by Sara Raasch
“Cleanse Root.” Lu grabbed the vial, gaping at the rare plant. “What—”
She surveyed the room again. The variety of plants; the equipment.
“This is a laboratory,” she said.
Vex frowned. “So?”
“Raiders don’t combine botanical magic. At least, they’ve never been known to—they sell the raw materials. Mixing plants into tonics or breaking them down takes finesse that most raiders don’t waste time on, or they would rather use individual plants for their singular effects.”
She expected Vex to make a flippant remark, but he jutted his chin at the crate. “What’s it mean that the raiders have a setup like this?”
“They could be trying to make any number of things. Why, though, I couldn’t—”
But she remembered the raider Pilkvist had treated like a servant. The tremors he’d shown. Her hand tightened on the Cleanse Root. “One of Pilkvist’s men has Shaking Sickness. Maybe . . .”
Not all these plants were meant for healing, though. Most of them weren’t even from Mecht territory; they would have had to trade with the Tuncians to get this much Healica, and with the northeastern Grozdan syndicate to get the Alova Pipe. The syndicates didn’t get along enough to have regular trade set up between them. It was why uniting them all during the revolution had been such a challenge—they hated each other.
Likely Pilkvist had stolen these plants, then. But why so many?
Lu paused. This room had dozens of crates, all likely containing plants. And the equipment on the tables—jars, mortars, pestles, clamps—a raider would need only empty vials to store the magic plants before selling them here or shipping them to the Mainland.
The Mecht syndicate was equipped for mass production of prepared magic. What were they trying to make? Why would they need such a variety? Were they delving into prepared magics to compensate for the Council taking over the Mainland trade?
The door squealed as Edda pulled it open. “They’re gone! Move, now!”
Nayeli sprinted out behind Edda, and Lu slid the Cleanse Root and a few other vials into her pocket before shuffling forward. Every step made her wince, faltering.
Vex started out the door, cursed, and swung back to her.
“I’m fine.” Lu brushed him away, but he looped her arm around his neck.
“Shut up and let me help or I’ll start calling you Princesa again.”
Lu complied, and they followed Nayeli and Edda.
Nayeli was right—the raiders assumed their prisoners had used the back door. While Pilkvist’s men scoured the rear of the bungalow, Lu, Vex, Edda, and Nayeli slipped into the empty front room. Where Cansu had gone, Lu couldn’t guess.
Edda grabbed a sword from a rack; Nayeli found a pistol on a table. Vex armed himself with a knife from the dining set and handed one to Lu. She slipped it into her belt, her mind still stuck on the laboratory.
It could have been as simple as Pilkvist trying to find a new way to make money for his syndicate after the Council had taken their usual method of income.
But simplicity felt too convenient. Not in the syndicate that had staged the abduction of Milo Ibarra. The one that was allied with Argrid.
Was Pilkvist stocking up on magic in preparation for Argrid’s takeover? What were they planning to make in their laboratory?
Though threads were missing, a patchy tapestry formed in Lu’s mind.
The humidity of the swamp was stronger outside, the air slimy. Lu followed Nayeli down the ladder, putting as little weight as she could on her injured leg. They reached the bottom and hit the bobbing, drooping planks that connected the docks in front of the bungalow, and trouble found them.
A shot sounded. Mecht raiders approached, their steamboats chugging through the swamp water. Lu and the rest ducked, clambering down the dock, but the rhythm of their steps thrust the wood up with each footfall. Lu, already unsteady, grabbed the hull of a moored boat to keep herself from falling.
“Down there!” a raider shouted, and another shot ricocheted in the dark. Footsteps pattered through the bungalow, and the doorway filled with people fighting to get down the ladder at once.
Raiders were behind them now, even more were on boats to their right. Neither the Rapid Meander nor any of Cansu’s boats could be seen.
Vex dropped to the hull beside Lu and wound his arm around her again. He shuddered, a brief, sharp spasm, and helped her up.
More shots came, the dock rocking dangerously as Pilkvist’s raiders stomped down it. Ahead, Edda and Nayeli ran as though the end of the dock weren’t approaching, as though they planned to leap into the crocodile-infested swamp waters.
