“Aiko. The black-haired vampire. Child, he doesn’t find you a burden at all.”
“But your fucking brother has made it out to be.” I snapped. “He acts like I’m raising the Spine all over again! It’s who I am, and he just can’t get over that!”
The words rang across the roof and disappeared into the quiet night. I finally dared to look over at the king, and he had quirked an eyebrow.
“My brother is an asshole,” he stated, resting his butt against the retaining wall. “He’s been an asshole for a long time. Now, imagine what his son and wife were like if he’s this much of a dick. The truth is, Niallan and Violet turned on him. He and Violet were young, and Niallan was a shock. She wanted more than he could give, and Savion’s schemes were the answer to that.” He folded his arms and looked up at the sky. “I don’t believe that Violet and Niallan ever knew what Savion did with the women and children they took. But the fact was, they were abetting this horrible ring that Savion set up. And then Savion tricked Niniane into making him king, and Violet just saw the lap of luxury with him.”
“Did she…betray Dorian?”
“You mean, was she fucking Savion?”
Belshazzar clearly didn’t mince words. I nodded.
“I don’t know. For my brother’s sake, I want to say no. For realism’s sake, I think she was.”
It hit me like a train. “He doesn’t want me asking Aiko for anything because he’s afraid of this all turning into Violet and Niallan again. That I’ll betray him in some way, either his trust or his bed.”
The king nodded once.
“So it doesn’t matter what I am, because he’s not figuring that into his equations. He is just being a possessive ass because he’s been hurt.”
“Scarred, my dear princess. You and I don’t know what it’s like to have a child, but we can both imagine what it would be like to be completely betrayed by something we helped create.”
He cocked his head and considered me for a moment. “You love Dorian?”
I grunted, sounding more like my bedmate than I cared to admit. “Despite my best efforts.”
“You believe he loves you.”
“Despite his best efforts.”
Belshazzar chuckled. “You suit each other. And the twins?”
“It’s one big happy harem.” I sighed.
“So convince the idiot that your dark vampire isn’t taking anything away. He’s not replacing anything. He’s just going to add to the four of you.”
The king looked back up at the sky again, and we stood quietly, just letting the stars whirl by in the growing dark. S’Kir was going to bed, and a sleepiness was falling over the city.
It had only been a little over ten weeks since I’d broken the Spine, but it felt like an eternity. It would take years to rebuild what Savion—and now Niniane—had done to the land.
Gleaming white buildings were great piles of ash. Families were torn apart by death. The temple had been brought to its knees. The druids of S’Kir were not fond of our newfound vampire allies.
Standing there, looking at the rubble, I felt like I hadn’t just broken the Spine but broken all of S’Kir, as well.
Belshazzar sighed. “How are you going to manage four dicks at a time, anyway?”
The king had a lot of trouble not rushing through the gap of the Chasm to find his queen. The energy had him vibrating.
I stared at the Chasm forlornly. I missed my cave. I missed going in there and feeling the raw, untainted power that S’Kir offered. I missed feeling like it was speaking to me.
“Are you all right, mistress?” Aiko whispered to me.
“Aiko, you don’t want to be here,” I said. “The king is a little… angry.”
“We don’t want you here alone with him,” Rilen said from my other side. “I know what Dorian was like when you were missing.”
Belshazzar tossed a look at us and turned back to the chasm. “Will they shoot at us if we go through?”
“No, they won’t,” Vitas said, staring. His eyes were wild, almost mad, and the image of his mate having her head sliced off flashed through my mind. “It seems that the contingent of the guard that was assigned here ran the instant they heard Savion was dead.”
“Instead,” Odom added, “they have fields of incendiary explosives.”
“Minefields?” Belshazzar asked.
“Your fields?” Odom asked.
He growled. “Mine-fields are fields with mines planted. Mines are explosive disks.”
“Then yes, yourfields,” Odom answered.
“General,” Aiko said, clearing his throat. “They’re called minefields where the king is from, I believe.”
“Stupid name,” Odom said.
I chuckled. “I think we agree that racing through there is a bad idea, yes? No matter what the other end is called.” I glanced at Lunella. “The Void?”
“Still in place as you had it,” she said. “As well as the galena lines, up and down the scar.”
“Galena?” Belshazzar asked, staring at me.
“Lead, Your Highness. Unrefined, far safer to transport and handle than refined.”
“Why would you?”
He stared at me.
Dorian chuckled. He was going to make an asshole comment. I could feel it.
“You don’t even know your own limits,” he said.
“There it is,” I mumbled.
He glared at me, trying to frighten me. I didn’t react. I just stared back.
How in the name of the Spine was it possible to both love and hate that man? Because I did. I loved him and hated him. And for the past few days, I also wanted to kick him. Hard.
“So we’re just going to stand here?” Bel snapped.
“Absolutely,” Odom said.
