Chapter Seven #2
Looking at the smoke staining the sky … half of her wanted to turn around and sail home, where there was pie.
The other half kept her sailing toward Alyssium. “We’ll deliver the letter, check on our friends at the library and the conservatory, and then go someplace less on fire. Okay?” After that, she swore they wouldn’t come back for a nice, long time.
Perri arched into the air, scales sparkling, saying yes.
Shielding her eyes, Marin looked up at Ree, who was up on his favorite perch, the top of the mast. She wondered if she should have insisted he stay on Belde.
She’d expected Alyssium to be a mess as whoever was in charge sorted out the aftermath, but she didn’t mean to bring her newest crew member into actual danger.
There’s no “aftermath” yet; it’s still ongoing.
“Are you okay with this, Ree? I mean, you’re made of wood. ”
“Ahh, but I’m not made of kindling,” Ree said. “Green wood burns terribly.”
“Well, we won’t go anywhere near the fire,” Marin said firmly. “If it looks unsafe, we turn around, even if we haven’t made the delivery. Agreed?”
Both the sea serpent and the shrub agreed.
Closer, she saw multiple boats leaving through the archway, a variety of craft from skiffs to gondolas to sailboats. She noticed no boats were sailing in. Wondering if she was making a terrible decision, Marin sailed through the archway.
Ree helped furl the sails as Marin poled through the canals.
She’d noticed that the guards hadn’t been stationed by the arch, and there were even more boarded-up windows.
The uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach grew, but they’d come this far—it felt silly to turn around just because everything wasn’t back to normal.
She reminded herself that they weren’t going to stay: deliver the letter, check on Rijes and Dax, and then leave. That was it.
She pulled out her map of the city canals, spread it out on the deck, and plotted a route to where the florist shop was.
Ree hovered next to her, studying the map too.
She noticed his leaves were trembling slightly, and she wondered if he was nervous.
“Do you want to be in charge of the map?” she offered.
“I’ll steer, and you tell me which way to go? ”
His leaves puffed out. “Yes! I can do that!”
She smothered a smile. She’d already committed the route to memory, but she didn’t tell that to the little myrtle. If it made him feel better to navigate, then that was fine by her.
She poled onward, trying not to be unsettled by how quiet the city was.
“Left!” Ree shouted at the next fork. His voice echoed across the canal sandwiched canyon-like between empty mansions.
Specks of gray drifted through the air, and it took Marin a while to realize they were bits of ash. She could smell the smoke and wondered how widespread the fire was.
“Straight!”
Beside her, Perri swam just below the surface. She watched the ripples from his passage. There seemed to be more trash in the water than she’d ever seen—chunks of wood, a chair, a basket. He sank beneath them as needed.
Farther into the city, the stench of smoke grew stronger, and her throat felt dry and rough.
“Left!”
She heard screaming in the distance. As Marin slowed, she saw the canal up ahead was blocked—it had been stuffed with debris, everything from chairs to tables to doors. Her mind couldn’t make sense of it. It looked deliberate.
A word popped into her mind: barricade.
It was a barricade. She began to pole in reverse, awkward since sailboats weren’t intended to go backward. She adjusted the wheel as they backed to the last intersection. She was grateful that Silver was as maneuverable as she was. If she’d been any longer …
“There are other routes,” Ree said. “Go right.”
Now Marin was grateful she’d asked the plant to navigate.
She poled through the canal on the right and encountered another barricade.
Backing up, she felt her skin prickle. Were the canals so empty because everyone had already left?
She passed another boat, loaded with belongings, that was steered by a grim-faced woman.
She had two children huddled in the back of her boat.
“Hey?” Marin called to her. “What’s happening?”
“It’s burning,” the woman said flatly. “It’s all burning.”
“What’s burning?”
But the woman turned away and poled faster. Ahead, Marin saw that the sky was black between the canals, as if night had closed around a portion of the city.
“We shouldn’t be here,” Marin told Ree. “This was a mistake.” She thought of Dax with a pang—was he in this mess? His classmates and mentors were all dedicated to ensuring he was safe. Surely they were taking care of him. She didn’t need to worry about him, did she?
