The Fiery Crown

by Jeffe Kennedy

  A flare shot up. Finally. Kara signaling that the last ship was in—and blowing our cover. They’d know we were here now. I ran for Ambrose, hidden in the foliage of the tree. “Which ship is Anure’s?” I demanded.

  He was frowning, Merle now on his shoulder. “He’s being obscured.”

  “His wizards?”

  Ambrose shrugged, then held up a hand. “Feel that?”

  The ground shuddered beneath us, a great groan going up. I turned to see what could be doing that, but spotted nothing beyond the ordinary. If you counted the fires of hell raining down on a peaceful village ordinary. In my benighted life, it pretty much was.

  “Calanthe,” Ambrose supplied. “Blood spilled in violence is waking Her. Just as Her Highness predicted.”

  “What does that mean for us?” It still seemed like the least immediate of our problems. And yet … rattled, I put a hand on Vesno’s head, at the level of my hip. A big hound, steadfast and faithfully sticking to my side, just as Lia had promised he would. Hopefully he’d let me know if Lia was in trouble.

  “I don’t know.” Ambrose swung his bare feet like a boy climbing a tree for fun, not a man part of an army in hiding. “It will be very interesting to witness.”

  I had no time for this conversation. As if confirming it, a massive boom hit the rocks we stood on.

  “We’ve been spotted!” one of my people yelled.

  More likely the ships were just peppering the surrounding countryside, to add to the general confusion—and the smoke clouding the sky. They’d been keeping clear of the fancier houses uphill, Anure presuming that’s where Lia would be. He might have better intel now that he’d arrived in the area, pinpointing Lia’s exact location. At least he hadn’t been able to have a stealth team kidnap her before his ships arrived.

  Another reason I’d lain awake all night, just in case they tried to grab her. Adrenaline surged through me now, banishing all thoughts of anything like lack of sleep. I’ll sleep when I’m dead.

  “Fire on the fleet,” I yelled. “At will. Maximum chaos.” At least Lia’s healer had repaired my lungs and throat enough that I could pour volume to the orders without the agonizing pain. My people fired the cannons we’d hidden under the vegetation. They concentrated on the imperial fleet ships near the mouth of the channel, discouraging escape in that direction, taking advantage of the opportunity to barrage them for the short time our own ships weren’t at risk.

  The imperial fleet’s orderly formation dissolved quickly under unexpected return fire from unknown directions. Surprise, fuckers.

  Several of the faster-thinking captains had their ships wheeling about to refocus their cannons on the unexpected attack from their flanks and behind, but they couldn’t move fast enough. My people were good. We rarely had the luxury of battlefield communication, so each group acted as an independent unit, making decisions more or less autonomously. Pretty much what you’d expect from a bunch of rebels, ex-slaves, and escaped prisoners. What we lacked in military training and cohesiveness, we made up for with sheer inventiveness, tenacity, and bullheaded independence.

  It made us nearly impossible to predict, a quality we’d learned to use to best advantage. Vurgsten—the old-fashioned method of flaming rocks hurled at the ships to explode on impact—barraged some ships while others sailed unmolested. I studied the overall effect. We were doing well, keeping them bunched and confused. Like one of Lia’s clocks, ticking right on schedule, a well-oiled plan springing the trap.

  Bert appeared again. “Conrí—that’s the first of ours.” He pointed at the battleship—one of Anure’s that we’d stolen back at Keiost—coming into sight, also flying Anure’s flag. We’d saved the things with meticulous care, finding it ever so useful to pretend to be part of the empire we loathed. Until we stabbed them in the back. That would be Kara’s flagship.

  Right on schedule, it belched fire.

  The smoke looked different, the boom that followed quieter. Had to be whatever refinements Brenda, Agatha, and Percy had made. I frowned, not seeing much effect.

  Ah, there it was. The nearest ships began to founder, as if they’d lost their rudders, then sinking lower in the water. Not big explosions but pinpoint strikes.

  Others of Anure’s fleet tried to react to this new attack from their unguarded rear. Sailors swarmed the rigging, working the sails, trying to come about and fire back.

