“Gods-damn shame,” Maz muttered and whipped the black knife into the hungry sea.
Timing the swells, we leapt from the sinking boat into Ruru’s.
Kiera sat in the stern wrapped in a blanket Ruru must have brought. Her eyes avoided mine, fixing on the cliffs instead, as if Renwell was going to burst out of the cave at any moment. Which he might.
I sat down at the oars, ignoring the sting and shudder of my wounds. I refused to give her my back. Maz collapsed behind me in the bow.
Ruru hooked the lantern on its metal pole. “We should hurry. The harbor is still crowded, but Skelly said Mynastra’s got one more storm left in her.”
As if the goddess had heard him, the sky darkened further under the weight of ominous clouds and the first raindrops landed.
Maz laughed as I started to row. “Of course she does. She can never resist when Aiden sails her seas.”
Ruru frowned, tucking his tall, thin body between me and Kiera. “Why?”
“Perhaps because I was born in a storm at sea,” I grunted between pulls.
“Or she just wants his pretty bones to decorate her bed,” Maz joked.
Ruru laughed, but Kiera merely watched me as if she were spooling each thread she plucked from me to create her own tapestry of who I was.
The wind rose with a howl. The waves heaved, crowned with silver foam. I pulled harder, Maz calling out bearings as he kept an eye on the flickering harbor watchtowers. The heavy rain veiled us from any guards who marched the stone wall that extended from the watchtowers like two great, curving arms embracing the harbor.
We just needed to slip through the harbor opening and pray no one had alerted the watchtowers to any escaped prisoners.
I cursed as the waves drove us closer to the wall. “Ruru, get in the bow! Maz, take an oar!”
They scrambled into place. Kiera clung to her bench, her face paler than the hidden moon. Then she doubled over the side, presumably to retch. But I had little strength left for sympathy.
Maz and I fell into a steady rowing rhythm, matching strokes. Thunder crunched and crumbled like rocks through the sky. Lightning pierced the endless waves.
After what felt like hours, we rounded the first watchtower.
The great fire at the top was burning steadily, and the shadowy figures of the guards were barely visible.
Our boat joined a few others racing into the harbor. Likely some sailors out celebrating Mynastra’s Tide. Even through the storm’s symphony, shouts of song and laughter reached us.
“Bloody fools!” Maz shouted with a grin.
I couldn’t help casting a glance at Kiera. Of course, I was the fool who had chosen this night specifically for this reason. Cover and distraction.
The Docks Quarter glowed like a shimmering ember before us. We rowed toward it without incident, sliding into the berth next to Skelly’s ship,Mynastra’s Wings. Skelly was nowhere to be seen, probably drinking to our deaths in a tavern. Ruru and Maz tied us off while Kiera scrambled onto the dock like a drowning cat. I almost expected her to hiss at the boat. I pursed my lips to keep from smiling.
“Are you all right?” I asked her in a low tone. She’d tossed aside the useless blanket and her whole body shook.
She looked up at me, her wet hair clinging to her cheeks. “I never want to do that again.”
“Escape a prison or sail in a storm?”
She grimaced. “Neither. But I think I’d take the former over the latter at this point.”
My jaw tightened. She wouldn’t like what I had planned for her then. “We’ll rest soon. Just act like a drunken reveler, and no one will notice us.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” she muttered, her arms wrapped around her middle.
Now that we were on solid land, I thanked Mynastra for the storm. Dawn was surely upon us, despite the storm’s darkness, which meant the Shadow-Wolves would be slinking out of the city and back into their Den. The day guards would care little for straggling revelers. Especially in the half-drowned Docks.
Kiera followed close behind me as I weaved through the haphazard streets. Maz and Ruru flanked us, singing a bawdy sea shanty. Random bone-rattlers cheered and joined the song for a moment as we passed. Maz belted out the words, slightly off-key, and nudged me to join in, but I shook my head.
