Chapter 61 Aiden
Aiden
I stood at the bow of the Shadow-Wolf prison ship as if I could get to Aquinon faster by leaning as far out over the water as I could.
Two weeks. Two gods-damned weeks without Kiera.
I’d barely slept. I wouldn’t have eaten much if Maz hadn’t threatened to force it down my throat. His arrow wound had healed enough that I considered his threat genuine.
My worry for Kiera existed in every beat of my heart. In everything I did. I couldn’t get her out of my mind as I gathered weapons and warriors and repaired our two ships.
I saw the same worry on Jek’s and Maz’s faces as they prepared for war.
Even Yarina and Sigrid seemed more subdued after Kiera left.
Ruru hadn’t spoken to me for a full day after I relayed Kiera’s goodbye.
He’d been distraught that she’d left without him and sat by the river all day with his brother.
Eventually, he came back around, throwing himself into preparations. He’d helped stitch the flag that now flapped from a line at the bow. I’d designed it myself. A violet background with Rellmira’s sun at the top, my family’s falcon and the joined hands of the People’s Council beneath.
The new symbol of the union I hoped to achieve today upon the sacrifice of so many.
I twisted my father’s falcon ring around my finger. I hadn’t taken it off since retrieving it from Frieda’s safekeeping. I wore it to honor the family I’d never known—and to remind myself of the family I fought for.
“Be with us, Nikella,” I whispered to the salty breeze that whisked us over the stormy gray sea.
Black clouds swirled overhead. Thunder rumbled like gathering war drums.
Maz stepped up beside me, his eyes on the sky as well. “She never could resist toying with you on her seas.”
“Let’s hope her storms favor us again,” I said, dropping my gaze to the southern horizon. We should come upon Aquinon in the next hour. “Are they ready?”
“More than that, brother. They’re eager to get their weapons wet with the blood of Wolves.”
I nodded. We had over two hundred Dag warriors from several clans.
They had heeded the cry for vengeance for the Urzost village.
A dozen prisoners who were strong enough and eager to fight for their home city were also aboard.
Another few dozen of Skelly’s bone-rattlers rounded out our small invading army.
“Henry had better be there,” I muttered.
“He will be,” Maz assured me, as he always did. “As will Kiera.”
I glanced at him and tapped his new steel breastplate. “Looks good.”
“It’s bloody uncomfortable,” Maz grumbled, adjusting it on his shoulders. “Dag armor isn’t usually so thick.”
I grinned, having heard this complaint many times now. “You know the deal. Get through the battle without damaging it, and you can toss it.”
He grinned back at me, looking fierce in his warrior paint. “Easy.”
Ruru tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at the horizon. “Ship ahead.”
I squinted, barely making out a distant speck. A speck that morphed into tall sails with a purple flag on top. “Looks like we found Renwell’s third warship. Warn the others.”
Mynastra’s Wings and the Wolf ship raced toward the warship, the wind filling our sails.
Warriors lined the deck, bristling with weapons.
Maz with his axes, at least three broad knives, and a shield strapped to his arm.
Ruru carried a bow and a pouch filled with arrows, knives strapped to his waist like a row of teeth.
Daire stood next to him, similarly armed.
Jek hefted a huge shield, Nikella’s spear in his other hand.
I had two swords strapped across my back, two curved knives sheathed at my waist, and one each in my boots. I readied a bow as well, with an oil-dipped arrow.
“Remember,” I shouted to the warriors. “Don’t shoot until my order!”
I lit my arrow in the brazier that sat in the middle of the deck. I flexed my fingers around the thin wood, angling the arrow higher. “Carry it, Mynastra.”
The warship was near enough I could see soldiers scurrying about, bringing their catapults to bear on us.
I fired. The arrow sliced through the air—and pierced the warship’s hull. Triumph burst through my veins. They were within range.
I raised my arm. “Fire on the catapults!”
Dozens of fiery arrows nocked into place, then whistled through the air. Some hissed into the choppy water. Others peppered the ship’s hull with scorch marks. A few found soldiers and the catapults they had already loaded.
