I sighed, rubbing my fingers over my unshaven jaw. “Sometimes I hate how well you know me, Mazkull.”
His familiar grin flared briefly. “You shouldn’t. It helps me keep you alive.”
“You’re only warning me away from Calimber now because your sisters refuse to let you scout it with me.”
He smirked. “I guess we both understand each other, brother.”
I shook my head. “Renwell’s coup was too calculated, too well-planned, to be contained to just Aquinon. From what it sounds like, he already had Dracles and the army in hand before he killed Weylin. I want to know what else he’s been working on in the shadows.”
Maz quirked an eyebrow. “Planning a coup of your own, are you?”
A bitter laugh escaped me. “With my one-man army, yes.”
“Two-man army.” Maz thumped his chest. “Like I told you in that gods-damned mine, I’m with you to the bloody end.”
Two men—and probably Nikella—against Renwell and an entire army.
They were the odds I’d grown used to over the years, but now they felt insurmountable.
After we’d returned what was left of the Dags to their clan and I’d sent Skelly back to Eloren to be with his family, my list of allies grew too short.
“So what weren’t you saying in there about Kiera?” Maz asked abruptly, shaking me from my thoughts. “Does it have anything to do with why she looked ready to gut you earlier?”
“She found out what I did to Brielle. Her mother,” I murmured.
Maz’s face paled under his golden beard. “Holy Four, I hadn’t pieced that together. I was so focused on what happened with her bastard father and Renwell... Gods help you, brother. Youtwo have made quite the mess of things.” He scratched at his hairy, tattooed chest. “But you told her what happened, right? She understands why you did it?”
I scuffed my boot at a cracked floorboard. “Not all of it, no.”
“Well, what are you bloody waiting for, idiot?” He gave me a light shove toward the stairs. “Give the woman some peace.”
I whirled on him, batting his arm away. “Peace?” I snarled. “And what peace do you think she wants from me, the man who stabbed her mother in the heart with the knife she still carries? What words will ease that pain, Mazkull? She can’t even look at me without thinking I’m the reason her mother is dead, why she’s left her brother and sister behind. She said she will never forgive me.” I curled my fingers into fists. Gods, how I longed to smash them through something, preferably Renwell’s smug face. “And how can I forgive her?” I breathed. “That little thief stole my vengeance, my purpose, my secrets, my trust, my?—”
“Heart?” Maz interrupted.
My insides went cold. “Enough. We are never speaking of this again. Get some rest.”
I turned on my boot heel and stormed away before he could respond.
Suddenly, a dark and dangerous boat ride to the most wretched place I knew sounded like just the escape I needed because it took me away fromher.
Chapter 4
Kiera
Night fell clear and starry,but moonless. Yet Skelly still declared any guards would see us from a mile away.
The sailors blew out all the lanterns and pulled in the white sails. They tucked away their bones, padding about the deck on bare feet.
The cliffs of Calimber towered in the distance. I strained my eyes to spot any watchman’s torches. Nothing met my eyes but darkness. But perhaps they were using the cover of night as well.
Somewhere in those sheer, rocky faces was the sunstone mine... and an entrance. There had to be if Renwell was shipping prisoners to the mine. But Skelly said he’d seen no beach among these cliffs for miles in either direction. Aiden hadn’t been able to provide a port location either, as he said no mine tunnel led to the sea when he and Maz were prisoners.
Thankfully, our small party didn’t seem to mind the lack of information.
Aiden, with a bow and quiver of arrows slung over his back, helped Nikella lower a rowboat over the side of the ship. Trying not to shiver in my simple black clothing, I clutched the hilt of my mother’s knife and joined them.
Yarina, who also carried a bow and arrows, and a few bone-rattlers waited to board the rowboat, scowling at me. No one had asked me to come along, but I intended to, even if I had to jump from the ship.
