Chapter 20 #5
Rowan whistled. “Some friends.”
Logan covered his red face with his hands. “Can we discuss the matter at hand please?”
“Sure. I won’t ask any more questions about your relationships if you don’t question mine.”
Logan frowned. The two situations were very different. Logan’s secret was just a juicy bit of gossip; Rowan seemed like he might actually be in danger. But if agreeing for now got Rowan off Logan’s back, he couldn’t refuse.
“Fine.”
“Besides, Fox will do all the asking for me.”
Logan’s head snapped up. “Don’t you dare tell him.”
Rowan chuckled and waved him off. “Okay, okay. You know you won’t be able to hide it from him forever though.
” He paused for a moment to let Logan calm down.
“So you think Zanta was in Roseforte to deliver this gift? Knowing she had a reason to be there does lend credence to the sighting. Did they say which way the Monsoon sailed?”
“No, I didn’t hear anything about that. I rushed back because I was worried about…”
Rowan’s expression softened. “You’re worried about your friend. What’s her name again?”
“Nia.”
“You know we can’t dock in Roseforte directly, especially now that it will be swarming with soldiers even more than usual, not to mention wherever the attackers are now.” His eye widened as a realization dawned on him. “Do you think the attack was Shaw?”
“He wouldn’t attack a military port just because Zanta was there, would he? I know he’s crazy, but that’s an act of war.”
Rowan sighed. “The empires might as well already be at war, but you’re right. It’s too bold even for him.”
Logan’s worry spiked, not only with anxiety over Nia’s fate, but the fact that Warrick Shaw was after them again.
This was the man who’d almost ended their pirating careers and lives before they really began.
The man who’d tricked Rowan into falling for him so he could betray them to the Marrans to gain back the title he’d lost by murdering his own father.
“So what are we going to do?” Logan asked. He wanted to rush to Roseforte to find Nia and make sure she was okay. But he knew that wasn’t the priority of the crew as a whole.
Rowan leaned his cheek on his hand. “If there are blockades to the south, Zanta must still be around here somewhere.”
They sat in silence for a moment, both thinking it over.
If they attempted to get close to Roseforte, they risked sailing straight into a nest of vipers and getting caught up between the two empires once again.
Last time that had happened, both the Siren and Kraken had lost many crew members, and the Kraken had barely managed to limp back to Illusion.
But barring that, even if they were right that Zanta had fled north, there were the entirety of the Broken and Center Seas to contend with.
If she was desperate to get back home, she might circumvent Lasland to end up west of Yarene.
She probably wouldn’t risk sailing north through the Storm Gap, not with the danger of skirting so close between the Storm Ring and the Nanadie coast. The Monsoon could be anywhere.
“Maybe we should give up on this,” Logan said quietly. “We don’t know where she is, and it’s getting serious.”
Rowan scowled at him. “I’m not gonna back down. We’ll be stronger together than apart.”
But that wasn’t the only reason, was it?
Rowan wasn’t going to admit defeat to the Demon, and he wasn’t going to allow Shaw to defeat him either.
How far would this go before the Demon and Rowan forgave each other and chose to put their crews before their marital squabbles?
Logan supported Rowan’s choice to warn Zanta, they were friends after all, but not if it meant getting stuck in the middle of a war.
Logan scowled back. “If we’re going to keep pursuing this, we can’t let ourselves get trapped again. We’ve got to have an escape plan.” As much as he cared about Nia, their crew came first.
“We’ll head northeast and get the lay of the land. I don’t wanna give up on this yet. But if we get into trouble or can’t find out anything about Zanta, I’ll drop it. I promise.”
Logan nodded. This was about as close as he was going to get to compromise. Still, he wished he could run off and find Nia and make sure she was safe.
“I don’t suppose you know where John was headed with the Sweet Mercy?” Logan asked hopefully.
“Up the Avardellan coast, I think. Why?”
“Never mind.” The Sweet Mercy wasn’t a known pirate ship yet.
John could’ve slipped in and gotten Nia no problem.
But Avardel was about as far from Roseforte as one could get in the Islands, so that avenue was closed to them.
He sat for a moment, hoping beyond hope that Nia had survived the attack.
She was smart. Capable. It was entirely possible she was fine, right?
And speaking of capable people, there was one more thing he had to discuss with Rowan.
“Robin asked if we were going to let the captives go at this port.”
That slow smile was back. “That would piss Yves off. Let’s do it.”