by PT Hylton
Dustin barked a laugh. “Damn, Captain, you really had me thinking you were going to turn tail.”
Elliot grinned. “This girl? Not likely. Remind me to tell you about when she was six and got cornered by three boys. She sent them home crying without even throwing a punch. I think she just snarled at them.”
“And that was when I had hair.”
Abbey turned to her father. He’d been quiet during the conversation, which meant there was something on his mind. “What about you? Care to weigh in?”
After a long moment, he spoke. “I’d like to propose a different solution. I want you to leave me behind on Gren.”
Syd raised an eyebrow. “Say what?”
“Hear me out.” He held up a hand. “Dahlia escaped on my watch. I swear we had her drugged. I’d checked on her not twenty minutes before the fight broke out. I have no idea how she managed to do it, but the fact is, she did. That means she’s my responsibility. You should go back to Kaldfell and let me hunt her down.”
“By yourself?” Elliot placed a hand on the blacksmith’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, but that’s insane. One man wouldn’t be able to accomplish that.”
Benjamin shrugged. “I might surprise you. Besides, it’s not going to be about strength. You think our fifty or so people would be able to take on the Stone Shapers in a straight-out fight? It’s going to be about wits and stealth. One man might actually stand a better chance than fifty.”
Syd smiled softly. “Sorry, blacksmith. It’s not happening.” She turned to the others. “We all agree on what has to be done. We just need to find a way to do it. Thoughts?”
Elliot offered the first suggestion. “Maybe we could find a way to draw her out. Isolate her.”
“If we wait until Tomas and the inland Stone Shapers arrive, we could use the resulting chaos to our advantage.” Dustin hefted his staff. “I’ve wanted a one-on-one rematch with her ever since our showdown in Barskall.”
Neither of those options sounded right to Abbey. They were fifty against an entire city of magic users. Her father had been correct when he’d said they needed to use their wits. She considered their resources.
What did they have? A few Storm Callers. A Stone Shaper. A physical magic user. A...whatever the hell she was. Beyond that, they had stormship sailors and Tall Grass Raiders. How could they best use these things to their advantage?
“Waiting is probably the smart move,” Benjamin agreed. “On the other hand, do we want to give Dahlia a chance to get herself reoriented before we make our move?”
“No, we do not.” Abbey spoke emphatically, and all eyes turned toward her. “We have to act quickly. Dahlia is a master manipulator, and the longer she has to play her games, the more trouble we’re in.”
“So what do we do?” Elliot asked. “I mean, it’s like—”
Dustin held up a hand. “I know we don’t know each other well, but trust me: when she gets like this, you should really let her talk. She has the answer. Let her get to it.”
Abbey continued. “We know the Stone Shapers fear storm magic. They named Dahlia the Queen of Storms, for fuck’s sake. We have a ship. They have a harbor.”
Dustin’s face went pale. “You’re not about to say what I think you’re about to say, right?”
Elliot laughed. “What happened to letting her talk?”
Abbey ignored them both. “There’s only one way we can get Dahlia back in the next few days. We have to invade Ammaas, and we have to do it the only way we know how.”
She looked around, meeting each of their eyes.
“We have to become Storm Raiders.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Magnus’ stone palace was bigger than she remembered. She supposed that made sense. It had been more than a decade since she’d last set foot in this city. He’d probably added onto it during the years she’d been away.
The Stone Shaper chief finished giving her a rundown of what he’d accomplished, then looked down at her from his ridiculous throne with a smug grin on his face. “When you left, I was a new chief with a weak grasp on Gren. Now I’m a true ruler.”
Dahlia tried to focus on what the man was saying, but she found it difficult. Her head was finally clear for the first time in more than a week; a week spent in darkness belowdecks on a subpar stormship. They’d kept her drugged, and they’d constantly threatened her. Even though her captors were unworthy adversaries, they’d nearly ended her life. She had no doubt the Arcadian girl would have followed through on her promise to kill her once Elliot was rescued.
