NOW
“So, that’s it?” Nhika asked.
Trin nodded. “That’s it. I haven’t seen him since.”
She soaked it in; Mimi, Andao, and Hendon were doing the same. Trin’s recount of Yarong was news to the entire family. Nhika still couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that she’d been to Yarong and back—or, at least, her body had. The rest of the story was just as unfathomable: Trin finding the research papers, turning Kochin in, and … and helping Kochin bring her back.
“Thank you,” Nhika said, reaching out to squeeze Trin’s biceps. “For helping him. For bringing me back.”
“It was more him than me,” Trin admitted. “I just can’t believe that such a thing is possible. You made me think heartsoothing was a science. But what I saw wasn’t science. It was a miracle, Nhika.”
Maybe it was. After all, she’d used heartsoothing to relinquish her life and he’d used heartsoothing to bring it back. It capped both ends of her cycle in a way that she couldn’t explain with biology, nor medicine. “It couldn’t have been easy to trust him with your body. Thank you.”
“I’m glad I did.” Trin flashed a smile. “I like to think a part of me is with you now.”
“Then I hope it’s the brawn, and not the brains,” Nhika teased.
Trin’s smile was quick to sour. “I wouldn’t have complained if that sense of humor didn’t come back with you.”
Nhika placed her hand over the necklace: her bone ring, Kochin’s ID tags. These were all the answers she’d been hoping for, yet Kochin was still missing.
Noticing her silence, Trin said in a sympathetic tone, “In the end, he made the right choice. He gave himself up to the commissioner for you. For me, too. Despite everything he’s done, he’s a good man.”
But Nhika didn’t want a good man. She wanted an alive man. “Don’t say that like he’s gone.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What’s the sentence for treason of that nature?”
His expression was sympathetic. “I think you know.”
No. Nhika could not believe that Kochin had been sentenced to death. It was too cruel—he’d come so far, and he’d finally discovered his heartsoothing again. But if the Congmis didn’t know where he was, and Trin didn’t know where he was, then that just left …
“Nem,” Nhika said. Her mind raced, trying to finish Trin’s story. Kochin had been detained. Nem had taken her body to Yarong. He’d asked Kochin to bring her back.
So why would Commissioner Nem send Kochin to court-martial right after he succeeded? No, Kochin must’ve been alive, and Nem must’ve known where, because a man like Nem was too ambitious to look at a gift like heartsoothing and not see it as an opportunity.
Then it struck her. Nhika knew exactly where Kochin was.
“Nem’s exhibition,” she said—growing surer. The commissioner had spoken about a secret weapon, one that would win the war: You’ll learn, he’d said, when the white flags wave over the Gaikhen Mountains, when our soldiers come back safe. He’d been so confident he could win the war because he’d been banking on an infinite army. “Kochin is there.”
“How can you know?” Mimi asked.
Nhika shook her head. “I don’t. But I have to believe he’s alive. And if he is, that’s where he’d be.”
“We can get you in,” Trin spoke up. “Can’t we, Andao?”
Everyone looked surprised, including Nhika, but Andao shifted his jaw. “I suppose we could. Not with an invitation, but I don’t think that’s ever stopped you before.”
Nhika tilted her head. “You would do that for me? Even … even if I’m going up to save him?”
“Yes.” Andao found Trin’s hand, and their fingers laced. “Hate it as I might, I’m afraid I owe that man a favor. But I’m not sure how much we could protect you once you’re there. Although the commissioner requires our factories, wartime is unprecedented—so what Theumas knows as ‘treason’ is very open to suggestion. As Mr. Ven surely realized, Commissioner Nem is good at spinning a narrative. He was elected, after all.”
“I’ll be smart about it,” Nhika promised. She learned from her mistakes.
Mimi looked unsure. “And what’s your plan? Find Kochin and break out?”
“Is there any subtlety anymore? The commissioner has seen me dead.”
“He’s a powerful enemy to make.”
“Our goals are opposed. It’s inevitable.”
“I just…” Mimi bunched up her dress at the waist. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt again. Not for him. Not even for us.”
“Well, I’ve already died once, and it didn’t take,” Nhika said. “If you can get me a way on and off that airship, I can find Kochin. And, if worse comes to worse—well, then I suppose he’d just have to bring me back again.”