Sora and Aeri peek out behind us.
“I don’t understand,” Aeri whispers.
“Is this because Wei has arrived?” Sora asks.
Mikail’s sharp eyes scan around. “I assume so, but be alert. Royo, protect our back in case it’s a trap.”
Mikail starts walking, clinging to the wall, his sword in hand. Sora and Aeri follow him, and I take the rear, ready for a surprise attack.
We stay tightly grouped, slowly making our way to the open front doors as one unit. Two steps, three. The quiet is unsettling as fuck. I don’t know how, but it’s almost worse than running straight into battle. At least we know what to prepare for when we can see our enemies. But this…this feels like willingly strolling into a trap.
We reach the golden doors, and then I get why there was no one inside—they are all in Trialga Square, standing in the rain. There have to be five thousand soldiers in the space, including two hundred palace guards in gray steel. Queen Quilimar and General Vikal sit on white horses in front of the army. Rather than hide her golden breast, Queen Quilimar has ripped off that part of her dress to put it on display. I guess it makes her seem more like Khitanese royalty. But none of them are looking at us.
Everybody is facing the harbor.
I’ve never seen a navy before, just boats on the Sol. And I ain’t never dreamed of anything like this. There are one hundred warships facing Oligarch Mountain. All with the blue sails of Wei—except for one boat in the center. That one flies the red flag with a black snake. It also has red sails.
King Joon’s ship.
“I’ve got a dumb question,” I say.
“What’s that?” Mikail is staring at the king’s ship, hatred burning in his eyes.
“If we win…” I begin, but then I stop because I doubt it’ll be a problem. And we have to win to worry about who’d rule Yusan. But with Euyn dead, I dunno who that would be.
It don’t matter, though. General Vikal has spotted us. She stares and leans toward the queen. Queen Quilimar turns and looks.
“Never mind,” I grumble.
I shift my axe in my hands, ready.
Chapter Seventy-Two
Aeri
City of Quu, Khitan
It’s the four of us against the might of the four original realms. Not the best odds, even though we have swords and armor and I have my amulet. One relic and four people against a hundred ships, five thousand Khitanese soldiers, and untold numbers of Yusanian and Gayan forces at the border isn’t winnable. But there aren’t three people I’d rather have at my side than the ones with me right now.
Queen Quilimar looks up at us, but really, she’s staring straight at me. I hold her gaze. My aunt. The woman as disposable to my family as my mother was, as I am. Disrespected by her brothers, sold in marriage to a merciless foreign king she didn’t love, and now she’s barely holding on to the throne for her young son. I understand her rage and her struggle, but she was going to torture us and she killed Euyn. I won’t give up what I have to let her win.
“I want to see tomorrow.” I turn to Royo and stare into his eyes. “And tomorrow. And tomorrow. With you.” Then I look at Sora and Mikail. “And if I can’t have that, I want to make sure they don’t see it, either.”
Mikail stares at me like he’s seeing me for the first time. His eyes dart over to the queen and then back to me.
“It ends here.” He nods at the harbor. “One way or another.”
I don’t know how we’ll pull it off, but I nod. Win or lose, we make a stand here. No one I love is safe so long as these rulers have power. I didn’t see it before because I didn’t want to. But I can’t unsee it now—the only way for the four of us to have a place in this world is to change it.
Mikail reaches into his pocket, and then he pulls out the ring of the Dragon Lord. I thought he’d taken it from Euyn’s hand, but so much happened after he died that I’d honestly forgotten about it. That same buzzing sensation fills my head when he holds the ring out.
“They all end here,” he says.
Gods, he actually trusts me.
He presses the ring into my hand.
The second it hits my palm, it feels like lightning courses through me. This is what I was feeling when Quilimar gave Euyn the ring—the energy from the relic finding a person who can wield it, but ten times stronger, since I am the one receiving the ring—and I already have one other relic.
