She nodded. “I think Feylen needs to fulfill the god’s fundamental nature. The Phoenix needs to consume. But the Wind God needs chaos. Daji’s found some way to bend that to her will, but you won’t be able to tempt him with anything humans might want.”
“I see.” Vaisra was silent for a moment. “And my son?”
Rin hesitated. Had they not told him about Jinzha? “Sir?”
“They didn’t bring back a body,” Vaisra said.
His mask cracked then. For the briefest moment, he looked like a father.
So he did know. He just wouldn’t admit to himself that if Jinzha hadn’t made his way back to Arlong with the rest of the fleet, then he was probably dead.
“I didn’t see what happened to him,” Rin said. “I’m sorry.”
“There’s no point speculating, then,” Vaisra said coolly. His mask reassembled itself. “Let’s move on. I assume you’ll want to rejoin the infantry?”
“Not the infantry.” Rin took a deep breath. “I want command of the Cike again. I want a seat at the strategy table. I want direct say in anything you want the Cike to do.”
“And why’s that?” Vaisra asked.
Because Chaghan can’t be right about my being your dog. “Because I deserve it. I broke the Seal. I’ve gotten the fire back.”
Vaisra raised an eyebrow. “Show me.”
She turned an open palm toward the ceiling and summoned a fist-sized ball of fire. She made it run up and down the length of her arm, made it twist around her in the air before calling it back into her fingers. Even after a month of practice, she was still amazed at how easy it was, how delightfully natural it felt to control the flame the way she controlled her fingers. She let it take shapes—a rat, a rooster, an undulating orange dragon—and then she closed her fingers over her palm.
“Very nice,” Vaisra said approvingly. The mask was gone now; he was finally smiling. She felt a warm rush of encouragement.
“So. Command?”
He waved a hand. “You’re reinstated. I’ll let the generals know. How did you manage this?”
“That’s a long story.” She paused, wondering where to start. “We, ah, ran into some Ketreyids.”
He frowned. “Hinterlanders?”
“Don’t call them that. They’re Ketreyids.” She gave him a quick account of what the Ketreyids had done, told him about the Sorqan Sira and the Trifecta.
She omitted the part about the anchor bond. Vaisra didn’t need to know.
“Then what happened?” Vaisra asked. “Where are they?”
“They’re gone. And the Sorqan Sira’s dead.”
“What?”
She told him about Augus. She knew Vaisra would be surprised, but she hadn’t expected his reaction. The color drained from his face. His entire body tensed.
“Who else knows?” he demanded.
“Just Kitay. And a couple of Ketreyids, but they’re not telling anyone.”
“Tell no one this happened,” he said quietly. “Not even my son. If the Hesperians find out, our lives are forfeit.”
“It was their fault to begin with,” she muttered.
“Shut up.” He slammed a hand on the table. She flinched back, startled.
“How could you be so stupid?” he demanded. “You should have brought them back safe, that would have ingratiated us to General Tarcquet—”
“Tarcquet made it back?” she interrupted.
“Yes, and many of the Gray Company are with him. They escaped south in one of the skimmers. They are deeply unhappy with our naval capabilities and are this close to pulling out of the continent, which is a thought I assume never crossed your mind when you decided to murder one of them.”
“Are you joking? They were trying to kill us—”
“So you should have incapacitated him or fled. The Gray Company is untouchable. You couldn’t have picked a worse Hesperian to kill.”
“This isn’t my fault,” Rin insisted. “He’d gone mad, he was waving an arquebus around—”
“Listen to me,” Vaisra said. “You are walking a very fine line right now. The Hesperians are not just upset, they are terrified. They thought you a curiosity before. Then they saw what happened at Boyang. Now they are convinced that each and every one of you is a mindless agent of Chaos who could bring about the end of the world. They’re going to hunt down every shaman in this empire and put them in cages if they can. The only reason why they haven’t touched you is because you volunteered, and they know you’ll cooperate. Do you understand now?”
Fear struck Rin. “Then Suni and Baji—”
“—are safe,” Vaisra said. “The Hesperians don’t know about them. And they’d better not find out, because then Tarcquet will know we’ve lied to him. Your job is to