Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
FOX
It had been over a sun cycle since Fox had stepped foot onto a ship.
The last time, he’d been standing next to his father, his mother’s face disappearing into the distance as she watched them sail away.
They’d been visiting one of the many women his father had hand-selected for him when Elizabeth had caught Fox with his tongue up the cunt of her best friend—her married best friend.
The woman hadn’t mentioned the married part to him during their flirtations.
His father had told him that the least he could have done was lock the library before stripping the woman down and dropping to his knees. He’d known exactly what he was doing.
They’d gone back to Wueco the next day, and Fox didn’t hear about Elizabeth again.
Now, as he watched the shore slip away as the sun rose over the sea, he felt the ghost of his father’s hand pressing into his shoulder, heavy, fingers hard and grasping. And as the wind whistled high and loud against his ears, it growled his father’s disappointment.
Fox shook off the feeling, looking back at the deck of the ship. The crew were running around, easing sails and following shouted orders, while the soldiers that had stayed above board milled about, not quite knowing what to do, but knowing to stay out of the way.
They’d left a couple of hours before dawn, slipping onto the ship in the darkness, but the crack of the bomb that had hit somewhere in the city echoed across the waves.
General Luna had insisted they ignore it and keep working, and Fox could only follow the orders, stomach sinking as he recalled the chief commander’s words.
He’d ensure they made it out of the city unbothered and unseen.
Where had the bomb hit? Whose lives had been snuffed out in a flash just to distract the eyes of the city? Who had Chief Commander Harlow sentenced to death for nothing more than being in the wrong place?
And how many of these pointless massacres had Fox witnessed before the veil had been lifted? How many more had died while he blindly followed orders for this kingdom?
Fox didn’t have time to wallow in self-pity.
Despite any good intentions he had, Sofia didn’t know where he was going and why.
He hadn’t had a moment alone after leaving his mother’s house to sneak a message to Ian or Sofia.
He’d made promises, and he’d failed her.
Eha knew, but she was just as much a prisoner as before.
He should have argued harder. He should have convinced Harlow to keep him in Suvi.
The ghost of his father’s fingers closed on his shoulder once more, digging in. A sharp breeze came off the water. He shut his eyes, breathing in the salty air.
They would be at sea for the next twelve hours, at least. General Luna didn’t want to make port until after dark.
They’d be trudging through the labor farms before entering the forest on the eastern side of Wueco.
It also meant they’d be marching diagonally across the forest to get to the western mountains.
Where they were going after that, Fox wasn’t sure.
The chief commander had shown the journal to Fox only briefly—jotted notes and drawings of two peaks showing where the dragons’ nesting grounds were.
Not much to go on, considering they were headed to the mountains that had claimed countless lives before them. No king’s man alive had seen the mountains up close—the peaks seen on the distant horizon no less impossible to reach than the clouds.
Fox could only be grateful their job wouldn’t be easy. Perhaps Sofia would find out what was happening. Ian would realize something was going on when Fox disappeared and get word to Sofia.
And she’ll assume you betrayed her and abandoned the cause.
Fox straightened his shoulders, plodding over to where Junior Specialist Nesto sat against a set of barrels, hunched over a pile of maps.
The boy had only just turned nineteen but had been promoted to specialist when General Luna found out about his expertise in cartography.
His hair was a mousy brown, curled where it had grown too long, and he had thin-rimmed glasses perched on his nose.
“Plotting the journey?” Fox asked, taking the opportunity to sit, his knees buckling at the last moment as the ship lurched, and his ass landing hard on the deck. He winced, but Nesto was so engrossed in the maps that he didn’t seem to notice.
“Trying to,” Nesto said, pulling his lip into his mouth.
“Are you okay?”
The young man didn’t answer, looking out over the horizon where Suvi was barely visible. “Did you hear the bomb?”
Fox took a breath. “I did.”
“Where do you think it went off?”
He was probably worried about his family. “I think it was in the slums. It would have been more visible if it were in the upper city.”
Nesto’s brows remained furrowed. “The rebels wouldn’t attack the slums.”
“Not usually, no,” Fox said. He studied the man carefully. Perhaps it wasn’t his family he was anxious about.
“We needed a distraction to get out of the city.”
Fox said nothing immediately, surveying the other soldiers and sailors milling about. No one was listening to their conversation.
