“It only grows.” Vivia ran her fingers over her spyglass, the brass warm and reflecting the sun. “Justice, we called it here, but in truth, it was just a reason to fight. I would have killed you and all of Marstok, Empress, because it’s what I was taught to do.”
Vaness swallowed. Her eyes, dark and sunlit, dragged to Vivia’s face. “I do not blame you. I was the one who let Nubrevna become a wasteland, all in the name of protecting my people. I never questioned if my methods were right. I simply believed they had to be done.” She squared her body to Vivia, her fingers reaching for Vivia’s hands.
And rather than withdraw like she always did, Vivia slid her glass into her pocket and allowed Vaness to clasp them. The Empress’s touch was cool. The salt wind wefted through her hair. “How do we change that echo? If we try to reclaim our thrones, people will die. How do we keep that from escalating into war?”
“I don’t know,” Vivia answered honestly. “But I do know that I don’t want to kill you anymore, Empress. It’s … well, it’s hard to truly hate someone you know.”
The Empress laughed, a wry rush of air over lips reddened from the sun. “So the solution to continental war is getting to know each other?”
And now Vivia laughed too. The idea sounded absurd when Vaness put it that way. “Well, it certainly can’t make things worse.”
“No.” The Empress squeezed Vivia’s hands, a brief burst of pressure before she withdrew. Strangely, Vivia wished she hadn’t.
“Why the questions?” Vivia scrubbed the back of her head. “Why the doubt? Yesterday you were proclaiming us Well Chosen and convincing me to gallivant into open rebellion.”
“Ah, but doubt is good.” Vaness arched her spine, face cresting toward the sky. “It means we question our choices. It means we look for better solutions. In Marstok, we have a saying: They who see only one way forward are they who step off the cliff.” She glided forward as if to do just that, and without thinking—without pausing to realize that of course Vaness wasn’t going to stride off the plateau and into the sea—Vivia slung her arms around the Empress.
She whirled Vaness toward her and clutched her close. Chest-to-chest, clothes wet and faces flushed. And though Vivia ought to pull away now that she realized it had been a joke, she didn’t.
Vaness didn’t either. Her eyes moved to Vivia’s lips, and Vivia realized in a vague, incredulous sort of way that the Empress wanted to kiss her.
An earnest voice shouted from across the Well: “Your Majesty, Your Majesty!”
Vivia jolted; Vaness flinched, and as they lurched apart, heat billowed up from Vivia’s ribs, from a firepot that had gone off inside her chest and was now burning, burning, boiling through her.
“Your Majesty,” Cam called again, oblivious to the scene he’d interrupted as his booted feet slapped over flagstones and around cypress trees. He came to a panting stop before Vivia and Vaness. “We’ve … had word,” he gasped, “from the Red … Sails. They’re attacking the Dalmotti ships and want to know … if we’d like to take Captain Kadossi into our custody.”
Vivia and Vaness locked eyes—Vivia’s wide, the Empress’s razor thin. “Well, this is unexpected,” Vivia murmured. Her thoughts were flustered, her skin aflame from a kiss she’d seen in Vaness’s eyes.
“That is a vast understatement,” the Empress replied, while the iron at her wrists shivered restlessly. If she was flustered, she didn’t show it. “He could be useful to us.”
“He could also be dangerous,” Vivia countered. “And we shouldn’t accept gifts from pirates.”
“Says the woman who was a pirate.”
Vivia shook her head. Then shook it more emphatically when Vaness’s expression remained unchanged. “You cannot possibly think we should take him, Empress. The Red Sails have no reason to aid us. This is clearly a trap.”
“Or perhaps they simply know which side will win the war.” Vaness turned to Cam. “Tell the Red Sails we will take Captain Kadossi into our custody immediately—”
“Cam,” Vivia snapped, “tell the Red Sails we will not take Captain Kadossi.”
“—and then contact the Doge,” the Empress finished. “We will want to ransom the man.”
“No, we absolutely will not.” A new heat brewed in Vivia’s chest. “I will not have Red Sails or Dalmotti captains on Nubrevnan soil, Empress. This is my homeland, and we will do things my way. I believe I’ve warned you about disobedience before…” She trailed off at the sight of Cam, his face green with horror.
Clearly the poor boy didn’t want to risk disobeying either of his majesties.
And Vivia couldn’t help it: she started laughing. First it was just a bark of air, but then it quickly burgeoned and bloomed into something so full and rich, she couldn’t contain it. And the more she laughed, the more furious and tense the Empress became—which only made Vivia laugh harder. It just toppled out of her, as relentless as a burst dam.
She couldn’t remember when she’d laughed this hard. Months ago. Years. Maybe never.
Eventually, even Cam was chuckling too, albeit nervously. Vaness, however, remained wrathful. “What,” she said in a voice made of ice chips, “is so funny?”
“Us,” Vivia squeezed out between laughs. “You … and I. The world might be a mess, Empress, but…” Noden save her, were there tears in her eyes? “But you and I are still just two bitches in an alley who think we own the street outside.”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“And you don’t need to know.” Vivia wiped her eyes and towed the Empress toward her—a familiar movement with her arm slinging around Vaness’s shoulders. And though she could tell Vaness really didn’t want to smile, the Empress also couldn’t quite hold one at bay. “Lead us to Noden’s Gift, Cam,” Vivia said, tugging the Empress into a saunter. “And as we walk, Her Majesty and I will discuss calmly—like the logical, thoughtful Well Chosen that we are—why she is for and I am opposed to working with the Red Sails. I shall go first.”
“No.” Vaness bristled against her. “I will go first.”
Vivia only laughed all over again.
* * *
On the beach below the Origin Well, Stix stared up at the woman who was her Threadsister and her queen. Vivia had just abandoned the cliff’s edge, her arm around an empress while the wind tangled her hair and toyed with her coat. One step, two steps, three, and she was gone.
A knot clenched in Stix’s belly as the lens-shattered image of Vivia, the Empress, and Cam disappeared. It wasn’t indigestion, it wasn’t hunger, and it wasn’t her moon cycle either. Yet it hurt as much as all of them combined, and she kneaded uselessly at her belly. Ryber had been right when she had warned Stix not to come back to say goodbye.
With a harsh puff of air, she launched herself for the nearest cluster of jungle. Hunters and sailors and civilians prowled within the trees, but Ryber had traced a path separate from prying eyes. Stix ducked around a cypress and found Kahina waiting for her, leaning against the edge of the Origin Well’s plateau. White streaks of limestone marked her red coat.