These Divided Shores, page 38
Vex’s face tingled. “Edda would be really happy you’re finally where you belong.”
Nayeli slid her hand into his. “You can always join the Tuncian syndicate too. Cansu’d make room for you.”
Vex shook his head. “That’s your place. But we better still go out and cause a little chaos from time to time. Even if Cansu’s one of the people in charge of this government, we gotta keep it in check, ya know? Can’t let ’em get too comfortable.”
Nayeli grinned. “Deal.”
“See? I told you!”
Teo burst into the room, hauling Lu behind him. She faltered inside the threshold as Teo started jumping up and down again.
Vex straightened against the pillows. An absurd smile rolled across his face.
She was wearing a dress now, a long brown one covered in stains. Her golden skin was flushed, her hair loose and swept over her shoulder in a tangle of curls. She looked more her, more Lu, than she had in weeks.
Entirely because of her smile.
Nayeli cleared her throat and tapped her fists on her knees. “Well. Remember, Vex, your rib is broken, so no strenuous activities.”
Vex bellowed a laugh and grabbed his side.
Way too pleased with herself, Nayeli stood and held out her hand. “Teo, let’s go find that uncle of yours, yeah?”
Teo snatched her fingers. “Yeah! Do you like him? He knows a lot about Mama—”
His voice faded as Nayeli steered him out of the room. Lu shut the door behind them and Vex gawked at her.
“His uncle? Jakes is here?”
Lu leaned against the door. “After what he did, helping us in the end—” Her smile wavered but held. “We all deserve a fresh start. None of us chose this war. And Teo has been through a great deal—his life has changed more than he even knows. Jakes adores him. I have people watch him with Teo, of course. But so far, it’s been good.”
Vex swallowed his own feelings about Jakes. Jakome.
If Jakes stepped out of line at all, Vex would deal with it then. But for now, he watched the way Lu’s hesitation hung on to her.
“There’s more,” he guessed.
Lu’s eyes went teary, but she shook her head. “I’m not ready to talk about it. Someday. But today, I just want to—” Her smile softened. “You almost died.”
Vex sank back into the pillows. He didn’t know how to respond to that. Couldn’t, really, with his throat swelling up.
Lu nodded as though silence was enough. And after everything, maybe it was.
Elazar had finally gotten what he deserved. Ibarra was no longer a threat. Lu’s father was dead, too. And Edda. And Fatemah. And everyone they’d lost, all the destruction around them, and the possibility, too—the work still to be done.
Vex reached out to her. “Come here?”
Lu’s smile returned. “I don’t know if I should. Nayeli’s orders.”
He tipped his head, stretching his fingers as far as he could. “If you don’t come here—”
“What?” A blush tinted her face. “What will you do to me, raider?”
Vex snapped his head back with a laugh. “That’s it, Princesa.”
He shoved onto his palms and pain seared his rib cage. “Goddamn the ever-loving Pious God—”
“Down!” Lu chirped, and dove for him. “You’ll hurt your—ah!”
Her chirp of concern broke into a giggle when he looped his arm around her waist and lowered her down on top of him.
The humid lake breeze pulsated through the balcony doors, fluttering the blankets and Lu’s hair where it made a shield around them. Vex twisted his head to one of the hands she had planted on his pillow, his lips meeting the warm, sweet skin where her sleeve showed her wrist.
She lifted that hand, thumb trailing along his bottom lip. Her smile was soft and light, the innocent, worriless smile from his dreams.
He leaned into her laughter like foam rolling back into the breaking of a wave when she took his face in her hands and laid that smile on his lips.
Lu stood on the steps of the castle and stared out at New Deza. Some parts of the city still smoked, but if Lu hadn’t known there had been a battle, she could have dismissed them as steamboat trails. From this view, she couldn’t see the damage done to the buildings and streets. The city looked whole and normal under the clear blue sky.
If it could pretend, so could she.
