"We must resist. We must refuse to disappear."
―Margaret Atwood
"So it all hinges on Janus," Shabina mused. She laced her fingers together in front of her face and watched Ealy flip through the reports. Ealy looked up.
"He will give in. They will kill him otherwise," she signed. "Or he will detach and form another enemy. They may be willing to risk it, but he is not stupid enough to go against them on his own."
"Would he ally with us?"
"We don't have enough to suggest that."
Shabina nodded and pressed her thumbs into the bridge of her nose. She freed her fingers to sign again. "Anything else?"
"Mara is oblivious. Her spy networks have always trusted the other Kings too much, they don't even have any placed with the hunters."
"Can we make a move here?" Shabina watched Ealy put her finger up and flick through the papers again, eyes moving far faster than Shabina could even comprehend.
"There will be a small window of confusion within Mara's external forced. Assuming that Wilson and Yelena will strike her resources as soon as they can, we should move before her death, but not so fast that the news reaches her and she takes defensive maneuvers." Ealy flexed her fingers, eyes blank.
Shabina sighed. "Do you not trust me?"
She hesitated. "I do. But this is dark work. Dangerous work."
Shabina beckoned. Ealy rearranged her papers and slid them into a drawer of her desk, untucking her skirts from the chair. She sat on the couch, leaning into Shabina's touch.
"I love you, you know that?"
"The huntress is a wild card."
"She saved your life."
"One good deed does not make a good person," Ealy made a face as she drew the signs.
Her soft face, how Shabina loved that face. Shabina flicked her wife's nose. "The situation calls for it."
"I understand Mara. She needs to die. But the huntress' orders were to kill everyone. We know she will." Ealy's head tilted. "She will kill innocents. We already know she has no trouble with collateral damage, our spies say she enjoys the kills."
"Maybe all she needs is a second chance," Shabina signed, "and maybe we're the ones to give that to her."
"Just because Ophelia and Raina want a fifth does not mean you should flirt with the first person you meet."
Shabina looked up when the door slammed open. Ealy's presence left her side, cold air rushing where her wife had once been. Shabina pursed her lips but didn't watch her leave. The conversation would have to wait.
Zeke strode in, walking as if he owned the place. Behind him were Lin and a small boy.
Lin drew her eye first. Her strange coloring, the vivid tattoos across her exposed skin, and the relaxed gait that could pass as drunkenness if it weren't for her painfully perceptive eyes. All of it formed a presence that wouldn't be denied. Those beautiful dark eyes cleared the corners of the room as she entered, stalking behind the small boy.
The boy was another type of presence. He didn't make a sound, didn't move faster than he had to. His face was bruised but betrayed no pain. His shoulders were pulled close to his body and his gaze remained low. The boy's dark hair and skin helped him fade into the background even more.
He appeared to be an inch away from vanishing into thin air, his physical form an inconvenience that he only obeyed because he had no choice. It was... disconcerting.
Shabina stood up with a soft smile, aiming for reassurance. "Lin. I didn't expect you so soon."
"Hi, I'm here too," Zeke said. He went over to her side table and picked up an apple, flopping down onto the couch Shabina had been resting on. Shabina had to say, Zeke might as well have been a fly in the same room as Lin and the boy.
"Yes, Zeke. I saw you." Shabina walked over to the two newcomers. The boy didn't show any discomfort, far too relaxed despite his apparent distaste for being noticed. "What made you change your mind?"
Lin wordlessly pointed her thumb at the boy, her attention already caught by the room.
It was the library. Shabina had never been able to get past the first few chapters of any novel on her own, much preferring to have someone read to her. The way Lin's eyes dragged along the shelves told of a completely different experience.
The boy sighed and took a half-step forward, hand extended and his eyes rising to meet Shabina's for the first time. His irises were a fathomless flint.
"Hadrian. I'm Lin's apprentice," he dimpled at her and tilted his head, "apparently you can help us, Lin doesn't tell me much."
"I tell you plenty," Lin's distracted voice came from the shelves. Shabina turned to see the woman damn near caressing a volume.
Hadrian shook his head, glossy black waves shifting gently. "No, you really don't."
"I might be able to help," Shabina said. She wasn't quite certain which one she was talking to. The dynamic was clear-cut by Hadrian's words. Hadrian was the apprentice, and Lin was the mentor. Their actions obliterated that, with Hadrian taking the reins on conversation while Lin breezed away. "I'm Shabina, I run this entire island."
"And you take refugees?"
Shabina gave a half-smile. "Officially."
"You free slaves."
"Right on the second try. I'm impressed."
He didn't fall for the compliment, face remaining impassive and vaguely pleasant the entire time. "Why don't witches attack you?"
Shabina turned to Zeke, who seemed fairly occupied by eating his apple. She sighed and turned back to the boy. "You don't want to know."
"It's the gold, isn't it?" Hadrian kept going, his face maintaining the pleasantly trustworthy smile. "Do you know what it is?"
Sha swallowed, narrowing her eyes at him. It was the gold. But she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. Not a single witch attack had occurred in the five years since she'd taken up residence in the empty Citadel. No witch trouble even got to them when they were covered in the gold powder that seeped from the walls and floors.
"Do you?" she asked instead.
His eyes hardened almost imperceptibly. His mouth opened in a sheepish smile, letting out a soft laugh as he dipped his head again. "Sorry, just got a little curious. Witches are a pretty big problem if you don't have ship support."
"Don't trust people who answer questions with questions, kid," Lin said, walking over with a book in her hand. "They're tricky like that."
Hadrian hummed, black eyes fixed on the book she offered. He blinked, surprise washing through for a quick moment. "Where did you -"
He looked up at Shabina, pointing at the book. "How?"
