Page 47 of Kingmakers, Year Two

“I shouldn’t tell you,” Miss Robin says, with a mischievous smile. “I think they want everyone to believe that the only way on and off the island is the big barquantine that brought you, or the supply ship that goes back and forth every month.”

“What about the fishing boats?” I say.

She shakes her head. “They can’t make the crossing.”

“What then?” Ares asks, his expression keen.

“He’s got a custom-built cruiser. Beautiful thing—I can’t imagine what it cost him. Luther’s rich as Solomon, though. The Hugos have always been wealthy. They don’t have a golden skull as their crest for nothing.”

“Not the Robins, though?” I tease.

She laughs. “God, no. If we ever had a family crest, which we don’t, it would be a robin pecking a breadcrumb.”

Ares doesn’t seem interested in any of that, returning to the point that piqued his curiosity.

“How do you know the Chancellor has a cruiser? I’ve never seen one.”

“I’m sure you haven’t. Because that’s how he likes it.” Miss Robin finishes the last of her tea. “Take your time,” she says, nodding toward our cups. “You can bring those to me later.”

As Miss Robin heads back to her desk, I say to Ares, “Can you imagine being that rich that you could just buy yachts or jets or anything you like?”

I’ve never had control over any substantial amount of money, and I know Ares’ family is one of the least-wealthy at the whole school.

“Money attracts trouble.” Ares turns back to his books. Then, after a moment, perhaps thinking that his comment was unnecessarily repressive, he gives me a small smile and admits, “I would like to see that cruiser, though. Bet it’s fast as fuck.”

I grin back at him. “If I were Hugo’s niece, I’d ask to borrow the keys.”

8

MILES

Iknow Rocco Prince won’t lay low for long. There’s no way he’ll just swallow the insult of me interfering with his abuse of his fiancée.

It’s impossible for us to avoid each other—we’re both Juniors and both Heirs, so at least half of our classes are shared.

We had a cordial relationship up to this point—not friendly, but he used to buy mushrooms off me, and once Ozzy sold him an old iPhone loaded with some pretty fucked up porn.

The iPhones are one of our most popular products. We buy old models super cheap, then pre-download them with music, movies, and pornography, and sell them to students for $500 a pop. We offer an exchange program to swap out your old phone for a fresh slate of content, but most of the time they have to buy a new one ‘cause some teacher has confiscated it.

Cellphones are forbidden on the island. Also laptops and iPads. Speakers and iPods are allowed, as long as the only thing they do is play music.

Even just the charging is a hassle. There’s barely any outlets in the castle, none at all in the dorms.

No cell phone service, so all calls home to family have to be made from the bank of telephones in the Keep. No internet access. All assignments must be written by hand.

Of course, those rules are for the plebs.

Ozzy and I have GPS phones that work anywhere, and we’ve figured out how to hack into the school’s server. We’re about to secure a whole new way of connecting—our very own Starlink satellite. We just have to figure out where to hide it.

That’s the project for this afternoon.

This morning I’m dealing with Rocco Prince, Jasper Webb, Dax Volker, and Wade Dyer, who have apparently decided that they’re willing to jeopardize their access to the school black market in favor of airing their grievances against me.

We’re all in Chemistry class together, in the Keep with Professor Lyons. She looks like your average lab assistant, standing in front of the class in her white coat and her safety glasses, her gray hair cut in a sensible bob. You might even think her grandmotherly, with her sleepy-lidded eyes and her casual lecture style. Yet she has one of the highest kill counts of anyformer assassin, specializing in undetectable poisons and deaths that could be ruled as heart attack or stroke.

She taught us all about those poisons in our Freshman year. As Sophomores we focused on homemade explosives. Now we’re moving on to the manufacture of hard drugs.

“Opium is one of humanity’s most ancient drugs,” Professor Lyons says, looking a bit like she’s taken a hit from the pipe herself as she blinks at us with those heavy-lidded eyes. “The use of opium, both medicinally and recreationally, can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia. That precious nectar comes from the common poppy—papaver somniferum,the very bloom you grow in your garden, from which you can extract seeds for pastries or bagels. The very bloom you see upon your desks right now.”

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