The gates to the courtyard opened. As Lu’s eyes dropped to the movement, the illusion wavered. The courtyard was still in ruins, the grass slicked and trampled. Gray painted the wall in streaks of ash. The platform had been dismantled, but it sat in a pile of wood planks next to the broken pyre. Two long lines of raiders lined the path from the gate to the castle steps, watching, waiting, ready for attack.
The wounded were still inside the courtroom. The dead had been taken to steamboats in the harbor, to be sailed out to the sea.
As a small procession of defensors entered the courtyard, Lu half wished that the bodies were still here. That these soldiers could see what they had done, the cost of the nightmare they had followed. But they were beginning to realize it on their own—it was why they had surrendered at all. Because their king was dead, their future uncertain.
Around Lu, the raider Heads straightened. Lu smiled to see Cansu in her proper place now, alongside Nayeli, Nate, Rosalia, Kari, and three councilmembers who had been under house arrest in the castle. The only person missing was a representative from the Mecht syndicate, which had yet to piece itself together after the devastating loss of Ingvar. But Kari had sent word to them, offering assistance in cleansing themselves of Menesia and hoping for a show of forgiveness so they might all move forward, together.
Off to the side of the Grace Lorayan group, Ben stood with Gunnar and Vex, something of an Argridian representation. Lu smiled to see Vex lean over to his cousin and whisper something that made Ben grin.
The type of happiness Vex showed when he was with Ben was different from all his other types of happiness. He looked utterly content.
The group of defensors—maybe three dozen of them, with more waiting out beyond the courtyard—stopped at the base of the steps. One stepped forward. His jacket was singed, a rip through one sleeve, but the markings on his uniform’s chest signified him as an officer.
Lu wanted to be glad to see the Argridian army in a beaten, shredded state. But she remembered how unhinged Tom had been before his death, driven to madness by Elazar’s doctrine and demands. She remembered the terror in Teo’s eyes.
She couldn’t be glad. She could only be present.
“King Benat.” The defensor officer bowed, addressing him in Argridian. The man hesitated, clearly torn about his purpose here. Surrender. Surrender to the Heretic Prince.
Lu sucked in a breath. They wouldn’t attack, would they? Not now, so soon—
Ben stepped forward, dropping down one of the stone steps. “My father’s goals changed Grace Loray in an unspeakable way—but he affected Argrid just as deeply, over decades of rule. I know most of you chose to follow him willingly. You believed in his vision for the world. You believed in him, as you believe in our Pious God, and our Church.”
He paused. Were Lu the one speaking, she wasn’t sure she could be so calm. Ben’s hands spread before him in a welcoming, open gesture.
“There is beauty in our country,” Ben said. “In our faith, our cathedrals and hymns, in our stories and history and art. We have so much good in Argrid, and for too long we have focused only on the impure. I know many of you will expect Elazar’s vision to carry over into my reign—and I tell you now that this War on Raiders ends with my coronation.”
Ben turned and dropped to one knee, bowing before Kari, Nate, Rosalia, Cansu—the whole of the Grace Loray contingent.
“Argrid apologizes for what we have done to you,” Ben said in Grace Lorayan now, his eyes on the stones under his knees. “We cannot express our sorrow in words. But know, when we leave your shores, we will return only under banners of peace and friendship.”
He looked up, glancing at Lu with a smile.
Behind him, his army held. Many of them were slack-jawed. Whatever they had expected to happen, this had not been it.
Slowly, the officer sank to his knees, mirroring Ben. Another defensor followed. Another. It spread out in a fan, defensors lowering to their knees before Grace Loray.
Kari smiled. Lu felt a grin break on her own face too. She hadn’t seen her mother smile in so long, and there was a glimmer in her eyes, a seed of happiness behind her grief.
“Thank you, King Benat,” Kari said. She motioned at the people around her, the start of a new Grace Loray. Again. “We are one nation, but we are many peoples, and all of us look forward to stepping into a new tomorrow as Argrid bridges theirs.”
Rosalia punched her fists into the air and bellowed a Grozdan war cry. Nate and Pierce joined her, screaming, and it spread—Cansu, the raiders who stood along the sides of the courtyard, Vex, even Kari, whose smile intensified.