“Stop!” Lu’s voice broke. “Edda! Nayeli! No!”
A boat barreled out of the swampy darkness—the Meander, its smokestack belching steam, water sloshing against it in feathered waves. Cansu steered while her raiders fired cover shots at Pilkvist’s men.
Edda, already airborne, crashed to the Rapid Meander’s deck. Behind her, Nayeli leaped, twisting backward to give Lu a smiling wave.
The surprise of it made Lu forget her footing. The unstable dock slammed up as she stepped down, jamming her injured leg. Pain lanced into her half-healed wounds, ripping her from Vex’s arms, and she hit the wood.
Vex didn’t see Lu fall until his legs slipped out from under him too. He dropped onto her, and as their weight pressed into the left side of the dock, the raiders jostled it again—and the two of them tumbled into the murky water.
The chaos above instantly muted. There were no gunshots, no shouting, just the hum of Lu’s heart in her ears. She forced her eyes open, fighting past the water’s burn, but she saw hazy light through the sheet of filth on the surface. Silhouettes and shadows rippled as the water wrapped its greasy limbs around her and danced her deeper.
A hand found her wrist. Lu grabbed onto Vex. In the murkiness she saw him put a finger to his lips and point up as darkness filled in the weak light.
They had drifted under the dock.
Vex released her hand and kicked into a swim down the same path they’d taken on the dock. Lu followed faster without weight on her leg, but her lungs started to itch. She needed air.
The dock’s shadow lifted in hazy light. They were halfway to the Rapid Meander’s hull when another shadow slithered overhead. The jolt of it made Lu realize there hadn’t been a single shot fired into the water even though they’d made easy targets.
Now Lu knew why the raiders had saved their bullets.
She stopped, her body buoyant—there was nothing but her, her heartbeat, and her eyes lifting to the surface.
The shadow slithered back, stopping above them.
Panic crept over her, limb by limb. Lu looked ahead. Vex hadn’t noticed and was still swimming, forming bubbles the crocodile lapped up like wine.
She called Vex’s name, daring to release air bubbles of her own, but there was no noise here. Just sight, and feel, the water thick and warm, her body weightless and useless.
The crocodile writhed in anticipation and plunged through the water, a slick, unstoppable bullet.
Seconds before it reached Vex, its jaw opened. Lu moved.
She tore through the water, flailing as much to swim as to draw the croc’s attention. It whipped its head to her, sizing her up. Competition? Or food?
Lu scratched at her leg wounds—opening them, letting blood gather around her in murky clouds as her lungs throbbed beyond the point of desperation for air.
Food, she willed.
The croc snapped around, the force bashing water into Vex’s still-swimming legs.
Vex curved back. His eye widened. His mouth opened.
The beast clawed for Lu.
She was ready, though. She gripped the knife, the one she’d stuck in her belt.
The croc’s mouth opened, but Lu grabbed the top of its jaw. The beast shook its head and veered to dislodge her, but she twisted, trying not to slip into the croc’s mouth or lose her grip on the knife.
Sh
e slammed the blade into the more pliable area under the croc’s neck. The crocodile bucked away, its mouth snapping open and shut as it fought to escape the metal embedded in its chin.
Lu wasted no time. She kicked, scrambling through the water to put as much space between herself and the croc as possible. The swamp waters started to blur in front of her, darkness playing at the edge of Lu’s vision—she had gone too long without air.
Something twisted around her waist, and Lu thrashed in terror, but to what end? If the croc had her, she was beyond saving.
She looked up to see Vex, and the joy of it hit her in a refreshing wave. But her need for air was more important, and she swam, her arms tangling with Vex’s as they fought to reach the surface. They broke free with a collective gasp, grime spraying around them, chunks of green sludge sticking to their faces.
No sooner had they inhaled than a shot rang out, a bullet funneling the water next to Lu.
“This is your warning, Bell!” came Pilkvist’s voice. “There’s a price on your head!”
