A lantern swung, its light catching the face of the man in front. I could make out a grizzled beard, low brows and a single, glaring eye.

“Gio!” I gasped out, though I knew he couldn’t hear me from this distance and over the sounds of battle. “Gio?” What in all the known islands was he doing here? Was he here to crush Lin while she was low? Why bother? The constructs were already doing that for him. Did he just want to be sure?

I set myself in the path, reaching for the thrumming in my bones, my staff held at the ready, Mephi at my side.

Gio didn’t slow, and neither did the men and women behind him. He frowned when he grew close enough to recognize me. “Jovis!” he barked. “Get out of the way.” He said it in the same tone my mother used when I was crowding her in the kitchen. I started to step to the side instinctively before stopping myself. Gio halted and so did his army of Shardless Few.

“She’s trying to help the people here,” I said. “The construct army is the enemy, not the Emperor.”

Gio scoffed. “So the spy just hadn’t stopped being a spy; he has become a turncoat. I should have expected as much. What did she do? Offer you money? A palace?”

I bristled. He’d managed to insult both Lin and me in one go. “You think my loyalty is so cheaply bought?” Never thought I’d hear those sorts of words coming out of my mouth. Used to be I could be bought just fine.

He peered at me through the darkness and the rain. “Really. So it’s that. You. And the Emperor.” At least he didn’t laugh. He sighed, looking beyond me. “But that’s not why I’m here. I’m here to help. So move, unless you want your Emperor dead and all the people here along with her.”

He was here to help? That didn’t make any sense. I knew Gio, and he wasn’t the noble do-gooder he liked to make himself out to be. “Why would you come here? Why would you stick your neck out for the Empire with such long odds?”

“Jovis, this may not be the best time to ask these questions,” Mephi said urgently. “The sea serpent has broached the gates.”

“But what if he’s lying? What if he’s here to kill us all?”

The men and women behind Gio shifted, their expressions dark and angry. Great. So now I’d offended his band of loyalists. They’d never believe anything ill of Gio.

“I don’t have time for this,” Gio said. He lifted a hand.

I brought up my staff, realizing at the last minute that he wasn’t holding one of his knives in his palm. His hand was empty.