Chapter Twenty-Four
We race through the halls to the library, the guards Ronan sent pushing Quinn while I carry the torch, which flickers knowingly in my hand.
“You knew, didn’t you?” I whisper to it.
“Are you talking to that torch?” asks Quinn.
“It’s not just a torch. Well, it is just a torch, but it’s also possibly Vayla’s torch?”
“What the fuck.”
Ronan is in the hallway waiting for us, surrounded by guards, scouts, and servants, frantically giving orders.
“Come here,” he says, wrapping his arm around my waist.
“What’s happening?”
“Someone let them in. Adria’s cavalry and several legions. They traveled under shadow-born darkness, and then someone on our side let them in the gate.”
“But I thought they were packing up their camp.” I had seen it myself on the battlefield just hours earlier. The legion we fought was one of the last remaining near Faros. The retreat was well underway.
“A ruse,” says Taran. “A clever ruse.” He looks at Seth, his gaze boring a hole through his head.
“You can’t think I knew anything about this. I never thought she’d be so reckless. If you defeat her now, it’s all over for her. There’s no coming back from this. It’s complete desperation. Lunacy. She’ll lose thousands, even if she wins.”
“Will it work?” Ronan asks. “How many are inside? Where is the fighting? How quickly can we muster the legions?”
There are many answers given. Some of them are optimistic, others contradictory, as the situation unfolds too quickly for clarity.
Ronan marches towards his chambers, and I know exactly where he’s heading.
Kira.
But before we make it there, worse news arrives.
A messenger rushes up to us from a different staircase, bowing quickly. “The Third Navy has advanced into the harbor. We’re trying to repel them at the docks, but the Nithyrian forces have damaged our siege engines. Three ships have landed so far, sir.”
The docks are close to here, only a few minutes’ walk.
“Ronan,” says Taran, all sense of formality forgotten. “If they’re inside the gates and landing more, and if we have no siege engines, the city will fall. Tonight.”
“Dammit!” There’s a loud crashing sound in the distance and then screaming. Through the window, I see flames rising down at the docks. “I need to get in the air. We can see where the fighting is and go down and help them.”
“Ronan.” Taran’s voice takes on the patient tone it does in the most desperate of moments. It’s the voice he used with me when Seth held us captive. “The city will fall. If we fight, they may slaughter us all. We need to surrender.”
“What do you think happens to us if I surrender?” Ronan’s voice is frantic, the voice of a trapped animal waiting for the knife. “Maybe she’ll spare the city, but she will kill you. She’ll kill Sylvie.”
“She’ll kill you, Ronan,” I say, taking his hand.
“She’ll definitely kill me,” says Seth.
Everyone turns and glares at him.
“What? She will. We only have one option—we have to run.”
“You want to run. You want to run. Did you do this, Seth? Did you let her in?” I pin him to the wall, holding the torch to his throat.
Seth squirms away from the flame, trying to control it with his magic but failing. “What the fuck is that? No, I didn’t let her in. I DIDN’T LET HER IN. Godsdammit, Sylvie, you’re burning me!”
I back off slightly, giving the torch a good shake in his direction to let him know I still mean business.
“I chose you. I helped you. And it fucking worked. It should have worked. How was I meant to know she’d do something this suicidal?
She’s waited years for this. I thought she’d wait a bit longer, but I was wrong.
” He turns to Ronan, his eyes pleading. “You have to leave. You have to get her out of here. Get us all out of here. It’s the only way. ”
“I will not leave my city to die!” Ronan shouts. “You can leave. Go. Run like the coward that you are. I will not abandon my people.”
Seth’s eyes turn cruel. “I may be a coward, but I know when I’m defeated.
If you cared anything about your city, anything about my sister, you’d surrender.
Order the surrender, tell the city to beg for mercy, and run.
” He grabs my shoulder and shoves me towards Ronan.
“Or do you want to see her dead? Do you want to see her hanged for choosing you?”
“Don’t you dare speak for me.” I slap Seth across the face, hard. He reels back in shock. “Ronan, I’m with you. I’ll come with you on Kira. There must be a way—”
The floors shake from another explosion, this one even closer.
“They’re at the palace gates!” shouts someone from the stairs.
Seth grabs Taran by the arms, his voice strangely soft. “Reason with him. He listens to you. Please.”
Taran looks among all of us. Then he sighs. “He’s right. You know he’s right, Ronan. If not for yourself, do it for her.”
Ronan presses his fingers into his temples, his eyes squeezed shut.
He stays here like that for a long moment until another explosion rattles the windows, breaking a pane of glass.
