Diamond City

by Francesca Flores

  “Are your aunt and uncle headed to your new apartment yet?” she asked Raurie.

  Raurie shook her head. “I spoke to them this morning before I left. They’ll go there later, but all the older Inosen wanted to have a meeting about how we’re going to move forward after what happened with Bautix. Some of the prisoners you broke out last night were recaptured, but most escaped. Some went to the safe houses and told their stories. They were arrested for praying, or having relics of the Mothers, or speaking in the holy language. With Bautix’s crimes exposed now, it’s the perfect time to question all his other actions. The Inosen think we should present a case to the Sentinel to decriminalize our religion and free anyone imprisoned for it.”

  “I’m sure they will,” Ryuu spoke up. “The Sentinel is really grateful for what we did last night.”

  Aina grimaced. “The Sentinel did nothing to stand up for the rights of the Inosen for years. In a way, I can see why they were afraid, after everything King Verrain did in the war, but that should have stopped after he was dead. I’m not going to trust them anytime soon. They have nearly fifteen years of crimes against Inosen, and ignoring the conditions of the poor in this country, to make up for before I trust them. They’re grateful we stopped the princess from being assassinated and a war from happening, and they’ll pay us as thanks, but that doesn’t mean they’ll actually change anything.”

  Raurie nodded once in agreement. “We’ll still try. We’ll never stop fighting for our freedom. But we’re not going to be naive either. I’ll believe they’ve changed only once they prove it, and right now is the best time to test them.”

  As Raurie’s voice faded away, Aina recalled their conversation with the four remaining members of the Sentinel last night. They’d been so shocked by Bautix’s crimes and the attempted assassination on the princess—who had left to return home at once with no word on the status of the alliance between their countries—that Aina wouldn’t trust any of them until they could get their heads on straight. But she also thought the Inosen were right—now was a good time to strike, when the Sentinel was willing to question everything Bautix had ever supported.

  Ryuu had given them most of the information about Bautix’s crimes last night, and he nearly said Kohl’s name—but then he’d looked at her and she’d shaken her head. There was no point putting any kind of arrest warrant on Kohl. If he were in prison, he would simply break out again. She also preferred to handle her problems herself. Kohl’s murder of her parents, and how he’d tricked her since she was a child, were problems she wanted to punish him for. She couldn’t let the Sentinel do that for her.

  After finishing her tea, Aina left Teo’s apartment. She stood at the doorway for a moment, shielding her eyes against the bright sun. Teo was walking toward the apartment with a stack of folded-up boxes under his arm.

  She stepped out and then leaned against the wall in the alley between his apartment and the next as he walked up to her. They’d moved into the shade, but the sun still sent a streak of light across the other side of the alley. Voices from the main street and from Lyra Avenue a few blocks away managed to reach them here.

  “Are you going to meet Tannis?” he asked, leaning on the wall next to her, their shoulders nearly touching as he did. When she nodded, he asked, “How are you holding up, after everything that happened with Kohl?”

  After a pause, Aina let out a heavy sigh. Thinking about Kohl was a headache, but she’d have to deal with him soon.

  “I’m glad I know the truth. And I’m looking forward to what Tannis and I will do. But it still feels like”—she paused again, her eyes flicking to the shadowed reaches of the alley—“every corner I look at, he’ll be there waiting for me. Either to save me or kill me.”

  “You don’t need him to save you.”

  “I know that,” she said quickly, brushing loose strands of hair behind her ear. “Thank you for always telling me that, even if it took me a while to realize. But I’ve only ever known him as someone who saves me and hurts me at the same time. Someone I tried so hard to please. The man who killed my parents. How can I forgive myself for that?”

  Teo turned to his side to face her, one of his shoulders still leaning on the wall. His eyes looked darker without the glint of the sun on them, umber instead of copper, but no less warm. He was tall enough that if she tilted her head to the side a few inches, her head would be resting on his shoulder.

