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‘The fae?’

‘Yes. To work for them.’ A slow, constrained breath in.Work. I really, really should not be thinking about what that labour might have entailed. ‘By the time I escaped and tried to return home, I found most of my family were dead. Retribution for some minor rebellion.’

The cinnamon had gone dusty and greasy on my tongue. ‘Fuck. I’m so sorry.’

‘Thank you,’ she said, looking up for the first time with her lips pressed tight together. ‘So was I. And angry. So … Well, long story short, I decided I was going to bring them all down. Travelling to the White City seemed a good place to start, for lack of other human strongholds.’

I folded my hands around my cup, unwilling to interrupt her. The fine earthenware was smooth and almost unbearably hot against my palms, a sensation on the edge of pain; I held tight anyway. Like anger, it focused my thoughts.

‘The trouble with the city,’ Rosalind continued, speaking faster now, back in her politician’s skin, ‘is that we’re divided into two camps, really, and they’re about as far apart as can be. There are those who feel it’s our duty, as the last bulwark of freedom in the world, to help as many of those outside as possible, to do what we can to support any opposition against the empire. And then there are those …’

She hesitated.

‘Who don’t want to give up their safety,’ I said slowly.

‘Exactly.’ She grabbed another biscuit and chewed on it aggressively for a moment. ‘Generally speaking, it’s the city-born population that is more than content to pretend the outsideworld doesn’t exist, and it’s the refugees who are desperate to help their friends and family outside. But there are newcomers too who have been so scarred by the violence that they only want to drown in their illusion of peace, and there are third- or fourth-generation city-dwellers who can so little imagine what it’s like outside that they’re full of idealistic ambition to spread their wings and free the world.’ A joyless chuckle. ‘As long as they don’t actually have toriskanything, of course.’

I thought of Cathra, slaving away year after year; I thought of my friends, watching their loved ones die on the corpse-white battlefield of the Last Battle. It was hard to keep the stab of fury from my voice as I said, ‘Of course.’

She gave me that mirthless smile again. ‘Yes.’

‘So you …’ I let go of my teacup to rub my face. ‘So you’ve been doing … what, exactly?’

‘Building.’ She shrugged. ‘When I arrived here, the extent of the city’s world-saving ambitions was a programme that allowed fifteen children to move here for free every year. Not with their parents, of course – that would be too much of a good thing. Just the little ones. And they would come here and tell us how grateful they were, and everyone would shed some tears and congratulate themselves on having done their duty towards humanity for the year. I’m sure you can imagine what a moving affair it was.’

She spoke so calmly, her voice still pleasant and restrained. But I saw the way her fingers clenched around her teacup, knuckles white, and I wondered if there were any particular necks she was imagining in place of that earthenware.

‘So I’ve been growing the network,’ she added, eyes cast down. ‘Finding allies. Accumulating power. Nurturing any support I could find for outward involvement, any understanding that even the White City’s peace might not be forever, and hoping Iwould be ready by the time change came around and someone –anyone– began moving against the Mother.’

Anyone.

It was as if I was back at that birchwood table in the pavilion, cold and vulnerable in my flimsy nightgown, still smelling the smoke of my home burning to the ground.What were you waiting for?I’d asked, and Creon had written down that one word, full of more meaning than I could ever have comprehended in that night of utter destruction—

You.

Goosebumps were crawling down my neck, my spine, cold despite the gentle autumn sun.

‘So,’ I forced out, willing my voice not to tremble, ‘are you ready, now?’

‘It could be worse,’ she said, closing her eyes with a deep breath in. ‘It could also be better, though. There’s three of us consuls – I presume you know that much. Halbert is as far on the other side of the scale as I am on this side. “We paid and worked hard for our peace; tough luck for the people out there, but what would it help if we were to addoursuffering to the grand total of the universe?” That sort of rhetoric. He was, I’m sorry to say, likely voted into his positionbecauseof me. Some people got nervous.’

I managed a smile. ‘That’s a compliment, I’d say.’

‘A bloody unfortunate one,’ she muttered, but the corners of her lips twisted up an involuntary fraction. ‘The third member of the consulate is Norris. He’s more moderate. He’s the one we’ll need to convince, if we want any chance of getting the city involved in the conflict.’

The sort of strategy I’d expected to need to figure out on my own, handed over to me like a cup of tea and a plate of crispy biscuits. It felt too easy, but no matter how hard I looked for it, I couldn’t find any hidden schemes behind her words.

‘And that would be enough?’ I cautiously said. ‘You don’t need a unanimous vote from the consulate for a decision of this magnitude?’

‘Oh, we do,’ she said dryly. ‘But two out of three is enough to escalate the matter to a city-wide popular vote, if we want. And depending on the exact proposal we made, we would stand a chance there.’

‘Oh.’ City-wide votes. I hadn't even known they existed. ‘Well, good thing I wasn’t going to suggest sending out every firstborn son into a deadly war.’

She laughed. ‘What would you need?’

‘The city’s stamp of approval, mostly,’ I admitted, rubbing my eyes. Damn it, she could have the details of our plans. ‘We’ve been thinking of visiting the other human isles, persuading them to rebel and create unwelcome distractions for the Mother. Bad moment for her to have issues with her supply chains of food and fuel. It would force her to send out people she’d really want around during the fighting itself.’

Her eyes had narrowed. ‘Is this one of your father’s ideas?’