The thunderous vibrations of cheering resonated in Lu’s chest. They shook free the remnants of the battle screams, filling her and the courtyard with possibility. With potential.
With a swelling promise of unity.
Epilogue
BENAT GALLEGO WAS nineteen years old when he became the Eminence King of Argrid.
He sat in the king’s quarters on the Desapiadado, the ship that had carried Elazar from Argrid to Grace Loray. The ship that had always been Elazar’s, a large, sleek vessel for an opulent, vengeful king.
Ben felt utterly small sitting at the desk. The curved V of the Church stared down at him from the ceiling, taking up the whole expanse in giant white tiles. Shelves for Church tomes lined the walls, the books held in place by statues of the Graces. All of it watched Ben, and he watched it, in a tentative, awkward peace.
Returning to Argrid would be just like this, magnified by anger and confusion. The people there were devoted to the Pious God. They feared magic still. They had built their lives around Elazar’s edicts.
How would they respond to Ben as king, the errant, traitorous son who had been paraded as a heretic? Would they surrender to him as the defensors had, willing to believe in his station as chosen by the Pious God? Or would they revolt the moment he set foot in Deza?
Ben closed his eyes, head dropping back against the chair as he pinched the bridge of his nose. The ship swayed beneath him.
He had two weeks until he reached Deza. Two weeks to figure out how to lead people who believed a king was more god than man.
That was where he should start, perhaps. In showing Argrid that he was a person. He was human and flawed, plus more. Would they revel in seeing their leader be humble? Would it only solidify their fears and fury? No matter what Ben chose to do, he risked uprisings and lost lives.
His heart tripped and he swallowed hard.
A knock on the door.
“Come in.”
“This ship is too fancy. I do not like it.”
Ben smiled. He dropped his hand and looked across the desk at Gunnar, who kicked the door shut behind him.
“On behalf of the Argridian crown, I apologize,” Ben said. “I can arrange a smaller vessel, if you like? A prison transport, maybe. Remind you of the old days.”
“The Argridian king-in-waiting has a sense of humor.” Gunnar blanched. “Wait. Does this mean I must call you Elazar when you are crowned?”
Ben recoiled. The name was as much a title as King, but his father had tarnished it. Maybe, with some distance, he could hear himself called that. But not now.
“No.” Ben leaned forward, elbows on the desk. He knocked something to the side—a small metal tin.
Nayeli had given it to him as they’d embarked. She had given the other one to Vex.
Budwig Beans.
Ben hadn’t expected Vex to come to Deza, but he’d offered. “Maybe someday,” his cousin had said, and hugged him for a solid five minutes.
Vex belonged in Grace Loray, but Ben couldn’t stop the feeling of abandonment when he felt the ship carrying him farther away from the only family he truly cared about.
“I’ll be king soon,” Ben said, staring at his desk until he could compose himself. “I have the ability to fulfill my promise to you.”
Gunnar frowned. “What?”
“I promised to help you with the Mechtlands. To bring peace there. You helped my—”
“Are you crazy, Benat?”
Ben jolted. Gunnar grinned and shrugged.
“Vex taught me useful Argridian words. Crazy. Anyway. No, Benat. Your country needs your focus now. Do not worry for mine. Seeing Grace Loray and Argrid coming together, it has inspired me that the Mechtlands have potential as well. There is hope.”
Ben tried to keep his face impassive. “You do not wish to return to the Mechtlands now?”
“Why do you always try to send me back to the Mechtlands? Do you not want me here?”
Ben shot to his feet. “Of course I want you here.” He felt his face flare red. “But I want—I want you to want to be here. I want you to—”
“You always try to put your needs on me. I am not you, Benat. I do not need to return to the Mechtlands to help it—I can help it at your side.”
“Nothing is simple now,” Ben said, his chest deflating. “Argrid is in ruins. I want to help you while I can, before we get to Deza and everything erupts. Let me help you.”
