Page 27

Of course, they hadn’t wanted to listen to my orders when I found them. Well, Rada’s orders, really. We were all her foot soldiers in this war. I grinned, remembering how Dustin had torn into the older Alphas who’d questioned me.

Starlakian warriors had thick skulls, which was an asset in battle. But when it came to making decisions in the spur of the moment, it was a danger.

“Warchief,” I tried again, “Goran would want you to follow Rada’s orders. The spit of rock we’ll wait at has no fresh water. It cannot support two dozen warriors for as long as we may be there. Menthera has water, but not enough for this army, and no food other than fish. You’ll need to send as many of your men back to Starvale as will fit in your dinghy. The currents should take you back home without issue.”

I’d drawn a crude map of the islands between Northern Starlak and Pict. There weren’t many, and the currents around them were treacherous. I was one of the only creatures in the world who knew them all.

Kerik, the Alpha who was Goran’s second-in-command, shook his head again, his beaded braids glinting in the sunlight. “We follow the Warlord straight to Pict, all of us. He’s headed into battle with no one by his side⁠—”

“He has his Warqueen, and she’s more dangerous than all of you put together,” Lachlan interrupted. “Have you forgotten she incapacitated your entire army for days only a week past?”

Lachlan and I knew most of the men who stood facing us, and given time, we might have been able to persuade them to focus on the rescue mission, but Dustin shocked us all by stepping up with a snarl.

“Half of you will go back to Starvale in the dinghy,” he commanded, his narrow shoulders firm as he moved between me and Lachlan. “The rest will stay here and wait for the rescued Omegas.” He pointed out twelve Alphas, barking their names. One of them specialized in field medicine, and one was as close to a bard as a Starlakian warrior could get. Why had he chosen them? “You’ll stay here. You’re all solid sailors and good rowers, which the Omegas will need. And you won’t overwhelm them.”

I understood at once. They were all the smaller Alphas in the group. Less intimidating.

He faced Kerik again, unblinking as he snapped out orders. “Leave them enough food and canteens to provision a temporary waystation for the rescued Omegas.” Kerik’s jaw dropped in shock, but Dustin turned away. “You’re the best singer in the group, Luten. They may have children with them.”

The man bowed low and half-pulled a small harp from his pack. “I hear and obey.”

Finally, Kerik found his tongue. He cursed angrily and half-drew his sword. “You’re not even a warrior, boy! Who are you to order the Warlord’s army?”

Dustin curled his lip, but didn’t back down as he turned slowly to face the older male. “You may not like taking orders from a disgraced warrior, Warchief Kerik, but I’ve been given the command by our Warqueen not only to bring the imprisoned Omegas out of Pict, and provision a stop on the way across the sea, but to make sure there’s a safe place for them and their children to come to. She also gave me full authority to call up troops to be ready for an invasion from Pict, if necessary.”

“An invasion?” That had Kerik’s attention.

Dustin snarled. “You think they won’t see us taking their ‘breeders’ as an act of war? For all we know, their evil god could come himself. We need to be ready to fulfill our vows and regain our honor as a nation.” He raised his voice so all the warriors would hear. “I may never be able to call myself a member of the Dragon company again, or a member of the Warlord of All Starlak’s army, but if you don’t carry out your own Omega Warqueen’s orders without one fucking complaint, you shouldn’t even call yourself Alphas, or men.

“Now, those of you going back to Starvale? Get in your boats. There is no decision to be made. There is only obedience to the Warqueen, who is the mouth of the Goddess Herself.”

They’d all immediately begun to follow his barked commands, while Lachlan and I prepared to journey across the currents to this small spit of land where we would be out of range of the fire god.

I turned my head once more toward Dustin. The young man looked as exhausted as I felt, and Lachlan had fallen back to sleep. I dragged the boat toward the land, glad the hull was so flat, as the rocks just beneath the surface of the water would be deadly for a larger or heavier craft.

I slung the looped rope around a lip of rock, making sure the boat was secure, then shifted and hauled myself aboard to talk.

Shifting seemed to weaken me even more than swimming, and sent pain spearing through me, like part of my body was missing when I became human-shaped. Part of my heart was, I knew.

“Brother?” Lachlan murmured. When I didn’t answer, he squinted at the heavy plume of dark smoke on the horizon. It was only a hundred miles or so from here, but half the horizon was tainted with ash and smoke, and the air looked as foul as the sludge-gray water on that side.

“Eat, both of you,” Dustin ordered, offering us some of the salted fish from the stores Goran’s men had shared. As we ate, he stared toward the ash cloud. “That’s the main island?”

I nodded. “Tell us what she said again, Dustin.”

“She’d read some about Pict and talked to a sailor or two. The Omegas are kept on the east side of the island, over a ridge, in a group of longhouses. She wasn’t sure if they’d still be there, but the only other place with barracks was near the maw. The volcano. If they’re on the west side, we’re…” His voice broke, and I spoke up.

“They’ll be on the east side. I swam far to the east once, trying to map the coast. The currents are vicious, and if I hadn’t found a small outcropping of rock exposed at low tide about thirty miles from the main island, I might’ve drowned. I was exhausted, and the tide was rising. It swept me a good hundred miles out before I could get close enough to map anything, but I saw long buildings. Two close to the beach, a few set above on a hill. Guarding them, I would think. I could draw it, if I had chalk.”

Dustin reached into his scabbard, took out the sword, and fished a small chunk of limestone out of the bottom of the sheath. When I asked what it was, he blushed. “Just a little piece of the rock from the cliff by my parents’ house. This way, I’m never far from home.”

“Good lad.” Using the bottom of one of the canoes in the center of the dinghy as my parchment, I used the limestone to sketch the island chain, then gave him back the rock.

Lachlan set a finger on the side of the largest island. “A lagoon northeast of the longhouses?”

“It looked like it. The ridge in the center here was just big enough to keep the ash cloud from covering the whole place. There was something in the water. A net or a fence, I couldn’t tell. Something glinted.”

Lachlan stared at the map, committing it to memory. “And nothing between the beach and the open ocean? That rocky outcropping you found was⁠—”