The thing that had saved her was not her own brilliance or her storm magic, but her captors’ lack of knowledge about the drug they’d been giving her.
The first time she drank the potion, she’d fallen into a haze so deep she hadn’t known if she’d ever emerge from it. By the fourth time the effects had been noticeably less pronounced. The tenth time, she managed to stay awake for a full hour after her dose.
Even through the medicinally-induced cloud in her brain, she’d realized the potion was becoming less effective with each dose. She’d worked very hard to hide that fact, and the previous night she’d finally seen her opportunity to act. She’d snuck topside when she heard sounds of fighting, and waited in the shadows. If the Stone Shapers had won, she would have shown herself. Unfortunately, The Foggy Day, the luckiest bastards in the Holdgate fleet, had somehow taken the day, and she’d been forced to improvise.
Jumping over the side had been risky. She was still groggy, and she’d spent most of the previous week lying down. She didn’t even know if she’d be able to swim, but the cold water had brought her to full alertness and she’d managed to reach the shore, where she’d found Stone Shapers waiting to bring her to Magnus.
Now, after sleeping in a real bed and eating a meal of solid food, she was ready to get back in the action.
She smiled at Magnus. “It seems you’ve done quite well for yourself.”
Magnus leaned forward and leered at her, not even trying to hide the way his eyes lingered on her breasts. “And yet I lack a bride.”
She paused a moment before answering, “I can’t imagine that the chief of the Stone Shapers would have much difficulty attracting female attention.”
“There have been many women, but none worthy of me. My choices here are grim Stone Shaper women or meek fisher girls. I want a queen.”
If anything had been lost in her time as a prisoner aboard The Foggy Day, it was a bit of her patience. There was a time when she would have used Magnus’ obvious desire to her advantage. She would have led him on, implied she’d sleep with him if he won her affection by doing a few favors for her first.
Those days were over. Magnus had been blunt in his statement of what he wanted, and she would be too.
“I think not,” she said.
Surprise blossomed on the chief’s face. “Excuse me?”
Dahlia glared at him. “Let me state this plainly. Your chances of sleeping with me are less than zero. I’d rather bed a dog. And marry you? Please! I could have married King Elias. If I said no to a real king, what makes you think I’d say yes to you and spend the rest of my life in this backwater country?”
Magnus raised his hand, revealing the stone he held. “I’d watch what I said if I were you. You’re in my home, surrounded by my guards. You’ll treat me with the respect I deserve.”
It was all Dahlia could do not to roll her eyes. “You couldn’t catch a few dozen rebels, a task the crew of The Foggy Day accomplished in less than a week. What do you think you can do to a queen?”
Magnus was almost shaking with anger. It was time to ease off a little.
She forced her lips into a gentle smile. “I’m only being honest with you. You deserve that much. I won’t be your wife, and I won’t sleep with you, but I will help you.”
“Help me how?”
“Help you take control of your realm. The villages that allowed the Tall Grass Raiders to take advantage of them? They should be crushed as an exampl
e to others. Burn them to the ground and enslave the people. Then you need to start building an armada. With a fleet of ships, you could conquer Barskall.”
Magnus lowered the stone he’d been brandishing. Clearly she had his interest. “Barskall?”
“Of course. You are a Stone Shaper. It’s time to start thinking big. After we conquer Barskall, we’ll take Kaldfell.”
He settled back on his throne and considered her words. “It sounds like you’re offering to be my advisor.”
“No, I’m offering to rule with you. Not as man and wife, but as equal partners. A King of Stone and a Queen of Storms. Together we’ll bring the world to its knees.”
She didn’t add that Magnus would likely be dead by that point. Once her fleet had been built and she’d won the Stone Shaper army over, she’d have no need of him. He’d suffer the same fate as Captain Tor and King Elias. But this time she wasn’t going to pretend the man was in charge.
“I’m not willing to share the throne of Gren,” he said carefully.