  Too late. A boom rattled our installation, off target and causing us no damage, revealing their panic. I studied the water and the sky. Perfect timing. The final piece of the trap was about to spring, everything falling into place, piece by piece. Not there yet, but so close I could taste it. Soon Anure would be dead at my feet, at long last.

  Which ship are you on, you loathsome toad?

  There. The currents began to change. “Bert! Pass the signal to our ships. Stay back from the bay. Ambrose! Time to move.”

  Bert saluted, sending up the signal flare for our fleet. The wizard leapt lightly out of the tree, then leaned heavily on his staff, dragging the bad leg as if it pained him. Merle rode on his shoulder, bright-eyed and cawing.

  “Which ship?” I demanded.

  Ambrose shook his head. “He’s here and he’s not. I can’t pinpoint him.”

  “Then we’ll get closer. The slippery bastard won’t get away. Second stage!” I roared.

  At my command, my team began pulling their cannons. Groups carried them down the rocks on the side of the ridge away from the Bay of Cradysica. On the beach below, more of our people pulled rowboats from cover, others loading cannons and people into them.

  I lingered on the point a moment longer, watching as the tide turned.

  “This is going to work,” I told the wizard with savage glee. With the turn of the tide, Anure’s ships began veer off course. Their vurgsten missiles went awry, landing in the trees and water.

  Sailors scrambled to get their ships into position to fire back at the attacks from our installations that remained under cover all around the bay, or to attack our ships beyond the mouth of the harbor, now drawing back to safety, sails rigged to ride out the tide.

  The changing tide was in full swing, the currents moving into a circular pattern that began spinning the ships in Anure’s fleet. Already wheeling about to fire back on Kara and the selective barrage from our landside installations, Anure’s ships found themselves continuing the spin too far. One battleship fully rammed into another, panicked orders and shouts of wounded men ringing across the water. Some frantic idiot sent cannon shot into the ship next to them. The close impact cracked both ships, pieces of wood and sailors flying, setting both ships ablaze.

  Would shedding the enemy’s blood so violently into Cradysica’s bay count? Probably. Nothing to be done for it now. Besides, we were winning. Lia could do all the rituals to placate Calanthe that she liked in the coming days.

  The spinning accelerated, ships lurching into one another or being flung out from the center to founder on the rocks of the bay’s embracing arms. Waiting for them, more of my people would take them prisoner where possible. A concession to Lia’s stricture on shedding blood. I’d rather have them cut down. I no longer needed to build an army for revenge. Vengeance was mine. After winning this final battle, the Slave King would no longer exist, and his army would disperse.

  At least Cradysica was taking the biggest bite today, Her massive whirlpool spinning and savaging Anure’s fleet. Violence, sure—but of nature’s forces. Surely blood spilled by Calanthe Herself didn’t count.

  It was a glorious sight to behold, and I would’ve liked to stay longer and watch the fleet shatter with the immense spin of Cradysica’s whirlpool. Time for me to board my own rowboat, however, and join Kara for the final phase of the battle. Sondra would be on her way, too, so we could all be together for the killing blow. This was going so cleanly, the trap sprung so neatly, that we might be victorious by sunset. I might even survive. Then I’d take Anure’s head and lay it at Lia’s feet. I could just picture it. She’d
been so fucking stunning in her warrior queen garb.

  She might even love me a little, if I could deliver the death of her enemy.

  Full of that vision, on fire with victory, I started down the slope, Vesno bounding ahead. Ambrose, however, didn’t follow.

  “Can you make it down the hill?” I called to him. He seemed weary, as he never did.

  “I’m not going with you,” he said. “I promised Her Highness I’d help to keep an eye on Calanthe. That’s a lot of blood you’re feeding Her.” He gestured with his staff at the frenzy below.

  One of Anure’s ships managed to fire back on our position, and leaves shattered around us. “You’re not safe here, wizard.”

  “Oh, I’m as safe here as anywhere.” The ground groaned under us. Merle hopped down, rearranging a feather on the soil, and the shuddering receded. “See?” He waggled his eyebrows. “We’re needed here.”

