He ran a hand through his hair, frowning. “I know we’re out of our depth here, Ritsuko. But there’s no one I’d rather have with me than you, just now. So keep it together like you always do, and we’ll be fine.”
• • •
AN HOUR LATER, night was full upon them. The half-moon shone weakly through the thick cloud cover. Mikani scanned the woods and distant shoreline, seeking any sign of life. Ferro and Ritsuko stood at his back, probably doing the same. Or the first mate might be looking for someone to shoot; he had an angry look to him.
“Hells and Winter.” It’d be just our bloody luck if the bastards all go to bed at sundown, weary from a long night of pillage and murder.
“I can’t see a damn’d thing so far . . . trees, dark trees, and very dark trees.”
He spun as the other man moved off to climb atop a grouping of boulders for a better vantage. Then Ferro drew a spyglass from his pack and peered through it in all directions. He’s likely got the best eyes of us all. Mikani waited to hear if the first mate had found anything.
When the mate jumped down without speaking, he thought it was a negative, until Ferro jerked his head toward the east. “They’re inland, past the first valley. I can make out some lights, but we need to get closer to learn anything useful. Get moving and keep your traps shut.”
“You’re a charmer, Ferro.” Mikani stretched and looked down the hunting path. “We might as well follow it down. Be wary of snares, but we shouldn’t run into any hunters in the middle of the night.” He started down, Ritsuko close behind and Ferro bringing up the rear.
They made slow progress in the dark. At times, they joined hands to feel their way from tree to tree, with more than one stumble into the bushes. Bronze gods; we might as well have brought in a battalion, as much bloody racket as we’re making. He hoped to be across the valley and on the opposite hillside before daylight.
The trek back should be faster. And they won’t expect anyone to be daft enough to come at them over the mountains.
It wasn’t a direct line, either. The path carried them deeper into the forest, and Ferro said, “We’re getting off course. We’ll have to go cross-country from here.”
There was probably a better route, but they didn’t know it, so Mikani had to follow Ferro’s sense of direction. He had little experience in woodcraft, so it was best not to pretend otherwise. The first mate took the lead, forging through tangled bushes and over fallen limbs down toward the southern coast. The Gull had dropped them off on the inhospitable northern side of the narrow peninsula. The many crags and hidden valleys made it a perfect hiding spot for raiders.
Mikani followed Ferro’s bony back until he was heartily sick of being smacked with branches released a little too early. At last he stepped out onto the smooth sand of the beach along the shore of the Kraken Sea. Ritsuko was looking tired, but she didn’t complain; she only took a swig of water from her canteen. Ferro got out his compass, apparently doing a little figuring. Then he sighed.
“That took us a little out of our way, and by my reckoning, we’re six or seven miles off. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s mostly uphill.”
Mikani peered along the coast, to the east. “Looks like we have a couple hours until dawn, at most. Let’s get back to the tree line but keep the beach in sight. If we spot any boats, we can hide, but at least it’ll keep us going the right way until it’s light enough that we can head back into the hills.”
“Is this area purely populated by craggers?” Ritsuko asked.
“No one else is mad enough to try.” Ferro checked his rifle, as if the mere mention of the raiders might summon them forth. “They’ve villages and hamlets scattered all along the shores of the Jagged Coast and Kraken Sea. Near as anyone can tell, they live off fishing, hunting, and whatever they can steal from ships that stray too close to their land.”
“I dunno. This land has a certain charm, Mikani.” She flashed him a teasing smile. “You could build me the country cottage you promised. The terrain is right for . . . goats. And possibly a kitchen garden for all the lovely meals you’ll cook.”
Even without reading her, he could tell she was still frightened. It was strong enough that it washed over him whether he willed it or not, but she definitely wasn’t letting on. That’s the spirit, partner.
“With my luck, even the local goats are bloodthirsty beasts. And damned if I’m getting on a boat every time you want to go to town.”
