Nakten followed me back to the RV.

  Ether had wanted to brainstorm about the trade deal and the Anubis had decided that she needed to be a part of that conversation. Aelin had wanted to watch the sun set on deck with Justia and the enthusiastic blonde had dragged Fray along.

  Miel hadn’t liked the idea of us going back to the RV by ourselves, but we were the only passengers on the ship. Everyone else worked for Bethy and considering the trade deal that my father was discussing with her, there wasn’t much reason to worry that one of them would try to hurt us.

  Once we were in the RV, I locked the door. I didn’t feel unsafe, but I did feel like this was a private conversation that I didn’t want to be interrupted.

  “Oh, it’s like that?” Nakten grinned and grabbed the bottom of her shirt, pulling the blue fabric up over her belly.

  “What are you doing?” I shook my head as I sat in the booth.

  “Awakening?” The Anubis tossed her shirt at me. “Why else would you lock the door?”

  “So that someone doesn’t walk in on us while we’re talking.” I threw her shirt back at her.

  “But…” Nakten sighed. “Fine. Excuse me for misunderstanding what you wanted.”

  “Ether literally said that we were coming to talk about the trade deal.” I slid my arm across Ether’s shoulders as I watched her slip her shirt back on. “How hard is that to misunderstand?”

  “As soon as you awaken me, I’ll add a lot more to the team.” The Anubis slid in the booth across from us. “That’s the fastest way to increase your power.”

  “This isn’t about power.” I leaned the back of my head against the wall behind me. “What I need is a good foundation to start things, which is what this is about. Once we get a good foundation in place, we can talk about building a power base.”

  “Time only makes the kiss sweeter.” Nakten pursed her lips. “Knowing that you’re thinking about it happening in the future now is enough to get me through the cold nights.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Great. Glad you’re happy.” I glanced over at my wife. “Ether, did you have an idea about where to start? I didn’t remember that the Numors were into transportation, so who else do we have that we can utilize?”

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  “Paul Mite is a well-known courier for farming.” Ether tapped on the table and brought up a list of positions. “We know Oz was wanting to follow in her father’s footsteps as well as work in a weapon shop, so we could put her in charge of both of those.” She tapped on the Healing icon. “You’ve got Justia, Gesai, and Ren for this one. Harror isn’t going to like it if Gesia tries to move the Alard headquarters to Gar, so you’re probably going to have to go with Publian Clinic and let Ren and Gesai work out of there.”

  I nodded. “Okay, what about Vena?”

  “Her family is into construction, but they’re small-time. You could probably have them come down to help with the building efforts though, since they’re not big players in Tres.” She paused. “I don’t think I have any pull with the Warray.”

  “They’re professional Adventurers anyway.” Nakten dismissed the idea. “Which your Mite girl is already doing, so no reason to pull on a thread that might not be there.”

  “It’s okay.” I gave Ether’s shoulders a squeeze. “You’re doing a great job.”

  “Sure.” Nakten brushed the taken positions away. “But we’ve got a lot of other positions to fill and…” She eyed me. “I’m not sure how comfortable I am with other girls jumping the line.”

  “We can skip team one.” I cleared my throat. “Savyn has that whole team under her thumb and she’s not going to let one of them go without being a part of it.” I glanced at Ether for confirmation. “And I really don’t want Gileon or Andes to have a part in this.”

  “Gileon is probably going to be a problem eventually.” Ether sighed. “He’s not going to let go of how Gesai took his position as the heir away from him—” She held up her hand. “It doesn’t matter that Harror was the one who did it, just that he doesn’t have it anymore and she does.”

  “I’d still rather not have him underfoot until that happens.” I pulled up the rosters for the other two teams.

  “Don’t you still have more people on your other team?” Nakten looked between us.

  I held up a finger. “Mitchel, we call him Shelly, is a Zarboe and they make clocks. I’m not sure how that helps us; plus, his older sister is the heir and is looking for a reason to marry him off to some other Noble family to strengthen their business.” I put up a second finger. “Astrid is a Harlax and they do…” I glanced over at Ether. “What do they do?”

  “Research, but on the hardware side of things.” Nakten shook her head. “She’d be nice to have later, but someone like her needs money to get their ideas going. She’s not going to be bringing in any or helping to run a vital sector.”

  “Right.” Ether grabbed my hand and pulled up a third finger. “We’ve also got Jenne.”

  “She’s loyal to Trent though.” I swallowed. “I thought he didn’t want us to use his people.”

  “The Violu are professional Adventurers anyway.” Nakten shrugged. “Okay, so that’s why you didn’t want to use the others on your team.” She leaned forward to look at the chart Ether had pulled up on the table. “So who’s on the other teams?”

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