Kacha was a snake, and if he had set the mines, then he had people nearby who were ready to attack as soon as they went off.
Tallu drummed his finger once on the arm of his chair, his jeweled rings reflecting off his golden skin. “General Saxu, choose your best men. Prince Airón will be leading them.”
Over the next day, the boats at the rear of our convoy collected as much of the shipwrecked wood as they could. Iradîo and I wrote nonstop, fictitious letter after fictitious letter, each different, but with the same undertones.
Yes, King Rimau supported Emperor Tallu’s rule. He waspleased that his son was bringing his new bridegroom home. Yes, the north could supply soldiers, with the understanding that recompense would be paid after the Imperium was conquered again.
When we were alone, no soldiers or Dogs guarding us, Iradîo turned to me and hissed, “I have backed you in this foolishness. I have supported your love for a man you were raised to dispose of. But if youthinkI am going to let you lead his enemies to the north… Your mother did not simply send me to find out why she is now in possession of imperial nobles and anair mage. She sent me to find out whether you had gone mad. Whether you had lost your sanity or your heart and put our nation in danger.”
“I can already feel the chill of winter on the wind,” I said to Iradîo. “It comes early in the north, so early that it would be suicide to attempt the voyage now without a northerner to lead the ships. Do you think Kacha has any northerners at his disposal? If Tallu dies now—if Kacha catches him—that means General Kacha coalesces all of the power in the Imperium. You have not met the man, but he is terrible. Our war against him would cost the north the rest of the whales, and a generation of young warriors.”
Iradîo exhaled, the sound nearly a sigh. “You do not ask for much, cousin. Merely that I trust the Emperor of the Southern Imperium.”
“I don’t ask that you trust him. I ask that you trustme.”
Iradîo made a face, but returned to writing the letters.
Before we left, Lerolian reported on the soldiers I was taking with me. He had been observing them for days. There was no choice, and little other entertainment. Most of them were good men, one was a drinker, but none of them had done anything to indicate they would be a danger to me or Tallu.
Then it was time, the sun beginning to set. The other soldiers had already gotten into the small boats. I started toward the latter, but Tallu grabbed my hand tight, pulling me against him, kissing my lips so fiercely that I lostmy breath.
When he pulled back his eyes searched my face and he leaned forward, growling into my ear. “I’m letting you do this not because I want you to risk your life, but because I would not trust your life to anyone else.”
I shivered, knowing that it meant he saw me as more competent than his Dogs, more capable than his soldiers, and more deadly than anyone else in the Imperium.
I climbed down the ladder into the small fishing boat that the scouts had taken earlier. One of the scouts was already at the helm.
Looking up, I saw Tallu on deck, staring down at me. His eyes said more than his words had earlier and I licked my lips, feeling the echo of his kiss.
There was a crack of electricity, and I heard the voice of the electro magic urging the boat into motion. With a soft buzz, we headed downriver.
Twelve
Once we were underway, one of the scouts handed me a wide-brimmed hat of the type worn by fishermen in the area. I tucked my long braids under it and felt enough loose strands that I knew I’d have to redo the braids later. We passed a few other fishing boats and a few small houses that looked like shacks, nestled against the river edge.
There was no sign of General Kacha or his men, and under any other circumstances, it would have been picturesque, a pastoral painting of some of the Imperium’s best features. The trees were further back; reeds and tall, purple-flowered plants grew into the river as the edges turned shallow from the sediment.
Creatures that looked like heavy cattle with taller legs than I had seen on cows before waded through the reeds, lowering their heads to snack on the greenery that grew between reeds. They raised their heads as we passed, swatting at flies and other biting insects with their tails.
Occasionally we saw evidence of humans who lived in the thick greenery: small docks built from unfinished wood, scraps of fabric tied in the tree branches like prayers, an abandoned fishing boat half-submerged in the muck closer to theshoreline.
We rounded a bend, and the pilot shut off the motor, the buzz going immediately quiet as we floated forward. He pulled a heavy anchor out from the bottom, dropping it over the edge of the boat until it sank so far beneath the clear water that it was lost to sight.
We scanned the shoreline for any sign of soldiers, any sign that this was a trap, but there was nothing. Tall-legged waterbirds moved through the shallow water, but there weren’t any people visible.
I couldn’t see the trawling lines that cut through the river, but I didn’t doubt that this was where they were placed. The two sides of the river were closer here than anywhere else, and the large ships lent to us by Lady Jolushi would have been forced to travel straight through the middle of the river. It would have given Kacha an ideal place for his treacherous attack.
The men looked to me, and I asked the scout, “How far out are the explosives?”
He shook his head. “I can’t be certain where the rest are, but one of our scout ships hit one there.”
He pointed to a location a few yards away. I glanced along the river’s edge, catching sight of charred driftwood that blended nearly perfectly with the rocks and sand. “Where are the posts you said you saw?”
“Can you see there?” He pointed, his arm straight, and I immediately saw the sparkle of silver along the bank where someone had drilled a spike down into the sandy shore.
In the fading daylight, I could just barely see the rope trailing from the spike into the water. A heron stepped over it on spindly legs, pecking in the shallows for minnows.
A few of the men took out fishing poles, mimicking a tossing motion, as though they were throwing lines in the water. I took out my own, pretending to fuss with the hook before throwing it into the river.
