Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Any sacrifice is worth saving this kingdom.
Vienah’s wet hair hung in matted ripples ahead of me as we marched down the gangplank and onto the icy shores of the Death Dunes. My chest had been sliced, blood seeping through the front of my shirt, but I had no idea when or how that had happened.
A small group stood in the snow, hands bound to the long line of rope connecting them. Ronan, bloodied and bruised, hung his head. Nerissa held him upright, eyes tight with worry as she found mine across the snow.
Carina was there, cuffed and frightened. Kresida stood in the center, covered in blood, but it was hard to tell whose it was from. I scanned the group. The captain…and six more from the Centurion. No sign of the elven mages.
Lord Astraeus and the captain of the Kraken stood at the front of the group. I glanced behind me, searching for Vulcan.
The captain of the Kraken turned his scarred face to me as we stepped into the icy snow.
The pirate lord was an older man, maybe twenty years Astraeus’s senior, and wore a jet-black coat.
Its hem was lined with rows of small finger bones.
He grinned at me, and a silver tooth shone in the afternoon sun that managed to cut through the clouds.
The Marisarma mages stood at the edge of the two ships, extending their shields onto shore.
The warm air melted the upper layer of snow, creating a cold, wet slush.
Lord Astraeus pointed his curved blade toward me and inclined his head. Movement from Ronan caught my eye, and he glanced at me through the blood that streaked across his face.
“You are all alive because of this woman,” Astraeus called to the group, jabbing his curved blade in my direction.
The line of prisoners slid their eyes to where I stood at the end of the chain.
“For how much longer,” he continued, surveying the small group, “that remains to be seen.”
“We’re here for one thing,” the captain of the Kraken cut in with a craggy voice, as he stalked along the line of prisoners, angling his head at me.
He slowed as he approached. “A bone of power. That whore of a queen, Antares, sorely underestimated the power and influence of the Lords of Marisarma when she sent you sailing so close to the Crimson Sea.”
The Kraken’s captain approached me and smirked as he grabbed my chin with his thumb and forefinger. I bristled, as smoke and old ale wafted off his lips. He held firm, pinching the small amount of skin.
“Find the bone. The rest of you may go free.”
I jerked my chin away and spat in his face. A growl escaped his lips, and I braced myself as his fist slammed into my stomach. Once. Twice. Three times. I doubled over, forcing down the cry and sea water that threatened to escape.
He stood and stalked back to the front of the line, where the elven captain of the Centurion stood, a look of disdain and disgust written across his proud face.
The captain of the Centurion straightened as the pirate approached and said, “You make no such commands of my—”
The Kraken’s pirate lord plunged his blade through the elf’s chest as screams echoed down the line of prisoners. He ripped his curved blade free, and the snow below his feet quickly turned to a pool of crimson slush.
Carina wept as the captain of the Centurion choked out a gasp and shuddered as he lay dying at the end of the line.
“A captain should always go down with his ship,” the Lord of Marisarma murmured as he shook the blood from his blade. He turned his attention back to me at the end of the line.
“Refuse,” he said, raising his eyebrows, “and I can do this all day, sweetheart.”
He moved down the line, pointing his blade at the various prisoners.
I kept still, willing myself to make no reaction, though bile rose in my throat.
I was here before, only months ago. The brightness of the surrounding snow suddenly mirrored the shimmering walls of the great hall in the Crystal Castle, and I was back there, with my father broken and bleeding on its floor as the dark king tried to force me to use my powers… .
A gasp from Vienah pulled me back to the snowy shore, and I jerked my gaze to the Hydra where two men hauled Vulcan down the gangplank and shoved him into the slush. His body slid, leaving a bloody trail.
My stomach pitched as he moaned, struggling to stand. He turned his face to the side, and I gasped.
Bloody strips of ravaged skin hung where the twining vines of inked black ferns once were. Vulcan’s arms shook as he pushed against the ground, and one of the men kicked him down.
“I’ll do it,” I breathed, as I watched the warrior who’d always seemed so indestructible be beaten bloody in the snow.
The Kraken’s captain stalked to me, and he slid a greedy gaze down my torn leathers, still cold and dripping from the trip through the frigid waters. His tongue slipped over cracked lips.
“You’ll do that and more, I reckon.”
My stomach twisted as his eyes darkened. He sucked on the silver tooth shining from beneath his lips as a dagger ripped through the front of his neck.
Chaos erupted.
Warm droplets of blood splattered across my face as the Marisarma Lord lurched forward. I pulled back, yanking Vienah along with me, and we tumbled into the snow. Shouts erupted from all directions as swords were drawn, and the pirates of the Hydra and Kraken crashed against each other.
Ronan, somehow free of his bounds, palmed a dagger and sliced through the long rope that connected the prisoners. I scrambled in the snow back to where the Kraken’s captain lay, a spark of gold catching my eye amidst the blood coating the back of his head and neck.
Talon. I ripped the dagger from the back of his neck, the sickening squelch of the blade pulling free loud in my ears despite the chaos of the fight. I sliced through my own bounds before freeing Vienah. I reached for my cuff and was met with the sharp bite of ice. The dagger would have to do.