  “You can’t blame yourself for something you didn’t know,” he said. “It makes sense why it took you a long time to see that he wasn’t good for you. But that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve good things or can’t recognize them when they come. You’ll find someone who treats you the right way, and you’ll deserve it.”

  His voice drifted off near the end. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as he spoke. Averting her gaze, she scuffed her boots on the pavement, trying to think of something to say.

  Then he said, “When my mother died and I was taken to that cell, all I could think of was her final moments. All I pictured was myself standing over her and holding the gun that killed her. I’m not the person who killed her, but I’m no better than them. I deserved to be in that cell, if not for my own mother’s murder then for every mother’s child that I’ve killed.”

  She was already shaking her head before he finished speaking. “Teo, you’re the most honorable, trustworthy, loyal person I know. Who cares if you haven’t always been the politest person in Kosín?”

  “Not the politest person in Kosín?” He let out a loud laugh. “That’s some understatement.”

  “You know what I mean. You’ve killed and stolen and spied because you were good at it and you needed to be good at something if you were to provide for your family after your father died. I don’t judge you for the path you’ve chosen. Ryuu and Raurie don’t. Your mother never did, and your father never would. Who else do you even need?”

  “No one at all,” he said with another laugh. “What I’m trying to say is that I’m glad I stuck through this. At first, this job seemed too good to be true. I felt for sure we’d get caught. But maybe it wasn’t really that I was afraid of getting caught, but that I was worried I’d become an even worse, more dishonorable person because of it. But then, when you, Ryuu, and Raurie got me out of prison, and I started to think about what I really want, to stop all the terrible things that keep happening here, all the people like my mother dying for no reason … We accomplished something, Aina. I’m proud of that.”

  As he finished speaking, he reached down to take her hand. His eyes were slightly averted from her, as if he were nervous, something she’d never really seen in Teo.

  They held hands for a while as Aina tried to quiet the storm inside her—half of it blazing and hot, telling her this was where she should be, the other cold and roaring in her ears, giving no hint as to when it would ever leave. For a moment, she felt like she was falling, weightless, into something unknown.

  “I don’t know what I want, Teo. And until I do…” She squeezed his hand once and let go.

  He crossed his arms and cleared his throat. “That’s for the best, then. As long as you’re away from him, I’m happy for you.”

  She gave him a small smile, hoping she could convey in it all the feelings she could hardly describe to herself.

  She’d fallen for Kohl, wrapping her life around his to the point where it nearly killed her, all because he’d shown her some kindness. He’d promised her the world, he’d promised she’d never fall again—and then he’d removed the world from under her feet so all she could do was fall.

  And now she was reaching, like she always did, for something or someone else to cling to and comfort her. It might be Ryuu, Teo, or even Tannis now that they were on the same side. But if she gave into any of her feelings too soon, she might hold on to someone who wasn’t right for her. She might once again confuse kindness and favors with owing someone her life and loyalty. Until she made sense of what she truly wanted, she would guard her heart. Even a
gainst someone like Teo, who she knew would never hurt her. The last thing she wanted was to risk losing his friendship if she gave into these scattered emotions too quickly, so she would hold back even from him until she was ready.

  “I’m worried about what you’re going to do now,” Teo said then, breaking the awkward silence.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said with a shrug.

  “You always are, aren’t you?” Teo asked. “I know you can handle anything. But just in case, you know I’ll be there for you.”

  “And I will for you,” she said with a smile, then waved as she left.

  48

  The scent of grass fresh from the rain overnight mingled with the smoke belching above the train station. Aina stepped along cobblestone streets that soon grew choked with people, always the same crowds and hectic clamor she’d grown up with in Kosín. The square with King Verrain’s statue opened wide, packed with workers on their way to the factories as the sun rose above them.

  Everything had changed overnight, though it still seemed the same. Maybe she was imagining it, but she felt the city brimming with some new energy underneath—maybe it was hope, or a growing will to fight.

