Chapter 4
Kiera
Night fell clear and starry, but moonless. Yet Skelly still declared any guards would see us from a mile away.
The sailors blew out all the lanterns and pulled in the white sails. They tucked away their bones, padding about the deck on bare feet.
The cliffs of Calimber towered in the distance. I strained my eyes to spot any watchman’s torches. Nothing met my eyes but darkness. But perhaps they were using the cover of night as well.
Somewhere in those sheer, rocky faces was the sunstone mine .
. . and an entrance. There had to be if Renwell was shipping prisoners to the mine.
But Skelly said he’d seen no beach among these cliffs for miles in either direction.
Aiden hadn’t been able to provide a port location either, as he said no mine tunnel led to the sea when he and Maz were prisoners.
Thankfully, our small party didn’t seem to mind the lack of information.
Aiden, with a bow and quiver of arrows slung over his back, helped Nikella lower a rowboat over the side of the ship. Trying not to shiver in my simple black clothing, I clutched the hilt of my mother’s knife and joined them.
Yarina, who also carried a bow and arrows, and a few bone-rattlers waited to board the rowboat, scowling at me. No one had asked me to come along, but I intended to, even if I had to jump from the ship.
The boat landed with a soft splash, the oars rolling inside. It looked like a little wooden toy that would easily smash to bits on the cliffs ahead.
I swallowed hard. I hadn’t done so well the last time I’d been on one of these, escaping the Den with Aiden, Maz, and Ruru. But I needed to see the mine for myself.
Before any of them had a chance to go first, I rushed forward, seized a dangling rope, and slid down to the rowboat.
I thanked the gods I’d thought to wear leather gloves over my tender palms, or the rope burn would’ve been unbearable.
I miscalculated the landing and ended up on my ass at the bottom of the rocking boat. A snicker came from above, and I glared up at the murky shadows gazing down at me.
I knew who would come flying down next before he even jumped.
Aiden landed with the silent grace of a cat, then seized my arm. “I didn’t include you for a reason, Kiera. Get back on the ship.”
I yanked my arm out of his grasp. “I’m not yours to command. This was my idea. I’m going.”
His face was merely a shadow beneath his hood, but I could almost feel his jaw grinding. “The tide is rolling out, which means this will not be a pleasant trip. If you get sick, every guard on watch will hear you.”
Gods damn it, was I never going to live that down?
“I can handle it,” I snapped. “Let’s just work together on this one thing, and then we can go back to hating each other.”
“You think I hate you?” he breathed, his gloved fists clenched. “I don’t even know you.”
I jerked back as if he’d slapped me. My cheeks burned.
Gods, that shouldn’t hurt. I didn’t want it to hurt. Because he was right. He didn’t know me. Just as I didn’t truly know him. I hadn’t thought he was capable of killing an innocent woman, or leaving me tied up in a room while he attempted to murder my father.
But then why did it feel as though he’d taken my knife and gutted me with it?
Aiden turned away and shoved the oars into their locks. Nikella, Yarina, and a few burly bone-rattlers slid into the boat. I scurried to the front, as far away from Aiden as I could get.
Yarina handed me a bucket. “I figure you’ll need this, princess,” she whispered.
“I’m not a princess,” I hissed back at her.
“Whatever you say, princess.”
“Silence,” growled one of the bone-rattlers as he started heaving on his oar.
Yarina smirked at me, tapping one of her scythes ominously. I rolled my eyes and shoved her bucket to the bottom of the boat. She had too much in common with her brother. And oddly, she made me miss his company all the more. But I doubted I’d be welcome in it anytime soon.
The boat coasted over the waves, flying upward, then plunging downward. My stomach rolled with it.
I’d purposely not eaten any of the mushy porridge the ship’s cook had passed around earlier. But that didn’t stop me from clamping my lips together.
The cliffs loomed higher and higher. I searched for guards on top, but couldn’t make any out.
Perhaps I’d been wrong to bring us here. Perhaps Renwell had already ordered everyone to abandon the mine.
