The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1)(66)

Ranami hung the lamp by the door and went to the woman. They embraced, though there was something awkward in the gesture, as though neither quite had their heart in it. “I’m back,” Ranami said. “And I brought the other part of our plan as I promised.”

The tall woman looked me over like I was a stray dog brought in from the storm. “Him,” she said, her voice flat.

I was the one who didn’t want to be here. “Why don’t you tell me what it is you want me to do and I’ll tell you if I can do it before you go judging my abilities.” I could hear the voices of the children from the room beyond, and the thick smell of a rich curry stew. My stomach growled.

Gio rose from his spot at the table. “Jovis,” he said, “I’m glad you decided to join us. You understand, bringing you here, telling you this – it puts us at risk.”

Mephi leaned against my knee. I rubbed his ears, taking comfort from his presence. “As Ranami so kindly pointed out to me: who would I tell? Everyone wants me dead, it seems, including the Empire.”

“You could bargain for your life,” Gio said.

“We both know the Empire would not keep their end of that bargain. Will you tell me or not?”

He exchanged a glance with Ranami. I wasn’t stupid. This verbal game we’d played was pointless. If he told me and I didn’t agree to their plan, he would kill me. If I did, and I succeeded, he’d likely still try to kill me. Ranami was a believer – she would never pose a threat to Gio. He could smell it on her, like a wolf searching for a dog among the sheep. Me? I was a survivor. I’d bargained with the Ioph Carn and then stolen from them. I would do what I needed to do. He could smell it on me too, I was sure. So we circled one another, wary and snapping, knowing that this might very well end in bloodshed.

“The governor here is a strong supporter of the Emperor,” Gio said. “Much of his commerce comes from sending caro nuts to the inner Empire. It’s made him rich. We overthrow him. Cut off the supply of caro nuts and weaken the Emperor’s support at the beginning of the wet season. Just as the bog cough hits the main islands, the governors will be clamoring for caro nut oil that the Emperor does not have. “If we control the supply, we’ll be able to leverage that to gain new allies and to turn some of the governors against the Empire.”

My gaze flicked to Ranami. She stood leaning against the wall with the tall woman, their fingers entwined. While she didn’t look at me, she didn’t look at her partner either. Rebellions could tear the bonds between people as surely as they could form them.

“And my role in this?”

“If the stories are even halfway true, you’re a powerful fighter. We need someone to assassinate the governor’s personal guard. Someone who can take them all out, if needed. This will be coordinated with a frontal assault.”

I could still feel the thrum of the power within me, now fluttering against the louder beating of my heart. “I’m a smuggler. I’m not an assassin.”

“I’ve been told you took out six of the Ioph Carn’s best fighters and nearly knocked a drinking hall off its foundation in the doing of it.”

“I didn’t knock it off its foundation. I did shake it just a little, but that was more to keep them off balance and frightened than to destroy anything. And I didn’t kill the Ioph Carn.” But I couldn’t deny there’d been six.

Gio only watched me as I blathered, his dark eyes calm. “Six trained fighters against one smuggler,” he said, as though that settled it. Perhaps it did. He lowered himself back into his seat, though he’d turned it to face me. “I have no qualms about your abilities in a fight. But we have other pieces falling into place, and you’ll be working with me. We’ll need the ten days.”

I’d heard about Khalute, Gio’s assassination of the governor there, his takeover of the island for the Shardless Few. Some stories said he’d done it alone. Some stories said that was where he’d lost the eye. Well, I’d had my fill of stories and songs, and I knew how they could be built more of dreams than truth. I glanced around the cavern, the carved pillars, the empty sconces. “I’ll be working with you in what way? You want to know how I do it?”

The grim set of his face shifted, his lips pressing together like two cliffs in a quake. “Yes. But you won’t tell me that.” He shook his head. “No. I’ll be going with you.”





24





Ranami


Nephilanu Island

The theft of the caro nuts had gone well. The next step – telling Phalue what the rebels had truly planned – that hadn’t gone nearly as well. Ranami sat by the ocean, a book in hand, waiting for Phalue to arrive. She dipped a toe into the water and watched the fish dart away from the ripples.

It could have gone worse, though Ranami wasn’t sure what worse would have meant. Once Phalue had truly understood what it was like for the farmers, she’d done her part with gusto. She’d run out to the guards, claiming she’d been attacked in the woods. She’d led them on a merry chase, leaving Ranami to gather as many boxes of nuts as she could carry.

But Phalue never could do anything halfway. Once she’d made her mind up, she threw herself into the task at hand.

Once she’d made her mind up.

Ranami supposed it was a big leap – asking a person to steal caro nuts and then asking them to keep quiet as you overthrew their father. She breathed in the ocean air, heavy with the scent of rain, and tried again to read. After finding herself reading the same paragraph three times, she snapped the cover shut. History couldn’t compare to the present, not with such turmoil ahead.