Page 15 of The Song Rising

It was tough to believe that Jaxon, if he had been associated with the Sargas for two decades, hadn’t known about the gray market.

The Pearl Queen hesitated. “To your knowledge, did any members of the gray market have dealings with the White Binder or speak of his involvement?”

“I wish I could say ‘yes,’” Ivy said darkly, “but I won’t lie. It’s possible he could have been involved without my—”

“No speculation, please,” Glym rumbled. “This is the Underqueen’s court, not one of your palm-readings.”

She dropped her head. “For what it’s worth,” she said, her voice a notch higher, “I’m sorry. I should have done more. And earlier.”

“Yes, you should have, vile augur,” someone bellowed down at her. “You earned your name!”

“Scum!”

“Enough,” I barked at the gallery.

Some of them shut up at once, but after a lull of about five seconds, the abuse started again. The deep-seated hatred toward vile augurs was never going to disappear in a matter of weeks. Another one of Jaxon’s glorious contributions to the syndicate.

“Silence.” The Pearl Queen banged her gavel. “We will havenodisruptions from the observers!”

Hearing the story for a second time had made it no less disturbing; I wondered how much more there was to it than Ivy knew. From the sound of her account, she had only been a pawn.

“Now,” the Pearl Queen said, “the æther must determine if any lie has passed the accused’s lips.”

Ognena Maria sprang down from the stage. She was a pyromancer, a kind of common augur that used fire to reach the æther. She struck a match and tossed it into the brazier, which was already piled with wood and kindling. Once a fire was burning, she said, “Come here, Ivy.”

Ivy shuffled toward the brazier. Maria placed a hand on her good shoulder and drew her closer.

The æther quavered. Maria leaned so close to the flames that sweat dewed her upper lip.

“I can’t see a great deal,” she said, “but the fire is bright and strong, and it was easy to light. Her words were truthful.”

She patted Ivy’s arm before leaving her. Ivy shied away from the flames.

“The high commanders will now cast votes,” the Pearl Queen said. “Guilty?”

She raised her own hand. A moment passed before Maria, Tom, and Glym also held up theirs. Nick, Eliza, Wynn, and Minty kept theirs down.

“Underqueen, the deciding vote is yours.”

Ivy kept her head down. Scars were hatched into the smooth brown of her skin. The marks of Rephaite cruelty. I remembered her so clearly from the first night in the colony, with her electric-blue hair and trembling hands. She had been the most fearful of all of us, this woman who had helped sell other voyants into slavery; who had been with me in the darkest time; who had survived to cast a light on the corruption.

I had also spent years grafting for a mime-lord whose true nature I hadn’t known. I had carried out his orders without question. If I could work in the service of a traitor and end up as Underqueen, I had no right to deprive Ivy of a place in the syndicate for committing the same crime.

“I have to find you guilty.”

She didn’t flinch, but Wynn did.

“Under my predecessors, a crime like this would have been met with the death sentence,” I continued. Wynn stood with a screech of chair legs. “However . . . these are exceptional circumstances. Even if youhadknown about the trade with Scion and sought help, you would have found none from the Unnatural Assembly. I also believe your crimes have been punished enough by your time spent in the penal colony of Sheol I.”

The scrabbling started again. Tom leaned toward me.

“Underqueen,” he whispered, “the lass was brave to come forward, but to havenosentence—”

“We must send a message that sympathy with the gray market will not go unpunished,” Glym said. “Clemency will show contempt for your voyants’ suffering.”

“I wouldna go that far,” Tom said, knitting his brows, “but a soft hand, aye. And you canna afford that.”

“Hector would cut people’s throats if he was in the wrong mood,” I pointed out. “In comparison to that, any punishment I give will seem weak. I can’t win this.”

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