  When she descended the muddy hill leading into the Stacks, it still felt as if daggers were pointed at her from all directions, but soon enough, everyone who mattered would know that she’d nearly beaten Kohl. News traveled fast, and if she needed to provide a leak, she would: how she’d held the Blood King at knifepoint, how he’d begged, how he’d fled and joined a Steel rather than face her again. All the fear and respect she needed to protect herself would be handed to her once everyone knew.

  She passed by her parents’ old house, glancing at the closed door that shielded a new family inside, and at the rooftop where she’d hidden from the world so many times.

  As she stalled in front of it, she began to hear faint gunshots in her head, and saw her parents falling to the floor, the memory having replayed in her head thousands of times. But new details came back to her now. Her father’s arms held out as if he could shield her and her mother with his arms alone. Her mother’s hand stretching back, fingers spread, like she was trying to force Aina farther away from the man who wanted to kill them.

  With the news of Bautix’s corruption getting out, and the Inosen rallying to stand up for their rights, maybe more people would be confident to proudly practice their faith. Her parents still had no justice, and they wouldn’t get any. She didn’t know if she could accept Kalaan and Isar into her own life like her parents had, but she wanted to believe in something—the right to freedom that everyone should have, and for the future of the city that had taken so much from her, but that she’d give everything to protect.

  Her parents would be proud of her for doing whatever she’d had to do in life to obtain her own bit of freedom; they’d done the same, after all.

  She remembered her father laughing and telling stories, her mother sleeping next to a copy of the Nos Inoken every night. There were so many things worth fighting for—the warmth and happiness she’d felt at her parents’ side, and the happiness she felt now with the people she cared for—but most of all, standing up for something. Believing in something. Hoping for something more.

  After staring at the house for a moment, she continued on her way to the southeastern shore of the Minos River.

  The Dom loomed on the bank, its shadow covering her as she approached the manor without fear. She supposed she should stop thinking of it as “Kohl’s tradehouse” and start to think of it as … mine.

  For the first time in ten years, she breathed air that felt free.

  When she entered the Dom, she found Tannis, Mirran, and the three young recruits Kohl had brought in sitting together in one of the second-floor bedrooms. Aina’s eyes flicked to her own bed once—the last time she’d slept there, she’d still been under Kohl’s rule—then waved at the others. Tannis had been speaking, explaining the events of the past few weeks to the others. At the sound of Aina’s footsteps, Tannis turned, her gold eyes brightening with a smile instead of a glare.

  “Tannis said Kohl is gone,” Mirran said with a shocked expression. “You fought him?”

  “I almost killed him,” Aina clarified. “Tannis and I will be in charge of this place now. You’re all welcome to stay if you want, or you can leave. We won’t stop you.”

  Without waiting to see what they decided, she walked the length of the hall. Memories of training and living here with Kohl hit her with every footstep, leaving a bitter taste in the back of her mouth and an uneasy sensation in her stomach. They’d taken Kohl’s tradehouse from him, they’d taken a lot of his money, they’d stopped his plans with Bautix, and they were on the verge of ruining his reputation. Her head spun with the thought—had she and Tannis just guaranteed their own deaths?

  But she shook the thought away. He had nothing left to scare her with, and in the end, she’d gotten what she’d wanted: a place to call her own and people who respected her. She’d even gotten Kohl to see her as an equal, if the fear in his eyes and the plea on his lips when she’d fought him were any indication. She’d taken the Dom for herself rather than simply accepting whatever was left for her. She’d kept her promise, the silent one she’d made to other kids who slept on the street—that she would rise, and she wouldn’t fear falling again.

  The fear itself was worse than the thing I feared, came Ryuu’s voice into her thoughts. She clung to those words and wrapped them around herself like armor—maybe fear would come sometimes, but she would face it when it did.

  Footsteps sounded behind her, and she turned to see Tannis. She still had bandages wrapped around her stomach and she walked gingerly, but she would recover quickly enough.