“No? Very well then.” Ritsuko turned to Ferro, and said, “Lead on, sir. I’d like to finish this adventure before it gets light enough for them to see us making our escape.”
Ferro raised a brow, as if he couldn’t understand why this woman treated him with such courtesy, no matter how curt he acted toward her. With a puzzled shrug, the first mate set off northeast along the shore. He established a quick pace, navigating driftwood and tumbles of rock, though the terrain was much gentler on this side. Mikani watched the sky lighten, and it felt as if they were racing the horizon. If the sun’s fully up by the time we find a better vantage on the settlement, none of us will see Dorstaad again.
He wished it were feasible to chart the town’s location and withdraw, but the Houses couldn’t mount an attack without a better idea of what was waiting for them. So that meant they needed to do more recon; they needed a rough ship count in and around the docks, and a general sense of the craggers’ forces. While it might not be completely accurate, it was a good deal more than they could learn standing on a hillside, where trees obscured the port. As if he shared that thought, Ferro increased his speed, bounding along the sand with impressive stamina. His course carried the group up into the hills, past the tree line, and the mate finally paused on a rise.
Lights glimmered here and there in the valley below, likely fishermen and bakers who had to get an early start. Ferro got out his spyglass, focusing—so far as Mikani could tell—on the harbor. He didn’t interfere with the other man’s attempt to count ships. They might not all be docked at the moment, but even this much information was more than anyone had managed to acquire so far. He spun slowly, keeping watch.
“There are three dozen ships in port.” Ferro sounded shaken.
Ritsuko pushed out a breath. “So many? That’s practically an armada. I had no idea the craggers were so numerous or so well organized.”
“At least a couple of thousand men, then. Even with—” Mikani took the spyglass when Ferro tossed it at him. He shook his head and scanned the port below.
Hells and Winter.
After completing his assessment, he understood Ferro’s reaction. The man wasn’t given to false alarm. “They’re not just raider ships. They have a few heavy steamers and at least three warships. They must’ve captured a few Magnus frigates.” He gave the glass back. “They have a few more in the inlet just on the other side of town. Another dozen, maybe.” He shook his head. “I don’t think anyone’s ever seen this many craggers cooperating before. It’s a city down there.”
“This is . . . worse than I expected,” Ritsuko said softly. “I was prepared for bad, but this is people preparing for war.”
“Agreed,” Ferro said. “It may well take the combined fleets of Magnus, Thorgrim, and Skarsgard to burn these bastards out of here.”
She sighed. “That’s assuming they believe us. If I were safe and sound in the city, and someone brought me this tale, I’d want some hard evidence. Ideas?”
The mate shook his head. “Can’t think of anything other than my word that I saw it with my own eyes. And I’m inclined to shank the man who calls me a liar.”
“We need more information,” she said.
“Well. We could go down to the local tavern, tip the tender.” Mikani glimpsed more and more buildings as the sky brightened. “But I’m not sure they’d be forthcoming. So let’s find an isolated farmstead or goat herder, and we’ll ask them, instead.”
“Right.” Ferro’s tone was scornful. “They’ll just answer us to be friendly.”
Ritsuko answered, “He’s got a way with people. I’ll know if they’re telling the truth.”
The first mate seemed to take a second look at her, but it was too dark for Mikani to read Ferro’s expression. “That so? You’re more interesting than I first thought, wench.”
“You don’t know the half of it, man. Now shut your trap, and let’s get moving.”
CHAPTER 10
THE PATH FROM TOWN WAS BETTER KEPT THAN THE GAME TRAIL, which told Ritsuko it was more frequently used. She crouched lower, hoping the party they’d seen heading up this way wouldn’t spot her too soon. Her companions were still and silent in the blind, leafy fronds cloaking their presence. The occasional dry limb crackled some distance away, an indication that the targets were drawing closer.
At length, Mikani touched her arm, which she took as the signal to strike. She pushed through the branches and cocked her weapon, confident that the other two would do the same. And on either side, Mikani had his sidearm out while Mr. Ferro favored his rifle. The men from the cragger settlement were dressed and equipped like hunters; there were three, two older, one younger, likely an apprentice.
