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And what about Matthew? He was still floating around somewhere out in the Ash, the wild card. What was coo-yôn’s plan? “Everyone here is committed to stopping the Emperor and Fortune and dying in that fight if necessary. But we can’t fight them if we can’t find them.”
“What if the Empress is the winner?” Brun asked, sounding like this was a worst-case scenario.
“Why did the Swords want to take her out? Just ’cause of what they thought she did to the Cups?” That paper Joules found had listed some other high-level strategy reasons, but I wanted to hear from someone who’d regularly talked to Kos.
“They targeted her because the Empress can’t be trusted. The Hanged Man was a notorious betrayer, but she’s just as bad.”
“I know Evie better than I know anyone. She’s kind, funny, and loyal to the bone.” I’d never met anyone as loyal.
“I heard the rumors, kiddo. You’re in love with her.”
“Jusqu’au bout,” I told her proudly. “To the end and with all my heart, lady.”
“You’re in love with the girl she should have been. But she’s got a force inside her that makes her crazy. Look, nature is a fickle bitch—and your Evie is Mother Earth. Would you be pissed right now if you were Mother Earth? She can’t win, Jack. She is poison and ruin, and she is more powerful than all the Majors put together. Kos made one thing clear to anybody who’d listen: the Empress doesn’t look like a monster—and yet she is.”
“You’re wrong about her. One day you’ll see.”
Another exhalation. “Read more of the Swords’ records. Learn. We’ll talk again soon.”
We’d just signed off when Kentarch slipped into the room, his solemn expression telling me he’d heard everything.
“Doan say anything to Joules, all right? Been having enough problems with the Tower.”
He continued to give Sol grief, ruining our fire-station camaraderie. Hell, Joules had even come off his total hatred of Dominija, calling him handy for teaching him another aspect of his power at the Sick House. When the Reaper had sent bacon along with the translation of Calanthe’s chronicles, well, that hadn’t gone amiss either. But Sol couldn’t win for losing with the Tower.
“I won’t,” Kentarch said. “We need no fresh strife.”
I’d sat Joules down the other day to ask him why he refused to go along and get along.
In a gruff tone, he’d said, “I told you lot that I had five younger brothers and a mam who thought the world of us. But they were mischief makers of the first order!” His smile had been fond, even as his eyes glinted. I’d been reminded that Joules was the youngest Arcana I’d met, only fifteen when the game started. “And I know without a doubt that when the Flash hit, me mam shepherded all those mites out of our tiny house to watch the lights, so she could catch her breath and smoke for just a bloody couple of minutes of peace.”
“Christ, Joules, I’m sorry. But what does that have to do with Sol?”
“Each game has a disaster based on a card, right? This is his, innit? The sun shone at night, and people turned to ash. My family turned to ash. Or worse. He reminds me of that every day.”
I’d had no idea how to respond to that, couldn’t tell him to just get over it. When the Flash had turned ma mère into a Bagger, it’d done a mind-bender on me.
The only thing that helped with Joules’s anger? That Sol worked so hard to take out Baggers. . . .
Kentarch leaned against the desk with his arms crossed over his chest. “Do you believe what that woman said about the Empress?”
“You spent months in close contact with Evie. Does she strike you as evil?”
“The heat of battle is real. I’ve experienced it. Can you imagine any worse punishment for me than living for centuries, unable to die and join Issa? And yet I’ve felt the overwhelming urge to win.”
“But here’s the thing—I can bring Evie back from the brink.”
“You barely did after lesser skirmishes. She believes she is fated to fight the Emperor. Could anything rescue her after the battle to end all battles . . . ?” He trailed off, and his eyes narrowed.
“What is it?”
He shrugged. “I just figured out a puzzle that has nagged at me.”
Puzzle? I perked up. “Wanna share?”
“I’ll think on it more.”
Disappointed, I said, “Look, Evie’s not fighting Richter, remember? You’re still in on the plan, right?” We were letting her think I’d be the one babysitting Tee here. In fact, Kentarch would be teleporting me to the castle—and her and Tee to the hangar.
“I am.” He stood to go. But at the door, he faced me again. “Your new friend was right about something though. This game must end soon. Or there will be no one left—”
