by K Hanson
“Somebody stop them!” Devrim yelled from the base of the platform.
The sea of people closed the way forward. As they pressed in, Nereyda let out a gust of wind. Bodies flew into the air. One man struck a building with a crunch, then crumpled onto the ground.
A man charged forward and brandished a sword as he blocked their path. Nereyda flicked her hand and jolted him with a surge of lightning. After that, she maintained a spark of energy in her hand and waved it at anyone who looked like they might think about stopping them.
Once they made their way through the crowd, they sprinted through the streets toward the docks. They could hear the mob pursuing them, with the shouts of Devrim and the rebel soldiers encouraging them.
Upon reaching the docks, relief swelled at the sight of the crew on the Storm Raven. Nereyda spotted Jax and yelled at him, “Are we ready to sail?”
“I suppose. Why?”
She and Limbani dashed over the wooden dock. “We need to go. Right now. All the Islander ships, too.”
“What happened? Why are we in such a hurry?” Jax asked.
They leaped onto the ship. “We’ll explain later,” said Limbani. “Right now, we have an angry mob after us.”
“Making friends already?” Jax smirked at Nereyda.
When she scowled back, he dropped his amused expression. “Fine, not in the mood for jokes, I see. We’ll run up the signal to the rest of the fleet. Almost everyone has kept to their ships, so they should be ready soon.”
As Nereyda rushed to help make the final preparations for the Raven to leave the harbor, Photios ran up onto the Raven.
“I just saw the signal to leave. What’s going on?” he asked.
“Devrim tried to kill me, so we’re running,” said Nereyda as she cinched a knot tight. “You can do what you want.”
“No, we’re with you. We’ll be ready soon.” Photios ran off and returned to his own ship.
After they shoved off, the Raven led the Islander fleet at full sail for an hour. When they were sure nobody had tailed them from Manisa, she had the crew go to half sail and they settled into a good cruising speed. Nereyda, Limbani, Jax, and Manu gathered at the stern of the aftercastle.
“Okay, are you going to finally tell us what the hell that was all about?” asked Jax. His eyes locked onto Nereyda’s in an unblinking stare. “First, you disappear for two days, then you turn up with Limbani being chased by an angry crowd.”
Nereyda broke eye contact and leaned over the railing. She stared down into the ship’s wake for a moment. “I disappeared because I got captured by Erhan. He was working for Devrim this whole time. Devrim—” Her voice caught. “Devrim tried to burn me alive in front of the city.”
“Why in the hells would he do that?” Jax asked.
“He was playing me the whole time. He stoked the Inquisition so he could channel the people’s anger. I’m . . . I’m still putting it all together. We should have just stayed up in the Shattered Sea.”
“How did you escape?”
“Limbani freed me.” Nereyda turned to Limbani with a sideways glance. “By the way, why did you do that? What happened to your loyalty to Devrim?”
Limbani grimaced as she stiffened. “I was loyal to the version of Devrim that uplifted a lowly factory worker. I don’t know what happened to the Devrim I swore my allegiance to, but he is apparently gone. You’ve been nothing but loyal to us, even after you got your ship back. You deserve better. It was an easy choice.”
“I’m very glad you made that choice, Limbani. I don’t think I would take well to being roasted.” Nereyda paused and looked Limbani in the eye. “Thank you. I don’t think I would have gotten out without you.”
“You’d have found a way. Would you really have sent a lightning storm down on the city?”
Nereyda shrugged. “I don’t really know. I was considering it. Not something I would normally want to do, but the feeling of my feet cooking changed my perspective a bit.”
“So now where do we go?” asked Jax.
“I don’t know.” Nereyda shook her head. “Wherever we can regroup to burn Devrim and his new empire to the ground. Maybe to the Islander capital, but I don’t want them seeing us going in that direction.”
Manu stepped up. “If I might interrupt, I have an idea.”
“Don’t let me stop you. Go ahead.”
“After everything that’s happened with your abilities, I think it might be prudent to learn more about them. If you insist on calling down storms, you can at least learn to do it without burning yourself out. And we can do so in a place that Devrim won’t be able to reach you.”
“Where did you have in mind?”
“My home. Hariana. My old colleagues at the university will be quite intrigued to see you, and we have an extensive library that might help you learn something. We also have . . . other means of helping you discover who you are, but I’d rather not go into that right now.”
“I guess that’s as good a suggestion as any. And definitely out of reach of Devrim. Let’s do it. Jax, signal the ships to follow us. Today, we sail east.”
After getting the fleet on course, Nereyda stood at the stern railing and gazed at the continent as it disappeared over the horizon. Her heart ached as if it had been yanked out of her chest and tossed to a shark. She wondered when she’d get the chance to come back and unleash her scorn upon Devrim.
The End
Nereyda will be back in Raven Revelation, coming late 2019
Acknowledgements
I want to thank Bobbi, my family, and my friends for all of their encouragement as I’ve worked on this book. I especially want to thank the people who have read it and provided the hard feedback that I needed.
Thank you to my editor, Rachel Libke, for challenging me and helping me find, craft, and refine the words to bring this story to life.
Thank you to Kale Lawrence for another fantastic cover.
Finally, thank you, reader, for reading my book. I hope you enjoy your journey with Nereyda.