We did well to find even odds.
“Good morning, gents. We’d like a word.” Mikani kept his pistol trained on the taller, burlier man while carefully stepping closer. When the thinner raider reached for a knife, her partner cocked the hammer of his gun.
“Don’t. On your knees, if you please. We don’t want you getting stupid ideas while we chat.” He kicked the nearest man behind the knee, just hard enough to send him sprawling; the other two eased to their knees nervously.
The younger one looks no older than fifteen.
Mr. Ferro held his rifle at the ready. She stepped closer, as Mikani holstered his pistol and crouched before the bigger man. Before speaking, he restrained the three captives by binding their wrists behind their backs. At a gesture, the first mate aimed his rifle, likely to make the point about how fast he could shoot one of them.
“I ask. You answer, yes or no. Simple, easy, and we all head off at the end.” Ritsuko had explained to Mikani that she needed simple answers the better to use her truth-sense, so he was playing this just right. “We don’t have a lot of time. Is your fleet larger than the forty-odd ships we saw in port?”
The three exchanged a look, then the biggest one muttered, “Sod off.”
Mikani responded with a brutal right cross to the hunter’s jaw. The man spat blood, red trickling down his lips, and Ritsuko suspected he must’ve bitten his tongue. Don’t beat him until he can’t speak, partner. It was . . . unnerving to see how brutal Mikani could be without even seeming angry. She understood the urge to fight to defend . . . or even hitting someone in a fit of temper, but this seemed darker.
“Are there more than forty ships? If you choose not to answer, I might get bored. The young one might prove less resistant.”
Ritsuko caught the flare of alarm in the older man’s eyes. They have a bond, then. Father and son, perhaps. No father worth the name could stand to see his child suffer, so this was probably a bluff. It is, right? She realized she wasn’t sure if Mikani would rough up a kid to get the information they needed. How . . . surprising.
“Yeah, there’s more . . . more than enough to shove all you bastards right off Winter at last, and good riddance.”
Truth. And I don’t need Mikani’s ability to tell he’s furious.
“And that’s your main port, down there?” she asked.
“We have men and ships up and down the Jagged Coast, you whoreson.” Mikani raised his gun and pointed it at the boy’s temple. The man bucked in his restraints, so Mikani had to push him back. “You leave him be! Yes, that’s our main port . . . the high king gathered us there.”
Truth. High king? Ritsuko had never heard the term.
Mikani hadn’t, either, to judge by the expression on his face. “Who’s . . . no. This high king, then, he’s the one ordering all the attacks?”
“He’s trying to save the world,” the boy said defiantly. “The elementals—”
“Stop talking.” The second hunter spoke for the first time, a growled warning to the bigger man. “Hrothgar will gut you like a fish for what you’ve said today. Don’t make it worse.”
“Worse than gutting me?” The big hunter laughed. “Don’t see how it could be.”
“He could behead your boy, too—a blight for the traitor’s seed. His line shall not prosper.”
Truth. Ritsuko suppressed a shiver. The cragger code was apparently harsh, brutal, and unforgiving. Unfortunately, the man’s words had done their damage. Their helpful hostage went quiet. Mikani paced with a growl of frustration.
“If you’re not talking to me, I have no use for you,” he said quietly. “The deal was, you walk away if you answer my questions. It’d be a lot simpler for us to shoot you.”
“I like that plan,” Mr. Ferro said.
Ritsuko didn’t, but she hoped Mikani was bluffing, though the first mate’s words rang unmistakably honest. She’d killed her first man only a few weeks back and was uncomfortable with casual violence. Yet she didn’t speak for fear of interrupting whatever game Mikani was running. She felt pretty sure that the first mate wouldn’t be unhappy about putting bullets in the lot of them, even the boy.
“Do your worst.” The second hunter wore a defiant expression.
“Do you have a family?” she asked.
