“I’m sure she wants the usual. All will be well,” she reassured Marcus. “In and out.”
“In and out,” he repeated with a nod. “We’ll start hoisting the anchor when we see you coming back.”
After that, it was impossible to hold a conversation as the levers clanked and ropes creaked. Marcus walked away from the railing before they were even halfway down the side of the vessel.
“Sit there,” Kora commanded, pointing to the crate. She pointed to Jayme next. “You, next to me. And stay out of the way.”
Vi did as she was told, running her hands over the polished wood of the crate. With each shift of the rowboat she could hear a soft clanking, and the heavy fall into the water almost confirmed her assumption.
“That’s full of gold and gems, isn’t it?” Vi asked as the two men situated themselves side by side at the center of the boat to row. Kora sat at the bow, Jayme at her side. Vi couldn’t help but wonder how much gold transporting a princess was worth. She couldn’t imagine there was much precedent.
“It doesn’t concern you what’s in there.”
“I know this isn’t a normal trade.” She struggled to keep her voice level—factual.
“You do, don’t you…” Kora paused briefly, not more than half a breath, but time seemed to slow and hang on her next word. “Princess?”
Vi’s nails dug into the crate slightly. “So Marcus told you?” She glanced at the other two men on the rowboat, trusting Kora to hear the unspoken question.
“Have to know what we’re trading in order to negotiate.” The island was growing behind Kora.
“How long have you known?”
“Long enough,” she answered cryptically. “Who would’ve thought that a man like Marcus would give in to human trafficking? It looks like the times are driving everyone to extreme measures.”
“It’s not trafficking,” Vi insisted quickly; she’d not have Marcus’s reputation ruined on her behalf. “I asked to go on this journey.”
“Well, I suppose that could be true. You’re not trying to barter for your life at the first possible moment.” Kora looked her up and down. “But why would you go so far from home, to a continent you’ve been led to believe harbors the source of the White Death?”
“I have to.” Vi stopped herself there, heeding Romulin’s words. She owed no one any more explanation than she desired to give.
Kora opened her mouth to speak again, but paused, cut short by an icy gust of wind accompanied by the grinding of sand as the hull of the boat met beach. She stood in the bow, looking back toward theDawn Skipper. Vi was about to follow her gaze when the wind howled yet again, carrying on it the sound of shouting.
The unexpected gale drew her simple-spun clothes taut over her shoulders and set her hands instantly to shaking. In the span of time it took for them to row to the shore, the temperature had dropped precipitously. It should be impossible—they’d headed further north, not south. It should be warmer, not colder.
A speck of white landed on her knee.
Vi pressed her finger into it, watching as it melted into a damp spot on her leggings.Melted. Another damp spot joined the first, and then another.It was snowing, Vi realized in amazement. She’d spent her entire life without ever seeing the strange phenomena known as snow—ice falling from the sky in fairy-like motes of wonder.
Raising her eyes, momentarily entranced by the dance of flurries, Vi returned to the present just in time to see Kora tossing the body of one of the crew overboard. Jayme was in the process of slitting the second man’s throat.
What?
What was happening? Vi was too dazed to even scream as Jayme let the body fall heavily over the side of the boat, blood swirling in the surf around them, staining the sand. She stared at her friend as she wiped her blade on the dead man’s shirt.
“What?” Vi whispered, looking right at Jayme. Her eyes… were not the eyes Vi had come to know. They were eyes she’d never seen before. Brutal, cunning, careless.
“You shouldn’t have gone so far from home.” Kora shook her head as a mother would to a toddler who had stepped out of line. “Fool of a princess. It’s in your blood, though. Not one Solaris has been particularly bright.”
Vi opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. There was a broken pathway between her mouth and her mind—a bridge that had collapsed, and she was now being swept away in the river rushing beneath it. She looked down at the bodies, another shiver running up her spine. Her eyes returned to Jayme, who had yet to say a word.
“Jayme—” Vi’s dazed question was cut off by the sound of wood groaning.
She turned in the rowboat, nearly tipping over the side, in time to witness the end of theDawn Skipper. A ramrod of bright blue ice had impaled the smaller vessel, cleaving it in two. Men and women—mere specks—jumped off the larger ship flying sky-blue sails. A frosty mist poured out from the main deck, as though the entire vessel was made of ice sweating in the northern heat.
“No…” Vi whispered. She watched as men and women jumped from the ramrod onto the sinkingDawn Skipper. No one would be left alive.
“I was just like you.” Kora’s voice was closer than she would’ve liked. But Vi didn’t move away. She merely stared at the magic that seemed to writhe in the air covering the ice ship. “The first time I saw theStormfrost.”