Perri lifted his head out of the water and splashed, agitated.
“Given the state of the city, I’m sure Dax and Rijes Velk have already left.
” She wasn’t sure of that. Rijes Velk had seemed determined to stay, to do her duty, and as for Dax …
He’d had no idea about the events that were unfolding.
Would he have left, or was he still in his conservatory?
She was less certain now that it was a safe place to be, even though it couldn’t be a military target.
All the people who had already fled the city … They had the right idea of it.
Perri splashed again.
Coming here was a mistake, but it wasn’t irreversible.
She could get them out again, the same way they’d come in.
There hadn’t been any barricades or even many boats blocking the way.
She tried to tell this to her thumping heart and sweating hands.
This wasn’t her battle; all she had to do was leave. “We need to go.”
Another agitated splash, this time spraying canal water over the wrapped sails.
Perri very clearly didn’t want to leave.
Ironic, considering how he usually couldn’t wait to flee Alyssium.
Marin compromised. “Okay, how’s this: we forget about the letter for now and just check on the library and the conservatory, then we leave.”
He accepted that.
“Ree, guide us to the Great Library.”
Ree shouted out directions as she poled through the canals. The smoke was worse, and the ash was thicker in the air. As they poled through an intersection, she glanced to her left, and she saw the lick of flames in the distance—the fire wreathed a spire.
Perri trumpeted, a shrill, discordant sound, and he reared out of the water.
“What is it?” Marin called.
Floating in the water in front of him was a body, face down.
Her heart hammered so hard that she thought it would break through her ribs. “We’re going. Now.” She poled harder, trying not to look at it as they passed. She hadn’t thought … She hadn’t imagined … She didn’t care if the empire fell. She did care if people died as it fell.
Ree was shaking so hard that leaves rained onto the deck.
“We’re getting out of here,” Marin reassured him. This conflict didn’t involve them. They weren’t guards or imperial investigators, and they weren’t revolutionaries. They were just sailors. “Forget the library and the conservatory. Ree, which way to the nearest gate?”
Still trembling, he read the map. “Straight ahead.”
She felt a jolt under the boat. “Perri? What are you doing?”
He was speeding the boat forward. Oh! This is good! He could speed them out of here. She lifted the pole out of the water as he spurted forward.
“Left!” Ree shouted.
Perri didn’t turn them left. They stayed straight.
Leaning over the side, Marin called, “We were supposed to turn! Perri?”
Up ahead was another barricade, but Perri didn’t slow.
“Perri?” she shouted.
He turned the boat onto another canal, just before the barricade. Marin turned to Ree. “Where is he taking us?”
He leaned over the map. “I don’t…”
She saw spires up ahead, familiar ones, with smoke rising from them. Oh no, not the library! It was the Great Library of Alyssium, and it was burning. She felt tears or seawater on her cheeks. She didn’t know which it was.
“Perri, it’s lost!” Entering the tunnel beneath the burning building would be folly. She didn’t think they could even get near it. Her heart ached. Had Rijes Velk escaped? What about the other librarians? And all the books?
The sea serpent let out a keening cry before abruptly altering their direction.
Abandoning the library, they sped on. She looked at the map as he made another turn and suddenly knew exactly where he was taking them: the conservatory.
She felt a mix of relief and fear clog her heart—grateful that Perri was braver than she was but terrified for what they’d find.
“We have a friend there,” Marin told Ree, tapping the building on the map. “That’s where he’s going.”
“Oh,” Ree said in a small voice. “It’s good to help friends.”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
The fear was so tight around her throat that she wasn’t sure she could squeeze any words out.
Instead, she sat cross-legged on the deck.
Ree climbed into her lap, and she held him, hugging his branches as the sea serpent propelled them through the burning city.
Around them, the city was no longer silent.
Marin could hear the shouting, as well as the pounding of footsteps on the bridges above the canals.
The smoke was thinner away from the library, but the sky was filled with so much ash that it looked like snow.
It clung to her hair, coated the deck, and fell onto the surface of the canals like shriveled petals from dead, colorless flowers.
Perri slowed as they entered the tunnel beneath the conservatory, and she gently scooted Ree from her lap and picked up the pole again.