Djordji broke into a coughing fit, spitting up flecks of blood and black matter. His bloodshot eyes streamed, and his hands trembled as he wiped them on a handkerchief. When the fit had passed, he produced his pipe and loaded it with dragonweed, loyal to his own assassin. The oily reek of the smoke did nothing to improve the atmosphere in the sick room.

After deliberating on his answer, he said, “Who does you serve, taking on this expedition?”

“I serve l’Empire,” Isabelle said. “I was to bring Sireen a craton.”

“Nay.” Anger tinted his voice and hot sparks rose from his pipe. “That’s the lie at the storm’s eye. You swears to serve l’Empire, but you thinks first of yourself. You knows you’re not fit, but you does it anyway because you thinks you has no other chances. That’s what Marie tells me when she asks my help.”

Isabelle winced. The lie she’d told to Sireen, the worry, dishonesty, and guilt had unsettled her heart this whole journey.

“Yes,” she said. “I was wrong. I should have turned the commission down. And the need for secrecy tainted my judgment almost as much as the madness. Yet I’m far past the pale now. There’s nothing I can do to make amends. If I run, I will be a fugitive, so I ask you again why help me? Unless by help you mean to make sure I bend to the law.”

“You saves my life, twice. You saves the ship. You saves Sireen’s crown and Grand Leon’s project. That’s worth something.”

Isabelle might have accepted this from a lesser man, but Djordji had been a champion and confidant of Grand Leon.

She said, “Justice is fundamentally asymmetrical. One good deed cannot redeem you from a lifetime of horrors, but one evil deed can destroy a life of good works.”

A wreath of smoke had accumulated under the brim of Djordji’s hat. He said, “Thing is, the law sees no difference between evil, stupid, and scared. All it sees is action and it punishes the one the same as the other. Evil, well, that’s got to be put down. Stupid needs teaching, and scared needs a second chance. You’re not evil. You never hurts anyone apurpose. You already knows your mistake, and from what I hear tell you learn fast. That just leaves scared.” He coughed into his hand, a racking sound that left his papery face pale.

While he recovered, Marie returned with Rebecca and Bitterlich in tow.

Bitterlich’s gaze caught Isabelle’s and his whole posture softened as if some great tension had been released. Her heart swelled in response, and Lissa appeared in the reflecting pool that filled the breach. Just because he fawns over you doesn’t mean he deserves you.

Capitana Falconé appeared alongside Lissa. That doesn’t mean you can’t use him.