“I don’t think I’ll have to.”
Mayu shook her head in disbelief. And perhaps in grief for the humble boy she’d met in a king’s clothes. “You’re that charming?”
“I have a gift for persuasion. I once talked a tree out of its leaves.”
“Nonsense.”
“Well, it was autumn. I can’t take full credit.”
“More foolishness. You think to persuade Ehri and me to turn against Queen Makhi.”
“I think the queen has made the argument for me. She nearly cost both of you your lives.”
“Tell me you would have spared my life or even Isaak’s, if your nation’s future hung in the balance.”
There was no room for lies now. “I can’t.”
“Tell me you wouldn’t sacrifice my life and Princess Ehri’s to save your crown.”
Nikolai rose. “I can’t do that either. But before I put anyone to death and we all go merrily to the next world, I’d ask you to stay alive and try to entertain a bit of hope.”
“Hope for what?”
“That there is never only one answer to a question. You’re alive today, Mayu Kir-Kaat, and I’d prefer you kept it that way. And Isaak, that brave, besotted martyr, would want the same.”
She closed her eyes. “Though I put a knife in his heart?”
“I think so. Love is not known for making men reasonable. I think that’s one of the few things Isaak and I had in common—an inability to stop loving whom we should not. Give me a chance to show you what might be.”
He’d spoken almost those same words to Zoya. Give me a chance. Give me time. Every day he prayed he might find a way to keep his country from destruction, to make peace a possibility. But he couldn’t do it alone.
He strode to the door. “I will tell my Healers to restore your strength.”
“You … you will?” She didn’t believe him.
“Friend or foe, Ravka will have you at your best, Mayu Kir-Kaat. I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge.”
* * *
Nikolai had planned to ride to Lazlayon to meet with David and the other Fabrikators, but he needed to clear his head, and the sky was the best place to do it. Instead of returning to the Grand Palace, he walked down to the lake. He released the tethers that bound his favorite flyer to the dock and slipped into the cockpit of the Sparrowhawk, engaging the propellers. He pulled on his goggles, and in moments, the flyer was bouncing over the water of the lake like a skipping stone, then rising into the air.
The demon liked to fly. Nikolai could feel it turn its face to the wind, longing to be free to ride the clouds. He soared past the walls of Os Alta, and northeast, sailing over miles of farmland. Up here, the world felt wide and he felt less like a king than the privateer he’d once been. We need a king, not an adventurer. A shame.
He’d had to be a king when he spoke to Ehri and Mayu. He had needed to seem confident and assured, just human enough. But being around them, talking about Isaak, had left him shaken. Nikolai had been the one to bring Isaak to the palace and make him one of his guards. They were the same age and yet, how little of the world had Isaak had a chance to see? He would never be at home with his sisters again, his mother. He would never translate another poem or greet another day. Nikolai knew guilt would only cloud his judgment, slow him down, keep him from making the difficult choices he would need to make in the days to come. It wasn’t useful, but he couldn’t shrug it off like some kind of mood. Isaak had trusted him, and that trust had gotten him killed.
Too quickly, he saw the glittering rooftops of the Gilded Bog, Count Kirigin’s estate and pleasure gardens, the secret home of Ravka’s weapons development base. He cut his engines and let the Sparrowhawk glide gently down through the cloud cover, the rumble of the flyer replaced by the rush of the air, the heavy silence of the sky. He thought he heard a low whistle from somewhere below. His mind understood what it was a bare second too late.
Boom.
Something struck the Sparrowhawk’s right wing. It caught fire instantly, smoke billowing from the little craft.
All Saints. He’d been fired upon.
No, that wasn’t quite right. David and his team thought he was arriving on horseback, and they were in the middle of weapons testing. Nikolai had essentially flown his plane into a missile. He really was a fool. Glad I got to see the rockets working before I die in a fiery blaze.
Nikolai strummed the engine to life again, trying to right the little flyer, but he was already going into a spin, hurtling toward the ground at terrifying speed.
The demon tore at his mind, wild and thrashing within him, screaming to be free.
But Nikolai would not give up control. If this is the end, then you die with me. Maybe this was the way he would liberate his country from the Fold. Zoya would be free to kill the Darkling after all.
Think.
Nikolai had lost track of where the ground was. The noise from the engine rattled his skull. The controls in his hands were useless. This is it, he thought, desperately trying to pull back on the throttle.
The demon shrieked, but Nikolai would not release it. I will die a king.
He was yanked backward against the seat. His stomach lurched. It felt as if a huge hand had seized the flyer and thrust it upward.
A moment later the craft was gently set upon the mist-shrouded waters of the Gilded Bog. Nikolai heard shouting, and then he was being pulled from the cockpit.
“I’m fine,” he said. Though he had cracked his skull against the seat at some point. He touched the back of his head. He was bleeding. And there was a very good chance he might vomit. “I’m fine.”
“David,” said Genya. “You almost killed the king.”
“He wasn’t supposed to be there!”
“It was my fault,” said Nikolai. He took a woozy step on the dock, then another, trying to get his bearings. “I’m fine,” he repeated. Nadia and Adrik must have summoned wind to stop his descent. David, Genya, and Leoni were staring at him, along with a group of First Army engineers. A weapons test, just as he’d thought. He only wished he’d thought it sooner rather than later. “It was good practice,” he said, trying to ignore the throbbing in his skull. “In case I’m ever shot down.”
“If you’re ever shot down, there won’t be Squallers there to save you,” Adrik said. “Why didn’t you eject?”
“He wasn’t wearing a parachute,” Genya said, glowering at him.
“I didn’t think I would need one,” Nikolai protested. “This wasn’t supposed to be a dogfight. More importantly, does this mean the rockets work?”
“Absolutely not,” said David.
“Sort of,” said Leoni.
“Show me,” said Nikolai.
Genya planted her hands on her hips. “You will sit yourself down and let me make sure you don’t have a concussion. Then you will have a cup of tea. And then, if I’m feeling generous, you can talk to David about things that explode.”
“You do realize I’m the king?”
“Do you?”
Nikolai looked to David for help, but David just shrugged. “I don’t argue with my wife when she’s right.”