Lu smacked into the hull of a boat before hands scooped her up and dumped her on deck. Vex dropped down next to her while more shots blasted off the Meander. The engine roared and the boat launched away from the Pilkvist’s dock, Cansu at the helm, her raiders, Edda, and Nayeli firing their weapons like mad.
Lu braced a hand on the deck and pushed upright, terror stricken until she saw Vex, folded over his knees, taking shaky breaths into the hollow his legs made.
He was all right.
A knot in her chest unwound, letting her breathe.
Vex looked up at her, water dripping from the coiled ends of his hair. “Thank you.”
His genuine gratitude would have been shocking enough—but he had lost his eye patch in the water.
Scars burrowed through his right eye socket in an almost perfect X, uneven but long healed, a wound he must have received when he was much too young.
Lu’s lips parted. When her gaze shifted back to Vex’s other eye, she saw that he was struck with the same panic that had gripped her when the Mechts had threatened to drug her.
The horror of nightmares playing out.
Vex gasped once, a broken sigh, before he sprang up, threw himself at the hatch, and dropped belowdecks.
23
THE MOMENT LU stepped belowdecks, Teo hurtled out of the engine room and attached himself to her waist. He didn’t let go until they both lay on a cot in one of the Meander’s bunkrooms, Lu rubbing his back and humming the revolution song.
Lu knew she needed to rest, if only to get Teo to sleep after all the turmoil. Though a voice in her mind still whispered her unworthiness—especially after she had left him in Port Mesi-Teab—she couldn’t deny the peace she felt lying there with him.
A few hours later, Nayeli stumbled into the room and heaved herself onto the bunk above Lu. She flopped an arm over the edge, pointing down at her.
“I hope you know how lucky you are that I stayed up all night just to save you. The list of things that can keep me up is like Edda’s stature: short.”
In the bunk across from them, Edda chirped in her sleep.
“Thank you,” Lu returned, whispering so as not to wake Teo. She doubted much could wake him now, though—they were exhausted. “Pilkvist hasn’t come after us?”
Nayeli slid over the edge of the bunk, looking at Lu upside down, her hair draping in a curly sheet. “If he does, we’ve got Cansu and her raiders for protection. We’ll be fine.”
Lu watched for emotion when Nayeli spoke of Cansu, but the bunkroom’s dim light let things go hidden. “Have you spoken with her?”
“Have you spoken with Vex?”
Lu shifted Teo, pulling the blankets around him. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“He’s in the pilothouse. I’m not good at leading by example, but you should talk to him. He did just save your ass.”
She disappeared back into her bunk.
The Meander’s engine whirred, the noise echoing through the walls.
Lu lay still for one long breath before she slipped her arm out from under Teo, crawled around him, and stood. Her leg had completely mended, thanks to another bottle of Healica, this one from the satchel she once again had. She took it from the wall hook where she’d left it and slung it over her shoulder.
She was level with Nayeli’s bunk now. Nayeli grinned at her.
“When this is over,” Lu whispered, “if we’re still alive, I’d like you to take me back to the sanctuary. Tuncay is a part of who I am.” She shrugged toward the outside. “I want to know what it means to be Tuncian on Grace Loray.”
Nayeli’s face was unreadable. “That’s why, actually.”
“Why what?”
“Why Cansu and I . . . aren’t. Why Fatemah threw the family stone at me. I wanted the island to know about the Tuncians and that sanctuary, and Cansu and Fatemah wanted it to stay hidden. I thought maybe if the Council was aware of how things actually were, they’d do something about it.”
Lu didn’t move, overcome by the feeling of honor that Nayeli would tell her this. “I fought for this island so it would have a voice,” she whispered. “I’ll keep fighting for that. If you would like an ally, that is.”
A smile crawled across Nayeli’s face. She spoke in Thuti, then translated, “I called you a sentimental fool.”
“Could you teach me?”
“To speak Thuti? Sure.” She winked. “If you control something first, it isn’t as scary.”
“I don’t want to control it. I want to understand it.”
“Same idea, better approach.” Nayeli yawned and rolled over, ending the conversation.
