Most of the students nod. Even Valoria, who was being choked at the time, says she heard it.
“Well, when it was happening, Nipper here”—I pause, giving mylittle dragon an appreciative smile—“was looking up at theParadise. I think someone on board knows a song that stuns the soldiers. We just have to find out who.”
A wiry young man with eyes of deep sea blue, one of the mage students, turns toward the door. “I heard the wailing, too. I’ll go ask around.”
“You’ll need help!” a green-eyed little girl declares, hurrying after him.
But as she reaches the door, she pauses, coughing so hard that her whole body rattles with the force of it. Something dark spatters her hands as she lowers them from her mouth.
It’s only then that I notice the droplets of sweat clinging to her forehead.
“It’s all right. No one panic,” Azelie says from the back of the narrow cabin where she’s tearing strips off her colorful skirt, carefully wrapping her potion vials in cloth. “I’ve still got these, no thanks to those brutes that made me drop some outside.”
Her hair has come partially loose from its two knots on either side of her head, and I spot the beginnings of a large bruise on her cheek from our fight with the metal soldiers, giving her a wild—and fierce—look. I wonder if she’s realized yet how many lives she’s going to save. She did us all a huge favor in coming to Karthia.
Some of the students head up the stairs to help search for the mystery singer, while others watch Azelie give a few drops of her antidote to the little girl with the bad cough. Danial falls asleep with his head in Simeon’s lap, his body rebelling against him for saving Jax’s life. Jax leans back against the wall, holding Valoria in his arms. He holds her like she’s all that’s anchoring him to this world, like there’s no tomorrow. And for all we know, there may not be.
I try to keep my mind on the trouble at hand, worried about what thoughts will creep in the moment I’m not focused. This is a problem with spirits, a problem for a necromancer—me—yet I don’t have any idea how to stop the soldiers if I can’t sink my blade into their flesh. That’s how we’ve always sent spirits back to their world. That’s all I was taught, all I know.
My eyes begin to drift closed of their own accord, lulled into drowsiness by the steady breath of the sea. But when I’m almost at the point of slipping under, images of Meredy flash across my darkened eyelids—visions of her lying in an alleyway somewhere, of her broken body cradled in the embrace of a metal soldier. Somehow, even though she appears to be dead, she’s screaming for me. Screaming my name.
I sit upright on the cot, soaked in sweat, breathing hard. At first, I think it’s the pain in my shoulders that woke me—I couldn’t bring myself to make Danial do any more healing—but then I hear Meredy’s voice still echoing in my ears, calling for me.
Someoneiscalling me, I realize as the haze of sleep rolls back.
Only it’s not Meredy.
I rush up the cabin stairs, Nipper at my heels, apparently excited that someone is awake for her to play with. Valoria untangles herself from a slumbering Jax and hurries after us.
Kasmira stands at the top of the steps, silhouetted by a glorious golden dawn, her expression grim. “There are ships,” she pants. She must have run to us from the helm. “Strange ships on the horizon.”
XXXII
Within minutes of Kasmira’s sighting, everyone gathers on deck to watch the ships draw nearer. The Ezorans have found us.
This is it, then. Valoria would have died if she’d stayed in Karthia, but now it seems she’s going to die in the one place we thought she’d be safe. Along with the rest of us.
Heat surges through me, rising with my temper. I don’t want to die like this. If this is really the end, I want Meredy beside me. But she’s not here, which means that somehow, I’m going to have to fight the Ezorans.
“I could conjure up the worst storm they’ve ever been through,” Kasmira offers, glancing at Valoria, but the queen shakes her head. She knows about the tremors in Kasmira’s hands, having seen it firsthand while sparring with her during one of our early training sessions.
Not one to admit defeat so easily, Kasmira says, “I could turn the ship around. Try to lose them somewhere.”
Again, Valoria shakes her head and frowns. “Given how quicklythey’re moving, they’ll catch up to us no matter which direction we choose. And I doubt they’ll just let us sail away, now they’ve spotted us.”
Indeed, the ships have altered their course since Kasmira first saw them, now heading directly into our path.
“I know,” Kasmira agrees softly. “But if we don’t try running, we’ll really be—”
“Out of options,” I finish for her, gooseflesh spreading across my arms and neck. I count the enemy ships as they get close enough to be distinguished from one another, surprised to find there are only ten. Even more surprising is that, while their ships’ cannons could easily reach us from here, they’ve yet to open fire on our lone vessel.
“That hardly looks like an army,” Danial says, sharing my thoughts.
Simeon glances sideways at him. “Ten to one? I like their odds better than ours. Maybe not against Karthia, but out here...”
“You’re right,” Danial muses. “They could finish us off here and now if they wanted. Wonder why they haven’t fired yet.”
As I watch the Ezorans’ tattered flags billow in the wind, I remember the raven Valoria received from Baron Stryker in Lullin, where the warriors first landed. They didn’t kill anyone there, according to the baron’s message. They just stole things. And while I can only guess at their reasons, having witnessed the devastation they caused in Sarral, an idea is beginning to take shape in my mind.
