“Regent, I’d love to stay and see just how deeply you’re entranced, but I’m afraid I’ve had enough of your hospitality.” On the final word, I ran the last few yards to the end of the pier, bundled cloak in my hand, and made a long arching dive into the water, praying to the Goddess that there would be no rocks or coral near the surface.
Praying that whatever tide caught me would be gentle and bear me somewhere safe.
The same somewhere it had taken my Alphas.
ICARUS
The waves that lapped at the sides of my sloop, usually calming, irritated me today. My skin felt prickly and tight, and my eyes burned. My thoughts had been scraping at the inside of my skull for hours, a certainty deep within that something vital lay just beyond my vision. Not the part of me that was Alpha, but a more deeply buried vein of wildness.
My wyvern.
He growled and circled inside my mind, demanding to be let out. The last time he had been so distraught was when I’d found myself accused of rape and treason, beaten to within an inch of my life, and exiled from my home on Wyngel, four decades ago. I took deep, measured breaths. I would let him fly soon enough.
First, I needed to watch.
The small northern spit of sandy beach on the western side of Havira—behind which I had hidden my sloop, the Younger Brother—sparkled in the early morning light, but my eyes were on the distant, low waves.
I scanned the ocean, taking in every dip and swell, every driftwood branch and raft of kelp, seeking something unknown.
Seeking, andfinding.
Two bobbing seals, in a part of the world that had none, being carried by the strong tide that whipped around this side of the island. Larger ships could not approach this cove, not without foundering on the submerged coral shelves, but the wild tides brought anything smaller right through them and to this place.
“Torio! Whistler! Two men in the water. Pull alongside, bring me the hook.”
“Two more?” Torio shouted back. “Hope they’re in better shape than the last one. He still may die, you know.”
I did know. “The last one is worth a hundred Mirrenese goldani dead, and a thousand alive,” I replied. “Do your best.”
We needed money to do ship repairs and reprovision, and the man we’d hooked out of the water not two hours before might be the ticket. He had a tattoo on his right pectoral that marked him as Guild, and I’d heard in Mirren’s capital port that there was a missing Guild assassin, a dangerous one named Thorn, who had been declared Anathema.
I wasn’t sure what he’d done to earn such a fate—and if it wouldn’t be kinder to kill him now and deliver the body, as their tortures would undoubtedly be horrific. But he was clinging to life for some reason.
I thought back to the state he’d been in when I’d found him on the sandspit: beaten, whipped, and mostly dead, draped over a piece of driftwood. He may have been dangerous at one point, but right now I found him pitiable. I had dropped anchor here, planning to meet up with Gullen to take possession of a woman from Verdan to take back to my home island.
Not that I would be allowed to set foot on that island. I shook the old bitterness and longing away. Gullen was expecting me, but when I’d seen with my wyvern’s sharp vision that his men were armed and waiting, dozens just behind the tree line, I’d kept my distance. It felt like a trap, and I’d tacked around the island to do reconnaissance.
When I found the Guild’s man floating past, I’d decided to leave without going ashore. He would bring me enough money to get clear of the whole Wyngelian Sea.
I would be glad to be done with Gullen. I had heard about his underhanded power grab two and a half years before. Queen Nesta had been a kind, loving ruler; she would have been devastated to know what had happened to her people.
I had nowhere to go, no family who would speak to me, no one who cared if I lived or died besides my two crewmen here and one other, who was injured. Torio and Whistler had cheered at the news that we were leaving the area; they were as tired as I was at being treated like the filth of the ocean, when none of us had committed the crimes we’d been exiled for.
My sloop was small enough for three to sail. We could stop in Mirren to drop off the Guild’s man, take the bounty, then head north after we re-fitted the ship for harsher weather.
My brother Talon, the king of Wyngel, could come to Havira in his own ship and pick up the woman he wanted. If he was smart, he’d come with a large contingent of guards and a barrel of antidotes. Gullen was a snake with a thousand poisons at hand.
I stared at the two men Whistler and Torio pulled aboard and let out a soft curse. One of them was a huge lad, young but sunburned and salt encrusted. He was breathing, and his eyes were trying to open, so he’d survive.
“Whistler, take that one below. Get some salve and water, whiskey if he needs it.”
Whistler shot me a dark look. “We goin’ straight, Cap?” He had sailed with a true pirate before me, until his soft heart got the better of him. On that ship, the captain would have stripped the bodies for valuables, and fed the sharks the rest.
“He might have parents to pay a ransom,” I gritted out. “And I am the captain, so step to it.” His laugh sounded like a bucket of nails falling down a stair.
I stepped up next to the other man, who was strangely familiar, as if I’d seen him long ago, when he was a child. I should know this man. Ihadknown him, or his family.
It couldn’t be.