“If we don’t find that entrance soon, we’ll be nothing but bones and kindling on those rocks,” Yarina muttered.
A wave crashed over the boat, and I gasped under the spray of cold water. Wrapping my numb fingers over the edge of the boat, I leaned forward. But it was useless. I couldn’t determine one cliff face from the next.
“There,” Nikella said, the thunder of the waves nearly drowning out her voice.
We all looked to where she pointed. An irregularity in the cliff face. Two seams that nearly blended together but for the shadow in between. Where the waves didn’t shatter but surged inward.
Aiden and the bone-rattler grunted as they pulled hard on the oars to direct us toward the inlet.
Our little boat shuddered against the sea’s onslaught. We drew nearer and nearer the rocks.
“Bardo!” the bone-rattler who’d silenced us grunted at the other bone-rattler.
Bardo slid into place next to his fellow sailor, and they heaved on the same oar. Nikella abandoned her spear to seize Aiden’s oar.
My heart pounded in my throat. If they weren’t strong enough . . . If the oars snapped . . .
Another wave slapped me in the face. I swiped my hair out of my eyes, expecting to see sharp rocks.
Instead, calmer waters stretched out before us in a winding path. The boat ceased its wild tossing. The incessant drumbeat of the waves grew muffled as we slipped into the stone passageway.
Yarina sighed with relief. I lifted my face to the sky. Still clear and salted with stars.
Something glinted at the edge of the cliff. I stiffened.
But no shouts came. No torches burned.
Perhaps I’d imagined it. A trick of the slippery light.
I could warn the others, but we were so close. If we turned back now, all that would’ve been for nothing.
We drifted around one bend, then two. The oars hardly made a sound.
Then . . . a glow ahead. Just around the next curve.
The boat slowed.
My fingers shook as I reached out to anchor us against a mossy rock. There was nowhere to land the boat. We would have to hug the cliff to peek around the corner. The last thing I wanted was to drift out into the open in full view of whatever awaited us in the bay.
Yarina nudged my shoulder aside so she could crane her head around the rock wall.
“Fucking Four . . .” she breathed.
Gods, is it the whole army? Can she see the mine?
I practically toppled out of the boat trying to lean around her. My mouth fell open.
The inlet opened into a wide bay. Enormous torches and bonfires illuminated a rocky beach crawling with soldiers in shiny armor. They barked orders at prisoners in ragged clothing.
But they weren’t hauling sunstone. No. They were building ships.
Two large ships, both twice the size of Mynastra’s Wings, floated in the calm water. Each one bore catapults on swiveling platforms that branched out from the deck like wooden arms.
I thought no one had used catapults since the last great war between gods and humans. But somehow Renwell had made them smaller and more agile.
The ribs of a third ship poked up from a wooden platform on the beach.
Yarina suddenly disappeared from my side, replaced by a more familiar presence.
“Warships,” Aiden murmured.
I tore my gaze away to stare up at him, the torches reflecting in his green eyes. “For what?”
“Renwell stole the throne. This is how he means to keep it. Or perhaps he wants more than Rellmira,” he added quietly, almost to himself.
I shivered. How long had he been using the sunstone mine as a cover for building these monstrosities? Had my father known? If he did, then he’d been even more despicable than I thought.
The current shifted, pushing our boat into open water. I lost my footing and nearly tumbled in, but Aiden grabbed my arm and kept me upright.
Bardo tried to correct us, but his oar smacked against the hull, echoing into the bay.
A shout rose from the beach.
“Gods damn it.” Aiden forced me to sit. “Get us out of here!” he barked at the bone-rattlers, who immediately complied.
I held on as the boat slowly swiveled to point back toward the passage. But I kept my gaze fixed on the closest ship.
A few guards clambered up onto a catapult platform while another loaded a barrel into the sling.
“Aiden . . .” I said through clattering teeth.
The catapult launched its barrel, a fuse sparking on one end.
“Aiden!” I screamed.
He turned around just as the barrel exploded behind us.
And set the sea on fire.