Chapter 96 James
James
“How many warriors do you have on the island?” James asked, fighting the weariness threatening to overtake him. When was the last time he’d slept? He couldn’t remember.
“Five hundred, give or take a few,” Lara replied, adjusting the sword belted to her waist. “The issue is supplies. We’ve stockpiled as best we could, but five hundred mouths is a lot to feed if we can’t access the sea.
Now that the storms are over, the trees will produce fruit, but we have a few weeks yet until that happens.
Likewise, water may become an issue if it doesn’t rain.
Our freshwater basin is full right now, but without rain, we’ll drink it dry soon enough. ”
It was like being trapped in a fortress under siege, and the only thing capable of breaking the line of ships that would soon form around the island was a storm, as had happened in the siege of Eranahl.
Perhaps the tempests would come to the aid of Ithicana twice, but James wouldn’t bet on it. Or at least, not soon enough.
He glanced down at Ahnna, who had been silently listening to Lara’s update on the situation.
She still wore that awful execution dress, though it was shredded and stained with dirt and blood.
Her dark brown hair hung in salt-tangled clumps, her arms and legs were marked with cuts and bruises, and she was barefoot.
She limped slightly from the cuts on the bottoms of her feet, and he fought the urge to pick her up.
But he knew better than to undermine her like that.
The group approached a midsized building.
It was formed of blocks of stone that had gone green from moisture and mold, the wooden roof layered thick with moss.
Trees had been cut back so no branches stretched overhead, likely in deference to the violence of the storms, but even so, it would be easy to miss, it blended into the jungle so well.
There were several smaller buildings set nearby he suspected were more quarters for soldiers.
They went inside, and James blinked as his eyes adjusted to the dim light from the lamps set around the windowless room.
They stood in what seemed to serve as a common room, stacks of supplies sitting to one side, and a series of tables with benches taking up most of the space.
Doors lined the back wall, probably leading to more sleeping quarters.
“It’s tight, but we’ll make space for you,” Lara said. “Have something to eat and then get some rest. By the morning, we should have a better idea of what we’re up against.”
A woman approached with a pile of clothes and a pair of worn boots, which she passed to Ahnna. But his wife only put on the boots and set the clothes aside. “I want to have a look now.”
Without another word, she left the building. Aren scrubbed a hand through his hair. “She’s busy blaming herself. She thinks this is her fault, but it’s not.”
“That’s not what she’s thinking. She’s trying to think of a way to win this.” James grabbed a few pieces of jerky from a plate on the table, then filled a waterskin from a barrel. “I suggest you do the same.”
He strode out into the fading sunlight, breaking into a jog to catch up with Ahnna as she wove through the jungle.
“Eat,” he said, pushing a piece of jerky into her hands, then he skidded to a stop, realizing they’d reached the clifftops.
Below, the sea smashed into rock, spray bursting high with each wave.
Not a fall one was likely to survive. At least, not for long.
Ahnna ate the jerky and scowled at the ships in the distance, which were only shadows on a sea painted orange and gold by the setting sun.
Leaving her to think, James walked over to where a massive shipbreaker was bolted to the rock.
Two Ithicanians stood next to it, and behind them was a large pile of rocks.
They didn’t protest as he examined the mechanism, noting how it rotated on its mount so that it could be aimed in various directions.
Before it was a screen of woven vines that hid the machine from ships on the sea.
There was another one about thirty paces farther along, but it was of different construction.
“It can throw farther,” one of the Ithicanians said. “This one can throw heavier.”
“But not that far?” James pointed to the distant cutters.
The Ithicanians shook their heads. “They’ll keep out of range.”
“Can’t stay out of range if they want to take the island.
” James muttered, going back to where Ahnna stood as he considered how he’d attack if he were in command.
Sea battles weren’t his expertise, given most of his time had been spent in the Lowlands, but he knew enough to say with certainty that taking this island quickly would cost a lot of lives.
Ahnna was sitting at the edge of the cliff, bare legs hanging off while she chewed on the jerky. James sat next to her, ignoring the lurch of vertigo inspired by the long drop below.
“The one we hit with shipbreakers sank.”
He handed her the waterskin.
Ahnna drank, then wiped her mouth on the back of her arm. “When darkness comes, we’ll sneak out small vessels with good crews to use explosives to sink the ships.”
“Those on the ships will be watching for them.” He drank some water. “We know too many of your tricks.”
“We?”
James didn’t answer, his eyes on the banners flapping in the riggings of the ships, distance and fading light making it impossible to see them clearly, but every time he blinked, he could see it in his mind’s eye. Harendell’s colors, which he had fought beneath all his life.
They sat in silence, the sun turning the sea red as blood. Shadows stretched long, and the humid air clung to him like a second skin, the churning water below seeming alluringly cool.
Ahnna’s hand found his. She didn’t look at him, just laced their fingers together and stared hard at the horizon. “Will you be able to do it?” she asked quietly. “Fight them?”
His countrymen. His comrades in arms.
James considered lying. Saying yes without hesitation. But that wasn’t what she needed from him. And she’d see through it anyway.
“I’ll fight.” The words stuck in his throat, and he coughed to clear it.
“But it will be one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.
The men on those ships are fighting for false justice.
Fighting because they were ordered to, and to throw down their arms is treason.
Fighting because it’s how they earn the wage that pays for their families to live back home.
I wish there was a way to spare them as much as I wish there was a way to spare us. ”
Her hand tightened in his, and this time, Ahnna looked at him. “They brought the fight to us.”
“You know that’s not how they see it.” He watched the sun slip below the horizon.
“People died on Ithicanian blades in Verwyrd, all down the river, and again in Elmsworth. It will make the task of manipulating them to support the cause easier.” James couldn’t keep the bitterness from his voice.
