“Kofi, that time when Vai almost used his cold magic when that drunk man insulted him, what did you say to him to calm him down?”

He slanted a gaze at the bellyache bush, as if checking for Vai, and then back at me. “I reckon I have had some practice calming that man down, for that was not the first time he almost got in a fight. This time, I just said, ‘If yee want that gal, yee shall not do this.’ It worked.”

“I thought you didn’t like me. Why would you encourage him to keep thinking about me?”

“Gal, yee defied the mansa who rule him and he people. Nothing I could ever say could turn that man’s mind from yee. I saved me breath.”

Footsteps approached, and Vai came into view tugging on his cuffs. He had chosen a jacket of red, gold, and orange squares limned by black. A slim sword swayed from his belt like a bolt of lightning caught and sheathed. Cold steel in the hand of a cold mage. So be it. We would face the general and negotiate our next move together.

His gaze flicked between Kofi and me, and he smiled as if our amity pleased him.

“Best we eat before we go,” he said, taking my hand.

He and Kofi chattered about doings in the city, mostly Kofi telling the news of the huge retinue necessary to the cacica’s consequence: The Taino had reached the festival ground before they were expected, having been brought by a fleet of airships.

“A fleet of airships?” Vai exclaimed as we came to the kitchen, covered by a roof but open to the air on three sides. “Lord of All! Do they mean to invade?”

“The Taino have always said they would not break the First Treaty. So maybe ’tis just to honor the marriage of a prince who shall likely become cacique.”

Kofi greeted the professora as if he knew her well. We sat down to bowls of warm rice porridge steamed in milk and garnished with cinnamon. I was so overtaken by the delicious smell and creamy texture of the porridge that I could only eat and listen.

“No one had any idea the Taino have been building a fleet of airships.” The professora paused to study me. “Every cook must love you, Maestressa Barahal.”

“’Tis good when a gal like to eat,” remarked Kofi.

I looked up to see Vai fail to not look pleased with himself. Flushed, I felt it wiser to set back to the porridge than respond.

“Have they manufactories we have not heard mention of??” Kofi asked.

“So we must hope,” she said, “otherwise they have sealed a contract with a troll consortium in the north. That would not bode well for peace among the trolls. Or maybe the Purépecha kingdom has a hand in it, for Prince Caonabo is son to a Purépecha prince who was at one time married to the cacica. Unlikely, for the kingdoms are rivals.”

Kofi shook his head. “I reckon if the Taino have such a fleet, ’tis hard to see how Expedition can survive.”

“Sometimes,” I said, “a little free territory like Expedition serves like one of those valves where you let steam escape from an engine where the pressure is getting too high. Criminals and agitators can be driven there rather than imprisoning or executing them. Left free, they’ll fight among themselves rather than be seen as sacrifices. Competing mercantile interests will stay bogged down. Dangerous technologies can be floated where they won’t do harm to the Taino if they fail. If there is trouble, it can be blamed on Expedition rather than the Taino court.”

Spoons at rest, they stared at me as if I had sprouted a second head.

“I heard a lot of talk when I was waiting tables. Kofi, why did you happen to come today?”

“I make deliveries every morning to the university.”

“I thought you worked at the carpentry yard.”

“I work there when they have a big order and I can spare the time. Vai, I can row yee across if yee wish.”

The professora fetched a squat ceramic jar packed with straw and ice, from which she drew a pair of ice lenses strung on chains. “These are the last two I have. They are working on more over in the troll town refrigerium.”

“Do Chartji’s aunt and uncle live in troll town, or here?”

“Their workshop is in troll town. They came here because Vai couldn’t move about the city.”

Vai slipped the chains over his neck and slid the lenses under his jacket. We gave our thanks to the professora and walked to the pier. Kofi shifted a barrel and crate to the bow so Vai and I could share the stern bench. Vai had brought along one of the faded old pagnes, which he folded over the bench so his jacket would not have to touch the weathered and stained wood. I made a great show of getting into the boat in an effort to not touch anything that might sully my humble but pretty pagne. He leaned enough to rock the boat so I almost lost my balance and he had an excuse to pull me close on the bench with his arm around me.