by Ann Fisher
Lorel shook her head. “Not yet. We have time to plot a course forward.”
Caden stopped beside Dani. “Mira is truly aboard the Charmoc?”
Lorel was amazed at how much the young soldier—prince—emperor—outcast had changed since she’d last seen him. Caden stood a few inches taller than she remembered. He had the lean, hard body of a man who knew both hard work and hunger. His shoulders were broader and his skin had been darkened by the sun. What struck her most intensely was the look in his eyes as he waited for Janek’s answer. There was a hardness to him that simply hadn’t been there before. She wondered again exactly how he and Janek had spent the last year and half. It hadn’t been easy for either of them she suspected.
“We believe so.” Janek reached out and placed a reassuring hand on the prince’s shoulder. “I’ll be able to tell for certain once they’re closer.”
“We shouldn’t be letting them get closer,” Dani said irritably. “We didn’t come here to battle the empire, Lorel. You and Cinn might dabble in the politics of the rebellion, but I want no part of it. We already had to dump two barrels of good wine to make room for prisoners we’ll get no ransom for. We’re bleeding money.”
Lorel glared at her first mate. “It’s my money.”
“No.” Dani jerked her head toward Janek. “It’s his. We all know where your money came from. He paid you for your services at the Keep while you were playing the spy for Bran.”
Lorel bit back a retort. Drawing a steadying breath, she said, “We’re not dumping anyone into the ocean without a chance of survival.”
Dani’s eyes flashed fire. “But—”
Lorel waved a hand to cut her off. “I’m not murdering anyone out of cowardice.”
Before Dani could answer, Kenna said, “We could just make for home.”
“They’ll follow us,” Lorel said. “They found us here. They’ll follow us to Erys.”
And like she’d told Janek. She wasn’t placing Conri at risk by leading the Order to Erys.
“Irid then,” Dani said. “We can lose them long enough to put in on Irid. The water around the island is too shallow for the Charmoc to follow.”
That wasn’t any better than dumping them in the sea, and Lorel doubted the Order would let the Raven quit the game without repercussions. The Order would kill Janek and Caden, then they’d come for the Raven, and Erys.
Caden looked at her with a plea in his eyes. “Demir murdered my parents and then forced my sister to marry a monster. This might be my only chance to get her back. If you help me now, you can name your price. I will free Erys, pour the riches of the empire into your hands when I regain the throne. I’ll make you empress if you wish it.”
She heard Janek’s hiss of indrawn breath and ignored it. He should know her better. Empress? Even if she wanted the title, she would hardly marry a boy to get it.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “You have no throne, prince. No money. No power.”
His hands clenched to fists. “I helped save your life.”
“You did.” Lorel nodded. “And I saved yours. If I’d left you on the Madalie, the Order would already have you.” She looked at Jamie. “If it comes to a fight, will your men fight with us?”
Not that a group of battered sailors would be of much help against a pair of mages, but she needed to know where the Asaran pirates stood. Jamie smiled. “Fight or die? Do I need to answer? Of course, we’ll fight.”
“Those aren’t the only options.” She ignored Janek, though she could feel his gaze on her. She already knew what he wanted to do. There was an excellent chance that he’d kill Kenna, free Jamie’s crew and take over the ship to accomplish it. She looked into Dani’s furious face. Her first mate knew her too well. Dani already knew where this was going. “It’s too good of an opportunity, Dani. We have the true Ghadrian emperor in our power.”
“He hasn’t been crowned yet,” Dani said, casting a critical look at Caden. “He’s an outcast prince with a price on his head. Cinn trusted you with her ship. Do you know what she’ll do to you when she finds out you decided to use the Raven to fight the empire singlehandedly?”
It wasn’t going to be pretty, but Cinn wasn’t here now. “Hardly singlehandedly, Dani. We have a solid crew, a Keeper and a sorcerer on our side. I’d say the odds are in our favor.”
Dani shook her head in disgust. “This is not our fight. Let the Ghadrians murder each other. The weaker they are, the better for us.”
