Page 17 of The Isles of the Gods
“Yes, Ruby.” All Jude’s attention is on my sister now. He’s gone still, like prey that’s smelled a predator but isn’t sure where it is.
“The queen wants to shore up Alinor’s allies,” Ruby says with a feline smile. “Mellacea’s starting to flex her muscles, and they know it. If—when—it comes to war, they want to be sure of the support of their friends and neighbors.”
I study Sister Beris, but she wouldn’t lose a game of cards easy—her expression doesn’t flicker even a touch, and there’s no sign how much this means to her.
A few years ago,shewouldn’t have been at a meeting like this any more than Jude. When I was growing up, church was something old ladies did to gossip with their friends on a rest day—I was always the youngest there by several decades. They say your prayers are amplified in a church, all the more powerful for being offered up in a place soaked in faith. I didn’t think Macean could hear mine while he was asleep, but I figured it never hurt to try.
Then one day I met Sister Beris after a service. We talked. We understood each other. I learned that behind that stern façade is a woman who always has time to listen to me. Who believes in me.
More and more people have been at our services lately, and they say fewer and fewer are at the temples in Alinor.
They say if this war everyone’s whispering about is truly coming, we’ll be the ones with a god on our side.
“You went to boarding school with the prince,” Ruby continues to Jude. “Yes?”
Jude’s silent a long moment. He didn’t tell Ruby that. He didn’t tellanyonethat, but I found it out for her.
I found out a lot about Jude. I know where he trains to win his fights at Handsome Jack’s. I know he makes excuses for his bruises when he sees the boy he likes, the one who tends bar at Ruby Red, one of my sister’s clubs. Hells, I know the drink he orders when he’s finding a reason to hang around there.
“Yes?” prompts Ruby, one brow rising.
“Yes,” Jude admits, holding very still. “The prince and I were at school together. We weren’t close.”
That’s not true. They were friends. I think when Jude’s father left him with nothing, he expected the prince to come to the rescue, and he was met with nothing but a blank stare. But I keep my mouth shut. No need to let him know how many cards I’m holding. Not yet.
“You could identify him?” Ruby asks.
Jude swallows. “Yes.”
Ruby treats him to a smile that shines like a gold dollar. “That’s good to hear, Jude. You’re going to board a ship with Laskia tonight—there’s a job I need you to do.”
Jude’s mouth falls open, his composure gone, and he tries and fails to muster a protest, ending up with “A ship?” in that aristocratic accent of his.
“Oh, don’t you worry,” Ruby says, leaning forward, allsmiles. “We’ll take care of your mother while you’re gone, Jude. We know she means everything to you.”
Everyone’s silent for a long moment, before Jude makes himself speak. “What is it you need me to do?”
Ruby turns that smile on me then, and I steady myself with a breath. I don’t usually speak in these meetings, but I told her I wanted to step up. I brought her this plan. I convinced her she needed someone she could trust to carry this out and report back, and as her sister, I’m the only choice. This is mine, to win or lose.
“We’re going to intercept the royal progress fleet,” I say, my voice calm and even, not a bad imitation of Ruby’s, though I can’t do her purr. “You’re going to confirm the prince is aboard, and we’re going to sink it.”
Jude pales, the bloodstain on his cheek standing out in stark relief as he turns sallow. “You’re going to start a war,” he whispers.
“Well,” I say, “we’re going to be dropping a few bodies in Mellacean navy uniforms into the debris, just to make clear who the enemy is. You can bet your last dollar we’re starting a war.”
“It’s just business,” Ruby says, lifting one shoulder in awhat can you do?shrug. “Our business is in imports and exports, Jude. Think of it more as…an adjustment of the marketplace.”
Sister Beris clears her throat, and Ruby rolls her eyes. The congregation might be coming back, but Ruby doesn’t share my devotion, and she doesn’t have to pretend it just yet. We all know who’s who in this room. The fact that Sister Beris has come to Ruby for help tells the story.
It matters to Ruby to get this done, though. Her competitorshave been pressing in lately. And when you know what it’s like to come from nothing, you’ll do anything—anything—to avoid going back. You can never afford to rest for a moment in our game.
If I were to guess, I’d say that’s why Lorento was retired. After all these years, what he knew was worth paying for, and one of Ruby’s rivals was prepared to front the cash. If so, it was a dumb move on Lorento’s part—if he’d stuck with Ruby, she’d have covered his actual retirement. Now he doesn’t get one.
Thing is, we can’t know what he told whoever paid. You never know what’s coming. If Ruby can pull off this alliance with the green sisters, she might well make herself untouchable.
“Aside from the business part,” I say, becauseIwould like to avoid annoying the green sister, even if I sold this to Ruby as a financial deal, “the first councilor is distressingly reluctant to do his patriotic duty and take on Alinor. Mellacea needs this too. Every day we edge closer to the fight that will free Macean, but without a spark, the fire will never start.”
Finally Sister Beris speaks, in that soft voice of hers you can somehow always hear, even when there’s noise around. “Alinor’s royal family has forgotten its religious obligations. Barrica the Sentinel is forgotten by her worshippers, and Queen Augusta is sending her brother off to glad-hand and attend picnics. He should already have made his sacrifice in the Isles of the Gods and strengthened their goddess once more. In abandoning that duty, they have offered us an opening to slip past Barrica’s guard and awaken Macean, and we must not pass it up.”