Nerissa and Kresida met the blades of the pirates with swift kicks and dodges of their own, disarming them quickly.
Men flew down from the Kraken, but didn’t make it far as archers, hidden on board Lord Astraeus’s ship, fired arrows at their backs.
One ripped through the Kraken’s mage, his shield dropping and shuddering against the air.
Lord Astraeus’s blue cloak flapped as he threw a spare blade to Ronan, who caught the handle and whirled on the Kraken’s men. I blinked at the sudden alliance. I rushed to where Carina stood, tearing at the cuff on her wrist.
I grabbed the back of her dress and pulled her with Vienah to where Vulcan lay in the snow.
He groaned as Vienah tilted him over and lifted his head.
Angling myself between the three of them and the bloody fight, I flipped the dagger in my hand as I split my stance, diving into that darkened part of me.
A man broke free of the fight and surged toward us with curved blades. I ran at him, flinging Talon at his face, where he batted it away with his left blade. I ducked, sliding in the slush as a blade slashed at me and kicked my leg out. My shin barked in pain as it met his ankle, but he went down.
He flipped, blades ready and swiping for me, but I was already up, diving to the side as my friends had taught me.
On his feet now, he reached for me, but his legs went flying from behind him.
Vulcan, somehow alert and upright now, towered over him as he disarmed him, wasting no time slicing through his neck and silencing the pirate.
The crashing of blades quieted, and the moans of the dying echoed against the waves.
I scanned the wreckage. Bodies lay strewn across the red snow.
Stripes of blood cut across Lord Astraeus’s blue coat as he stepped over sobbing forms, silencing them.
Ronan pinned his sapphire gaze on mine. Nerissa moved to his side, moving swiftly across the space to where Vulcan still stood in front of me.
Her brilliant green gaze dimmed as she took in his shattered face, the destroyed tattoo, and his eye barely saved.
I blinked, having never witnessed Nerissa show emotion for her second.
I flinched as Kresida stepped to my side.
The warrior was bloody but seemingly unfazed by the rapid turn of events.
She picked up Talon, examining the elaborate hilt before handing it to me.
Lord Astraeus approached Ronan in the distance.
“What in gods’ names just happened?” Vienah murmured behind me.
Lord Astraeus muttered something to Raek, who began barking orders to the crew of the Hydra. They swiftly boarded the Kraken, killing anyone who remained. He held out his hand to Ronan, motioning to the last of us from the elven ship. The two of them approached our small group.
“What the hell is this, Astraeus? We made a deal in Odessa,” Ronan simmered.
“A deal that ended in Odessa.” Lord Astraeus smirked, winking at me as he swaggered by.
“Fuck you. Our captain is dead. Fifty elves are dead,” Kresida spat.
My stomach sank. We’d lost almost the entire crew of the Centurion.
“Were you in on this?” Kresida seethed at Ronan, teeth bared.
“He wasn’t,” Lord Astraeus cut in. “I freed him right after that little incident.”
“Traitor,” I snapped.
The pirate lord paused and turned toward me, his eyes darkening.
“You think I have an ounce of goodness in me, Lady? I had one reason to join the Rising’s cause.
You think I give a fuck what happens to the people of Sultira?
The people who so easily abandoned their neighbors to the west?
There’s a reason we call it the Crimson Sea.
A reason the waters of Votruvia run red. Our islands float in blood.”
“What do you want?” Ronan cut in.
“He wants the bone,” I spat.
Nerissa shook her head. “When you learned of Queen Antares’s plan to send us here, you baited the other Lords of Marisarma to join you and claim the bone. And then you took them out. Am I right?”
Her green eyes narrowed at the lord, and he met them with a calculating confidence.
“Mmm.” His throat rumbled, the sound deep, primal. “Ever the thinker, aren’t you, Nerissa? Indeed. The others weren’t particularly pleased that I'd allied with the queensguard.” A jerk of his chin toward Ronan. “And eliminating them was part of the plan, yes.”
“But not Lord Haro, the Siren’s captain. Where is he?” Carina’s shaky voice sounded from behind me.
Lord Astraeus bristled at the mention of the lord’s name and shook his head.
“Lord Haro is none of your concern. Though I am very curious how you stayed hidden for so long on the Centurion. My mages didn’t detect a mystic on board until your wind whispering.”
The group’s gaze narrowed at Carina as she sank back. Kresida tensed, casually stepping to the side of the now powerless mystic princess.
“Youngest ever, I would guess?”
Carina shrank against the praise that rang through in Lord Astraeus’s voice, but she remained quiet. Movement to the left caught my eye as Vulcan swayed. Ronan’s arm was around his waist in an instant, steadying him.
“What the fuck happened here?” Ronan snapped at Lord Astraeus, drawing his attention from Carina to Vulcan.
Lord Astraeus bared his teeth at Vulcan. “That,” he seethed, “was entirely due to his actions on board my ship.” A sharp glance at me, and he moved to stalk away.
“Dry clothes await you on board the Hydra. Don’t try anything stupid. I won’t hesitate to kill you. I only need one of you to get what I need.”