  “I need you—to show me which ship is Anure’s.”

  “I can’t.” Ambrose shrugged, which became a weary shake of his head. “He’s here and not. Sometimes you can’t fight wizardry with wizardry.”

  “Then I will hunt him down myself,” I snarled. So far as I could tell, wizardry fought nothing at all.

  Ambrose gave me a placid look. “As ever has been your destiny. Remember: Claim the hand that wears the Abiding Ring.”

  “I did. Today the empire falls.” I took one last look at the chaos in the bay, savoring the triumph. It did feel good. Not like ash at all. But of a future filled with promise. Ambrose had guided us to this victory, and I owed him for that. “Be careful, wizard. Keep an eye on Lia for me.”

  “Conrí,” Ambrose said as I turned to go. “The empire will fall.”

  “I know,” I replied impatiently. “I know the prophecy. Anure will die today, and his foul empire with him.”

  “Just remember my words,” Ambrose called after me.

  I waved a hand, skipping the path to leap from boulder to boulder, Vesno bounding before me, the last rowboat of soldiers waiting. The battle rage filled me with heat and boundless energy, and I couldn’t wait to engage. At last at last at last, the vengeful voices of the past chanted in my brain. Like me, they felt the glory of this moment, their voices finally joyful.

  We had won.

  18

  We rowed around the point, joining our small fleet of ships waiting outside the mouth of the bay for the tide to finish and the whirlpool to calm. We might be small in comparison, but our fleet was entirely intact. Like vultures and wild dogs, we’d sail into the wreckage of Anure’s fleet and pick them apart.

  It began to look like we might emerge from this battle not only victorious, but with minor losses. This upset would go down in history.

  We reached Kara’s flagship, climbing the battleship’s steep side via the rope ladder. Kara’s rough hand gripped mine, hauling me up the last bit over the gunwale and onto the deck. He hauled me into an embrace, pounding my back.

  “All hail, Conrí!” he bellowed, releasing me. The sailors and soldiers aboard echoed the cheer, pumping their fists in the air. Kara grinned broadly at me, an expression I’d never seen on his sere and sorrowful face.

  “It’s working!” he shouted to more cheers. “Did you see it?”

  I nodded, taking the long glass he handed me. I would’ve loved to have it on the hill, but Kara had needed it more. The view wasn’t as good from down here, but the chaos was obvious. “I saw. The whirlpool has shredded them. We did it.”

  “You did it, Conrí.” He saluted, then gazed at the turmoil in the bay. “I never thought I’d see this day, when Anure’s entire fleet chewed itself to bits on its own teeth. What’s this?”

  “Vesno.” I patted the wolfhound’s head. He seemed as unbothered by being lifted onto the ship as he’d been balancing in the rowboat. “A gift from the queen,” I added.

  “Where’s Ambrose?”

  “Stayed ashore. He couldn’t be sure which ship Anure is on. It’s up to us to spook him out.”

  Sondra came striding up. Spattered in blood, her hair streaming and eyes bright with murderous glee, she looked like an avenging warrior maiden from the old books. Figured she made it to the flagship first and had already seen hand-to-hand fighting. “Are you sure Anure’s here?”

  “Ambrose said he is. Just being hidden by his wizards. It’s up to us regular humans to flush that bastard out of his hiding spot.”

  She grinned back at me, feral and sharp. “You know how I love a good hunt.”

  “The tide is about out and half the ships are run aground, none in good condition. Let’s go run down our frightened rabbit then,” Kara declared, his grin going as vicious as ours. “A banner day for us, my friend, my king.”

  “Sail on!” I called, inspiring more cheers.

  We sailed into the formerly peaceful bay of Cradysica, our perimeter ships clearing the way with vurgsten-powered gravel to cow any of Anure’s archers still feeling frisky enough to fire at us.

  Some of their cannons fired in our direction. There were so many of them that, even decimated, a few had managed to retain the capacity to fight. Anure was aboard one of those ships, and his fleet would foolishly defend him to the bitter end. We’d see to it that it was bitter indeed.

  “Whichever ships fight hardest, that’s where Anure will be,” I declared. “Focus on those. No reserves. Give them everything we’ve got!”

