“No, you shall not!” Leaning my forehead against hers, I captured her gaze with mine to bind her to my will. I was implacable; I had to be, because she was a sheltered girl with a sunny good nature from having grown up in a loyal household whose family members cared for each other. “We can’t afford your passage to Europa. You can’t walk into the spirit world anyway.”

Her frown developed a stubborn kick.

“Rory and I can cross into the spirit world because of what we are. People aren’t meant to walk there. Hunters apprentice for years to learn the secret lore passed down among them. You will die, or be changed beyond recognition.”

Luce glared, trembling. “Everyone say I shall be a great help to me mother to run the boardinghouse. But what if that is not what I want? I don’ want to work in them factories neither. And the ships me father sails don’ accept women as sailors, for that is the Roman way. I don’ have the connections nor the apprentice fee a gal need to get a berth on a ship run by a troll consortium.”

“It would just kill your family if you left, Luce. They love you!”

Her dark gaze accused me, as if I had betrayed her.

Rory stirred. “I’m thirsty,” he whimpered. She went to him.

At nightfall I went to the doors that looked over the courtyard. Kofi joined me.

“How old is that ceiba tree?” In the night breeze stirring its branches I was sure I felt the breath of the spirit world. Its scent wound through my bones.

Kofi rocked from toe to heel and back. “’Twas a sapling planted here on that very day the Taino caciques and the captains of the fleet met to seal the First Treaty. The story go that they who ruled chose one beautiful gal who did come over with the Malian fleet and one handsome lad who was Taino-born upon this island. They two were sacrificed and their blood and bones set in the earth to feed the tree and bind the treaty.”

I pressed a cheek into the glass. I tasted on the air the ancient power of blood to bind the living and the dead.

He put a hand on my forearm. “The Taino believe the ancestors hold them to the right and proper way of living. There was never one thing to stop the Taino all these years from invading Expedition except so far as they held to the law.”

“No, I suppose not. The Taino kingdom is so powerful, and Expedition Territory is tiny in comparison. But I must say, Kofi, I really think their greatest strength is their fire mages. If I’m found guilty, will the provisional Assembly allow the prince to take me away into Taino country? Will they hand me over to James Drake? Will they support me or sacrifice me?”