“Some of which echoed through the hull last night.”
Swallowing, I desperately tried not to laugh but couldn’t do a thing about turning bright red. “I need you to hush. The spit is growing thin, and if we’re not careful, I’ll scuttle the ship.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Isn’t scuttling done on purpose?”
I just stared straight ahead.
He leaned in and kissed my cheek. “I like this new you. Sarcasm and wit suit you, ilati.”
The ship slipped up Niallan’s Spit under the brightness of a half moon. We had reached the gorge around midafternoon and anchored far enough offshore that we looked like a fishing vessel. Just before the sun set, the tide changed, and we had to take the chance and hope we wouldn’t be seen.
We had been fortunate for the first two hours of the trip. The mizzen sail was enough to assist the tide in pulling us north into the spit.
Except for the rocks on either side of the entrance to the spit, there were no real features to the landscape. Everything seemed to disappear on the horizon. To the east, there were only flat plains as far as we could see. To the west were the low rolling hills that eventually met with the Scar.
As the wide bay of water we were sailing up grew narrower and narrower, we had to pull the mizzen sail down and trust the tide. The tides were a sixteen-hour cycle, and since we had caught it off the ebb, we would be able to make it most of the way up to the town.
“Lick?” I asked again.
Aiko nodded.
“The town of Lick is at the end of Niallan’s Spit?”
Roran raised his hand. “I feel I need to mention that it was not called Niallan’s Spit when I was young.”
Aiko and I looked at him. “What was it called?”
Rilen answered. “Devil’s Tongue.”
Belshazzar laughed. “Wasn’t much better.”
“Do you remember what it was called originally, brother?” Dorian asked.
Belshazzar ran a hand down his face. “Please don’t remind me if it was the Devil’s Anus.”
Dorian shook his head. “Osirdan’s Finger.”
“These are all just absolutely awful,” I said. “Can we just…” I looked between Dorian and his brother, and the look on the king’s face was the shock of a memory. “Are you all right, Belshazzar?”
“I…” He turned slowly and looked at me. “I’ll be fine.” He seemed to shake off whatever had possessed him. “Fine. Only… those names. They really are terrible.”
“I didn’t know there were other names before Niallan’s Spit,” Aiko said.
“Everything in this godforsaken place had different names,” Belshazzar said.
Everyone was agreeable to helping me, no matter what their differences were. I could handle a small xebec by myself, but having other hands to help, and not just magic ones, was a relief.
“Will we be able to reach Lick by the time the tide ebbs again?” Roran asked in the darkness.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “I don’t know these waters. At some point, the tide won’t matter because the water from the river will push back, and we’ll slow.”
“Can we risk a sail?”
“If you don’t mind being seen,” I answered.
Roran took a deep breath. “Will we be seen?”
“A giant, white, triangular sail in the light of the half moon high in the sky? May as well start screaming.”
“Are we sure that Niniane’s fanatics are this far away?” he asked. “I’d imagine they wouldn’t be far from the Stronghold.”
“Do you know the mind of a madwoman?” I asked.
“Ilati, I don’t even fully know the mind of a sane woman.” He chuckled and kissed my forehead.
I took a deep breath. “Do you know why Niniane was driven mad?”
“A lot of older vampires can—”
“No, that’s gone insane. This is driven mad. She was forced to it, by Savion.”
“What’s the difference?”
“He made it happen. She might not be as crazy as she is if it weren’t for him. He murdered her soul mate, married, and then denied her a child. He denied her any sort of affection, probably. He had dozens of mistresses, and if any of them fell pregnant, he murdered them.”
I glanced over to Roran, who had his hand on the wheel with me. “Aiko’s sister Kumi was among them.”
Roran was startled. “His sister?”
“He was dedicated to Savion when he was younger. She had no idea that mistresses were killed if they were found pregnant. He didn’t either, not until he saw her lifeless and headless body draining into the blood fountain.
“Niniane is the rightful queen, but Savion killed all the others who answered the call for the crown. Including her soul mate, and then further destroyed her by denying her intimacy and a child. He gave her a drink called leadium that drove her mad, day by day. And when he finally did sire a child… she was so bent into madness that she ripped the child from her own womb.”
“Holy Gods and Savior,” Roran breathed.
“He destroyed her. He destroyed everything about her that could have brought her joy and comfort. When the heart is destroyed, all that remains is madness.”
I looked up at the moon hanging over the water. “She has nothing, Roran. She is a pitiable creature. But that is buried beneath cruelty and revenge. So putting up a sail on our ship to potentially bring the supporters of a ranting madwoman to our decks is probably not a wise course of action at this moment.”
The water lapped against the hull of our boat, filling the night with a gentle, lulling song.
“Why would Savion do that?”
“Why does anyone do such things? Power. Strength. The false sense of security and respect it brings them. And it is all false.
“In the end, it is not how many crowns we collect, or how many pieces of silver, or how many diamonds. Not how big our palaces and temples are, or the number of those who march under our banners. Those are all castles built on pillars of sand.
