Luca would spend them all. If the rebels got the guns and the general went against Luca’s alliance—under her own power or the duke regent’s authority—the Sands would fall first.
Unless they defected. Then they’d be shot by blackcoats instead.
Unless Touraine never let it happen—unless she found another way.
The Jackal’s laugh mocked Touraine all the way back to the Quartier.
Luca laughed in Touraine’s face when she returned with the rebels’ counteroffers. Offers was a strong word.
“Are they insane?” Luca asked incredulously.
They were in her office in the town house again, this time with Lanquette outside the door, no one privy to their schemes but them. The sky outside was clear and specked with stars. The fresh, cold air would calm Luca down. After.
Touraine shrugged, bemused. “Desperate, I expect.”
“Well, I’m not. Not that desperate.” She wanted to stop the rebellion peacefully, the right way, but she wouldn’t sacrifice the empire to do it. She had accepted everything else on their sky-falling list of demands and stretched her relationships with the Balladairan nobles to their limits.
She huffed. “What about the magic?”
Her chief negotiator shrugged again, the gesture so casual it was infuriating. Why couldn’t she see how important this was? They were on the edge of something great, if the Qazāli would only stop being stubborn.
“That’s the interesting part, Your Highness.”
Touraine always used Luca’s title when she could tell Luca was irritated. Shame flooded her, and Luca eased her grip off the arms of her chair. She nodded for Touraine to continue, and the other woman told her a dazzling historical fantasy about gods and empresses. To some, it might have been laughable, but to Luca…
“That’s not why Balladaire abandoned religion,” Luca said when Touraine finished. “It was holding us back. When we focused on science and developing better tools, our crop yields increased. We had enough to feed the whole country, our armies—even other countries. The Brigāni just got greedy.”
“Just saying what they told me, Your Highness. It sounds like they meant magic, though. Balladairan magic.”
Luca paused. “Balladairan magic? As in our own, based in the empire?”
Touraine shook her head. She looked tired. Luca would let her go in just one minute; she just had to know—
“What do they know about it?”
“I don’t know. Probably not much. And the Apostate says you shouldn’t go to the library. That you won’t find what you’re looking for and you’ll pay a heavy price.”
“What kind of price?” Luca said sharply.
“I don’t know. But that pretty much leaves them as the only source for…” The ex-soldier swallowed. Luca finally understood her reticence toward the idea of magic. It wasn’t because she didn’t believe but because she’d seen it in its awful power.
This won’t be like that.
“Do they sound amenable? To a trade that involves magic?”
“No?” Touraine gave a sharp gesture to the desk. The list of Luca’s offers that she’d memorized was still on the desk. “They want the guns. Or Balladaire to leave.” Touraine snorted. “They also mentioned wanting Cantic’s head. I’d just as soon not add my own to the chopping block.”
Luca scowled down at the list, too. “Nor would I.”
CHAPTER 20
FOR RESEARCH
Luca awoke the next morning still feeling irritable, so she kept to her rooms, rereading a book that was strictly fun—not research. Another volume in the saga of the Chevalier des Pommes. Slowly, the book and a cup of coffee were recalibrating her mood.
Someone knocked on the door. “Princess?” It was Gil, his voice only slightly concerned.
“Come in.” Luca closed her book around her finger.
Gil stepped in. “You’ve had a messenger from the Beau-Sang place.”
Luca’s heart leapt with adrenaline. What now? She beckoned for the letter and tore it open before sighing in relief.
“Good news, then?” Gil sat on the edge of her bed and squeezed her shoulder. It was the closest he’d gotten to a hug in ages. She leaned briefly into the touch. She missed him.
“Possibly.” Luca couldn’t help the excitement creeping into her voice.
Gil raised a wry eyebrow. “Coming from that family?” He scoffed in disbelief. “You and the lieutenant were up late last night. How are things in that quarter?”