Chapter Twenty-Two. In Which the Girl Meets a Regent #2
“Oh.” The Regent guffawed, her laugh resembling a honk, eyes alight with surprise.
“That’s why we have the immigration lines in the docks.
Those without Cirilian papers can only visit certain parts of the city; it’s easier for the curse to keep its hold on people already affected by it.
And returning citizens are befuddled for a while, but we reintroduce information through our officers.
Easier to snap out of it once you know.”
Risa gnawed on her bottom lip. That was a lot of work for the Regent; she couldn’t imagine the amount of sweat the general and his witch would have to put into such a behemoth of a curse only to have some upstart like the Regent render it useless.
Was that what made the general target San Cirilo?
Was the general so power hungry he couldn’t stand to see someone outside his influence of power resist?
“Seems like a ton of effort for some small, autonomous region. Why does General Sur hate you so much?”
The Regent stared at her. “Besides being an independent sovereign who bows down to no king and managed to use my genius to create a machine that could be used for great good or great evil?”
“Yes,” Risa said, unable to hide the annoyance in her voice. Were all Kheadon royalty afflicted with vanity? No wonder Javi was a lost cause. “Besides all of that.”
“I would think it’s obvious,” the Regent said, crossing her arms over her ample chest. “The general hates witches,” she explained. She swept a hand over herself, sleeve trailing over the couch. “And I am a witch.”
Risa supposed she should have seen that coming.
The airship was a marriage between science and magic—and the only beings that could control magic, besides otherworldly gods and nature itself, were witches.
Risa had assumed, like most foolish mortals, that the engineering genius of the Regent had found a way to siphon magic from the air through some elaborate machine to create flight.
She’d never thought that it was because the Regent was magical.
Unless … Risa bit down on her lip further.
It was no question that the airship was a marvel that required great power. Vast amounts of it. And the curse that had ensnared Madros, Kheadon, even Amina herself required vast amounts of power, too.
Maybe Risa’s suspicions were right. Perhaps the real culprit was the Regent after all.
Risa couldn’t tell the Regent that Javi was in San Cirilo and within her grasp. Not until she knew for certain that the Regent could be trusted.
“Now the real question,” the Regent said, rising from her perch with great aplomb to stomp behind her desk. She sank into the large, ornate chair, its filigreed back resembling a throne.
The way she settled—slightly askew with an insouciant lean—was so familiar that Risa was taken aback, her breath faltering.
“What are you really doing here? There is no way a child—witch or not—in the company of two other children could have developed a better airship. It took me decades.”
“Maybe I’m just smarter than you.”
The Regent barked a laugh. “No, that’s not it.”
Risa hurried out of her own seat, intent on not giving the Regent the opportunity to stab her in the back. “I don’t have a better airship. I have information,” she ground out.
“By all means, then, let’s hear it.”
She scanned the Regent’s face, attempting to divine more information from the folds of her wrinkles or the set of her jaw.
But the woman kept her face steeled for such attack; there was no way to discern anything from those pursed red lips, arched brows, impassive eyes.
If she had placed the curse on Madros and most of Kheadon, she wasn’t going to reveal it to some insipid teenager like Risa.
The Regent did not flaunt her power, unlike Brunhilda and Linda.
She didn’t glow, unless the glinting jewels at her neck and hands counted.
She didn’t glide or float like Linda, or stalk around like old Brunhilda.
There was an almost unfathomable ordinariness to her that contradicted her larger-than-life figure.
Somehow, it all amounted to a more terrifying image.
“My companions and I know of a planned attempt to steal from the Flying Palace.”
This seemed to interest the Regent. Her other eyebrow hiked up to join its twin. “A heist? I love a good heist. By whom?”
Risa shrugged.
She wasn’t going to give up everything. Not when Javi and Amina were still being held somewhere else and were at the mercy of the Regent’s officers.
“And how did you come by this information?”
She shrugged again.
The Regent sighed. “We’re not getting anywhere with this interrogation, are we?”
“Not really.”
“Would you be more amenable to a discussion if your companions were to join us?” The Regent looked at her thoughtfully as she rested an elbow on the arm of her chair, chin in hand.
The thought of Javi in the room made Risa’s chest ache all over again.
It was selfish of her to want him close by only so that her pain from Brunhilda’s curse would go away.
To hear him huff with exasperation, watch him roll his eyes at something she said, have him close enough that if she were to reach out, she might graze his hand.
She had to stop being so selfish.
The Regent watched her intently, no doubt trying to read her face like she’d attempted to a moment earlier.
“No. Probably not.”
Javi and Amina had a better chance of escaping if she wasn’t with them. She just hoped they had taken the opportunity and were already hopping on an airship back to ground level.
It was at that precise moment that Brunie perked up, ears alert, and bared his snaggletooth.
Some kind of commotion was happening outside, footsteps pounding against the floor.
There was a scuffle at the door before it opened and Javi stumbled in, disgruntled and out of breath.
He pressed a hand to his chest as he doubled over.
Amina shouldered past him into the room without her hood, beads of sweat dappled along the line of her forehead, dark curls falling around her face.
“Curses, this place is a maze.” Javi searched the room. When he saw Risa, he straightened. “Risa! You’re safe.”
His timing was dreadful.
She was about to tell him so—despite the immediate effect of his gaze making her nearly burst into flames—but was interrupted by the Regent spreading her hands wide. “So good of you to join us.”
Within moments, Amina had her daggers out. Javi squared up, hands fisted for a fight.
But then he lowered them. And the Regent, in response, squealed.
“Oh,” Javi sniffled. “The Regent is my great-aunt.”