Aren wavered, then caught Lara’s arm and broke into a run toward the south end of the island. Jor remained. “I saw what Ahnna did,” the old warrior said, seeming to barely notice the arrow stuck in his arm. “You going to go after her before she gets herself killed?”
“How?” James’s throat clenched down on the word as he returned to watching the rear of Ahnna’s ship. In another few minutes, she’d hit the first ships in the northern line, and he knew that if he lifted his spyglass, it would be to see the archers making ready to shoot. “I’d swim after her if I thought I’d get more than ten strokes before getting eaten.” Even then, he was sorely tempted to leap into the sea.
“I can get you to her,” Taryn said. “I can signal one of our ships, but you’ll need to jump and swim quickly. Even then, the water is teeming, so…” She pressed a hand to her side, closing her eyes tight for a heartbeat, then opened them and nodded. “But it’s possible.”
From a pouch at her waist, she withdrew a vial of powder, which she poured on the ground. Then she kicked a piece of burning wood atop it. It immediately flared bright, red smoke billowing into the air. One of the Ithicanian vessels caught sight of it and veered away from where they’d been harrying a Harendellian ship, heading straight toward them.
“When they’re ready for us, we jump,” Taryn said. “Then we swim like hell and pray they pull us in.”
“Taryn…” Bronwyn looked ready to be sick. “I can’t swim.”
“You can’t come,” Taryn responded, then bit at her bottom lip. “It will be okay, though. Make Jor get some help, and then go help Lara.” She gestured toward the mass of ships in the south. “Looks like we might see the other side of this, and then we can go back to the potatoes.”
“Fuck the potatoes.” Bronwyn caught hold of her and pulled her in. “I just want you for the rest of my life.”
James stepped away to give the women their space and watched the Ithicanian vessel skip over the waves toward them. Behind, explosions rattled the island as the bombardment continued, though he’d seen several ships turning to face the incoming threat. What was coming was a sea battle for the ages, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was that the love of his life was on a ship growing smaller by the second. All that mattered was catching her, and being with her to whatever end they reached.
“Take off your boots.” Taryn had moved next to him and had kicked off her own boots. She began securing her weapons. “We jump together. Running start to get as far from the cliff as possible, and then swim like hell. Hopefully both of us make it, but if not, the other goes to fight at her back. Clear?”
“Yes.” James let Ahnna’s cousin take his hand, drawing him back even as the island shuddered from impact after impact, the air thick with choking smoke.
The Ithicanians dropped their sails, and one of them lifted a hand.
“Go!”
With Taryn holding tight to his hand, James broke into a sprint, and together they leapt into the air.
101
Keris
Long before they could seethe ships, they saw the smoke.
Though all eyes were on the great cloud of black that rose like a demon in the sky, no one said a word. But for his part, in the silence, Keris prayed to every higher power that they weren’t too late.
That there had been even a hope they might make it in time had felt like a miracle. After swiftly gaining passage on a Valcottan merchant vessel in port in Elmsworth, the city still reeling after failing to prevent Aren and the others from escaping, he and Zarrah had sailed south ahead of Harendell’s fleet. The horror of seeing the siege equipment mounted to the naval vessels was a thing that would haunt Keris’s dreams. Was a thing that now haunted his reality as they drew closer to the cloud of smoke over Ornak and the enormity of the fleet came into view.
“Drums!” Zarrah shouted, one hand resting on the rail of the quarterdeck. “Let them know we are not here to negotiate. There is only one outcome in this fight, and it is Lestara’s capitulation!”
The beat of the drums should have fired his heart, but instead it turned his stomach sour, bringing back old memories. Bad memories that he now feared would soon have company when they tormented his dreams.
He’d been so sure that they’d make it when they had come intosight of the Valcottan fleet, the Maridrinians with them, already past the midpoint of the bridge. He and Zarrah had boarded the flagship to find Arjun in command.
“We received your message,” Zarrah’s father had said, and when they’d looked at him in confusion, he added, “Alexandra’s banking records, which we easily tied to the proof we’d discovered of her conspiracy to infect our herds. We’d already been preparing to set sail with the calm season, but this broke all resistance within the nobility. And also revealed conspiracies within our own ranks. We sent the information to Vencia with all haste, and their parliament took equal issue with Alexandra’s crimes.”
It was a relief to learn that his people had not lost their nerve. That they still had the capacity to fight for what mattered.
“Alexandra is dead. Lestara rules, and her fleet is set to destroy the last remaining Ithicanian resistance on Ornak Island,” Zarrah said. “We must sail with all haste for there to be any hope.”
“Lestara.” Arjun spat on the deck. “That will light a fire in the Maridrinians, sure and true.” Then he lifted his voice and bellowed, “Sails up! North with all haste!”
Zarrah went with him, adding in orders of her own, as well as signals to be sent to the other ships in the fleet. But Keris had held back with Saam and motioned to Daria. “The last time we had those banking records was when Zarrah hid them behind a painting. Then they went missing. How did you get them?”
Daria flung her arms around Saam, but over his shoulder she said, “A maid in the Sky Palace named Hazel. Do you know her?”
The Sky Palace had been full of servants, every one of them seemingly loyal to the Ashfords.
“She was one of Alexandra’s maids,” Saam said. “But she’d been Ahnna’s maid before that.”
