City of Spells (Into the Crooked Place #2) - Alexandra Christo Page 0,21

in this place?” Asees asked her.

Though Asees and Karam had grown to respect one another, their mutual love for Arjun like a bond between them, she often looked at Saxony in a way that was far from endeared. Nobody could blame her, given everything that had happened between the two of them.

Asees resented Saxony for the delg bat that Ashwood had intercepted, leading so many of her Kin to be killed and for Asees herself to be inflicted with the Loj elixir. While Saxony resented Asees for trying to kill her while infected.

It didn’t make for a sturdy partnership.

“Saxony was the one who brought you here, to that safety,” Karam said. “And she also helped to save you when Ashwood had you under his thrall. She could have easily killed you to protect herself.”

From beside Asees, Arjun folded his arms across his chest to indicate how stubborn he planned on being, as though the way he stood as a shield beside Asees wasn’t enough of a clue.

“Both Asees and I helped to save Saxony’s people from that island and grant her underboss the magic he needed to help,” he said.

Karam cared for him as a brother, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t smack some sense into him when he needed it. “I believe we are all even with saving each other’s lives,” she said. “But does the Indescribable God not teach us to also think of the rest of the realms?”

Asees let out a long breath. Karam knew that using their god as a bargaining chip was a low blow, but that didn’t make it any less true. Being selfish was not the same as being right.

Asees stared at Karam.

She wasn’t a tall woman, especially compared to Saxony, but she had a way of sizing people up to make them feel smaller than her, despite her stature. It was the job of a Liege to be wary of everyone who might be a danger to their people. Right now, Karam fell reluctantly into that category.

“It is an ancient spell,” Asees said. “And it has not been used in an age.”

“That is only because Crafters keep to themselves now,” Karam said.

“We have always kept to ourselves.”

Asees shook her head so that her dark hair swayed against her stave-covered arms.

“Asees is right,” Arjun said, because of course he took her side in most things.

The last time he hadn’t, their Kin had nearly been destroyed. Karam knew he still carried that guilt with him each day.

“Traditions are sacred and varied,” he said. “We have never even agreed on where our powers come from. Saxony’s realm believes one thing, ours another. And even among realms, the Kins were always separate.”

“That did a lot of good when the war came,” Karam said. “Hei reb. Heb mina kori ak maku.”

Karam hadn’t planned on calling him an idiot, but she also hadn’t thought he’d be acting like one.

“Times change,” Saxony said. “We can’t do what we’ve always done just because it’s all we’ve known. We have to make a change to see one.”

Arjun shuffled and looked to Asees, his eyes filled with conflict. “I agree that more magic would help in the war, and we have seen firsthand what happens when we try to escape fighting.”

They were all picturing the attack on Asees and Arjun’s Kin back in their homeland of Granka. Ashwood had slaughtered so many of their people, and the rest he’d taken and forced to do his bidding under the Loj elixir. If they had joined Karam and the others back then, rather than staying behind, then maybe that blood wouldn’t have been spilled. Karam didn’t want them to make that same mistake again and she trusted Saxony’s judgment on this.

“War is not something you can hide from, or pretend is not happening just because it is not yet on your doorstep,” Karam said.

It would get there eventually, it always did. And even if it didn’t, even if the forest kept them safe for the time being, how could any of them live with themselves if they stood by and watched others die in their place? The good of their people wasn’t more important than the good of the world, and Karam would bring dishonor to her family and to the order of the Rekhi d’Rihsni her grandparents had died for if she let them choose their people over everyone else.

“The summoning spell is dangerous and it has only been used a handful of times since the beginning of the realms,” Asees said. “The