  My soldiers cheered and obeyed, barraging any ship that dared fire on us, squandering vurgsten in this final push. I only hoped they’d shield the emperor long enough for us to take him alive.

  Kara, however, caught my arm. “No reserves?”

  “This is it, Kara. We’ve won. We need only execute Anure.”

  “They haven’t surrendered.”

  “And they won’t,” I replied impatiently. “Anure is too stubborn.”

  “Or he knows something we don’t.” Kara, always so cautious, frowned at the scene.

  “What can he know?” I waved an arm at the devastation. “Half his fleet is sunk. Another third on the rocks. This is cleanup. We don’t need reserves.”

  “As you say, Conrí.” But he didn’t sound convinced.

  Vicious and persistent as a pack of jackals, we picked at the remnants of their embattled fleet. Our ragtag collection of fishing boats and pleasure yachts gnawed away at the few foundering ships. Our three battleships hung back, peppering them with light fire, mostly to keep them ducking. I didn’t want to accidentally sink Anure’s ship. He was mine.

  Lia would be so fiercely proud when I brought her his head.

  The hunt dragged on. As we sank ships, or captured them, dragging or rowing the derelicts to shore, the knot of the intact fleet grew smaller, reducing the possibilities for Anure’s burrow, but not fast enough. The sun was sinking, shadows growing long. We couldn’t risk losing him to cover of night. “We need to intensify,” I said. “Bring in the remaining battleships.”

  “We’ll need them if Anure somehow slipped away and we have to give chase,” Kara countered. “Regardless, we’re running low on vurgsten and we’ve lost a number of the smaller ships.”

  This shouldn’t have taken so long. I gripped the rail, willing Anure to appear. “Show yourself, you fucking bastard,” I growled. So close.

  “We’ve won this battle, Conrí,” Kara said. “Let’s mop up and—”

  “It’s not won until we have Anure.”

  “Conrí is right,” Sondra chimed in with savage frustration. “Even if I have to drag his corpse from the water, I want to see him dead before we claim victory.”

  “This is a decisive victory,” Kara argued. “Our greatest victory to date.”

  “If night falls and we don’t have him, we’ll have lost him. And we’ll have won the battle to lose the war,” Sondra said. Smoke grimed her skin, and her expression had gone grim.

  “We can’t lose him. Not after all this,” I agreed.

  “If Anure escaped, he’s running scared,” Kara pointed out.
“We drove him away from Calanthe and broke his navy. We can savor winning this battle and have time to plan the final one.”

  “This was meant to be the final one,” I nearly shouted.

  “It won’t be the first time we thought we were closer than we are,” Kara fired back. “Either Anure is already dead, which means the empire will unravel, or he’s escaped. Let’s call this done while we’re ahead.”

  “He’s here. I know it,” I bit out, beyond frustrated. “This could be our only chance. If he burrows back into that citadel, we might never get him out again. This ends now.”

  “Night is falling and outpacing us,” Kara persisted, grit in his voice. “Our current method isn’t fast enough.”

  “We have to draw him out,” Sondra said. “If he’s here, then we need to smoke him out and finish this. I agree, Conrí.”

  If only Ambrose had stuck with me, where he belonged. “Lia might be able to find him,” I mused.

  “Yes.” Sondra nodded, her lusty grin returning. “Seeing her will draw him out.”

  “I meant we could ask her.” I frowned at Sondra.

  “She’s the bait, remember?” She returned the glare. “Conrí, you promised. She is the final weapon. It’s time to wield it. You can’t go soft now. This is our chance. You know that. This is why you claimed the hand with the Abiding Ring, remember? This was foretold. The empire will fall.”

  Sondra was right. We couldn’t let Anure wiggle free. He’d only come back in greater force and we’d never have a chance against him. Now or never. Lia wouldn’t be in danger. Show her to him. Walk her out on the dock, then move her to safety. Easy. “I’ll go to her.”

  “No, Conrí. I will.” She gave me a solemn look. “Trust me to do this. You need to be here, ready to grab Anure when he pokes out his head.”