Rule of Wolves (King of Scars #2) - Leigh Bardugo Page 0,101

though how either of them put up with the other was beyond her. Maybe relentless gloom and persistent sunshine were the right combination.

Nikolai leaned back in his chair. “The Darkling has a gift for spectacle rivaled only by my own. He’ll want to stage a very public return.”

“My sister has spies and informants stationed in nearly every major town in Ravka,” said Tolya. “We’ll ask about newcomers and strangers.”

“At least Tamar is well,” said Nikolai.

Nadia looked pale beneath her freckles, but all she said was, “Thank the Saints.”

Tamar’s messages had confirmed that with Ehri’s support for the treaty, the Shu queen’s council had agreed to ratify and back their newly forged alliance. Now it was a question of maintaining their leverage and of trying to dismantle the secret khergud program.

“Let’s make sure our soldiers on the northern border keep an eye out for signs of the Starless,” said Nikolai. “I don’t want them crossing into Fjerda.”

“Would the Darkling join up with the Fjerdans?” asked Nadia.

“He might,” said Tolya. “It’s another move he’s made before.”

Nadia’s laugh was rueful. “I don’t know who to root for.”

Zoya wasn’t sure either. More Fjerdans worshipping Ravkan Saints meant more sympathy for Ravka and potentially less support for the war. But that faith might make it far easier for the Darkling to gain a foothold there.

Tolya crossed his huge arms. “The Apparat actively campaigned against granting the Darkling Sainthood. The Fjerdans will have to break with the priest if they want the Darkling on their side.”

“Will they?” said Nikolai. “The Apparat survives. That’s what he does. If he senses the Darkling can become a valued asset, we can be sure he’ll have a sudden epiphany. And coming back from the dead makes for a very grand entrance. Fjerda may not have to choose between the priest and a newly risen Saint at all.”

“I don’t think the Darkling will join the Apparat,” Genya said.

It was the first time she’d spoken. The room felt suddenly still, as if encased in glass.

Nikolai turned to her. “You knew him better than any of us, longer than any of us. Why?”

She set down her teacup. “Pride. The Darkling doesn’t forgive. He punishes. He punished you for betraying him as Sturmhond. He punished me for choosing Alina. When the Darkling staged his coup, he trusted the Apparat with the capital. The priest was meant to lend his authority to the Darkling’s cause. Instead he marshaled the people’s faith for Alina Starkov.”

“Because he believed she could be more easily controlled,” said Nikolai.

“More fool him. But that’s something the Darkling and the Apparat had in common,” she said, her voice hardening. “They underestimated her. They underestimated every one of us. All the Darkling ever wanted was to be loved by this country, adored. He won’t side with the Apparat because the priest did the unforgivable: He turned the people against him.”

“Then what will he do?”

Genya’s fists crushed the material of her kefta. “The question is, what will we do?”

“Is there anything we can do?” asked Adrik, and for once his miserable tone was completely appropriate. “Even with support from the Shu and the Zemeni, do we have enough flyers or missiles to face Fjerda in the field?”

Nadia and Leoni exchanged a glance, and Leoni bit her lip. “If we had a new source of titanium, we’re ready to move into production immediately.”

Tolya took a deep breath. “I know we’re all angry and grieving. What the Fjerdans did is unforgivable, but—”

“But?” said Zoya.

He held her gaze. “What we do next will determine not only what kind of war this is, but what every war will look like after. Launching a rocket without ever needing to put a soldier or a pilot in harm’s way? War is meant to have costs. At what point are we as bad as the Fjerdans?”

“Maybe that’s what we need to be,” said Zoya. “This is a world where villains thrive.” Where men like David died buried beneath a heap of stone in their wedding clothes while the Darkling and the Apparat somehow still drew breath.

“Does that mean we become villains too?” Tolya asked, and Zoya could hear the pleading in his voice.

“You’ve never been the weakest person in the room, Tolya. Mercy means nothing if we can’t protect our own.”

“But where does it end?”

Zoya didn’t have an answer to that. Nikolai had said it enough times: Once the river was loosed, it could not be called back.

Genya touched her hand gently to Tolya’s arm. “David hated making war. He was