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“You don’t think attacking trade is the right move?” Nikolai asked.

I shook my head. “We can’t just attack it. We need tostopit.”

“What are you suggesting?” Riven asked. For the first time, the hard set of his jaw seemed to soften. He leaned on the table until the wood creaked beneath the weight of him.

“Why attack the ships when you can attack the dam?” I answered with a small smirk.

Three pairs of wide eyes sat across from me. Nikolai whistled.

“You want to blow up Silstra?” Riven whispered.

Syrra rubbed her brow. “It would completely flood each of the canals. Probably destroy every port between Koratha and Volcar.” Her eyes flicked to me. “People will die.”

I shrugged. “Probably.”

Riven slammed his fist on the table. “Absolutely not.”

I sighed. “Then we’re doomed to fail before we start.” Hurting the king’s people wouldn’t be enough. Aemon didn’t care about peasants. He cared about his pockets.

Riven leaned back in his chair, his violet eyes piercing through me. “We’ll find another way.”

I stood pressing my hands into the table. “You said you wanted to kill the king—take down theCrown—did you really believe you could do that without any bloodshed?”

Riven crossed his arms. I could see his jaw pulse in the warm light from the hearth.

“The king won’t care about lost lives if this comes to war,” I urged. “He won’t care to lessen the bloodshed. Only that we’re snuffed out quickly. We need to attack him hard enough to make him worry. Blowing up the dam does that.”

I paused while Riven shook his head. “We’ll attack at night,” I continued. “The ports and fields should be empty. This is the best way to hurt the Crown, with the fewest lives lost. You need to get comfortable with that. And quick.” I crossed my arms, my eyes scanning across each of their faces. My heart pounded against my ribs, but I was right. I’d been balancing the scales of life and death for decades.

“We attack at night,” Riven agreed after a long silence. Even Syrra nodded. My shoulders fell and my heart slowed.

Syrra crossed her brow. “How would we create a large enough—”

“I can get it done,” Nikolai said with a stern nod. I raised my brows at him. “I’m more than just a pretty face, darling,” he added, breaking into a grin.

“It would only cause chaos,” Riven said. “We would only disconnect the smaller cities, makethemmore vulnerable, but the capital would be safe. The king has enough stores to feed his people for a year.”

I ran my tongue along my fangs. Riven seemed to know quite a bit about Koratha for someone who lived on the other side of the continent. I tilted my head, wondering who his contacts were.

Riven shot me a look. “The people in the capital will be the last to go hungry.”

“Maybe not,” I said, trying to remember the Arsenal reports about the stores. I’d been on my second bottle of wine when I read them. “When thewinvrastarted failing, the king began trading more food with the Mortal realms. He sold the good crop and has been feeding the capital on the reserves. The last I heard three of the granaries had been compromised.”

Silence fell across the room.

“What about everyone else?” Nikolai asked. “How will they eat if we push the harvest lands into a drought?”

“The cities should have enough rations to get through the winter,” I said. “But we need to start shipping food south immediately. Then get as many as you can spare to Silstra. It’ll be chaotic when the dam explodes, and we can use that to our advantage. Dress the horse transports in the royal colors; take the food straight from the source without them even realizing it.”

“The Shades won’t notice?” Nikolai countered.

“They will,” I said. “But we’ll be gone before they do.”

“There is no guarantee that people will join our cause,” Syrra warned after a long silence.

“No, there’s not,” I agreed. “But let’s focus on blowing up the dam. It’ll be a big job. Too big, probably. I’m not convinced Nikolai can do it.”

Nikolai shot me a tense sneer. “If you want to blow up half of Silstra, I’d be nicer to me, Keera.”