Yarina gestured impatiently. “Get to the part where Weylin dies. How did Kiera get inside the palace? And why didn’t she stay with Renwell?”
“The first, I’m guessing she had help from Ruru.”
Maz nodded, his face softening with fondness.
I continued, “She was also Weylin’s daughter and Renwell’s apprentice, so I’m sure that counted for something. As for your second question...” I ran my hands through my hair, relivingeach heart-pounding moment. “After Renwell beheaded Weylin and took his crown, Kiera discovered the depth of his betrayal and tried to kill him.”
A murmur of surprise and approval rippled through the room.
I couldn’t help but agree.
My jaw had unhinged with the speed and accuracy of Kiera’s flying knives. I’d hoped that at least one would find its mark, but that hope shattered along with her blades under Renwell’s sunstone sword.
“So she took her chances with you instead of him,” Sigrid summed up flatly.
“I didn’t give her a choice.”And she hates me for it.
Her rage on deck had felt like a wildfire that wanted to consume me, turn me to ash. But she was alive and away from Renwell. I refused to apologize for that. It was more than I’d been able to do for her mother.
I cleared my throat. “She wanted to stay for her brother and sister, but there was no way to free them.”
“Ah, poor lovely,” Maz murmured, stroking his beard.
“If she’d told the truth sooner, we might’ve been able to get them out,” I snapped.
He shook his head. “You’re trying so hard to justify the pain you feel that you’re smothering hers. There’s enough pain to go around, brother.”
My chest tightened, darkness clawing from within.
I didn’t want to hear about her pain. I didn’t want to think of how I’d caused a large portion of it. I didn’t want everything to be my fault, as it usually was.
Fucking Four.
Moments like this, I felt as though I were still imprisoned in the bowels of the mine with nothing but my guilt for company.
Gods-damned Calimber. Had I ever really escaped?
I cleared my throat. “I’ve ordered Skelly to change course.” The Dags in the room tensed. “Not far out of the way. Just to Calimber.”
Maz rose to his feet once more, but no one lifted a finger to stop him. “What in the deep, dark, wandering hell do you want with that place?”
I told them what Kiera had told me to very mixed reactions. Maz and Yarina were all for it until Maz declared he wanted to scout the place himself. Then he was shouted down by every Dag in the room.
Sigrid protested, citing every reason it was a terrible idea—many of which involved Kiera. Davka, as usual, said little, but her locked jaw conveyed her disapproval.
The bone-rattler whose bandaged head I’d just checked shrugged and told me to take Roark and Bardo for my rowers, as they were strongest.
Stavrik, the hulking Dag, glared at his heavily bandaged hands, then told me to take his bow and arrows. “That quiver had better be empty when you come back,” he muttered.
I nodded. I didn’t know what we were going to face on those cliffs, but a bow and arrows could only help.
“A moment, Aiden?” Maz asked, tipping his head toward the door.
We sidestepped Yarina arguing with her older sisters and slipped into the hallway.
Maz moved gingerly, but I didn’t reach out to help him, as that would likely result in a hearty shove.
A flickering lantern swung into his head, and he swore. “Gods-damned ship is too small.” He folded his arms over his chest, flinched, and let them fall to his sides. “I want to destroy Renwell as much as you do. But don’t go running into danger just because you hate to lose.”