Lorel looked at Caden. He might never take the throne. It was true. The safe bet would be selling his head to the Order.
Caden’s mouth firmed. “Whatever it is you want. I will keep my promise.”
“I want Erys free,” she said. “And the legion permanently recalled.”
He nodded. “Done.”
She let out a shaky breath and turned to Dani. “We set course for Irid. If any of the crew wish to go ashore, we’ll put them down there. We’ll have a better chance of avoiding the Charmoc’s cannons around the Shell anyway.”
Lorel felt a brief tug of uncertainty, but what other choice could she make? She had sudden sympathy for Janek. Loyalty couldn’t always be wholehearted, duty wasn’t always clear. She wondered if he was relieved she’d taken the decision away from him this time around.
She sent Jamie to speak with his crew and directed Kenna to call up the wind to hurry them on their way. Janek took Caden aside and Lorel was left facing an angry Dani. She waited wearily to see if it would come to a mutiny.
“You can’t trust them,” Dani said, waving a hand toward Janek and Caden and not bothering to lower her voice. “A man reckless enough to make a promise like that will break it as soon as he has what he wants. Once he’s emperor—if he becomes emperor—do you think he’ll invite you to the palace so you can ask him when he plans to withdraw his soldiers? No! He’ll have the throne and his sister and your sorcerer at his beck and call, and things will go back to the way they were before. What is it to us if the empire tears itself apart?”
“Are you going to challenge me for command?”
Dani’s body went rigid and her jaw clenched. Lorel braced herself, thinking she’d have to fight her way through Dani before taking on the Charmoc. But some of the tension eased from Dani’s shoulders and she looked away.
“No.” Her mouth twisted. “Your pet sorcerer would only kill me and then put the Asaran in charge.”
Well, Dani had never been stupid.
“You can go ashore on Irid,” Lorel said. “If we survive the confrontation, I’ll come back for you before going home.”
Dani shot her a dark look. “I’m staying with the Raven. The least I can do is to make sure the ship survives. No point in me going back to Cinn without it.”
“Cinn would understand.”
Dani shook her head and pushed off the railing. “I know where I stand with my mother. You’d just better hope she’s taking better care of your baby than you are of hers.”
The Shell was located within a day’s full-winded sail to the straits. It was a favorite hiding spot of Cinn’s. The water surrounding the islands was too shallow for the emperor’s warships, but it was no trouble for the Raven.
Lorel gave the men and women aboard the Raven the choice on whether to attack the Charmoc or remain behind on Irid, the southernmost and most habitable of the islands. Ten of Jamie’s men chose Irid but all of the Raven’s crew chose to remain aboard. After anchoring briefly off Irid to put the men ashore, Lorel positioned the Raven between two small, unnamed islands to wait for the Charmoc. Janek and Kenna erected a shield around the ship that would alert them to the approach of the Charmoc, but so far there’d been no sign of the Order’s ship.
The waiting was the hardest part. It was no wonder that sailors invented stories about selkies and sea monsters. It was either that or lose your mind staring at the unrelenting heave of water.
As Lorel stared at the horizon willing the Charmoc to appear, Janek came up behind her. She stiffened at hi
s approach until he smoothed a warm hand down her arm. It was a comforting gesture, and she had to resist the urge to turn to rest her cheek against his chest. She couldn’t show such a sign of weakness in front of her crew.
Janek angled his body so that he blocked the wind.
“It will be soon now.”
He seemed unnaturally calm, but then he’d been a soldier most of his life. How much time had he spent waiting for battles to begin?
Lorel leaned against the railing. “If something should happen to me, you can find Conri in Haxon. Dev will put up a fight if you show up there without me, but you’re not to hurt my brother.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” Janek’s voice was rough.
“He has blue eyes like you. He’s the only blue-eyed child in Haxon, maybe on all of the island.”