“Can we… can we try to figure out what Niniane would do?” I asked. “Odom, Aiko, you know the land and the vampires. What would she do with a prisoner as valuable as Gwen?”
“Hide her,” Odom said.
Aiko nodded. “Definitely. Her goal isn’t to kill her. It’s to kill the king. She’ll come after Dorian, too, and anyone else who might be a threat to her, personally. If she could, she’d go after all the mated and paired men.”
“She believes that all men are like Savion,” I whispered.
“Gwen is bait,” Belshazzar said.
“She is,” I said. “Do you see that it was unwise for you to rush the chasm?”
“Don’t chide me, girl,” he snapped.
Rilen took a step forward, and I held him off with a wave of my hand. I didn’t need these men playing knights in shining armor.
“I wasn’t chiding you, highness. I was pointing out the flaw in a plan thought of in the heat of the moment. We’re dealing with someone who is absolutely insane. There’s no rhyme or reason to her thinking, even if she does appear to be in control of her faculties. Savion was the same. He appeared…normal. Sane.”
“I can assure you, after so many years of Blood Rites, he was not,” Odom said.
“I think that’s an understatement,” Dorian said.
I stared down the Chasm. “We’re not going that way,” I said.
“It’s the most direct way through,” Staviz said.
“Of course it is,” I said. “She’ll have guards on it. We also can’t use the south passage. She’ll have that guarded.”
“North?” Rilen asked.
“I don’t think that’ll work,” Odom said. “The campaign led there was successful, so she’ll have that watched.”
I looked at Aiko, who grimaced and shook his head. “Oh, no. No. Kimber, you can’t possibly…”
“She doesn’t know how you and I escaped,” I answered. “It’s the best way to go.”
“Wait, what are you talking about?” Belshazzar looked between Aiko and me.
“We have to go by boat,” I said.
Aiko groaned. “I hate boats.”
“Boat?” the king asked.
“A small vessel, nothing large,�
� I said to Staviz. “Something we can take out of Summer Landing.”
“South, mistress?” Staviz asked.
“We can dodge around the armies she might have there if we swing out to Summer Landing and head out around Southling Caye. We can sail up Niallan’s Spit, and that will drop us...”
I froze.
Niallan’s Spit.
It was the arm of the southern ocean that dove inland and up, from the maps I had seen in the Stronghold. It was a trade route from years ago, and I realized that it would have been used...
Dorian was staring at me.
Belshazzar was also staring at me.
“It was the smuggler’s route, wasn’t it? That’s why it was called Niallan’s Spit. It’s not a nice name, it’s not mean to honor him at all. It’s meant to remind people of what happened, and even that’s been forgotten.”
“I guess it has,” Dorian said.
I took a deep breath. “Staviz, do we have a xebec?”
“A zeh-what?” Rilen asked.
“A xebec. It’s a three-mast ship that should be able to transport the lot of us quickly and without looking like one of the warships we have,” I answered. “It can look like a long-range fishing vessel if you don’t know what you’re looking for.”
“And the vampires generally don’t,” Aiko said. “Not the army, anyway. We didn’t use the ocean. I hate the water.”
“I don’t know if we have a captain,” Staviz said.
“I can handle it, as long as people listen to my direction on deck,” I said.
Belshazzar and Dorian stared at me. Rilen and Roran snickered. Aiko just grimaced.
“You can handle a three-masted ship?” Odom asked.
“I can handle a massive galleon,” I answered. “My father loved the water and the ships that sailed it. He taught me how to sail all kinds of ships. The xebec will be simple.” I bit my lip. “But everyone has to listen to me. Otherwise, we can run aground or break apart on the rocks at the Gate.”
“We don’t have navigation maps of the waters in the south,” Odom said.
“I can handle it,” I said.
“This’ll get us to Gwen?” Bel asked.
“We’ll have to find her once we get there, but I’m sure that it won’t be that hard to find out where the insane queen has hidden her.”
Aiko sighed. “Lady Stormbreaker is right. This is going to be the best way to get to the queen without fighting battles on the Scar.”
Belshazzar looked at each of us. “So where is this Summer Landing place?”
12
KIMBER
Rilen and the king had a hand over their mouths, desperately trying not to laugh. Roran’s jaw was gaping open. Aiko’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head, and Dorian looked absolutely furious.
“What the fuck are you dressed as?”
I folded my arms. “You cannot possibly expect me to captain a ship in a gown. Admiral Featherstone suggested I wear something that allowed me to move with ease and not get caught on every piece of rigging and cracked wood.” I looked down and smoothed my coat. “I feel rather handsome, really.”
“Excuse me,” Rilen coughed and ran into the galley.
Aiko’s eyes darted after him and back to me and back to Rilen and back to me. Belshazzar started laughing, hard, and walked to the bow of the ship, trying not to trip over his own feet. I could hear him gasping for air.