“All right.” Gunnar beamed at him, taking a step around the desk. “Help me. Marry me.”
Ben actually wheezed, a cracked, garbled noise. “What?”
Another step. Closer. Ben felt a wave of Gunnar’s heat, surging brighter when Gunnar’s smile intensified. “Marry me.”
“I’m—I’m the king-in-waiting of Argrid—”
“You say that as though I do not know. You haven’t changed, Benat. Marry me.”
Gunnar reached him. Ben was pinned in place by the question—demand?—and by Gunnar’s smile and the warmth of his being so near.
In two weeks Ben would see his country again. He would plunge into a nation on the brink of collapse. He would get off this ship as a ruler who had a reputation for being a heretic and bedding his guard.
It really wouldn’t be a surprise, then, if Ben married a Mecht Eye of the Sun warrior. It might not help his reputation or his station, but it would help him.
Ben launched himself at Gunnar and kissed him. He felt Gunnar smile against him, his arms pinning Ben to his body. For a moment, there was only this moment, Ben whispering, “Yes, all right, I’ll marry you,” between kisses that grew desperate with need.
In two weeks, Ben would get off this ship. But he wouldn’t get off it alone.
At seventeeen years old, Adeluna Andreu stood in a free Grace Loray.
The wharf market was one of the places in New Deza that had been most affected by the battle. The docks were dented, some completely sunk. The stalls and shops were torn to shreds. Shattered glass, rotten produce, and splintered boards covered the stones—garbage and debris, everywhere.
Lu swept glass onto a stretch of fabric Kari held for her. Other people did the same; some carried boards out of the way or rolled barrels to be filled with trash. The area hummed with conversation as raiders worked and scrubbed and cleaned.
But Kari’s attention wasn’t on the task at hand—it drifted up, to the wharf wall.
Above them, the citizens of New Deza had started to gather. They watched, children clinging to parents, men pointing, women shaking their heads, and everyone looking wary and distrustful.
“It’s good they’re here,” Lu said as one man shouted about how raiders had caused this destruction, so they were right to clean it.
Kari stood, tying up the length of fabric so the glass pieces sat safely within. She dropped it at her feet. “We must earn back their trust. Village by village, if that’s what it takes. We will not build this government on a foundation of hatred and fear.”
“The people of this island will see,” Lu whispered. A promise, a hope. “We’ll be better this time. This government will be true, when it’s done.”
Kari hesitated, her head tipped skyward. The noon sun caught a flash of light that might have been from tears before she closed her eyes. “It won’t be done. Not this time. We cannot make the mistake of thinking this government will ever be finished.”
Lu leaned on her broom, eyes going misty as she watched her mother. Her strong, resilient mother, who, even after Tom and the Council falling and the whole of the island turning on her, stood here, now, basking in the scorching sunlight.
It might have exhausted Lu once, to think of this island as never being finished. But Kari was right. Freedom like this, a country so complex, would need to be fluid. There would be no definitions, no lines drawn between right and wrong. They would have to weigh every issue that arose, no matter how dark or shameful, and decide, together, what was best.
In the three weeks since the battle, Lu had found it difficult to tell whether her thoughts were about Grace Loray or herself. The two things had always been inextricably linked in her heart, more so now that true potential lay around them.
Lu had done irreparable things to get here. She had lost more than she knew how to deal with. And sometimes, in the dark hours of night, she woke in a startled sweat, certain Milo hadn’t died or the war hadn’t ended.
Brick by brick. Stone by stone. Wave by wave, they would all move forward.
“Tío, Tío!”
Lu turned to see Teo racing across the wharf. Jakes had been teaching him Argridian, and Teo particularly loved that the word for uncle was so close to Teo’s own name. “It’s like we’re the same!” he’d said.
If Lu had been unwilling to forgive Jakes before then, seeing him blush and tear up at Teo happily calling him Tío would have soothed any lingering resentment.
Teo waved something he’d found in the debris—a small leather ball. Jakes, who had been stacking planks of broken wood, turned, beating dust from his pants.
