“I bet they tripped up on a job and got shot,” Aina spat out, letting her anger get the best of her. Ignoring the fact that Tannis was only a few years older than her, she added, “I hear it’s harder to move around when you get old. Is that the problem? Worried you’re losing your touch, so you’re trying to make me paranoid? If I’m gone, you’ll start getting the good jobs.”
“Hasn’t Kohl taught you to be wary of Blades older than you? It means we’re dangerous enough to have survived.” Tannis’s shoulders shook with laughter. “You sure believe all the compliments Kohl throws at you, don’t you? The fact you have breasts and pretty hair might be keeping you alive for now, but not much longer. Keep bragging about starting your own tradehouse and competing with Kohl. One day you’ll mess up, and if he still treats you like his favorite pet killer, that’ll make him look weak, and weakness is the one thing he can’t stand. If you lose Kohl’s protection, you’ll become his enemy, and anyone who doesn’t like you will have free rein to kill you. I’ll have free rein to kill you. And no one else here will speak up for you and risk angering Kohl. If they question or betray him, they’ll be dead right after you.”
The wind gusted hard then, chilling Aina along with Tannis’s words.
“I’ve never betrayed Kohl,” she lied through gritted teeth. “I’m not stupid.”
* * *
The next day, Aina waited for Teo in the Center, leaning against the grimy wall of a shoe repair shop and trying not to fall asleep while standing. After the overnight watch with Tannis, she’d slept until midmorning, then spent the afternoon spying on Kouta.
For the past few hours, she’d sat in the balcony of a bookshop while he read on the downstairs floor, and tried not to pass out from boredom while waiting for him to do something interesting. His guards had sat near him or wandered around the shelves, and she wondered if they were growing as weary as she was.
Luckily, the brisk wind and the noise from the train station a block away kept her awake. Train whistles blared and people’s suitcases banged along the sidewalk as they rushed to the station. Dusk was a velvety blue smear on the sky littered with streams of smoke. The few visible stars painted a revealing silver on the statue in the square ahead, making it even more macabre. It figured King Verrain, his face stretched in agony, a sword buried to the hilt in his back with its tip splintering out of his marble chest.
“Solís.”
She turned to face Teo, who stood at the corner in a dark jacket with his hands tucked in the pockets—either to stay warm, or to hold the handle of a gun, she wasn’t sure. The reddish-gold rays of the sun lit his face a soft amber color.
“Good morning,” she said.
“The sun is setting.”
With a shrug, she led the way to the next stage of their job. They weaved through soot-covered, dejected factory workers getting off their shifts, and soon reached an alley that emptied onto the entertainment district’s main road, Lyra Avenue. Casinos, bars, and burlesque theaters were lined up on all sides, so locals and tourists would never run out of things to do.
Shouts and laughter in different languages flooded down to the street. Most immigrants in Kosín kept to small communities, like La Cumbre, where Aina’s parents had raised her alongside other immigrants from Mil Cimas; the Linasian neighborhood near the river where Teo lived; and the Kaiyanis, Natsudan, and Marinian neighborhoods in the southeast. But Lyra Avenue housed people from everywhere. Apartments for immigrant workers were on the second floor of each building, packed with people who’d come to Kosín for jobs before the war and had gotten sucked into the fighting during it. Living close to the Stacks, most of them had fallen into poverty along with the Inosen, but some had found stability by starting small businesses along Lyra Avenue.
“Sorry I couldn’t help earlier,” Teo said loudly over the music issuing from a casino. “I needed to take my mother to the clinic for an appointment. How was our friend today?”
“So boring!” Aina said, as a strong gust of wind whipped her black hair in front of her face “All he’s done is read. I think he’s read more books than people I’ve killed. Shouldn’t rich people be more interesting to spy on?” She stopped in her tracks. “What’s going on here?”
The end of Lyra Avenue was marked with bike stands and a corner bookshop before it curved into Rose Court. Now, a gaggle of people choked the street and shouts rang out over the usual bustle.
“You’re annoyingly tall,” she scoffed, standing on her toes and nearly falling over from trying to see above the crowd.
“Want to sit on my shoulders?” he teased. “I can buy you an ice cream cone after.”
“Shut up. What’s happening?”
“They’ve made a circle. Some guards are there. Their rifles look extra shiny today.”
“What the hell?” With a frustrated huff of air, Aina placed her hand on Teo’s shoulder and pressed up, so her feet dangled above the ground and she gained a better vantage point.
A circle had formed in the center of the crowd. The Diamond Guards held the crowd at bay, rifles hoisted and used to shove unruly citizens back into line. In the center of the circle, two men knelt with hands tied behind their backs and nail-studded leashes around their necks. Droplets of blood covered the stones they knelt on. One of the guards removed rough diamonds from the men’s pockets and tossed them on the ground where they clattered dully on the street.
A chill swept down Aina’s spine. As cautious as she was with her diamond sales, she still feared this would be her fate one day.
She’d been a child during the war, but as if she could suddenly view it through her parents’ eyes, she imagined the hundreds of people who’d met their end in the same way—the shine of diamonds the last thing they saw. She imagined her parents kneeling to pray in front of an altar to the Mothers, but then the altar disappeared and their knees struck concrete, where they waited for a bullet to strike like the two smugglers here now.
General Alsane Bautix stood to the side of the prisoners. A crisp black suit over his muscles hardened by years of military service, his red copper hair and beard bright against his ivory skin, a glittering diamond earring in one ear, and unreadable features chiseled from jagged stone, General Bautix was the last person anyone in Sumerand wanted to cross. He’d originally built a fortune through manufacturing guns and other war machinery, and then joined the military. After King Verrain instigated the war, Bautix helped turn the army against him, and became known as the hero who killed Verrain and thus ended the war. His victory gave him the highest commanding military position and a seat in the Sentinel, the country’s governing oligarchy.
King Verrain, who’d been a Sacoren, hated that people had begun moving away from faith and toward an industrial future that relied on technology. Verrain found Inosen who followed his guidance, and together they began to shut down factories by force, starting with the event fourteen years ago known as the Estrel Ka-Noten—the night the stars fell. He’d demanded universal worship of the Mothers, and for all signs of industry and technology to be destroyed. The Steels fought back, forcing their employees to take up arms to fight. The Estrel Ka-Noten triggered five months of civil war.