“I don’t care about Gren.” She tried to keep the venom out of her voice, but she wasn’t entirely successful. “I care about what comes after. Isn’t a partner who will win you nations better than a wife?”
Magnus grunted thoughtfully. After a moment, his eyes lit up. “I’d like to test your skills before I answer.”
Dahlia nodded. “Name the task, and it will be done.”
“The other Stone Shapers who live deep within Gren, the tribe I grew up in. They live simply, with nothing to distract them from their studies of stone magic. As a result, they are more powerful than we are.”
Dahlia smiled. “Consider it done.”
“I haven’t finished.”
“You don’t need to. They are more powerful than you, thus they can’t be allowed to survive. Give me your army and I will crush them.”
Magnus smiled. “That would be a very good start.”
Perhaps Dahlia’s patience wasn’t gone after all. She found herself content in the knowledge that it would take years to build an armada large enough to conquer Holdgate. That was fine with her. For now, she’d concentrate on the task at hand.
“It’s a shame the Tall Grass Raiders are gone,” Magnus said. “I would have liked to watch you crush them too.”
Dahlia thought for a moment. “I’m not so sure they are gone.”
****
“Let me start by saying there’s no way a non-Shaper could get into Magnus’ palace. There are no doors or windows. Not permanent ones, anyway. You could wait around for a Stone Shaper to open one, but they’re pretty diligent about closing them as soon as they’re done using them. Magnus would pierce the heart of any man who left a door open, up to and including his brother.”
As Abbey listened to Gideon speak, she realized he was never going back to his old life. That he never could go back.
They were gathered in the bunk area belowdecks. It was the only space large enough to accommodate them comfortably, and they were away from the ears of the crew there. They wanted to plan in private where they could have a healthy debate. They’d take the plan to the crew when it was settled.
The group consisted of the five who’d agreed earlier on the Storm Raiding approach, plus Gideon.
“You could try the roof,” Gideon continued. “Not easy to access, but with Abbey’s abilities, maybe it would work. Some Stone Shapers open holes in the roof to let light in.”
“We’ll be attacking at night,” Dustin reminded him.
“Still, some have been known to look at the stars. I’ll be with you, but I could easily take a rock to the head. I want you to consider other ways in if I fall. But you haven’t thought about what happens when you’re inside. Most of the palace isn’t even used, but the throne room, well, half the warriors in the city hang out there hoping for a chance to impress their chief.”
Abbey looked at her friends. Syd, Dustin, and Benjamin all wore skeptical looks as they listened to the Stone Shaper speak. She didn’t blame them. He was the chief’s brother, after all. They had to at least consider he could be a spy working for Magnus.
She held up a hand. “I need to ask you a question before we talk strategy.”
The Stone Shaper shifted in his seat. He looked nervous. “Anything.”
“Why didn’t you tell Magnus we were helping the Tall Grass Raiders?”
Gideon smiled sheepishly. “How do you know I didn’t?”
“Because Magnus would have destroyed The Foggy Day immediately after he heard that,” Benjamin said. “Answer her question. I was wondering the same thing. After all, you betrayed them once already.”
The Stone Shaper held up a hand. “That’s not exactly true. I was clear about my intentions from the start. I was there to find the Tall Grass Raiders. I never promised to stay in Baer Gigur just because they ordered me to.”
Abbey thought about that for a moment. “It’s a fair point. Still doesn’t answer the question, though.”
Gideon held up the stone in his right hand, but not in a threatening manner. He just stared at it for a long moment before answering. “The time I spent with you opened my eyes. I’d always been taught that Holdgatesmen were bloodthirsty killers who reveled in the pain of their enemies. I’d been told that Tall Grass Raiders killed Stone Shapers for sport. Once I discovered those two things weren’t true, I began to question other things too.”
“Why’d you run away from Baer Gigur?” Elliot asked.
Gideon shrugged. “Call it an aversion to being tied up and held prisoner, I guess. I didn’t really think about things until after I’d escaped.”
