Not until now.

So I just said it:

“I want you to take me to the Algotti Empire. I want to meet with your empress.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

THE PROTESTS ERUPTED IMMEDIATELY:

“What is wrong with you, Fancy?” Gerel surged to her feet and glared down at me. “We don’t meet our enemies on their own land. Not if we can help it.”

And from Hristo: “You know I’d follow you anywhere, but this is beyond reasonable.”

“I’m not going!” Zara was already on her feet and marching toward the hatch, but Hristo stood in the way. “You can’t make me. I’ll tell Mother.”

LaLa stared at me, and a warmth spread through my chest. She knew what we had to do.

“I’m glad everyone else hates that plan,” Nine said after a minute. “Because it’s not happening. I’m not taking you anywhere. You can stay here tonight, but then it’s over. I’m not doing anything else for you.”

“Please think about it.” I looked around at everyone. They were all standing now, though Chenda and Hristo had their heads ducked thanks to the low ceiling. “Paorah isn’t just gathering up the skilled or wealthy people; he’s putting armies on these ships. He’s not going to the empire to make friends with the empress. He intends to take her land, and he has the giant noorestones to do it. With ten of them—that we know of—he can devastate a city and still have some to threaten her with if she tries to resist.”

Nine crossed her arms and frowned. “All right, he has ten giant noorestones. Perhaps a few more, if he has control over the Star-Touched and the Great Mace, but that’s still a limited number, and our empress can count. When he’s out of your deadly noorestones, she’ll return with a bigger army and crush him.”

“At the cost of a city?” I asked. “Two cities? Armies?”

“Our empress has many cities. The temporary loss of one or two will be but an annoyance. Although,” she allowed, “Sunder is her favorite, and where the high magistrate is most likely to land.”

“I have power over noorestones.” I held my hands in front of me, palms up. “You’ve seen only a small example of what I am capable of, but if I wanted, I could prevent the high magistrate from using any of the noorestones against the Algotti Empire.”

Gerel’s mouth dropped open. Chenda stared at me, disgusted. The others, too, looked confused. Even Aaru.

“I know how it sounds.” I straightened my shoulders. “I’m offering to help our enemies—to protect them from our own people. I know it sounds wrong.

“The world has seen enough destruction, hasn’t it? Our people have done so much to hurt one another, but what if we took all that effort and put it into helping? Maybe then we could be proud of the world we live in, not scared of it. But someone has to end the old cycle and begin a new one. That can be us.