I’d told Ruven I was the Empire. I’d felt, for a moment, the vast power that would some day be mine to command. But that current flowed both ways. Now we were the only eyes and hands the Empire had at this critical moment and place, this tipping point above the fiery abyss.

We couldn’t walk away. Ardence needed us. Vaskandar was watching, waiting, ready. Raverra relied on us to hold together the last few threads of the Empire’s serenity.

And someone else needed us, as well.

“No,” I said.

Marcello frowned as if he would argue.

I lifted a hand to silence him. “No. We still have time.” I turned to Zaira. “Jaslyn and Padric and the rest are waiting for us. We can’t let them down.”

She nodded sharply, her eyes bright.

“This is bad, but it’s not the end. Savony is panicked and improvising.” An odd sense of strength flooded my chest, warmer than the cold might of the Empire. If I had to pick two people to help me save Ardence, I could do far worse. “So long as we keep our heads, we have an edge. We can do this.”

“How?” Marcello still looked dubious.

“First, I’ll talk to Ignazio. He can head to the Envoy’s Palace and use the courier lamps to inform the doge, then use his political connections in Ardence to try to spread the truth about Lady Savony and the duke’s murder, and to keep things calm.”

“You tell him fast, and then we free the brats from that pit.” Zaira glared at me. “No making them wait while you mince around chattering with limp-brained courtiers.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “We head straight to the warehouse and free the children. That should give the Ardentine nobles reason to believe us, too.” I took a breath. “Then we tell Domenic everything. He’s the duke’s cousin, and well liked, with a reputation for political neutrality. He might have the clout to have Savony arrested himself, so that Raverra doesn’t have to retake the city from her by force. Then we can go to the garrison.”

Marcello’s brows lowered. “You know my orders for this kind of situation, Amalia: to pull out of the city, contact the doge, and use force if necessary.”

“Your orders didn’t anticipate the duke’s murder.”

“This isn’t what the colonel would want me to do.” His voice built a wall, but it was of sand, not stone. His eyes shone green with the rising tide.

“The colonel isn’t here.” I knew what I had to say, but the words were strange and difficult. I swallowed. “I take full responsibility, as my mother’s heir. If there are to be consequences afterward for this decision, let them fall on me.”