Benjamin stared at him for several seconds, then gave a nod. “That’s good enough for me.”
“Me too,” Abbey agreed.
If anyone disagreed, they didn’t say anything.
“Okay, so Gideon can get us into the palace,” Dustin said, “but won’t that be where they concentrate their defenses once the fog rolls in?”
Abbey smiled. “You’re right. It will, unless we give them reason to be elsewhere.”
“Here’s where we employ some Tall Grass Raider tactics,” Syd told them.
Elliot sat up a bit straighter at that. “I’m starting to like the sound of this.”
“We’ll split into two teams. One will cause chaos in Ammaas to draw as many Stone Shapers as possible away from the palace. I’ll lead that team. Dustin, you and the Barskall Storm Callers will come with me.”
“I can cause a lot of chaos,” Dustin assured them.
“Benjamin, you’re with me too.” Syd ignored Abbey’s sly look and continued, “I could use your firepower. We’ll have most of the crew with us as well. Which brings us to the other team.”
She turned toward Elliot and Abbey.
“Excellent,” Elliot said. “I’ve never invaded a palace before.”
“Your first time?” Abbey asked. “Amateur.”
Syd looked at Elliot. “Abbey’s going to be leading the team.”
The smile melted off Elliot’s face and a look of astonishment replaced it. “Wait. You’re putting your friend in charge instead of your brother, a former actual Storm Raider, who has been regularly raiding Stone Shaper villages for over a year?”
Syd’s forehead creased as her expression became hard. “It’s not about her being my friend. It’s about what I’ve seen her do. She’s at her best during a battle. I’ve never seen anyone who can improvise like she can.”
“Then you’ve never seen me.”
“This isn’t a discussion. This is my ship and my show. Are you going to follow the plan?”
Elliot stared back at his sister. “Absolutely. I just wanted to make my case.”
“Fair enough. You’ve made it. Moving on.”
Abbey remained silent. She understood where Elliot was coming from—he was used to being in charge, after all—but it still stung. She’d just have to prove to him she was worthy of the position.
Syd’s eyes met Abbey’s. “I’ll leave th
e details of your end of the mission up to you. You’ll want to take Gideon, of course. Other than the Storm Callers and your father, you’ve got your pick of the crew.”
Abbey nodded. “We’ll want to keep our team small.” She was already considering who she’d take. Fannar, Olaf, and Clemens, maybe. But what about Hekla and Sigmund? They were both fast and had raiding experience. She’d have to think about it.
“We attack tomorrow night.” Syd looked at each of them, and Abbey saw the seriousness on her face. “I suggest you get as much rest as possible between now and then.”
When the crew started to head topside, Abbey touched Elliot’s shoulder. “Hang back a minute?” She waited until the others were gone before continuing. Elliot stared at her, his face unreadable. “I want to talk to you about the team leader thing.”
Elliot looked away. “I’m sorry I reacted like that. I’m not used to anyone else being in charge.”
“I get that. I really do. It’s just…” She trailed off, wondering if she should soften her message. After a moment, she decided against it. It was stupid to mince words just because this guy had a cute smile. “I just wanted to make sure it’s not going to be a problem in the field.”
His eyes widened in surprise. She thought she saw something else there too. Respect? “No, of course not. I’d never question you during the raid.”
“That’s good to hear, because I’m thinking of adding Hekla to our team. But if you start shouting orders at her during the mission—”
“I won’t.” A slight smile appeared on his face. “Abbey, you can count on me. I have only one goal on this mission.”
“And what’s that?”
“Helping you keep your promise to Dahlia.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“You’re doing it wrong,” Olaf told him.
Melwin paused at his task of tying a knot and glowered at the younger man. “What do you mean I’m doing it wrong? I’ve been sailing on this ship for nearly a decade. You’ve been a stormship sailor, what…a month?”
Olaf shrugged. “Give or take. Doesn’t change the fact that there’s a better way to tie that line. Captain Syd showed me back on Thunderclap when she was First Mate. Here, let me.”
