Chapter 57 Ahnna
Ahnna
As soon as the storm eased, Ahnna set to repairing the rip in the sail with a small kit of supplies. The ship was tiny, but whoever had stocked the pleasure craft had done so mindfully, which would save their lives.
Except there was nothing in the supplies that would turn back time, and as she corrected their course, Ahnna prayed that she wouldn’t be too late. Prayed that the tempests had sunk the Amaridian ships. Prayed that Ithicana’s sharks had consumed those who sought the deaths of all her people.
Yet as they moved into Ithicana’s waters, familiar islands filling the horizon, Ahnna’s eyes caught sight of sails in the distance.
It was one of the Amaridian ships, heading north, sitting high on the water.
“Do you know where they will have unloaded the cargo?” James asked, the first words they’d exchanged in hours.
Ahnna gave a stiff nod, fear choking her. There were only a few locations this far north suitable for unloading ships of that size that would be safely out of sight of patrols and with good access to the bridge.
None of which they could reach quickly, because the winds were against them.
Conversation felt impossible, her throat tight as her mind ran through scenarios.
She suspected that Aren would have moved everyone he could farther south out of easy reach of Harendell, which meant it would be mostly active soldiers who were at risk.
It would have taken time to unload the ship, time to move the product into the bridge, but if what Katarina said was true, her people had been months without bread.
They’d have surely cracked open a sack to make pan bread, which meant at least some of those charged with unloading the cargo were not long for this world.
But worse was knowing that the poison didn’t act immediately. How many of those sacks were already on the move, heading to various outposts and islands to supply those defending against Harendell? How could she ever warn all those at risk before they ate any of the poison?
Ahnna knew the answer: She couldn’t. Worse still, there were two more grain ships laden with poison heading to other locations farther south.
The bridge came into view, mist curling around the gray snaking length, but it felt like no homecoming to her.
Ahnna sailed the ship through a narrow gap between islands, then approached a small, heavily forested island that had a small beach suitable for taking up cargo.
There was no one there, but deep marks in the sand suggested heavy traffic.
Yet it was to a single empty burlap sack sitting on the beach that her eyes went, her stomach dropping. “They were here.”
“But no longer.” James turned, a hand lifted to his eyes as he scanned the horizon. “Where would they have taken it?”
Her bottom lip trembled, because this was her worst nightmare coming to pass, and a thought reared in her head. What if Aren was here?
“This island isn’t secure,” she forced herself to say. “It’s easy to attack, which is why there’s nothing of importance on it. They’d have split the freight up, taking it by boat to various outposts nearby. The rest would have been brought into the bridge to take north for distribution.”
James gave a slight nod, and she knew he was waiting for her to make a decision. This was her home, her people, and…and…
“You can’t save them all, Ahnna,” he said softly. “Focus on how to save as many as you can.”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “The bridge. We can catch the shipment heading north and warn any patrols of the poison. They can track down where the rest went.”
“How do we get in?”
She scrubbed the tear away and buried fear and grief down deep. There’d be time for that later: Right now, she needed to remember what it was to be one of Ithicana’s commanders. “I’ll show you.”
The access door here was much like the one at Midwatch, set into one of the karst piers but only visible at low tide, which had passed. But they weren’t carrying supplies, which meant they didn’t need an easy way in.
Ahnna sailed to another one of the karsts supporting the bridge, and at her order, James lowered the sails so that they were drifting.
“Drop the anchor,” she said. “Any closer and we’ll run afoul of a hazard.
” Because beneath the surf were thick spikes intended to sink the vessels of anyone who tried to access the bridge.
Her eyes picked up flashes deep beneath the waves.
“We need to get onto that karst and climb up,” she said, pointing. “Behind that foliage, there will be a rope we can use to access the bridge top. Watch for snakes—they like the nooks and crannies, and most of them are venomous.”
James scrubbed a hand through his hair, which had grown long since that fateful night in the Sky Palace. “All right. How do we get over there?”
“Swim.”
He looked over the edge. “I don’t suppose those are dolphins.”
Ahnna had already noticed the sleek gray shapes. “No, those would be tiger sharks. You can see their stripes. They’ve been following us.”