“Fine. If this is how it has to be, fine. Raise the white flag. Gather what you need and meet down in the baths. We’ll take the Pegasus. ”
“It’s too dangerous with the Third Navy in the harbor. We have to go on foot. The tunnels,” says Taran.
“But what about Quinn?” She has vanished, I realize. A servant was carrying her up the stairs, but he’s gone, and so is she. “And where are Larus and Octavia? Ronan, what about your grandmother?”
“Find them,” says Ronan to the nearest servants. “Find all of them, tell them to pack what they need and meet us in the baths.”
“Quinn can’t walk,” reminds Taran.
“Fuck! We’ve got to take that boat. There’s just no other way—”
“Kira,” I say. “We have to get Kira out anyway. Let her take Quinn. She can meet us wherever it is that we’re going.”
“Where are we going, exactly?” asks Seth.
Everyone turns to look at him again.
“Who invited you?” I say. I don’t trust that Seth isn’t responsible for this somehow. I can’t shake the feeling that whatever we decide, he’ll get word to Adria, and she’ll descend upon us the moment we think we’re safe.
These words sting Seth more than my slap did. His expression is so wounded that I actually feel bad for him for a moment.
“Fine. I can see where I’m not wanted. Best of luck to you, your highness. You’re going to need it.” Seth bows and turns to take his leave.
Taran grabs him by his elbow and stops him. “It’s ‘your majesty.’ ‘Your highness’ is for a prince. He’s the God-King. And you’re not going anywhere. I won’t have you selling our secrets to Adria or anyone else.” These are the words Taran says, but once again, I’m able to glimpse into what he feels.
And what he feels is fear. Fear for my brother, not fear of him.
Godsdammit. I really want to hate Seth right now, but the way that Taran just grabbed his arm to stop him reminds me so much of the first time Ronan kissed me, and I can’t help but see an echo of our love for each other beginning between them. Despite everything, it endears Seth to me.
He does have feelings under there somewhere. I don’t know how much of Ronan’s magic I’ll need to be able to sense them, as buried as they are under narcissism and sarcasm, but maybe one day I’ll be able to understand them.
“Where are we going, Ronan?” I ask. Seth rolls his eyes, but he has the sense to keep his mouth shut.
“Minar, I guess. If we can’t get out of the harbor, and the army is in the west, it makes the most sense to go south. We can organize whatever is left of the Selaran forces from there, or we can charter a ship and get help from overseas.”
Seth makes a skeptical noise.
“What?” asks Ronan.
“Nothing, it’s just…”
“Oh my gods, out with it,” I say.
“I would tell you, but someone here slapped me the last time I tried to help.”
My cheeks heat. I do feel a little bad about that. “I’m sorry, alright? Just fucking tell us what’s wrong with Minar.”
“It’s just that I spent some time there recently.
The support for Ronan is weaker than I think you realize.
House Juni is behind him, of course, being Queen Claudia’s House, but the minor houses are less convinced.
House Faber has been a great help to us, and they’re nearby in the Irai Oasis.
When Faros falls, there’s a good chance much of Minar will turn in support of Adria’s claim.
Not that she has a valid claim, but you know what I mean. ”
Ronan, Taran, and I glance at each other. Adria does have a valid claim because of their deception regarding the duel with my father, but Seth doesn’t know that. Does he?
No, I don’t think he does. I hope he doesn’t.
“There aren’t many other options. Adria holds the river, the sea, and soon the city…” says Ronan. The sadness in his voice guts me. He’s about to lose everything.
“But not Pyka,” says Seth.
Our home. The place I was born, the place we lived until it was taken from us. It’s part of Nithyria, but it’s occupied entirely by the Orsa, the enemy of the Nithyrian people.
If there’s one group of people that would never betray Ronan to Adria, it’s the Orsa.
“There’s a port there,” says Ronan. Then he wraps his arm around my waist protectively. “But you won't be safe there. Neither of you. The Orsan grudge against House Verran goes deep.”
Seth shrugs, gesturing around him. “I don’t know. I’d say we’re pretty good at making friends with old enemies.”
Taran shakes his head. “I can keep them from killing you on sight, but you will listen to me and do as I say when we get there.”
“Of course. How could I ever consider opposing one of the very same people that occupy the home I was born in?”
“Enough. It’s settled, then. We’ll head for Pyka—Quinn, you’re to take Kira and meet us at the Red Cliffs,” Ronan says as Quinn finally returns, a Royal Guard carrying her, with Larus and Octavia trailing behind.
“I will go with her,” says Octavia.
“I do not need a babysitter,” says Quinn.
“Girl, I said nothing about going for your sake. I have spent my life at sea. I wish to see the world from the sky.”