Chapter 94 Ahnna
Ahnna
The river stretched out before them like a green ribbon winding toward the sea—but to Ahnna, it felt like a noose wrapping around all their necks.
They were all going to die, and it was because they came to rescue her.
She crouched low in the narrow canoe, fingers white-knuckled against the wood, every muscle braced as arrows flew overhead. Her sodden dress clung to her skin, blood seeping from a shallow cut across her forearm, but none of it registered over the pounding of her heart.
They should have left me.
Another arrow thudded into the wood beside her knee, then the mounted archers gave up their pursuit, their mounts spent. A moment of respite, but like all the others, it would be short-lived.
James was crouched next to her. His face was set in grim lines, his shirt torn and wet with river water, one of his eyes swollen almost shut. He hadn’t left her side during their flight down the river toward the sea.
Yet part of her still struggled to believe he was alive.
“You’re too quiet,” he said, not turning around. “Talk to me.”
She shook her head, and though her throat felt too tight for words, she managed, “She said you were dead. Said that she’d killed you.
I…” She didn’t know how to put into words that her heart had been shattered, and even with him living and breathing right next to her, she was still struggling to put the pieces back together.
“Is that why you went to William with your plan to take the blame?”
Ahnna shook her head. “No. But it made it easier to go through with it.”
He shifted to look at the opposite bank, but she didn’t fail to notice how his jaw flexed and unflexed beneath the scruff of beard. “I’m angry at you.”
It was awkward having this conversation with her people pressed in all around them, the threat of another force of archers coming upon them putting everyone on edge. Yet with death lurking around each bend in the river, no conversation could wait. “I didn’t see another solution.”
“It was never a solution.” He rounded on her, amber eyes flashing.
“William would have kept to his word for a time, but Alexandra would never have let the bridge go. She’d have worked away at convincing him that he deserved the bridge, or that Ithicana needed his guidance, or whatever strategy she came up with, and Harendell’s navy would have set sail.
Your death would have been a bandage, would have hidden the wound, but that wound would have continued to fester beneath. ”
“Well, actually, given Lestara had already poisoned William when I went to meet him…” She trailed off as James’s glower deepened. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
Ahnna bit the insides of her cheeks. “What would you have had me do? What would you have done, if you’d been me?”
Instead of answering, James lifted an arm to point.
“Aren, archers!” Everyone lifted shields and weapons, but he met her gaze again.
“We tried to be clever. We tried to defeat our enemies with manipulations and schemes to avoid a war, but here we are. All that is left is to fight. All that is left is to pit Ithicana’s defenses against the might of Harendell and hope that we can hold out until the storms come again.
What I would have you do is pick up your sword and fight at my side until the end. ”
In answer, Ahnna lifted a shield above their heads, her arm shuddering as an arrow struck the wood. “You’ll fight, even though it’s against your own people?”
“I chose you, Ahnna. I married you. Your fight is my fight until my heart beats its last.” He caught hold of her waist, and pulled her against him, kissing her hard even as shouts sounded from shore.
A volley rained from above. Arrows tore through the air, some splashing into the river, some striking the other vessels, others punching into shields. Ahead, one of their ships faltered, caught sideways in the current. Archers targeted it mercilessly.
“Give them a volley!” Aren shouted, and Ahnna retrieved a bow, launching an arrow at a soldier. It hit his arm, not a killing blow but enough to render him helpless in the fight, and she moved on to another, catching him in the shoulder.
Her countrymen were less discerning, and soldiers fell off the backs of their horses, dead before they hit the ground. Ahnna’s stomach soured, but she kept shooting until the attack ceased.
“They’ve sent pigeons to garrisons along the Eldermoor,” James shouted.
“Which means that they’ll have sent the message to Elmsworth.
It’s a military port, so there are hundreds of soldiers in that garrison.
Worse still, we have to pass beneath the city’s six bridges, the first and the last of which have the capacity to lower chains to prevent passage.
How the fuck did you get past them coming upriver? ”
“Portage,” Aren called back. “We carried the boats from the beach up past Elmsworth under the cover of night, then sailed upriver. We didn’t know what we were getting into until this morning when we heard about the execution, but we came to get Ahnna back, so we adapted.”