“What truly matters is our heart and how we have filled it. Savion chose to fill his with hate, cruelty, tyranny.” I turned and stared at him. “My sire was cruel, Roran. Cruel and evil, quite possibly just as mad as his wife. Don’t look away from me, please.”
I tucked my fingers under his chin and turned him to look at me. “You always turn away when I remind you that I am half vampire sired by Savion. Please don’t. My heart is not like his, and there’s nothing either of us can do about it. It just is.”
“I…wish there was a way to change that. Something I could do for you, Kimber.”
I ghosted my lips over his. “There is one thing you can. Just one.”
“What’s that? Anything…”
“Just love me, Roran. Just love me.”
15
KIMBER
We sailed until the tide ebbed. Using magic, we maneuvered the ship as close to the shore as we safely could. There were several sailing ships not far from the edge of the water.
I guessed the tides didn’t recede as much this close to the river’s inlet. Dropping the anchor, we lowered the dinghy and climbed down the ladder.
“How far do you think we are from Lick?” I asked Aiko as we settled on the seats with all of our packs and weapons.
“About a league,” Aiko said. “It’s actually impressive how close you maneuvered us. I knew you were an excellent sailor. I didn’t realize how excellent.”
“You don’t have to inflate her ego,” Dorian snapped.
I turned to him and stared him down. “Do not presume that his praise would affect the fact that I sailed a ship up a spit of water for which I had no navigational maps, nor the fact that I kept that same ship in one piece during a storm that I had to break with magic.” I turned back to my original position. “I am not you.”
Belshazzar clucked his tongue, and I didn’t know what Dorian did, but Belshazzar laughed hard.
Rilen and Roran each took one of the oars and started to row us t
o shore as the sun was rising. I watched them as they glided us through the water.
It was fascinating to watch the two of them rowing. The shirts they wore rippled with their muscles as they pushed and pulled on the oars in sync. They didn’t even have to speak to each other to move the oars perfectly, and it seemed even their abs moved in sync.
I glanced at Aiko, who was clearly lost as to what he should think about these two identical, perfect specimens of humanity. I wanted to laugh—I knew exactly what I was thinking, and it was along the lines of, Forget the shore, will this boat stand up to a round of sex?
That was a very different thought than I’d had even a year ago. Now, it was becoming normal for me. When I wasn’t with them, I wanted nothing more than to be with them. There was nothing better than being wrapped up in them.
The look on Aiko’s face was somewhere between desire and confusion. I put a hand to my mouth to stop my laugh but leaned over to him.
“It’s okay, Aiko. You can admire them. They are quite handsome.”
“I… am not used to feeling this way for males…”
“Is it disagreeable?” I asked.
He raked his eyes over Rilen’s form, and then blinked when he realized what he had just done. “They’re very pleasant to watch.”
“You should find out how pleasant they are together in bed.”
My words were a little shocking to him, and he scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s just… I’m not used to a lot of these feelings, and then throw in this attraction to Master Rilen—and frankly, can you be attracted to Master Rilen and not Master Roran—and I’m just settling into it.” He looked at me, and a crooked smile appeared on his lips. “None of it is disagreeable.”
I chuckled and watched the rippling of the twins’ muscles as they continued to row for the shore. Belshazzar sat flicking something on and off his fancy, other-world gun, while Dorian stared at the back of my head.
The dinghy dragged on the sand a moment later, and Aiko and Belshazzar leapt out to pull the boat up and beach it hard. The twins stored the oars and climbed out just after Dorian and me.
Aiko pointed to a road just about one hundred strides from the water. “That will be the Burning Lands road. It will take us straight into Lick. I should be able to find the resistance cell without too much trouble. There was a large one since that was how half the population didn’t starve for want of food.”
We all started following him over the terrain toward the road ahead.
“The Burning Lands,” I said. “That sounds pleasant.”
“It’s actually beautiful,” Rilen said. “They call them the burning lands because, during the autumn, the tersan wheat turns bright orange and then red then dark burgundy before it’s harvested.”
“I’ve never heard of tersan wheat,” I said.
“It’s eastern wheat,” Belshazzar said. “Red in the east and golden in the west.”
There it was again. The gold and the red. Separated, but complementary. I glanced at him in the dawn light, but he was looking at his feet as he walked. This wasn’t the time or place to start asking such questions.
There was no one on the road as we walked, and Lick was on the horizon in a little over an hour. It probably could have been quicker, but we were all tired. No matter how much blood or sex there was, we actually all needed real rest, which wasn’t going to happen in the foreseeable future.
“Do you have an idea where the cell is?” Rilen asked.
“Some,” Aiko said. “My sister lived here. She used to send me information on what people were saying around the town. Enough that…”
“Enough that what?” Dorian inquired.
“Enough that, eventually, Savion acknowledged my letters and sent a contingent of soldiers to kill the cell leaders,” Aiko stated.
Dorian and Belshazzar stared at him openly. I cringed while Rilen and Roran clearly wanted to take out their swords and take his head off.
“Wait,” Roran said. “We’re going to ask help from the people you sent soldiers after to murder?”
