I pinched Ash’s penny between my fingers. Its sharp edges cut into my skin. I don’t know why, but the pain made me feel the teeny-tiniest bit better.
“Make a fist,” Radha said. “Make two fists.”
She sat at the table beside Ash, her strong hands probing at the princess’s arms and shoulders.
“Can you feel that?”
Ash nodded.
Radha didn’t like to talk about her othersider ability, but I knew it had something to do with the body. Back in the day, she had been some kind of bad-ass warrior, a member of an elite othersider self-defense unit that used to patrol the city and protect our people, before the Darkside Police Department cracked down on them. “Surprise is important,” she said, when I was a kid and asked her what she could do. “Can’t have word getting out about what you can do. When the time comes to use your ability on someone, you don’t want them to know what’s coming.”
But Radha was well-known in the Underbridge for being able to track magic in the body, and help when there were blockages or defects. She’d agreed to take a look at Ash, see if there was something she could do. Secretly I hoped that maybe she could gain some insight into how the Palace sorcerers were continuing to control Ash, and whether there was any possibility of reversing it.
I sat down beside them. After fifteen minutes of tiny adjustments and questions, Radha sat back and shut her eyes.
“Anything?” I asked.
“It’s powerful magic,” she said. “Very complex. The combined spells of at least a dozen different sorcerers. She’s strong, to be standing here despite it.”
“Can you tell what her ability is?”
“It’s not something that manipulates the elements, or any other class of object,” Radha said. “Otherwise I’d see evidence of it in her muscles. Whatever it is, it’s been buried too deep, and for too long.”
“How do you feel, Ash?”
The Refugee Princess looked into my eyes, but did not seem to see anything. I took her hand.
She was broken, but I had to believe that she could be fixed. And I had to believe that there was something I could do to help her.
“The queen!” cried Connor, running into the room.
“What about her?” I asked, grabbing hold of him under the arms and hoisting him up into the air. He shrieked in delight.
“The queen is going to make a speech!”
“Wow,” I said, because the queen never makes speeches. Barely comes out onto her balcony anymore. “What’s the occasion?”
“People are scared,” Niv said, following him in from the other room. The radio was still squawking away in there. “Attacks, home invasions. Vandalism. Just yesterday a library got flooded out. Half the city is angry at the other half, and each half blames the other.”
Little Connor reached out his arms for Niv, and I handed him over. I’d avoided eye contact or alone time with Niv, ever since he kissed me, but it made me deeply happy to see how well he got along with Connor. Like, if Connor liked him, maybe he wasn’t such a bad person after all. Maybe I was wrong not to trust him.
“The Palace says she wants to make a plea for peace,” Niv said. “For calm. For understanding.”
I thought of my front-page photograph. How we were starting to shine a light on the Shield—bring him out of the shadows.
I did that, I thought proudly. Because of me, the queen has chosen to act. But pride gave way to fear fast. There were so many people who hated us. Who would much rather we just stay quiet.
“When’s the speech?” I asked.
“Sunday,” Niv said. “Noon. All the radio stations are going to be broadcasting it.”
“I want to go see Quang!” Connor cried.
“Well, you can’t,” Radha said. “I won’t have you out there while things are so topsy-turvy.”
“I can take him,” Niv and I both said at the same time. I smiled, and let myself look at him. He looked back.
“No,” Radha said, with harsher anger than I’d ever heard her use before. After that she paused for a couple of seconds, but she did not apologize. “Things are scary out there. If anything, the queen making a speech has me more frightened. She must know more than us—something bigger is going on than a few street fights and home invasions.”
Connor looked like he was about to cry again, so Niv pitched him forward suddenly, stopping inches away from the floor, prompting a shriek of terrified happiness. Niv laughed with him, and began to roller-coaster him around the room.
I hugged Radha. A train whistle sounded, crossing the bridge far above, and she flinched, and I held her tighter.