“Lorel.” Janek pulled her around to face him. He took her chin and nudged her face up. His eyes were calm and as depthless as the night sky. The corner of his mouth tucked up in a crooked smile. “It won’t come to that.”
“How can you be so calm?”
“How not? There’s no point in worrying over it. We have our plan, and it’s a good one. I’m surrounded by people I trust—you, Jamie, Caden—and this time I’m fighting for something I can believe in.”
“This time?”
He shrugged. “It hasn’t always been that way.”
“Promise me you’ll go to him. If something happens to me, you’ll find Conri and take care of him.”
Janek studied her face. “Is that a promise you want me to make? I would take him from Erys. He’d be safer in Asara.”
“Would you stay with him?” Or would Janek hire someone to raise their son while he returned to Ghadria to place Caden on the throne?
“How callous you think me. I would not—”
He broke off suddenly and turned his head to look out to the open sea. His eyes went unfocused. For a second, Lorel thought she saw silver glint in his blue eyes, but that may have been a trick of the light.
When he looked back at her, his expression was grim. “Show me where we’re to hide Caden.”
“They’re coming?”
He nodded. “It’s time.”
8
Janek resisted the urge to force Lorel to hide in the smuggler’s bolt with Caden. She would never allow such a thing, he knew that. But it didn’t stop him from wanting to try. She looked nervous and he couldn’t escape the knowledge that if anything happened to her today, it would be entirely his fault. And now he had not only her safety to think about, he had the well-being of a child he’d never met weighing on his conscience. She truly believed he would abandon his own child.
When her panicked gaze met his, Janek nodded encouragement. Her jaw firmed and her spine straightened. She might be faking her confidence, but it was unlikely that any of the crew would be able to tell. He knew she wouldn’t break. He knew that better than anyone. She had a rare strength. When she found a cause she believed in, there was no tearing her away from it.
Jamie climbed down from the rigging. “They won’t be able to get much closer without risking the ship. Their draft’s too deep.”
Lorel’s brows drew together. “They’ve seen us?”
Jamie nodded. “They’re coming straight on.”
Lorel signaled to Dani who strode off shouting orders to the crew. They would lead the Charmoc on a chase through and around the Shell in order to deplete the mages’ stores of energy before engaging them. Lorel would surrender before the Raven was in any true danger and he would attempt to rescue Mira. Dani was in charge of the chase.
Jamie followed Dani, snarling at the members of his crew who were slow to obey the girl. Janek remained with Lorel watching her study the ship. The sunlight lit her hair to fiery gold. Her chin was lifted, her color high with anticipation. She was just as beautiful as the day he’d met her, maybe more so.
“How long do we have to draw this out in order to convince them they’re catching us against our will?” she asked.
“We don’t give ground until it’s taken from us.”
The more the mages revealed about their capabilities the better. Janek had been overconfident before the last encounter. He didn’t intend to make the same mistake twice.
“I won’t let them permanently damage the ship if I can help it,” she said. “Once they’re close enough to hail, I’m offering you and Caden up as a trade. They’ll buy that, I think, especially if I demand a ransom. They’ve no reason to expect us to work together.”
“No reason at all.”
Everyone in the capital thought Erysians were bloodthirsty savages who hated Ghadrians beyond reason. No one on the Charmoc would bat an eyelash if Lorel offered him up to save her ship.
His shoulder brushed against Lorel’s, and he felt a tremor run through her slender frame. Her fingers dug into the wood railing.
“Is this your first battle?”
She gave him a withering look. “I’ve sailed with Cinn for seven years all told, from before I met you and after. No, it’s not my first battle, just my first as captain.”
She’d taken his son into battle. He felt something twist inside of him. Guilt. Anger. The anger was directed as much at himself as at Lorel. He’d known who she was when he left her behind on Erys—reckless, clever, obstinate. He’d known she would continue to fight against the soldiers who remained on Erys after he was gone. He’d imagined her dead, captured, rotting in the dungeon below the Keep, taking a sword to the gut when she finally dared too much. He’d worried about it, but had accepted both that he couldn’t protect her and Caden both, and that she had a right to choose her own course. He’d never imagined her pregnant with his child. Or raising that child aboard a ship the Ghadrian fleet had been hunting for years. He might not have the right to tell Lorel what risks she could and could not take, but he certainly had the right—the responsibility—to ensure his son’s safety.