“They didn’t know who I was, but they figured out the leak was Kumi,” Aiko continued. “The raid was how she became Savion’s mistress. She met him here when he showed up to squash the food smuggling.”
“Gods and Savior, Aiko.” Rilen sighed. “You could have mentioned that earlier.”
“What good would it have done?” he asked. “They don’t know me. There’s no other way to try to find the queen if we don’t get the information somewhere.”
“Dammit,” Roran said.
Dorian folded his arms. “I told you we shouldn’t trust him.”
“You said no such thing,” I answered, rolling my eyes. “And right now? He gets a better portion of my trust than you, Dorian.” I turned and nodded at Aiko. “How do we find these people?”
“There was a meeting spot near my sister’s apartment. Right under her window, I believe. She used to hear snippets of conversation as they walked by.” Aiko nodded at the first large road that led off the one we had followed into town. “That’s the way,” he said.
Belshazzar grabbed his arm before we could walk far at all. “What’s the chance that they haven’t moved?”
“I don’t know.” His voice was honest. “But it’s our best bet. Niniane doesn’t care about smuggling. She doesn’t care about what people are doing. She’s focused on herself, and letting people smuggle things to get them across the countryside allows her to not give a shit about things like logistics of distribution and her people not starving.”
“But the prices you pay on smuggled goods…” Rilen said.
“Pay more to get what you need. Hungry? Here’s a non-existent sandwich, or you can pay twice as much and have this turkey dinner,” Aiko said. “It allows her to be distracted by whatever insanity she has. Savion wanted people beholden to him. Niniane doesn’t care.”
“Fine, we’ll take a chance.” Belshazzar was not pleased.
“Is there anything we need to know?” Dorian snapped.
“You already know that I was loyal to Savion before he beheaded my sister. Everything else is incidental.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Dorian said.
“No, you won’t,” I snapped.
We headed down the alley as the sun rose higher in the sky. I watched as the birds and mice started scurrying around through the streets. We were quiet as we walked, but there was something… missing.
“Where is everyone?” Roran asked. “It’s well past dawn. Shouldn’t there be tons of people roaming around? Starting their day, baking bread, yelling at children?”
Glancing around, I realized he was right.
There was no one around.
Absolutely no one.
Rilen’s eyes swept the street. “This is a farming business city, isn’t it? Shouldn’t it be crawling with early worms trying to get to market and get their goods moving?”
Aiko nodded. “It should. It should have been bustling as soon as the sun was over the horizon.”
Dorian also scanned the area. “Then what’s going on? Where is everyone?”
“Let’s find this cell,” Rilen said. “Let’s actually find out if there are people here. I can’t imagine that this entire city has been abandoned.”
I noticed that our steps got far quieter as we moved down the street. There was no missing the fact that we all had our hands on our weapons, either gun or sword. I scanned the street more slowly, and listened to what was going on, but there really was nothing more than birdsong and the scrabbling of rodents we couldn’t see.
“I don’t like this,” Belshazzar stated.
“I don’t either.” Aiko pointed us down another street.
No one spoke after that.
We agreed talking at this point was a bad idea.
The houses were all two stories tall, and some had second floors that jutted out over the street, creating an overhang. The town was still well maintained, the windows clean, the doors all square
above their thresholds. There was no way this town was abandoned, but they were hiding.
Another street, and Aiko led us halfway down to an angled door in front of a house. I had seen a few of these as we walked. They were entrances to the cellars of the houses. Not just that, but most of them seemed to be under houses that offered goods for sale—food, clothing, tools. I guessed it was a good way to get the goods into storage.
Aiko pointed to it, leaning down with his fist raised to knock. Belshazzar had his gun in his hand, and the rest of us had our swords out—almost without realizing we had done it. Aiko nodded and knocked.
He tapped in a pattern and stood back. A very long minute later, the sound of a bolt being slid back underneath whispered through the air, and the door was popped up. A pair of eyes stared out at us.
“What do you want?” they snapped.
“Entrance and assistance,” Aiko said.
“Who do you represent?”
Aiko glanced at me then answered, “The Breaker of the Spine.”
A distinct gasp and a hissed, “What?”
The eyes disappeared, and a moment later, the doors swung up and open, and a woman holding a more modern gun from S’Kir appeared. “Truly? You come in the name of the Breaker?”
“We do,” Aiko answered.
All five men gazed hard at me.
Like I didn’t know to keep my mouth shut.
“Come. Come in,” the woman said, motioning us forward. “We’ll decide if you’re lying inside.”
We filed down the stairs, with Aiko leading the way and Dorian bringing up the rear. It was pitch black in the shadows, and the only light came from the doors. It was set up in such a way that all could see us, but we could see no one in the dark.
The woman shut the doors behind us, plunging us all into the dark. A light appeared on the ceiling, lit with electricity. It wasn’t bright, but it was more than enough for the dark, small room.
We were surrounded by men and women—vampires all—holding guns on us.
The woman at the door walked around us and stood in front of the whole group. “Who are you? And what do you want?”
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