“I expect we’ll find a way,” Nezha said. “Just as we have before. But at present, Father’s going to choose the lesser of two evils. And so should you.”
The doors opened. Captain Eriden walked inside.
“They’re ready for you,” he said.
“‘They’?” Rin echoed.
“The Dragon Warlord is entertaining the Hesperian delegates in the great hall. They’d like to speak to you.”
“No,” Rin said.
“You’ll be fine,” Nezha said. “Just don’t do anything stupid.”
“We have very different ideas of what defines ‘stupid,’” she said.
“The Dragon Warlord would prefer not to be kept waiting.” Eriden motioned with a hand. Two of his guards strode forward and seized Rin by the arms. She managed a last, panicked glance over her shoulder at Nezha before they escorted her out the door.
The guards deposited Rin in the short walkway that led to the palace’s great hall and shut the doors behind her.
She stepped hesitantly forward. She saw the Hesperians sitting in gilded chairs around the center table. Jinzha sat at his father’s right hand. The southern Warlords had been relegated to the far end of the table, looking flustered and uncomfortable.
Rin could tell she’d walked into the middle of a heated argument. A thick tension crackled in the air, and all parties looked flustered, red-faced, and furious, as if they were about to come to blows.
She hung back in the hallway for a moment, concealed by the corner wall, and listened.
“The Consortium is still recovering from its own war,” the Hesperian general was saying. Rin struggled to make sense of his speech at first, but gradually the language returned to her. She felt like a student again, sitting in the back of Jima’s classroom, memorizing verb tenses. “We’re in no mood to speculate.”
“This isn’t speculation,” Vaisra said urgently. He spoke Hesperian like it was his native tongue. “We could take back this country in days, if you just—”
“Then do it yourselves,” the general said. “We’re here to do business, not alchemy. We are not interested in transforming frauds into kings.”
Vaisra sat back. “So you’re going to run my country like an experiment before you choose to intervene.”
“A necessary experiment. We didn’t come here to lend ships at your will, Vaisra. This is an investigation.”
“Into what?”
“Whether the Nikara are ready for civilization. We do not distribute Hesperian aid lightly. We made that mistake before. The Mugenese seemed even more ready for advancement than you are. They had no factional infighting, and their governance was more sophisticated by far. Look how that turned out.”
“If we’re underdeveloped, it’s because of years of foreign occupation,” Vaisra said. “That’s your fault, not ours.”
The general shrugged, indifferent. “Even so.”
Vaisra sounded exasperated. “Then what are you looking for?”
“Well, it would be cheating if we told you, wouldn’t it?” The Hesperian general gave a thin smile. “But all of this is a moot point. Our primary objective here is the Speerly. She has purportedly leveled an entire country. We’d like to know how she did it.”
“You can’t have the Speerly,” Vaisra said.
“Oh, I don’t think you get to decide.”
Rin strode into the room. “I’m right here.”
“Runin.” If Vaisra looked surprised, he quickly recovered. He stood up and gestured to the Hesperian general. “Please meet General Josephus Tarcquet.”
Stupid name, Rin thought. A garbled collection of syllables that she could hardly pronounce.
Tarcquet rose to his feet. “I believe we owe you an apology. Lady Saikhara had us rather convinced that we were dealing with something like a wild animal. We didn’t realize that you would be so . . . human.”
Rin blinked at him. Was that really supposed to be an apology?
“Does she understand what I’m saying?” Tarcquet asked Vaisra in choppy, ugly Nikara.
“I understand Hesperian,” Rin snapped. She deeply wished that she’d learned Hesperian curse words at Sinegard. She didn’t have the full vocabulary range to express what she wanted to say, but she had enough. “I’m just not keen on dialoguing with fools who want me dead.”
“Why are we even speaking to her?” Lady Saikhara burst out.
Her voice was high and brittle, as if she had just been crying. The pure venom in her glare startled Rin. This was more than contempt. This was a vicious, murderous hatred.
“She is an unholy abomination,” Saikhara snarled. “She is a mark against the Maker, and she ought to be dragged off to the Gray Towers as soon as possible.”