He didn’t want to fight Lorel again, but he expected it would come to that if they both survived the day.
“We should be able to take them,” he said, wanting to reassure her. “They have more firepower.” Along with whatever new weapons the Order had devised to send against him. “But you have me.”
She looked at him askance, her mouth curving in that reluctant smile he so adored. “You have a very high opinion of yourself.”
“There were three ships, you’ll remember. Now, there is only one.”
“But that ship has Mira aboard. That ties your hands somewhat.”
“I’m not completely lacking in finesse,” he said, offended at her lack of confidence. “We’ll get her off the Charmoc.”
She stared at the approaching ship. “And if it’s not possible to rescue her?”
A cold shroud settled over his heart. “Don’t worry, Captain. I will do whatever is necessary.”
The sails filled quickly, helped along as they were by Kenna. When the Keeper sent a repelling gust toward the pursuing ship it had no effect. Janek regarded the shield around the Charmoc with renewed interest. Casting his senses into the nexus, he studied the glowing net of the rebuilt shield. Not only had the mages managed to repair the shield he’d shredded yesterday, but they’d restructured it as well. Yesterday, the shield had been framed to repel the blunt force of a sorcerer’s attack. Today, it was layered. The sturdy web of protective magic was still in place, but surrounding it was a subtler weave designed to counteract Kenna’s magic. Clever. Apparently they had brought along a master spellweaver. The second mage was not an apprentice, after all, but fully trained in his own right. Janek was flattered.
“Don’t bother with the Charmoc,” he shouted at Kenna. “Direct all your energy into filling our sails. They’re absorbing the energy from your spell and redirecting it into the shield.”
Kenna scowled. She didn’t like him much and didn’t like taking orders from him at all. But she adjusted her spell, clutching her heartstone as she worked. Curious, he let his vision slide a
gain into the nexus. The heartstone was dark, as they always were. Darker even than the physical world around it. The sails, rope and wood that formed the ship had more spiritual energy than the dead stone.
When Lorel had first told him how important the gemstones were to her people, he’d suspected that they were receptacles. Receptacles, though, were clearly visible in the nexus. The more energy they contained the brighter they blazed. The heartstone was absolutely black.
Shaking his head, he let his vision slide back into the physical world. He would like to have continued watching Kenna work out of professional curiosity, but he had his own job to do.
The Charmoc slowed as it approached the narrow channel where the Raven was hiding. The Raven pulled slowly away, propelled largely by Kenna’s management of the wind.
Janek couldn’t help but be impressed by Kenna’s control. It was clear that manipulating the wind and sea was a task that was familiar to her. Ghadrians didn’t employ their mages for such work. They were too proud. It would be considered beneath a mage’s status to serve aboard a commercial vessel like this one, though they were sometimes employed by the emperor’s fleet.
Sorcerers could control the elements, but most of their training involved turning the weather into a weapon not harnessing it as Kenna did.
When the Raven rounded the island, a stiff wind hit them and Kenna relaxed her hold. Dani barked out orders to the crew. The sails were adjusted, and the ship’s deck tipped slightly as they picked up speed. Water shushed against the hull, and the sails snapped taut.
Lorel steadied herself with a hand to the rail. “They’ll have to go round the island.”
The Raven was faster than the Charmoc. The Order wouldn’t be able to rely on the wind to keep up. They’d need to use whatever spells they’d prepared to propel the ship along and that would drain them. The plan was to force the mages aboard the Charmoc to deplete as much of their stored energy as possible before they engaged them directly.
The Charmoc adjusted course, turning away rather than risking the channel. The ship was close enough that Janek could hear the shouted orders from the captain and crew. He located the mages by the long robes that they wore.
