James paused the razor mid-stroke across his cheek, but then continued in scraping away his beard as he considered his response. “I tried not to for a long time, but Ahnna is like the tide. Pulling me back and dragging me under, and I’d rather drown in her depths than ever feel solid ground beneath my feet. There is only her, nothing else.”
“Ayeswould have sufficed, but point taken.” Aren sat at the edge of the steaming pool, then lay back on the stone, not seeming to mind the rain hammering against his face. “You know that if you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
“I’ve already hurt her.” James continued with his shaving. “I hunted her across Harendell and into the Blackreaches, fought her, and shot her with two arrows before I came to terms with the truth of her innocence.”
Aren’s broad chest rose and fell as though he were taking a steadying breath, then he turned his head to look at James. “You are not making this easy.”
“Would you prefer I lied?”
“No.” Aren looked skyward again. “But I would like to understand what she sees in you.”
Finishing with the razor, James set it on the edge of the pool and then rested his elbows on the ledge, watching the bubbles of soap move from pool to pool, then out through a grate in the wall where they’d carry on down to the sea. “One of my first memories of Ahnna was after she knocked me off my ship before it blew up. There were sharks circling, attacking everything that moved. She was suspended in the water with her hair floating all around, one hand outstretched to an enormous shark. It gave way to her as though it recognized her authority, and every time I blink, that’s how I see Ahnna. Beautiful and fierce and defiant.”
James rested his chin on his forearm, allowing his mind’s eye to be consumed by the vision of Ahnna as he continued, “She doesn’t need to be protected. Doesn’t need anyone to fight her battles. Doesn’t need anyone for much of anything, if I am being truthful. But she knows that there is nothing she could ask for that I would not give, nothing that I would not do, no one that I wouldn’t fight. She will come first until I breathe my last.”
Aren was silent for a long time, and then he said, “What’s between you two all of a sudden makes a great deal of sense.”
Neither of them spoke, content to allow the storm to fill the silence between them, only for the violent peace to be broken by a familiar male voice. “Aren, there’s news from the north by way of the bridge.”
Jor approached, the grizzled Ithicanian looking far stronger than when James had seen him last. He gave James a nod, then said, “Aster’s actions saved a lot of lives, but we’ve still lost hundreds of soldiers. Either dead already or dying, and Mara is leading the surviving watch commanders to Midwatch to meet with you.”
Aren sat upright with his elbows on his knees, head rested on one hand, and James could feel his grief at the news. His guilt, because for better or worse, it had been his agreement with Katarina that had allowed this to happen. “We’ll think of a plan of defense for when the storms ease. I’ll…I’ll write to Zarrah again. Or see if Keris can get word to her. I’ll—”
“They don’t want a plan,” Jor interrupted, his face drawn, and James instinctively knew what he was about to say next. “They want you to surrender to William.”
Aren stiffened.
“They’re done fighting, lad.” Jor wiped rainwater off his face, then looked to the sky. “They’re beat. Amelie’s telling Ahnna this now, and Lara knows already. Everyone north of Serrith has given up on this fight. They think there’s a better future to be had under William’s rule.”
“Except William doesn’t rule,” James snapped, abruptly furious that Ithicana was so quick to give up. “Alexandra does, and this was every bit as much her plot as Katarina’s. Explain that she was willing to poison every man, woman, and child among them and perhaps they will reconsider surrendering to her!”
“Except what is the alternative?” Aren’s eyes were fixed on the paving stones. “We can’t win this fight. We can’t prevail against Harendell and its allies once the storms ease, and if I try, it will only mean thousands more Ithicanians dying, and the result will be the same. Maybe it’s time to cut our losses.”
“You won’t be saving anyone,” James retorted. “You think Alexandra will take them into the fold and protect them? Because you’re a fool if you do. She’ll use them as cheap labor and turn a blind eye to their suffering. We need to get the truth into William’s ears, because he will surely turn on her for her conspiracies with Katarina. What Alexandra has done is treason. You just need to hold strong until William knows everything.”
“Do you really believe that William will turn on Alexandra?” Aren asked. “Because I’ve met your brother, and it struck me that the apron strings tying him to Alexandra are as strong as steel.”
His brother’s face filled his vision, and James forced himself to imagine how Will would react to learning that Alexandra was behind their father’s murder. That she’d been scheming with Katarina all these long years. That she was a traitor.
Would it be enough to turn him against her?
Doubt that had long been lurking in the back of his mind pushed its way to the forefront, because James also knew his brother. Knew how Willcovetedthat which he did not have.
And what bigger prize was there than the bridge? What better boost to pride than to take it from a man like Aren Kertell, who was everything William was not? Alexandra would try to convince him that everything she’d done was for him, and though he desperately wished otherwise, in his heart, James knew that his brother would choose to believe her.
There was only one other path forward, but every part of him recoiled from that step. He had never reached higher than his station, never wanted to, and to step on the backs of his siblings to do so? It made James feel sick.
“I’m not willing to see my people go to the grave for the sake of keeping power.” Aren squared his shoulders, his tone pulling James back to the conversation. “I refuse to be that sort of ruler. I’ll negotiate surrender to William, and also make arrangements with Sarhina and Zarrah to create places for my people to move to, if they wish.”
Movement caught James’s attention, and he turned his head to discover Ahnna standing well within earshot, her expression one of horror. “No,” she whispered. “Aren, you can’t do this!”
Ithicana’s king exhaled a ragged breath. “Ahnna, I have to protect our people. I have to give them a chance at life, even if it means that Ithicana’s name fades into history.”
This was a path James had been desperate to avoid at almost any cost.Almostany, because as he looked into Ahnna’s hazel eyes, James knew she was the one thing he refused to sacrifice.
Aren started to rise, but James reached out and caught hold of the king’s wrist. “I know how we might save Ithicana. But I’m marrying your sister first.”
66