Taking advice from Nayeli felt about as stable as the dock at Pilkvist’s, but as Lu left the bunkroom and climbed the ladder, she chewed over her words.
Lu had fought for control every moment since the revolution ended, so war would never again occur. But this mission had made her realize what little control she’d had in the first place.
The Mecht syndicate had allied with Argrid, and were, for unknown reasons, stockpiling plants. Lu hadn’t seen Milo at Pilkvist’s. But where to find him now that their only lead had ended in a run for their lives? Was finding him still the best course of action to convince the Council of Argrid’s plot? Add to that the matter of Vex’s still-unexplained connections to Argrid, and Pilkvist’s revelation that more Argridians were coming—Give it about a week, Darzi. Maybe two—and Lu felt as though she’d gone from being hunter to prey.
Worse, she had no proof of anything she’d seen. Her testimony might be enough, yet if Argrid’s goal was to incite unrest on Grace Loray, the delegates could twist anything she said to buy time for their bigger plan to unfold. Lu needed something that would undeniably prove that Argrid was behind these latest conflicts and that only the Mechts were working with them, not all raiders. But how?
They were still in Backswamp when Lu emerged on deck. The air glowed a sickly green, as though poisoned by swamp grime, the moisture determined and thick. The canopy made it impossible to tell if it was night or day, yet enough light seeped through that Lu could see the deck, the pilothouse, and the closest trees beyond the boat.
The Meander drifted around great coils of cypresses, their roots arching in the water. Steam trickled through the smokestack—Edda had cut back the engine as much as possible to avoid drawing attention.
Vex alone was on deck, slumped against the helm, bumping it right and left with his elbows as needed. His eye was on the bow as though he drove with only the barest reaches of his instinct, letting thoughts cloud his mind.
He’d retrieved another eye patch, the black cup shielding his scar.
Lu stepped into the pilothouse and leaned against the table. Words gathered on her tongue, but she could only watch Vex in silence, her mind recalling the dread she’d felt when the crocodile had pierced through the water for him, as well as her certainty that he’d come for her at Pilkvist’s, and the disappointment when it had been Cansu
at the door.
She shouldn’t let emotion blur her distrust of him. He was a liar and a scoundrel and a criminal.
But he was also caring. Brave. And, in spite of everything, true.
“No comments?” Vex asked when her silence stretched long. “After our interlude in Pilkvist’s prison, I’d have thought you’ve been hoarding all kinds of nasty things to say to me.”
“I felt I should first give you the opportunity to explain.”
“You’re giving me an out? Do I detect sympathy? I didn’t take you for someone who would stifle her opinions because of a scar. If I’d known you’d be that easy to manipulate, I’d have shown it to you days ago.”
But his voice was too forceful, the pitch of a man who would never willingly remove that eye patch.
“You came after me,” Lu said, launching herself off the table to stand next to the helm so Vex couldn’t ignore her. “You risked your crew for me. You’ve kept Teo safe through everything that’s happened. I’ve decided I owe you one chance to tell me the truth. Take it or don’t, Devereux, but don’t you dare dismiss this as pity. I am not that small.”
Vex’s jaw bulged, tendons in his neck rising to the surface. Lu had never seen him so close to unraveling. While she might have used it against him at one point, she found herself strangely unable to do so.
“Fine,” Lu whispered. “Keep your secrets. All I ask is that you let Teo and me off at the next port. I’ll give you the payment due. Consider your services no longer required.”
She turned, heart sinking.
“Argridian agents started harassing me,” Vex said.
Lu stopped, her back to him, her body framed by the pilothouse’s door.
“They made me sell them plants,” he continued. “Random things, harmless. They thought I’d do their bidding because I’m unaligned. I have no allies, no loyalties.”
Lu faced him. Vex didn’t look at her, but the muscles in his neck relaxed.
“They kept wanting more, and I got tired of . . .” He stopped, his eye finally meeting Lu’s. “I let myself get arrested so I wouldn’t have to be their puppet. I figured if I were in jail, they’d have one less tool on this island. But I wasn’t even the worst tool, was I? The Mechts did their bidding instead. And here we are.” Vex spread his hands.