  “Ryuu got some of Kohl and Bautix’s money transferred to a new account for us,” she began slowly, wondering how Tannis would react. “It’s a lot. More than we need. I want to give some of it away.”

  “To who?” Tannis asked, brushing a loose strand of blue hair behind her ear.

  Aina shrugged. “To an orphanage, I was thinking. When I was a kid, there were only a couple around, and they were too full to take me. Maybe they could use the money to expand and take in more people.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Tannis said. “And we won’t have to worry about the other bosses. I went to one of the other tradehouses this morning, told them how you fought Kohl and he ran, and now he’s cozying up to Bautix. Maybe Bautix used to grant Kohl certain protections in the city, but Kohl never extended those to the other tradehouses, so they’re not particularly happy with him for turning on us all. The boss I spoke to said there are a few Jackals left, but they’re hiding now. I assume Bautix and Kohl are with them, and that they’re all working together, but I need more information to be sure.”

  “We’ll get to work tonight,” Aina said. “We need to spread the word as much as we can and recruit a few more people. Show that we’re strong without him. We need to look as united as possible or someone else will come to take over the Dom.”

  “We won’t let that happen,” Tannis said in a cutting voice.

  “We won’t,” Aina agreed. “I still want to stop Bautix and whatever new plans he might come up with, now that he’s got the Jackals working for him. But I’m going to find and kill Kohl too.”

  She would hunt him down not only because of what he did to her, but for her parents, for Ryuu and his brother, and for anyone else he’d hurt. She couldn’t rid herself of the blood staining her past, but she could stop Kohl from gaining power and influence again.

  No matter what happened next, she was grateful Tannis was on her side—no one else knew their business as well as the two of them, and no one else knew Kohl better either. They’d be a good team in whatever was to come. A bit of hope bloomed in her heart as she shook Tannis’s hand—like a door was opening, rife with possibilities inside. Like she might be able to trust people again.

  “By the way,” she asked slowly, “if we’re going to work together as equa
ls, you should know I sell rough diamonds on the side.”

  “I know,” Tannis said with a shrug.

  “What? How? Did Kohl know?”

  Tannis pursed her lips. “He might have, I’m not sure. I was doing a job in Rose Court once and saw you walk into a jeweler’s. You came out and double-checked there weren’t any Diamond Guards nearby. People who don’t know you wouldn’t be able to tell, but I could see the nerves on your face.” She let out a laugh when Aina glared at her. “I know it’s risky, but you can still do it if you want. I know how important it is to take freedom where you can find it.”

  As they walked down the stairs and turned toward Kohl’s office together, Aina remembered how she’d held Kohl at knifepoint in the Tower. He didn’t have to tell her about the backup. And he hadn’t been gravely injured. After all, he’d managed to escape. Why hadn’t he gotten up, retrieved his gun, and killed her before she could locate the backup? And a better question, why hadn’t he shot her when he’d held her at gunpoint? Instead, he’d thrown his weapon to the side and asked why she couldn’t understand him.

  Maybe he’d been truthful when he said he’d taken her in and trained her to make up for the guilt of orphaning her. It would never make up for how he’d treated her over the years, but it might have been his weakness in their battle; something that made him spare her when he could have killed her. She couldn’t imagine Bautix had been thrilled with the outcome, and that meant there was probably already strife in whatever partnership they had. That was where she and Tannis would stand stronger.

  When they entered the office, Aina’s eyes fell to the desk. She inhaled sharply and stepped back, one hand reaching for the wall.

  “What?” Tannis asked, throwing stars already in hand as she searched the corners of the room.

  “Kohl left that here,” Aina said with complete certainty.

  She walked to the desk, where her mother’s tiny porcelain horse statue sat, the pink ribbon around its neck too bright and cheerful for this office. Aina swallowed hard, looking left and right, as if she expected Kohl to fall out of the ceiling and shoot her.