Chapter 2 Kasira #3
Not just a political move, then. No, the Ambassador was something far more dangerous than a politician.
She was a true believer.
Kasira reflected the Ambassador’s smile back at her. “No.”
Vera’s eyes flared wide. “Excuse me?”
“I said no.”
It was not just that Kasira did not wish to see the Library destroyed, that the idea of it falling into Kalish hands crushed something inside her when there should be nothing left to crush.
It was that she knew with absolute certainty that if this fell apart, it would fall squarely on her shoulders and hers alone.
This entire thing had been designed to go unnoticed.
The Paratal and Ambassador had arrived early to conduct their business in the dark, under the guise of an official circuit of church visits among Malikinar battalions, and they sought the help of a disposable criminal.
Kasira had no intention of dying in this woman’s righteous war.
Vera’s expression grew tight. “I’m not sure you fully understand your situation.
If you refuse, your current arrangement with the Malikinar will be at an end.
You tried to kill a senior officer. You will be returned to isolation in Belvar to spend the remainder of not just your sentence, but the entirety of your life in a windowless box. ”
The Ambassador’s voice softened. “Or you can execute the con of the millennium. Just think, you’ll have stolen the Library of Amorlin right out from under Allaster St. Archer’s nose. Certainly that sounds better than a life in a cell you can hardly stand up in?”
The illusion of choice—it was a con artist’s favorite trick. You present the mark with options, knowing all along what they will decide, for there is never really any choice at all. Kasira could suffer six more years of service, even beneath Commander Dessen’s hand. Death she would accept gladly.
But she would not, could not, return to Belvar.
And Vera knew it.
The Paratal let his fork clatter to the table and reclined in his chair. “Is this really the best option we have, Vera? I’m starting to doubt she could even pull this off. I’ve seen more life in a sacrificial beast. Who is she going to convince of anything?”
The Ambassador tilted her head, as if expecting Kasira to defend herself.
People always thought of con artists as slick and charismatic—showpeople who performed so lavishly, you never saw the trick coming.
That was Thane through and through, and he had reveled in it, but she and Loraya had been more subtle.
Though Kasira had always lived a little more dangerously than her partner, chased the thrill for the pure sake of it.
In the end, she got Loraya killed for it.
Vera watched her carefully. “I’ve just threatened her with the thing she fears most, and she didn’t so much as blink. She is exactly who we want.” She curled forward, bringing her face level with Kasira’s. “The question, Kasira Vitalis, is what do you want?”
The words struck her strangely. What did she want?
It had been so many years since she had allowed herself to ask that question, since she had felt safe enough for something as simple as wanting.
Most of her life had amounted to little more than a scramble to survive, every choice made to serve that purpose, that promise.
Three years she had spent in the darkness of her cell, as words like “light” and “life” slowly lost all meaning.
At first, she sang to herself, until the sound of her own voice was too much to bear.
Then she turned to stories. All the ones she had accumulated throughout her life on the street, tales she had memorized and held close like a thick coat against the night’s chill.
Eventually, the comfort of their familiarity became monotonous and cloying, another weight holding her down.
When they came to her asking for information that would give them Thane Ryarch, she had provided it willingly in exchange for freedom.
Those first few steps into sunlight had been more painful than anything before, her body withered and hardly able to support itself. The world had seemed impossibly large.
Her first weeks in the Malikinar, they had treated her like a servant.
Worse. Until the day she killed a Relin, a bone-thin, canine-like creature that had entered the mess tent in search of food and found her instead.
They put her in training after that, and though her body slowly recovered, some parts of her never did.
Some parts remained trapped in that cell.
Still, she had thought she could make this her life. That she could set fire to her old one and let the smoke wash her clean. At least she was alive. At least she breathed fresh air. But Vera’s proposal was a mirror, reflecting the truth back at her: This was not living.
It was barely surviving.
But a want was a dangerous thing. It gave people power over you, made you vulnerable. And yet she had not spent the past four years in the Malikinar to return to darkness. Now, Kasira had a chance for something greater, to see through the promise she and Loraya had made to each other.
She owed her partner at least that.
“I want my life back,” she said at last, the words half a prayer on her lips.
Vera’s smile sharpened. “Done.”