Page 3 of These Divided Shores
“Can we get out that way?” Nayeli asked Cansu, as if people weren’t dying.
“The escape boat’s in the lake,” Cansu said. “You have that Aerated Blossom?”
No one saw Vex falter. He’d planned their wayintothe castle—steal servant uniforms and sneak in with the crowd that had come to see the burning—but all he’d known of their wayoutwas that an escape boat would be waiting. But this was how Cansu planned to get to it—she’d loved his story of how Lu had used Blossoms to jump off the Schilly-Leto waterfall. Vex had been terrified. But Lu—she’d been fearless.
The crowd in the courtyard let loose a pained wail. Vexfelt a blossom of relief that the burning repulsed them, despite their silent, dangerous agreement earlier. Their complacency about Argrid’s seizure of power was surface level.
“Who are you?” Kari demanded. Her face showed her calculations just as Lu’s did. “Stream raiders? From the syndicate associated with Tuncay? Are you here on Cansu Darzi’s orders? Has my daughter become entangled with the Tuncian syndicate?”
“We’re not here on Cansu’s orders,” Cansu said. She turned from the balcony. “IamCansu. The absurdity of a raider Head rescuing a Senior Councilmember is not lost on me, but that’s why we’re here. Because your daughter, along with these idiots”—she gestured at Nayeli, Vex, and Edda—“convinced me that the best way to stop Argrid from overtaking the island is to unite the Council and raiders and everyone who calls Grace Loray home. Figured Kari the Wave would be the most capable person to do that.”
The Argridians had put Kari under house arrest—but she meant a lot to Grace Loray, so they hadn’t killed her. She was Kari the Wave, a nickname she’d earned during the revolution because of her guerrilla-style ambushes that had whittled away Argrid’s forces. The only reason the rebels had beaten Argrid the first time was because Kari had gotten the volatile, bickering stream raiders to ally with each other, becoming a force too powerful for Argrid to defeat.
Between border skirmishes, burning each other’s steamboats, and other messier crimes, relations among the raidershad always been tense. Vex knew, for instance, that Cansu hated the “thieving” Grozdan syndicate with “the intensity of nigrika”—a Tuncian spice so hot Vex hadn’t been able to taste anything for a solid two days after he’d eaten a pinch. If the raider syndicates had any hope of unifying to stop Elazar again, they’d need an intermediary, like Kari.
But the deeper reason Vex had suggested freeing Kari was because he knew Lu would’ve wanted it. It was that simple. That selfish.
Vex’s vision faded. He lost sight of the room in favor of a sword, shining with Lu’s blood, dripping scarlet circles on the deck of a ship—
“Other councilmembers can help.” Kari composed herself, spine straight, again like Lu. “They are locked in rooms along this hall. They can be trusted to—”
“Trust? What do you know abouttrust?”
Kari snapped a look at Vex. Edda and Nayeli did, too, but Edda’s focus went back to Kari, and Vex could see her thoughts spin. Should she intervene?
Vex didn’t care. He hadn’t meant to speak. But here he was, staring at a person who was as responsible for Lu’s death as the man who’d stabbed her.
“Devereux Bell.” Kari’s fingers curled into fists. Last she knew, her daughter had freed him from prison and run off with him. “What do you—”
“Who do you think you cantrust? Your husband?”
“Vex,” Edda tried.
Kari’s face went gray. “I only recently learned of my husband’s deceit—”
“Stop acting so goddamn proud.” Vex’s arms shook so hard he had to cross them. “If you’d realized earlier that your own husband was a fuckingspy, Lu might not be dead.”
The last word hung on his tongue. He wanted to say it again, let it stick to someone else.
Kari’s lips parted. “What did you say?”
He saw Lu’s body slip to the deck of the ship. Her eyes searched for him, her face shocked and scared and alone, with just Ben to hold her, because Edda threw Vex overboard.
He’d left Lu. He’d left Ben, too.
“I said she’s dead,” Vex growled. “Lu’sdead. Thanks to you and your husband.”
Kari dropped onto a chair. Her silence was worse than if she’d started weeping, grief so tangible on her face that a fierce stab of guilt punctured Vex’s heart.
“Or maybe you knew about your husband all along,” he spat at Kari. “Maybe you’re a spy too. Maybe you’re glad Lu’s gone. You’re as guilty as—”
“Paxben!” Edda cried.
Vex’s body went stiff. That name from her—that nameat all—struck him dumb.
Edda grabbed his arm. “You have to stop.You can’t drop this on someone!”
“But it was dropped onme!”
