Chapter Forty-One #2
“Seth.” Seth crosses his arms, annoyed but unsurprised by his poorer reception.
“Well, he is pretty too, I suppose. Maybe too pretty. You could stand to eat more, boy. Come on in and let Mama Adama fix you up.”
We follow Mama Adama into Larus’s room, and I notice several surprising things at once.
First, the entire area around the fireplace has been turned into a makeshift kitchen, complete with a dresser converted into a countertop and drawers overflowing with enough vegetables to stock a market.
Over the fire, no fewer than five roast chickens are turning on a spit manned by Larus, who shakes his head in apology.
“Let them talk, Mother, for God’s sake.”
Second, his simple bed has been pushed to a corner, and another bed has been brought into the room, this one covered in plush silken fabrics and pillows in an assortment of bold colors. Mama Adama’s, I presume.
But it’s the third thing I see that genuinely shocks me. Chained to a low table near Larus is Felix March, the leader of the Third Navy of the Enez Islands, a fleet that remains sworn to Adria’s service while she builds her own naval forces.
Felix looks much like when I saw him last: handsome face, ridiculously ostentatious maritime clothes, and a signature smirk, but with the addition of two black eyes, the bruising and cuts on his brows clearly visible against his dark skin. “Is she my reward for good behavior?”
Mama Adama strides over to him and hits him hard over the head. “Disrespect a woman again in my presence, and I’ll cut out your tongue, boy.”
Felix clutches at his head wound, but even through the pain, he turns to me and smiles. “I meant no disrespect. Even just seeing such beauty with my eyes is a treat after what you’ve put me through.”
“What you’ve put yourself through. Idiot boy.”
“What happened? How did you catch him?” I ask.
Mama Adama clears off space on her bed for us to sit and then walks to the makeshift kitchen to begin chopping. “Tell them, Larry. Those chickens are nearly done, and the stew is still all wrong.”
Larus sighs. “If you just would have let me use the onions from the market—”
“Don’t tell me how to cook. You’ve been gone so long, I’m surprised you can tell a turnip from a tulip.”
“Hey, Mama. Here’s those scallions you wanted—” says Octavia, letting herself in. “Oh, hi Sylvie. Seth. What are you doing here?”
With Felix here, I don’t let them know what has happened between me and Ronan. “We’re looking for a way into Faros. We have some unfinished business there.” I look meaningfully at Seth, and I can see Larus understands what we intend to do.
“Your timing is good. We’ve just learned all about Faros from that squealing pig over there.” Mama Adama points her knife at Felix. “At least he had the good sense to know when he was beaten.”
Larus jumps in with an explanation. “You remember some months ago we asked Mama to end her support for the siege of Faros and to take her ships and withdraw them from the Third Navy? She did so, peacefully, on the condition that we would not attack a Third Navy vessel in the Green or Blue Seas, and for months, we stuck to our word.”
“Until you attacked me in the Green Sea and took me prisoner.”
“We engaged his ship in Brakkari waters boarding a trade vessel we were due to meet with. He violated our arrangement first. Turns out he was scouting their defenses.”
“Brakkar’s?” I ask. “Why?”
“Because your sister is going to invade them, of course.” Felix says this like it’s obvious, but it’s completely absurd.
“Why would she do something so stupid? Faros would be undefended.” We’re certain that she has some sense of what Ronan is planning—total surprise sieges are nearly impossible to pull off, and she must expect him to try to retake the city.
“Not from what she told me.” Felix smiles slyly, loving the attention this is getting him. “She’s got her a new advisor. She’s named her Grand Vizier. And that woman has some ideas.”
“Her? Who is it?” The way he says it, he makes me think I should know her.
“I didn’t get a name. But your name was mentioned when I met her.”
“Marina?” The friend of Adria’s who was part of my capture back when the siege began?
“That was my thought as well,” says Larus. “She’s certainly loyal enough to Adria.”
“What are her ideas? What is she planning?” I can tell from the way Larus looks at me that he’s already told him, but I want to hear it for myself.
“She thinks that some elixirs will be enough to stop what Ronan’s planning. I don’t know what they’ve made, but they’ve had me smuggling in all sorts of strange things to make them.”
The magic-suppressing elixirs. They must have enough of them to use at scale in the war.
Gods, I have to tell Ronan. I don’t want to go back there and hurt him any further, but he needs to know all of this.
“And we found out about the arrangement Larus and that bald friend of his made with Brakkar,” Felix says, sensing my attention lagging. “Their soldiers will be here, leaving Brakkar itself poorly defended.”
“It’s smart,” says Seth. I turn to glare at him, but he shrugs his shoulders. “Brakkar has us in a chokehold with trade. We’re dependent on them for food, so they can set whatever price they like for our gold. If we take their land, we take their food too.”
“And then the God-Queen sells her gold on the open market, and my pockets are filled. It’s a beautiful thing, don’t you think?”