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The beverages splashed over me, soaking through my coat and plastering my hair to my forehead. I made no move to defend myself. As an attack, it lacked effect. There were tales of water seers able to control the blood inside people’s bodies, but such power belonged in the lorists’ tales and far past. This was the worst Novikov could do.
Castle Osipova watched, face unreadable, while Kazimir poured himself a new cup of tea.
“If you hurt Mira, I’ll curse your line.You’ll—”
“She’s fine and will remain fine as long as you do as you’re told,” I said, wiping the liquids from my face. “Iam not a child killer.”
The eight-year-old would be raised in the Tower for now and the spymaster would find a job for her later. We could not waste a water seer, no matter their parentage.
“And I?” Florentiy Makarov said, spreading his long fingers on the table as Novikov sank into his chair. “What unseemly business of mine have you found, my king?”
Von Uster placed a paper before the councilor but did not let this one go. Mjor’s waves were stamped in blue behind the short text, gold sigils on the top and the signature on the bottom marking its validity.
“I bought your extensive debts. You did well in hiding them.”
“Not well enough, it seems.”
I nodded. It had been the easiest and hardest piece to acquire. Again, a knife in the back would have been simpler—and perhaps preferable from Makarov’s slumped posture—than the diplomacy and negotiation it had required to get the Bank of the Waves to sell the debt paper.
Somewhere on Makarov’s body, there was a debt sigil which, with the change of ownership to the contract, now responded to me. He would not argue my terms, though he would go into exile penniless. A better man might have pitied him.
Von Uster gathered up the remaining papers, walked around the table and placed them in a neat pile before me before bowing and stepping to my left. No one doubted that I had his support. No one argued.
“Make your preparations. I want travel plans in place by the next three-day. See the former Council members out.”
Koskha and the Roja stepped back to allow the four nobles to leave.
Sophina’s eyes lingered on me, lashes fluttering and tears staining her cheeks as if she could make me forgive and forget with a look. Vanya had been sent here to pretend to be my bride—had certainly done more than flutter her lashes—but none of it had felt fake.
Did it matter anymore?
My fist clenched. I wanted it to matter. I wanted so many things, but having the Wishmaker grant me the greatest one of all in Dasha, I could not ask for more. Tempest was gone. Storms were not meant to stay. They disrupted the world around them, but that kind of force could not be maintained forever.
The door closed with a clang. Time for the next part.
I relaxed my fingers one by one as I studied the remaining three men.
Von Uster was expectant, exuding an approval I did not want to want. Castle Osipova remained stoic, trained too well to let his thoughts show. Kazimir cracked his fingers, seeming to sense the night was just beginning.
“Now we see to the future. You swore to be loyal. Prove it.” I thought of the people chanting in the street, of the bloody skeleton and my grandmother’s warnings. There was no more time for doubts. “Osipova, bring the food we found in the tunnels out quietly and store it in Gateways. Have any test you can think of done to know if it’s safe. And buy up everything still available for the Day of the Dead festival. If the palace doesn’t provide the traditional feast for the city, even those who like us will join the rebels.”
Dasha would have a living city instead of one focused on death, even if I needed to strip the gold off the walls.
“Bersigov, are we any closer to a cure?”
Kazimir’s carefree expression dropped. “We know it’s not infectious and doesn’t spread through touch or air.” He tapped the table. “A combination of potions and healing shows promise—” His eyes drifted to Koshka. “—but no cure yet.”
And somewhere in Tal, a cave full of flowers was being turned into poison. “If you need anything, anything at all, let me know and you’ll have it.”
I ended the meeting without announcing my daughter. Anonymity gave her protection. After the wedding and after I convinced Helia our ruse would last longer than expected, Dasha would never need to hide again.
When alone with von Uster, I finally sank into a chair and poured myself a glass of wine. “Did you have her followed from the cell?”
He sat next to me. “All the way to her home. She has not stepped outside since the execution.”
Why would a Council member stay inside during the most important changes in Tal in the last decade?It did not matter.
“Had she obeyed the summons, I would have listened to her justifications. Send the bone soldiers for von Lemerch. She can explain from a cell.”