The boy’s eyes widened. She hadn’t been asking him, but from his expression, it was clear he had relatives in town. As for the older men, they didn’t speak or meet her gaze, but she had the youngest hunter’s attention. She might be able to use his expressive face against him. He wasn’t answering in words, but his emotions were clear.
“Your mother’s back in town, isn’t she?”
“Don’t say anything,” his father cautioned.
But he didn’t have to. She could tell by the kid’s worried look that she’d guessed correctly. “She’ll be mad with grief if you don’t return, and she never learns what’s become of you. But if you have brothers, she won’t be inconsolable. That’s the advantage of a large family.”
“I don’t have any,” the boy whispered.
“There’s no reason for this to end badly,” she went on. “You’re afraid of this high king, but why does he need to know what happened here? Your mother would prefer for you to come home safe and sound rather than die for someone else’s code.”
“You don’t know Gert,” the biggest one muttered.
The boy chewed his lip. “She doesn’t much like Hrothgar. She says his overweening ambition will doom us all.”
Truth. If I can keep the kid thinking of his mother and how much she disapproves of this high king, he’ll decide it’s better to please her. And to survive.
“I’m sure she’s a clever woman, your mum. She must have reasons for feeling that way. Do you think she’d want you to die on this hill on your knees? For a man she despises?”
“No. The high king’s behind everything—why we’re building our navy and why strikes have increased. He says—” But before the boy could finish the babbled confession, the second hunter slammed his head sideways, knocking the kid backward with a painful clack of skulls.
Mr. Ferro fired without warning, putting a bullet in the instigator. He fell, blood spreading across his chest. From what Ritsuko knew of anatomy, it looked like a clean shot through the heart. The boy was dazed, though, not wholly conscious, as that had been a hell of a headbutt.
That hunter would absolutely have reported that breach of trust. So it’s probably best for these two that he’s dead.
“Hells and Winter.” Mikani kicked the bigger man down prone, and glared at Mr. Ferro. “They probably heard that all the way in town. The kid’s not going to do any more talking, and I think the big guy’d rather take his chances with us than this Hrothgar.”
“We got what we needed.” Mr. Ferro was anything but apologetic. “So let’s cut their throats a
nd head out.” The first mate reached for his knife, but Mikani stopped him with a look and a shake of the head.
“Two things. One, if they need to tend to their wounded, whoever finds this lot will have to leave some men behind.” Mikani stepped over to the struggling hunter, and brought his boot down with a sickening crunch on the man’s knee. His scream of pain echoed through the hills. “And two, we need to move.”
Her partner pointed down the path. Fifteen or twenty men were coming into sight, jogging up the hillside. They didn’t seem to have spotted them yet, but the cry of pain had them moving toward the wounded hunters. The boy had blood trickling from a cut on his brow, and he still looked dazed. So we’ve got a stunned kid, a dead man, and a crippled one. She found it hard to see them as enemies at the moment, as part of the vicious, brutal raiders who had attacked the Gull a few days before. They just looked like beaten men, and she felt like a villain.
She stumbled back a few steps. It had taken most of the night to get here, and the return trip showed signs of being equally harrowing even though it would occur in daylight. Mostly because they’ll be hunting us every step of the way. Mikani and Mr. Ferro were already on the move. Ritsuko sighed, and with a final, remorseful look at the men on the ground, she followed.
This information had better be worth it.
• • •
MIKANI BATTED ASIDE branches and stumbled over rocks as they ran. He heard Ritsuko close behind. I trust that she can keep up. She’s resourceful enough . . . and if I look back, I’ll probably fall into a bloody crevasse, the way this bastard’s leading us.
They cut straight up the hill and toward the cliffs, hoping the thick-wooded terrain would keep their pursuers from following their trail as easily. But after an hour of running through nettles and bushes, Mikani was about ready to take his chances facing the craggers head-on just to be done with the stumbling.
“I can’t hear them anymore.” Ritsuko sounded short of breath but not quite winded yet.
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