“Maybe we got lucky.”
“You don’t believe that,” Nesto said.
“You should; it’s safer.”
Nesto stared out at the horizon as if he could still see the smoke there, but wind and distance had already hidden any evidence of the explosion.
“How’s the navigation going?” Fox asked, uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation.
“I don’t even know if our maps are accurate,” Nesto said, looking back at the charts spread across the deck in front of him, weighted down by stones. “We have near-perfect records for the forest closest to the wall, but the farther we go, the more inaccurate everything becomes.”
“So, we’ll be moving forward blind.”
“We have some record of rivers and a few cenotes, but with no other large landmarks to track our progress, I don’t know how much this will help.
And any cenotes that were recorded on these maps have likely changed over time.
” He waved at one of the larger maps, showing a swath of forest. “This map is from Danico’s rule.
I don’t even know if the rivers are in the same place or what segments will be visible above ground.
And don’t get me started on the mountains. ”
Fox was starting to regret asking, but Nesto didn’t seem to notice, simply pointing out one map after another, along with their shortcomings.
Perhaps Fox wouldn’t have to worry about what would happen if they found the dragons.
Maybe they’d end up lost in the forest forever or go into the mountains and never return, just like every other military operation that had tried before them.
Fox knew just a fraction of the creatures that waited for them, lurking in the shadows of the forest. Based on the book Sofia had given him, there were more they hadn’t even run across—creatures that ate the hearts of those who trespassed, lights that led travelers to their deaths if they strayed too far off the path, bats that lived off flesh.
He shuddered.
The wind billowed for a second, sending the maps fluttering.
Fox busied himself with helping Nesto hold them down.
When it finally calmed, he sat back and let the sound of Nesto’s voice wash over him as he described why the coastline on the smaller map was impossible based on the assumed soil composition.
By the time the ship landed along the coast near the labor farms, Fox’s eyes were burning and his head aching.
He’d managed to fall asleep for a couple of hours, sitting with his back against the barrels, listening to Nesto drone on about sediment and river patterns.
He stumbled as he came down the gangplank, half from exhaustion and half from the sudden stillness of the land beneath his feet.
Only a day on the ship had left him queasy.
He helped unload a few barrels and crates.
They’d have wagons for the path across the farms and into the forest, but after that they’d be relying on the donkeys and soldiers carrying any supplies.
Fox was unsure of how far the donkeys would even get them, but he wasn’t about to point that out.
He’d let General Luna find that out the hard way.
Perhaps he wouldn’t need to do much at all in the end to sabotage the mission. He would just watch as things fell apart, and they finally gave up, slinking back to Suvi like a wild dog who’d lost a fight.
If only Eha could relay his message to Sofia…
A dozen men carried the cage down the gangplank, the young dragon inside letting out a keening wail. They’d tied a blanket over the bars tightly, hiding the precious cargo from prying eyes.
Zuni let out another yowl, and the cage jerked to one side, the dragon clearly throwing itself against the bars. The men who had been balancing it scrambled to stop the cage from falling as the dragon continued to thrash.
“Shut that thing up!” General Luna snarled, coming down the gangplank.
The men jumped to obey, despite none of them looking especially confident as to how to stop the dragon’s fit.
“If that thing doesn’t stop making that noise, I’ll kill it myself,” Luna said.
Zuni fell silent in an instant, and Fox’s chest tightened. Zuni didn’t appear to be able to speak yet, but he seemed to understand the general’s words perfectly. Fox’s stomach soured at the fear and confusion Zuni must have been feeling.
He may not be spying on the chief commander anymore, but he still had a mission. Protect Eha’s child and ensure this expedition failed.
He was no one’s hero, yet he was the only option they had.
A sharp breeze broke off the ocean, prickling the hair on the back of Fox’s neck.
A few strands slipped from his bun, flicking across his face with a sharp sting.
It was dark, but his eyes could still make out the dark fields of the labor farms stretching out in front of him, a line of torches along the wall in the distance.
They’d make it there in a couple of hours and be in the forest by dawn.
He couldn’t rely on Eha getting a message to Sofia or Ian. He couldn’t rely on them knowing what had happened.
It was up to Fox to make sure they failed in finding the dragons. He didn’t know how. He just knew there wasn’t another choice.
His hands shook as he stuffed them into his pockets and turned toward the farms and the forest beyond.