“You can make more elixir?”

He stopped and turned to face me, his expression unreadable. “That, Amalia, depends entirely on you.”

“… Pardon?” I couldn’t have heard him right.

“I had hoped not to have this conversation with you for a while yet. But too many things have gone wrong.”

I stared at him. His words made no sense. And his demeanor was all wrong: I was about to start dying, and he was giving me a look of stern regret, as if he were a professor to whom I’d turned in shoddy work.

Pieces began to come horribly together in my mind, too late.

Our Raverran friend …There was a Raverran working with Lady Savony. And Gabril had trusted me as soon as he’d heard the name Cornaro.

Ignazio. Curse him to the Hell of Corruption. I’d trusted him. I’d loved him. He was family.

“You broke the bottles,” I whispered. “You’re one of the ones trying to start a war.”

“Oh, no.” Ignazio looked surprised. “Why would I do that? I broke the bottles, yes, but I don’t want to start a war. I want to end one.”

My hands curled into fists in my lap. “There’s no war to end. Unless you start one first.”

“Listen to me, Amalia. We don’t have a lot of time, and I honestly would prefer you didn’t get hurt.” He settled back into his chair, extending a hand to me as if in comfort. I jerked away from it, repulsed. “I’m sorry about the bottles. But I need your cooperation in this.”

“In betraying Ardence and Raverra both? In keeping children locked up in dark cellars, and murdering dukes?” The words tore my aching throat. This was the man who had given me my first astrolabe, and taught me how to read alchemical symbols.

“All that was necessary, to put someone in command of this city who can save it from itself. Under Duke Astor Bergandon, Ardence would have fallen to ruin and like as not wound up in the service of Vaskandar. Lady Terringer couldn’t save it. It had to be me.”

“It won’t be you.” I made my voice cold and hard. “The doge and the Council will treat you with less mercy than they did Baron Leodra.”

“Leodra.” He sighed. “A shame about him. He understood what this city needs, and he would have been an invaluable ally if he’d been able to keep his head better in a crisis. But you’re wrong about the doge and the Council.”

“I think not. Do you really think my mother will have mercy on you because you’re her cousin? When they hear of this treachery—”