Shabina peered into Lin's hands. "Oh, Ealy's in charge of getting new books. I'm afraid reading isn't really one of my hobbies."
Both of them stared at her as though she'd grown another head. She winced and leaned away. "Sorry?"
"It's fine," Lin said. Shabina wasn't sure she had anything to apologize for.
"This is in Korean, you can't get this at the Library." Hadrian had the book in his hands, flicking through the pages.
"Really? I thought it was Japanese," Lin muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.
Hadrian shook his head, humming something else under his breath as he traced the letters. Were they letters?
"Our Twisted Hero by Yi Munyol. Appropriate."
"You can read that?" Lin rested her chin on his shoulder, squinting at the shapes. They were even more incomprehensible to Shabina.
"It's been a while, but Korean is one of the easiest written languages. As long as you can generally speak the language, I find it's pretty easy to understand compared to most non-roman characters."
Shabina raised her eyebrows. "You speak other languages?"
"Speak, read, write when I can," Hadrian listed. He snapped the book closed and looked up. "But as I said, it's been a while. I probably couldn't get through the first few chapters."
His voice went flat as he said the last sentence, almost reluctantly handing the book back to Shabina.
"Who taught you?" Shabina asked.
"My sister." He looked around, seeming to realize everyone was staring at him. He returned his gaze to the floor, astoundingly nonplussed. "Not many people know."
"Greymark eliminated the other languages." Shabina sank into a crouch, hiking her skirts up to allow it. She caught his gaze in hers and frowned at him. "You and your sister are in danger."
"She's dead." Hadrian delivered it in such a casual way Shabina wondered if she'd misheard. "And I'm protected."
Lin blinked, her relaxed hold on him turning into a half-hug. It was almost surreal to see the huntress so affectionate. Lin's muscular arm wrapped around Hadrian's shoulders looked like it belonged there, but Shabina wanted that hug for herself. No, she couldn't afford that. Yet.
Hadrian's eyes flicked up and down, as if reading something on Shabina's body. Then he gave a tiny smile. "Lin hasn't eaten all day, maybe you two could catch up and get some food. Talk about strategy things. Most of that stuff goes over my head, anyway."
Lin squeaked and tightened her grip on him. "I'm fine."
He shrugged out from beneath her, prancing out of her reach in two long strides. "Go, you can't spend all day with me."
The playfulness spoke of old friends. Shabina couldn't remember ever hearing about the huntress ever having friends. There was that other hunter, the one she was apparently in love with, but that hunter's subsequent murder disproved that.
Lin made a grunting noise and looked at Shabina. "I don't want him alone."
"He can stay with Zeke," Shabina offered, her face heating slightly under Lin's attention.
Zeke hummed in confusion behind her. Shabina looked over her shoulder and signed, "take care of the boy."
He nodded, slightly distracted by his apple.
Before Lin could protest, Shabina was already at the door. She owed one hell of a debt to Hadrian for this.
The huntress huffed her now-blonde hair out of her face and followed Shabina out, muttering curses under her breath. Shabina looked over her shoulder as she left, giving Hadrian a little smile. She'd have to look into him later.
Lin side-eyed Shabina as soon as she started walking alongside her.
"Yes?" Shabina asked.
"You're not willing to sacrifice much, are you?" Lin smiled as she said that.
"What makes you say that?"
"You want a hunter on your side but you don't want to enter a contract with Greymark."
Shabina snorted. "I'd drink the water before that."
"Why do you hate him so much?"
"Why do you?"
Lin's smile then was vicious, a spiteful thing that matched the huntress' reputation. "Why does anyone?"
"He hurt someone close to you." Shabina clenched her jaw as soon as the words came out. Lin nodded, satisfied.
"I get the feeling you're a big picture kind of gal, so 'close to you' probably means literally anyone. Big heart's a medical condition, you know?"
"The size of my heart has nothing to do with my health," Shabina said.
The nod Lin gave made Shabina's chest clench. Her profile was perfectly sharp, an extra weapon in her arsenal as lethal as any other. "Not in the traditional way, I guess."
"I pick my fights."
"You're picking the wrong one if Greymark's your enemy," Lin said. "My advice? Stick to refugees. You'll live longer."
Shabina tilted her head, anchoring herself in the sway of her heavy braids. Being so close to Lin was thrilling in more ways than one. "Since when do you care?"
"Since I'm feeling pretty damn altruistic lately. I'm still not stupid enough to help a lost cause."
"You don't know it's lost until you try."
Lin let out a laugh then, a rough hiccupping sound that couldn't be mistaken for anything else. "You sure you don't read?"
Off Shabina's furrowed brow, Lin continued. "You sound like one of those revolutionaries. Y'know, the ones that end up dangling out a window with a red flag in hand and a bullet in their head."
Shabina flushed. "Nothing will ever change unless someone tries."
"Ah, the martyr approach, then?" Lin gave a slow, sly smile. Her eyes danced. "How very romantic of you."
She was a strange woman, this Lin. Shabina got the impression that half the conversation was left behind in Lin's head. She'd have to ask Ealy about all those terms at some point.
The next thing Shabina learned about Lin was that she hated stairs.
"I thought hunters had increased physical abilities," Shabina said, watching Lin grouse and mutter.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
Lin's smile made Shabina grateful her skin was too dark to show a blush.
They finally arrived at the topmost floor, where the roof caved in towards the end. Lin blinked, staring at the sunlit patio as if she'd never seen light before. A fountain trickled down to a small creek to feed the gardens.
"I thought we were going to get something to eat?"
"We are," Shabina said, smiling. "But I think Hadrian meant for us to eat alone."
Lin snorted. "Lead the way."
--
"L'oeil du serpent" (; from French, lit. "eye of the snake")