“The choice is yours,” James said, echoing her thoughts. “I’m willing to sacrifice a great deal for the liberty of Ithicana, but I’m not going to pick a fight with my allies already having conceded defeat at my back.”
Aren rose to his feet. “I know the northern islands have suffered, Mara. I know that the losses to Katarina’s poison weigh upon you, because they weigh upon me as well. If you and the other commanders truly believe you’d rather concede to those who sought our annihilation than fight on, I’ll call in the watch commanders from the south and we’ll all vote. If you and yours decide you’d rather bend the knee to William than to me, I will not protest. There isn’t a point, because if Ithicana has lost the will to fight, then Ithicana has already ceased to exist. We are the fight, or we are nothing.”
The decision hung on Mara, Ahnna knew that. She was the eldest and most respected, and the eyes of the other commanders were on her, not Aren. They would follow her lead.
Northwatch’s commander gave a slow nod. “It’s a mad plan, with a hundred places it could go wrong, but it’s the only chance we have against that pair of bitches. We can’t best them with force—the only way to win this is to play their game and to play it better.”
Aren cleared his throat. “You all understand how this will work,and we don’t have the time to debate the minutiae. The Tempest Seas sink ships, but the loss of two will still make Katarina suspicious. She will send reconnaissance ships and soldiers to see whether her scheme has been successful. Time is not our friend, so we must either move swiftly to enact our deception or make ready to face the greatest war of our lifetimes. Those for Ahnna’s plan, lift your hands.”
Lara and Mara lifted their hands, then slowly, the other watch commanders raised their hands high. Triumph filled Ahnna but only for a heartbeat, then it faded, leaving her hollow with the knowledge of what came next.
Slowly, she turned in her chair to look at her husband, knowing the time they’d be together was coming to an end.
Only to discover James was gone.
71
James
James had known what theIthicanians would decide the moment they saw Ahnna walk through the door. For more than half of his life, he had served in Harendell’s military, and James had seen more than once how a single individual could inspire soldiers to fight against the worst of odds. Ahnna had led Ithicana through its darkest days, never faltering, and she’d returned in the moment when it seemed all hope was lost. James put little stock in higher powers, but it was hard not to believe that something mystical walked in Ahnna’s shadow for her to have survived so much and arrived just when she was needed most.
The Ithicanians would follow Ahnna into fire, which is why she needed to remain here while he went north to secure the alliance with Cardiff that would make or break this wild strategy his wife had come up with.
James had walked without thought to where he was going, and he paused to look up into the storm-shredded canopy of the jungle to try to get his bearings. It pressed in around him, thick with mist, inspiring claustrophobia. “There’s no space,” he said, having sensed Ahnna come up behind him, though she made no sound. “No room to run.”
“Do you want to run?” Ahnna asked, and he heard the slight shake in her voice. The uncertainty.
“No. But being here…” He rounded on his wife. “My father was mad to think that I could rule this place. It needs someone with tempests in their veins and wildness in their heart. The idea that anyone else could take it and keep it is a delusion. William has to see that this is folly.”
Her hazel eyes regarded him, one hand lifting to tuck a loose lock of hair behind her ear. “Do you really believe William can be convinced to turn on Alexandra?”
“I don’t know.” He closed the distance between them. “But within reason, I have to give my brother a chance, Ahnna. I have to give him the opportunity to be a good king, a good man, before I tear away his birthright.”
“It’syourbirthright, not his.” Her hands balled into fists. “You were Edward’s heir in every possible way, which means the crown is yours.”
“Everyone keeps saying that, but it feels like theft!” He instantly regretted the anger in his tone, and added, “All our lives, Will felt…inadequate. Was made to feel that way by our father because Will was no soldier, no fighter, although now I understand that much of the way my father treated him was because he perceived William as having usurped my role, never mind that it was by his own design. I was supposed to be my brother’s protector, and instead I was the unwitting cause of every bit of his misery. Now I aim to take the one thing that has made him feel worth something.” James clenched his teeth. “I might as well just kill him. Virginia will endure, but Will…”
“I’m sorry.” Ahnna wrapped her arms around his neck, and James buried his face in her hair as she said, “I wish it didn’t have to be like this. I wish the world wasn’t like this.”
He didn’t answer, only inhaled the scent of this woman who had stolen his heart the first moment he’d set eyes on her. He wished that he could take her and run. Wished they could escape the horror to come and find a place untouched by greed and violence.
The wind gusted, and Ahnna tilted her head back, her eyes closed as her hair billowed behind her. “I did not truly know what it meant torununtil I came to Harendell.” She gave a soft sigh, and James drank in her face. “I dream of it more nights than not. Of galloping in the wide-open spaces, fast as the wind, and my heart longs for it.” Her eyes opened, but though she was staring at him, it was as though she did not see him. “We will fight our separate battles, James, but when we win this, promise me that we’ll gallop across the Ranges every day for the rest of our lives.”
“I swear it.”
Ahnna blinked, eyes focusing, and James’s skin prickled, the air suddenly charged. In the distance, thunder rumbled.
“I love you,” she said. “This is not goodbye.”
Footsteps thudded up the path, and they turned to find Aren approaching. “I’ve got a Cardiffian vessel in my fleet,” he said. “I’ve sent a crew ahead to get her ready to sail north, but we need to move quickly. There’s a storm coming up from the southwest, and my grandmother says that it will linger. You need to get out ahead of it.”
The wind whipped through the trees, and more thunder rolled, its tone ominous.
“Be safe.” James cupped his hands around his wife’s head, kissing the scar that ran down her face. “I love you, and I will come back to you. I swear it.”
“Then it is certain.” A tear ran down her face, sparkling as lightning flashed overhead. “Whether it be in this life or the next.”
If he stayed another heartbeat, James knew he’d stay forever, so without a backward glance, he strode toward the storm.