James stood, shadowing his eyes as he stared downriver. “Portage won’t work. They know we’re coming, which means they’ll be sending patrols up the river. We can’t outrun or hide from them carrying boats, and if we abandon the boats, we have no way to get back to Ithicana.”
Ahnna stood next to him. “It will be night when we reach Elmsworth.”
“They’ll have torches. They know we are coming. We can’t sneak through an entire city without them noticing, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.” She rounded on Aren. “Submerged tow?”
“We could. They use the river as a sewer, so the water is filthy and full of debris.” He jerked his chin toward the banks. “There are reeds aplenty.”
James frowned. “They’ll have the chains down. The boats will get caught up, and while we can swim under, we can’t swim to Ithicana.”
“Did you bring our usual supplies?” Ahnna asked, then watched a smile grow on her brother’s face as he said, “You do love your explosives, Ahnna.”
She bowed with a flourish. “One last scheme.”
As darkness settled, everyone was still under the water and holding on to a network of towropes fixed to the rear of the two vessels they needed to keep.
Each of them breathed through a reed, and they’d filled the water with floating debris to hide them.
The two other vessels floated well ahead, explosives set up inside of them.
Her heart thrummed, because all too easily, Ahnna remembered how she’d tried a version of this scheme to evade Carlo, only to be caught in his net. Not this time, she silently whispered. This time, it’s going to work.
Through the murky water, the lights of the city grew brighter.
Elmsworth was large—larger than Sableton or Verwyrd—and as they passed into it, there was no mistaking the filth that poured from the sewers into the water.
She could taste it on the air she breathed through the reed and feel it bumping against her, foul as anything she’d ever experienced.
But the filth provided cover, not even the light of soldiers’ torches enough to pierce its depths.
A light flashed.
Boom!
The river water shuddered with the force of the explosion. The first vessel had hit the chains and tipped, the powders they’d set igniting with enough force that the whole bridge would have collapsed.
The lights of the torches began moving and bouncing, the men holding them running. Shouts faintly emanated from above, and alarm bells rang. They’d have spotted the identical setups in the next vessel, as well as the false setups in the ships she and the others floated behind.
“They’ll think that we abandoned ship upstream and send forces to hunt us down,” James had said when they were planning the strategy.
“They’ll lift the chains on the next bridge rather than lose it to an explosion, and they won’t board the vessels for risk of them going off.
Safer to let the boats drift into the sea and deal with them there. ”
“Except instead, we’ll climb back in and sail away.”
“They will pursue,” he’d warned. “That harbor is full of ships, and they’re ready for war. Fast ships.”
Aren had only shrugged. “I’ve never had anyone catch me yet.”
Still, it was hard to cling to that bravado as the river swept them downstream.
Ahnna’s legs bumped into rubble from the collapsed bridge, flames bright on either side of the river from where nearby structures had been set ablaze.
Yet more distractions for their escape, but she hoped they didn’t spread.
Boom!
Ahnna’s stomach lurched, because there was no way the second vessel had reached the last bridge. Either someone had tried to board it or it had run aground and triggered the explosion. Either way, if the other bridge chain was still lowered, they’d lost their only way to get past.
Stick to the plan. She could all but hear James’s voice in her head. They won’t risk losing the bridge—they’ll get the chains up.
Ahnna clenched her teeth around her reed, sucking in breaths of the rank air above the river, then her control snapped.
She let go of the rope and swam underwater until she reached the banks.
Carefully lifting her head, she watched the two ships drift downriver, swarms of soldiers with torches keeping pace on the roads that ran alongside the banks.
Keeping low, she clambered up the rocks and raced into the city.
Everyone was awake and out in the streets, shouts of alarm and cries of terror filling her ears.
Fire had broken out from the explosions, and bucket brigades were racing to put them out.
The chaos made it easy to run without drawing notice, and Ahnna sprinted down alleys and streets, keeping parallel to the river.
Her side cramped, her breath coming in rapid gasps, but she couldn’t slow down if she meant to get to that bridge before the two remaining vessels.