***
More ships began to arrive.Less than half of them had more than twenty guns, much to my uncle’s displeasure, or were so new their paint glistened as they were drawn into Renown Harbor.
“Those ships are barely out of their cradles, and their crews might as well be,” my uncle commented at our next meeting.We stood on the wall to the east of town, watching the newcomers drop anchor in organized formation.“Would that I could reinstate Benedict myself.His influence would go a very long way aboard one of those.”
I slipped my hands into my pockets.“Can you not make an exception?”
My uncle’s lips pressed into a thin line.At length he said, “No.However,” his gaze swiveled to me, “if he were to prove himself during the battle, that would go a very long way.Unless, Samuel, you would advise me to abandon all hope for the boy and see him imprisoned for his own good.If you believe him too far gone—you must tell me.”
I was grateful my hands were out of sight, concealing their sudden clench.“That did not end well for our mother.”
Admiral Rosser’s regret was clear but stiffened by practicality and years of acceptance.“No, it did not.”
I gave myself a moment to breathe, pushing thoughts of my mother aside.“Ben is not lost yet, Uncle.He will prove himself.”
Admiral Rosser nodded, and we returned to surveying the harbor.
I avoided the Black Tide Cult during this time, but Alamay, her efforts now quietly endorsed—in the privacy of my cabin by a pouch of gold and my own insight into the cult—brought me multiple reports of their movements.
“There are many more cultists than I saw in the forest, and I do not just mean that more have arrived—though some certainly have,” Alamay told me one evening as we stood on deck, watching the new ships from Ismoathe run gun drills.Their crews scurried into the bellows, whistles and occasional lashes of their officers.“How prevalent is the cult, in general?”
I shook my head.“They’ve perhaps five thousand affiliates in all of Aeadine.”
Alamay considered this, thoughts passing behind her blue eyes.“Perhaps a tenth of them are here now.”
My skin crawled.“To worship the tides?Or have you uncovered any other purpose?”
The Usti woman shrugged.“I found nothing untoward in Mr.Pitten’s personal correspondences, nor Lieutenant Adler’s—he seems the most influential of the lot, thus far.”
“Then we must bear with them and hope they do not shirk their duties in religious fervor,” I said.
“Indeed.”
On the thirteenth day, the rain broke and the sun washed Renown in a wave of unseasonable heat.The winds, too, shifted, coming up from the south in a steady stream.In the mornings the rock of the islands steamed in the sun, and the tides continued to rise.Two days on the waters also ceased any retreat, until the outer islands became perpetually submerged.
On the morning of our fifteenth day in Renown, as the rising sun castHart’s shadow across the waves and glinted in every east-facing window of the town, the warning bells began to ring.
I climbed to the maintop to find Mary already there, clustered with two crewfolk and a spyglass, conferring in low voices.
We could just see the western horizon around the shoulder of the fort and the stretch of the town.And there, where the line of the sea met the clear, brightening sky, I saw specks—towers of sails, white with a scattering of red and deep, lavish purple.
The Mereish Fleet had cleared the horizon.A mere thirty Aeadine vessels had arrived in Renown, and the outer islands were already submerged.
“A count, Ms.Echings?”I quietly asked one of the watch.
“Three dozen was my first count, sir,” the wiry Ms.Echings, a dark-skinned northern Aeadine woman, replied.Her wide-set, round eyes were grim and humorless, well aware of all this meant.“But there are more.”
“The proper tide is not until tomorrow morning,” Mary whispered.Her hand slipped into mine, her other braced on the rail asHartrocked in the gentle harbor waters.“Why are they here early?Shouldn’t they wait for the water to be at its highest?”
“They know we have no hope of rallying aid in time,” I replied, low enough for the wind to keep my words from Ms.Echings and her fellow watchman.“But we are not completely unprepared.Our orders will come soon.”
“If they attack before the height of the tide…” Mary spoke equally quietly, her lips close enough to send gooseflesh prickling down my neck.“How long can the action last?If the highest tide comes and we’re under attack… Your healing, Sam.How can we do that in the middle of battle?”
“We need to speak to Mr.Maren,” I concluded.
We descended together.I dropped to the deck first and offered Mary a hand again, which she accepted.On our way across the deckI caught Olsa’s eye, prying her from where she and a portion of the crew conferred over a spyglass and a narrow view of the Mereish lines, and nodded for her to follow.
“Ms.Poverly!”I called to the girl, who had been in Olsa’s company.I nodded towards the fort.“Mind the signal flags and alert me as soon as there are any changes.”