Gods-damned catapults.
“Spears!” I shouted.
A group of Dags stepped forward with long, stout spears that took two of them to wield.
The catapults fired. Lit barrels passed through our second cloud of arrows toward us.
But before they could reach the ships, the Dags leaped forward and speared them out of the air. They exploded safely away from the ships.
Everyone cheered.
“Brilliant idea, brother!” Maz shouted.
I’d thought of it while watching the Dags spear fish off the coast. But the barrels were only the first problem.
I turned back to the warship just as they released their own swarm of arrows. “Shields!”
Everyone ducked under their assigned shield-bearers. I took cover under Maz’s. Jek covered Ruru and Daire. Arrows thumped down around us like hail.
Lightning flashed, and the sky growled again.
Fucking Four, if it rained, our fire would be useless. But so would theirs.
I yanked on Ruru’s arm. “Signal Skelly to circle now.”
He nodded and grabbed another flag we’d made, a red one threaded with a black triangle in the middle. He waved it back and forth, the cloth snapping in the vicious wind.
Skelly shouted orders, and Mynastra’s Wings veered off to cut around the warship. Roark, the bone-rattler from Skelly’s crew, spun the wheel of our ship. The wood creaked and groaned beneath my feet as the ship turned broadside in the waves.
The warship slowed as the soldiers readied all four of their catapults to aim at the tempting target we presented.
“Come on, Mynastra, come on,” I muttered, gazing up at the black clouds.
“Aiden,” Maz growled, gripping his axe.
The other warriors readied their spears again. The roaring waves crashed into our ship, pitching the deck at a steep angle.
“Aiden!” Maz shouted.
The catapults flung their burning barrels. Just as sweet, glorious rain flooded the sky. The barrels lost speed, their flames sputtering out before they crashed into the sea.
Everyone cheered again, thrusting their weapons into the downpour.
“Right us, Roark!” I bellowed.
The sailor was already battling with the wheel, his neck straining. Our ship slowly turned with the waves. But the warship was too close.
I grabbed the deck railing. “Brace!”
Everyone latched on to something.
The two ships crashed together in an explosion of wood. The force of it nearly threw me overboard. Cries sounded from both sides.
The ship shuddered and groaned as it swayed against the warship.
“Our hull’s cracked like an egg, Aiden!” Yarina shouted from the other side of the deck. “We’re taking on water!”
“Board the warship!” I roared. If we were to survive, we needed at least two working ships. Theirs would do just fine.
I yanked our flag from its line and tied it around my waist.
Jek handed out grappling hooks. The soldiers seemed to have recovered from our collision as they began shooting arrows down at us.
Cries of pain tempted me to turn around, to save whoever it was, but I stayed focused. I flung my grappling hook over the warship’s railing and started climbing up. A dozen other warriors did the same—Maz and Ruru on either side of me.
We hauled ourselves onto the warship as sailors swung from our mast to theirs like monkeys. I unsheathed my swords just in time to cut down a soldier who lunged at me with his own sword.
Rain pummeled us as we shouted and fought our way through Renwell’s soldiers. No Wolves. No sunstone weapons.
Skelly’s crew took advantage of their distraction as I intended and boarded the warship, brandishing their weapons. Outnumbered, the remaining Rellmiran soldiers surrendered.
“Cease!” I roared until our forces backed down.
“We don’t have time for prisoners,” Maz muttered to me, his axe coated in blood and his armor undented.
“There’s always time for mercy,” I replied quietly, staring at the drenched, miserable men huddled on deck. “I will not make enemies of my people if they don’t wish to be so.”
Maz nodded and shouted for the warriors to collect the soldiers’ weapons and march them belowdecks. We locked them in the brig and brought the rest of our warriors over from the rapidly sinking Wolf ship. Skelly’s crew returned to Mynastra’s Wings.
We set sail once more. The storm cleared enough for me to see the Rellmiran palace glittering in the distance. Was Kiera there, watching me?
My gut clenched. If so, Renwell could see us, too. He’d know we were coming.