the kids sitting at the enormous table.
George sliced his food with surgical precision, as if he’d spent the entire two years in the Weird taking etiquette lessons. He was meticulously clean. Both Gaston and Jack were filthy, smeared with dirt and covered with scratches. Jack had stuffed some wadded paper up his nose—Gaston had tapped him again—while his ward sported a shiner where Jack managed to kick him.
“What happened?” Declan asked.
Jack bared his teeth at him. “We fell.”
“Together?” Declan said.
Gaston looked at his plate.
“Tell him,” William said.
“He made a comment about hicks. Then I made a comment about spoiled babies. Then he ran into my fist and we had words.”
Declan looked at Jack. “Why the hell would you run at him? Should’ve gone for the legs.”
Jack opened his mouth.
Nancy Virai walked through the door.
Declan choked on his steak.
Erwin followed Nancy, wearing the familiar apologetic smile.
William started to get up.
“Don’t rise on my account.”
Declan rose anyway and bowed. “Lady V. What a pleasure. Please sit down.”
Erwin stepped out from behind Nancy and held out a chair. She sat, and he positioned himself behind her chair.
Nancy’s sharp eyes fastened on William. “If you are wrong, the assault of Kasis will cause a diplomatic mess.”
“I’m not wrong,” William said.
“Ten years. That’s my price for this foolishness.”
William blinked. “Ten years?”
Nancy rested one long leg over the other. “If I do this for you, the Mirror will have the use of your services for ten years. And of course, you will turn the journal over to us.”
“Don’t do it,” Declan cut in.
Nancy turned to him. Her raptor eyes stared at him for a second. “The Mirror appreciates Earl Camarine’s zeal in offering advice to his friend. However, from where I am sitting, it seems that Lord Sandine is, in fact, wearing his big-boy pants, as they say in the Broken. He’s capable of making that decision on his own. Yes or no, William?”
“Gustave lives and I get to take the Mars out of the Mire. They will receive Adrianglian citizenship.”
Nancy tilted her head. “Does the girl mean that much to you?”
He bared his teeth at her. “Take it or leave it, Nancy.”
“No,” Declan repeated.
Nancy smiled. George drew back. Jack hissed.
“You have your deal. Earl Camarine, the wards of the House of Camarine, and the ward of the House of Sandine, will bear witnesses to this agreement on their honor.”
Declan dragged his hand across his face.
“I understand the Duchess is in residence,” Nancy said.
“Yes,” Declan nodded. “She would be sorely disappointed if you left without speaking to her.”
Nancy smiled again. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
WILLIAM left for Kasis the next morning, Gaston with him. Declan decided to come at the last minute. It felt off, William reflected. Almost as if they were back in the Legion.
Before they left, Jack came by his room. He looked younger somehow, timid and dejected. “Are you coming back?”
William nodded. “Eventually.”
“Okay, then.” Jack opened his mouth to say something and closed it.
“How’s it going?” William asked.
Jack looked at his feet. “I don’t want to go to Hawk’s.”
Fury flashed through William. “Are they talking about sending you there?”
Jack shook his head. “No. Just … I can’t do anything right. It’s always Jack, Jack, Jack. Jack ruined that and Jack broke this. I’m trying, but it’s not working.”
“You won’t have to go to Hawk’s,” William said. “If it comes to that, I’ll take you with me.”
Jack froze. “Promise.”
“I promise.”
“Don’t take too long to come back.”
“I won’t.” William reached over to the table, to a basket of snacks someone left in his room, plucked out a square of chocolate wrapped in foil, and handed it to Jack.
“A smart kid once told me it helps,” he said. “Wait for me and don’t do anything stupid.”
FIVE days later William stood on the balcony of Kasis Castle and looked over the vast field of cypresses dripping silvery moss. Just two miles south, the boundary offered passage to the Mire.
The attack on Kasis had taken less than an hour. Four of the Hand’s agents were killed in the Keep, and Erwin’s people found enough damaging papers to keep them happy for months. Nobody in their right mind could claim that de Kasis was neutral.
Antoine de Kasis died resisting apprehension. He didn’t resist very much, William reflected. He’d been pissed off and hurting, and de Kasis died under his knife before offering any real resistance.
Two hours later William traded the deed to Kasis for the copy of the journal. The journal was missing a couple of crucial pages, but his memory wasn’t
While William exchanged the journal for the deed, Erwin briefed Gustave and escorted him back home, with a detachment of the Mirror’s agents to keep the Mars safe during their evacuation. It was better this way, William reflected. He wasn’t sure what the man would think of him.
Three days had passed now with no word from Cerise. She was only a day away in the Mire. He’d done everything he could. She couldn’t be with him because of the threat to her family. He had taken care of it. William grimaced. He’d thought about going back to the Rathole, but decided against it. He knew the way she thought. If he showed up, after saving her father and her family, she would have to be with him whether she liked it or not. So he sat here, alone, and waited. Waited for her to decide if she wanted him or if she didn’t.
SHE came to him in his dreams. Her face was smudged, but he knew it was her, because he could smell her scent and hear her voice, soothing, calling his name. When he awoke, the wild inside him snarled and howled, abandoned, hurting, and so alone he wondered if he would go mad. So every morning he came to the damn balcony and stared at the Mire. It wasn’t up to him anymore. All he could do was wait.
CERISE raised her face from her arms. Outside night had fallen on the Mire. Familiar quick steps ran up the stairs leading to her hideout.
“Can I come in?” her father asked from the stairway.
She nodded.
He came and sat in a chair across from her. He was thinner than she remembered. Older. He’d been home for almost two weeks now, and she still woke up convinced that he was missing.
“The packing is almost done,” he said. “We’re leaving the Mire the day after tomorrow.”
She looked away. She’d packed nothing.
“Do you need help with your things?” he asked.
“I’m not going.”
