Because I wasn’t on the ship. I was seeing how things would unfold, like when Thyra had viewed the past as an observer. Nothing I could do or say would change what I saw, and as Vale fought five sailors wearing Virtoris colors, I hated that limitation. Hated that I knew Vale was fighting against our side because he had no free will. That he was slicing and stabbing at those sailors on Rhistel’s orders.
I hated it even more when a swell rushed up, unseen by any of those on the far deck, and tried to sweep us overboard.
“No!” I screamed right before the water collided with me, shoving me back against the railing. I grabbed on, the force of the water working against me, trying to drag me to the deep.Water filled my mouth, went down my throat, and then air saved me as the wave abated.
I couldn’t die here, but stars, it had felt like I might. And as I ran across the ship, to where Vale and the others had vanished, I felt as though I was still fighting for my life.
I gripped the opposite rail and peered overboard. The Shivering Sea thrashed and churned, the water a dangerous gray. The clouds above hung dark and ominous. Three ships carrying the banner of the sea serpent were actively sinking and many more had caught flame. Torches on the sea. Fates, what had we done by asking House Virtoris to hold off the king?
Another massive swell rose up before I found Vale clinging to the railing, and I braced, fighting against the water once more. Once it was gone, I wiped the salty water from my eyes and looked for him again. But Vale was gone.
I leapt. Wind caught in my wings, but I pushed forward, searching, seeking.
Hundreds of bodies dotted the water, none of them Vale. Many were already dead. Cold dread gripped me at that thought. Vale could swim, but he had a terrible fear of water. Would he still with Rhistel controlling his mind?
I lowered and circled, trying to keep out of the reach of the water that undulated. Another ship approached, and I rose again.
I wished I had not. From higher up I spotted my friends on a different ship. Vidar and Sayyida had made it north in time to fight, and the pair stood back-to-back, twelve shadow figures closing in on them.
“No!” I tugged at my shadow magic.
But I wasn’t there. I was in a chair in Bitra. Safe and warm and not on the ship! Not present when those same shadowsspeared through my friend’s bodies and they slumped to the deck. Dead in an instant.
My wings failed me, and I plummeted into the sea. Into a tangle of bodies. Flailing, I pushed off the bodies. Blood pounding in my ears, I heaved myself up onto a barrel that had washed off the deck of a ship. I’d situated myself over the wet wood, and was stretching my wings, feeling for an injury, when I spotted him.
Vale’s hair spread out around his head, his dark wings wide as though he was stretching them. He was face down in the water. Unmoving. And as another massive wave crashed over him.
When the wave was gone, so was he.
A scream tore out of me, so powerful it hurt my throat. I flung myself off the barrel and swam. Swam for my mate. Swam—a stinging sensation radiated across my face.
I was back in the workshop. Thyra stood before me, hand out, terror bulging in her eyes.
“You’re here! You’re safe!” She threw her arm around me and held me tight. “I’m sorry I slapped you, but we took the Crown off, and you didn’t come out, and I panicked. I—by the stars, you’re soaked.”
I was, but not from water. From sweat.
My spine straightened, and I caught sight of the Crown on the floor. Thank the stars.
Unlike the only other vision I’d been given, I did not think I would have been able to rip myself out of that one. It had felt far more real, more visceral, than the first. Was it? Or was that just the Crown manipulating me?
“I saw Vale drown. Saw the sea take him.” I swallowed. I could almost smell the sea water still, and I’d never forget the vision of Vale slipping beneath the waves. Manipulation or not, I couldn’t take the chance that the events I’d seen would cometrue. “And House Virtoris wasn’t winning either. They were sinking. Dying.”
Saga clapped both hands over her mouth, and my sister’s breath caught.
“We’re not going to Avaldenn.” I pushed Thyra away and stood. “We’re going north.”
Interlude
LORD ROAR LISIKA, WARDEN OF THE WEST, HOUSE OF THE SNOW LEOPARD
The sun set over the horizon as Lord Roar Lisika looked out over the bow of the warship. His scouting ships had already reported that in the distance vessels flew the grayish-blue sails of House Virtoris and blocked much of the eastern entrance to the Shivering Sea.
Soon they’d meet those vessels, and destroy them. Without support from the Virtoris Armada, Roar doubted that whatever forces Isolde and her sister had amassed would be capable of breaking through the army surrounding the capital.
“Remain hugging the coast, Lord Lisika?” asked the captain of the vessel Roar had claimed as his own.
Fifty vessels sailed with Lord Lisika from Avaldenn. According to the king’s letter, which had arrived in the small hours of the morning, he was bringing another fifty ships weighed down with mage fighters. The rest of the Nava remained near Avaldenn, ready to take on the Falks whenever they came.
