his knees, leaning forward on his elbows. “No, I don’t. Even if I should. He’s a coward and a liability. I have no doubt he would sell me out at the first hint of a threat. Even killing Dirk was a risk. If he sees me moving towards taking power, he could sell me out to save his skin. He’ll be afraid that others will see him as a party to my goals.”

“We could kidnap him.”

Sevastyan grimaced. “That’s riskier.”

“And you’d have no head to give your mother.”

Sevastyan nodded.

“Give a rundown on how we need your mother’s support.”

“It’s more that we need her not to be throwing her support against us. Any step I take towards power, she has to believe is in her interest or she will move heaven and earth to cut me down. On the positive end, if she reads my moves as favorable to her and makes motion to take power in the Yadro, the attention of the Merchari will be split. They’ll be fighting internally. It could very well take most of the Russian Merchari assets out of play while they brutalize each other. But she will expect me to participate.”

“I assume she’s excellent at keeping her assets alive.” Ellisandre let the words hang in the air with a heavy tinge of sarcasm.

Sevastyan grimaced. “Not as good as she’d like her stooges to think. If I help, I’ll insist on planning and leading any missions I’m involved in. Otherwise, I’ll refuse. And she knows why. We had that fight before I was even fifteen.”

Ellisandre raised an eyebrow. They hadn’t expected it to go back quite that far. But at least it set precedent.

Sevastyan rubbed his face. “If my mother becomes one of the directors in the Yadro, I could probably manipulate her to show me the vaults. Those are where the records are located. Deals that have been struck, sales of slaves, where they’ve been sold and resold. The location of weapons caches. We’d be able to recover lives. Possibly resecure compromised borders.”

“You want to bring down justice.”

“I want to undo as much of the harm that I’ve caused as possible.”