“Why?”
She tightened the cord holding her salt-crusted hair back from her face. “Because in Ithicana, a ship like this suggests potential dinner.”
There had to be fear coursing through James’s veins, but he didn’t show it as he said, “All right. So dive in, swim faster than the man-eating sharks, try not to be dashed against very sharp rocks, and if I manage to get that far, climb up a rock formation full of venomous snakes.”
“Yeah, but also, there are spikes set into the karst about three feet down. Stay shallow, or you’ll be skewered like bait on a hook. Do you want me to go first?”
He huffed out a breath. “I’d always heard that this place was impenetrable. That the loss of life required to take it by force would be enormous, yet I didn’t believe it until now. Now I think Alexandra is mad to believe she can take this place at all.”
Once, Ahnna had believed that too. Believed that all the defenses, in combination with the natural violence of the land and sea, would keep her home safe. Silas Veliant had taught her otherwise, and she’d never make that mistake again.
Sucking in a deep breath, Ahnna dove in.
There was no time to think, only to swim as hard as she could, keeping shallow enough to avoid being stabbed by the spears. She felt the sharks racing toward her, but there was no point thinking about it. She’d make it or she wouldn’t.
A wave caught her, and Ahnna braced as she was flung up onto the rocks. Her nails scratched against stone as she clung to the side of the karst, and when she looked down, it was to see a large tail lashing as the shark swam away.
“What the fuck was that?” James shouted, his eyes wild. “You could have warned me!”
“Next time,” she called back. “I’m going to distract them. When I shout, you swim, all right?”
For all the confidence in her voice, Ahnna felt sick with terror as she circled the base of the karst. It was one thing to risk herself, to swim like mad with death at her heels, and quite another to watch the man she loved do the same thing.
Retrieving a branch that had been torn from a tree during a storm, she edged down to the waterline and used the branch to slap the water, the splashes mimicking a floundering swimmer. As fins darted in, she shouted, “Now!”
A loud splash filled the air, and the sharks darted away, understanding that a better prize than a branch was in the water. Heart in her throat, she scrambled around the side of the karst.
James was swimming hard, but just behind him were fins. A scream tore from Ahnna’s throat as a wave surged, flinging him high on the rocks.
Ahnna lunged, catching hold of his arm. “Feet out of the water! Out of the water!”
James jerked his legs up right before jaws snapped.
“Bloody fuck!” he shouted. “This place is not rational. This place is not reasonable. Why does anyone want to live here?”
“Because in Ithicana, you will always feel alive,” she replied, helping him climb higher. Her blood rushed loud in her ears, vomit threatening to rise, but she swallowed hard. “Climb.”
The climb itself was easy by comparison, even with her arm being as weak as it was. She encountered only one snake, which she tossed into the water to feed the sharks, for she always favored the latter over the former.
“I’ll climb first and then pull you up,” James said when they found the rope, which was fastened to one of the brackets set into the bridge itself. “You’re going to rebreak that arm if you aren’t careful.”
Given how much it hurt, Ahnna didn’t argue, and after swiftly reaching the top, James pulled her up with ease.
The view from atop the bridge was incredible, their little ship seeming tiny below, but there was no time to take a breath, much less relish the moment. “This way.”
They left a trail of water droplets as they ran down the bridge top, and despite her fear for her people, she still noted his awe at the magnitude of the bridge.
To her, it was an old friend, a constant presence in her life, but it was not lost on her that there had been no civilization in recorded history capable of building this sort of structure.
Or the spiral on which the Sky Palace sat, for that matter.
Reaching the hatch, she dropped to her knees. “This opens into the bridge. Be ready for anything.”
Then she pressed her palms against the stone.
The mechanism activated and lifted the panel of rock, revealing cavernous darkness.
Reaching into the empty space carved into rock surrounding the opening, Ahnna withdrew two small jars and one larger one.
She poured the contents of the two smaller ones into the larger one, and immediately, the mixture began to glow.
“It won’t last long. Fifteen minutes at most.”
“Is there another source of light?” James asked.
“No,” she replied, holding the jar in her broken arm and then drawing her knife. “There is only darkness.”
Then she dropped down into the bridge.