“It doesn’t help that they’ll see this as an easy victory. ”
“It won’t be.” As the last rays of the sun faded, leaving the sea black as ink, all the lights on the distant ships began to wink out.
Ahnna swore softly, shaking her head in frustration, and then said, “You’re right about them knowing too many of our methods.
We can’t find them on the open sea with no light, and if we can’t find them, we can’t sink them. ”
James wrapped an arm around her, disliking how, in the absence of the sun, it seemed their legs hung into a void.
“Don’t suggest trying to escape.” She rested her cheek against his shoulder.
“Anywhere we go, they’ll follow. Not just you and me, but Aren and Lara.
We can flee south from island to island, but unless we abandon Ithicana entirely, at some point we have to make a stand.
Everyone on this island knows it, and those who don’t wish to fight to the end will be gone by morning. ”
“I think they’ll be here when the sun rises and the horns call to battle,” James replied. “As will I.”
His wife let out a shuddering breath.
“I’ve made my choice, and that choice is you. Blade, body, and soul, I am yours, Ahnna.” He swallowed hard. “To not fight tomorrow would be the same as bending the knee to my enemies, and I refuse to do that.”
“Can we win?”
James shook his head. “No, but we can spill their blood across the history books.”
A north wind blew against them, carrying with it a chill, and Ahnna shivered.
“Let’s go inside. They won’t do anything until the rest of the fleet arrives, and we’ll fight harder with rest.”
James helped her to her feet, his arm slipping around her waist to support her weight. She didn’t protest this time. The limp had worsened, and even her stubbornness had limits.
Back at the barracks, most of the soldiers had disappeared into rooms or bedrolls, the low murmur of voices dimming to an exhausted quiet.
Lara sat at the table, and she silently gestured to one of the doors.
Inside was a single cot, a rough blanket folded at the end.
Bare stone walls. No window. Just the steady drip of water somewhere in the distance and the muffled thrum of insects in the dark.
James sat on the cot and began removing his boots.
Ahnna stripped off the remains of the execution dress and pulled on the shirt and trousers she’d been given earlier, though the latter fit too loosely around her waist, barely clinging to her hips.
She rinsed her hair using a small amount of water, fighting with the tangles until he took it from her.
Carefully, he unraveled the knots and tangles until it hung in a curtain of loose curls down her back, gleaming in the lamplight.
Reaching, he turned down the lamp until it winked out. “Sleep.”
“I don’t want to. I don’t want to waste what might be our last moments.”
He pulled her down on the cot, wrapping an arm around her and holding her close. “It’s not a waste. This is the dream, love. This is the peace we fought for, and even if it won’t last, cling to this one moment of it.”
She curled into him immediately, tucking herself into his side with a sigh that sounded like surrender. Not to the enemy, but to this request.
Her fingers traced idle lines along his chest. “I’m glad we get one more night.”
“One night with you is worth a lifetime without.”
Silence stretched between them. Her breathing slowed. And for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, James felt his muscles unwind, the relentless press of vigilance finally giving way to stillness. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
They lay there in the dark, the cot too small for two, their limbs tangled, hearts steadying against each other. And despite everything—the pain, the fear, the dread of what was coming—sleep came. As did the dreams of a life that would never be…
Until a horn bellowed, ripping James back into wakefulness.
It was a low, dull sound, and it reverberated in his chest as he wiped away the confusion of heavy sleep, unsure what time of the night it was.
Ahnna was upright in his arms. “That’s the alarm.”
James was already grabbing his boots, tossing Ahnna hers.
They were out of the room in seconds, the common room alive with noise. Warriors ran past, some still buckling weapons and armor, all while the horn kept up its bellow. Ahnna caught hold of his hand and dragged him outside, both of them following the warriors racing down to the beach.
Lara and Aren stood on the beach, the king shouting orders to get the chain up.
“What’s going on?” James demanded.
“That’s a long list,” Lara responded. “I didn’t want to wake you, but news came in during the night.
It sounds like it all turned to chaos after you fled Verwyrd.
Virginia called out Alexandra, George Cavendish confessed to being Alexandra’s knifeman, and then Alexandra herself confessed to the murders.
Ronan took off her head, and now Lestara rules as the baby king’s regent.
She wasted no time picking up the reins of Alexandra’s plans, and they now sail to war. ”
It was almost too much to take in, so James only asked, “What else?”
“A Maridrinian merchant vessel has arrived. Just one.” Aren’s tone was clipped. “They’re lit up like a light show with banners hanging everywhere, so the Harendellian ships know who they are. We’ve let them inside shipbreaker range, and there are longboats on the approach.”
One merchant ship wasn’t going to make a difference unless it was the front-runner bringing news of the impending arrival of the Maridrinian fleet, but James kept his mouth shut as the longboats drifted under the chains and into the cove.
The first rays of sun began to glow from the east, the night having passed while he’d slept with Ahnna in his arms, and now the fight would begin.
Against all hope, James prayed to the fading glow of the stars overhead that they would not fight alone.
Then a woman got out of the first longboat to hit the beach, pulling back her hood.
She was pretty, her hair long and dark, expression regal.
Though it was too dark to see color, every one of James’s instincts screamed that this woman’s eyes were Veliant blue.
As would be the eyes of every woman who stepped out of the boats, their bodies dripping with weapons, and their expressions promising death to any who stood against them.
“Sarhina.” Lara’s voice was choked with emotion. “Is Delia…?”
“She’s safe.”
Queen Sarhina of Maridrina bowed low, a feral grin on her face. “In the darkest hour of Ithicana’s night, the Veliants have come to fight at your side. May God, fate, and every fucking star in the sky have mercy against those who come against us.”