The attempt on Harristan’s life was thwarted when he was young.
Your Consul Montague tried to poison him to force your parents into demanding a higher price on steel.
Consul Montague later tried to kill my parents. He tried to killus. He died trying.
Later, we never knew who was behind the attack that ultimately left Harristan sitting on the throne.
I wonder if I’m finding out right now.
Rian told me he expected to find my father sitting on the throne when he made it to Kandala. That’s why he came under our flag, using false documents. That’s why he pretended to be the son of a Kandalan spy who’d been sent away six years before. It was a good story, and I didn’t really question it.
But now that I think about it more carefully, my father definitely would’ve known who he was sending to Ostriary. He would’veknownthe original Captain Blakemore’s son, even if Harristan and I didn’t. Rian and Harristan are close to the same age, so the six years between twenty-three and seventeen wouldn’t change someone’s appearance very much. I know Rian didn’texpect to find Harristan, but he certainly couldn’t have expected to fool my father.
Which means he didn’t expect to find him on the throne either.
I wonder who he expected to find.
I grit my teeth. “Rian reallyisan arrogant prick,” I mutter.
Ford Cheeke and his daughter had all those books and records, but I was so focused on finding Tessa and getting a way home. I didn’t consider asking about what they might know about Kandala. But before I can ask him anything else, Oren is heading back toward us.
“We’re close enough,” he says.
“She’syourdaughter,” I say. “Why would you trust me to rescue her?”
“I don’t trust you at all, which is why I’m not walking into a trap. Want to prove yourself? Go get Bella. Now get off the ship. The rowboat is waiting.”
My mouth is dry. I have no cards left to play.
Wearewalking right into a trap. A trapIset.
I’m handing myself to Rian—if he doesn’t just kill me outright, thinking I’m Oren Crane.
As I climb down the rope ladder with Lochlan, my brain is spinning, trying to find a solution, but there’s nothing. We ease into the rowboat, and my hands find the oars.
I half thought Lina and Mouse might follow us, but they don’t.
I frown at Lochlan. “He’s sending us alone?”
He looks back at me, then looks at the dark shore that’s much farther off than I expected. “I don’t like this. We’re about to end up dead either way.”
My breathing is quick and shallow. “All right. New plan. Rianhas to have a decoy, right? We’ll just get her and take her back to the ship.”
“You don’t think he’s going to figure out that it’s not his daughter?”
“I’m counting on Rian’s people to try to stop us, and they can battle it out with Oren then.”
“So we just have to rescue someone who doesn’t want to be rescued.”
“Yes.”
“Someone who’s probably a soldier in a dress, waiting for Oren so they can stab him a thousand times.”
I hadn’t thought of that. I clench my jaw. “Yes.”
Lochlan sighs. “I can’t believe I agreed to get on that ship. All right, Cory.” He digs in with the oars and pulls hard, and the rowboat surges forward. “Still breathing.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