Dorian’s scowl grew. “You cannot wear a military uniform—”
“I am. Already,” I said. “The Admiral sent it.”
“The Admiral—”
I squared my shoulders and stood up straight. “I can sail this boat like no one else, Dorian. You know that. My father made sure that I could handle the water. If we want the queen back, soon and in one piece, this is the best and fastest way to move toward that goal. Stop thinking you can tell me what I can wear or how I can act, and get your ass over to the mizzen mast and get ready to heave-to to hoist the canvas and get us underway.”
The look on his face was worth it. I wished we had those cameras that Gwynnore had mentioned so I could freeze and remember the utter shock and horror on Dorian’s face the moment I put him to work on the ship I was commanding.
Roran was desperately trying not to laugh at him. I pointed to the front where Belshazzar was still trying to calm down. “Go. Bowsprit. No square rigs, just the fore lateen.”
“What… what language is that?” Roran choked on the words and laughter.
“It’s nautical! Get used to it!” I whipped my sword out and snapped the flat of it across his ass. “Go! We need to catch the tide!” I pointed to Aiko still standing there, dumbfounded. “Get Rilen back on deck, whether or not he’s done with his masturbation session, and get to the main mast.”
“Oh, I like this version of you, Lady Stormbreaker,” Roran said, sauntering by and running a hand down my arm. “I like it a lot.”
“You’ll walk the plank if you don’t get to the bow!”
“Dorian, you need to get over yourself before we’re all below decks dealing with our own hoisted masts.”
At that point, I couldn’t be sure that the king wasn’t going to collapse from lack of air for his laughter.
I shook my head and walked over to the gangway. Staviz was waiting for me halfway down, and he was definitely choking back some laughter of his own. “Are you sure you don’t want Jallina or Jennila to go with you? That’s an awful lot of male you have on board.”
I did laugh that time. “You aren’t kidding at all, General. We’ll be fine. We can’t really spare anyone else, and you’ve all been doing beautifully without us. Let Jallina speak in my place, and let Vitas and Ophelia speak for them.”
“Vitas?” Staviz was right in questioning that.
“He’s better, even if he still seems insane. He’ll make good decisions because he’s not arrogant. Whereas Bebbenel…”
“If I could find a way to send him through the Shroud permanently, I would,” the general said.
“Exactly.”
“May the gods of the temple smile on all of you,” he said, holding out a hand.
“And may the temple be always in their grace,” I answered, shaking his hand. “We’ll be back as fast as we can, General.”
“Fair winds, Lady Stormbreaker.”
I walked back up, and the small contingent of our navy pulled back the gangway as I slid the gate back in place and locked it. “Cast off!” I yelled to the sailors at the bottom of the dock.
The lines were unwound and thrown at the ship. Belshazzar magically caught them and pulled them in, and Roran did the same at the back of the ship, coiling them cleanly and stacking them neatly against the hull.
The tide had turned just a half an hour before and had finally picked up enough speed to pull us away from the dock and out toward the open water.
Aiko and I had sat down and done our best with the old navigation maps that we had on this side of the scar. There weren’t many, and any sand bars we’d seen marked were probably long gone and moved to a new place. We both decided it was better to go out a bit further and catch tradewinds and the current that swung up from the even warmer waters to the south.
Belshazzar found his way to the wheel, and just stood with me, watching the land to our left become smaller and smaller.
“Where did you learn to sail? And fight? You’re full of surprises.”
“My father,” I answered.
“I thought…”
“Savion is my sire. He had no part of raising me. I had my natural mother for just a few years. My parents, the Ravens, the Keepers of the Rest, raised me. My father was a swordmaster and loved the water. I was their only child, and he taught me everything he knew. About the sword, about the ocean. How to sail, how to fish, how to be a good and kind person. They taught me how to keep the Rest and how to keep a house and smiled the day I went to university to be a teacher. They were there the day I took the vows of the acolyte at the Temple.”
>
I took a deep breath. “I hope I never forget the years I had my parents. No matter how old I get, no matter how long I live. My father’s last act was to save my life as he was pulled down with a boat in the Western Sea.” I looked at the king standing there, watching me. “Seven hundred years he sailed the waters, tamed them, and in the end, they turned on him and took his and my mother’s life in payment.”
I pointed out at the great open ocean ahead of us. “Respect it, first. Fear it, second.”
“And never think that it cares one whit about you,” Aiko said softly from my other side. “It certainly didn’t on our trip around the Scar.”
Belshazzar glanced at me, then up to his brother at the bow and back to me. “If their last name was Raven, how are you Lady Stormbreaker? It’s been a long fucking time since I’ve been here, but I know that name.”
“My natural mother. Celine Stormbreaker.”
“Celine…” he whispered. “Savion wanted her in the worst ways.”
I snapped my eyes to his. “Well, he got her in the worst way. And got her with me.”
He turned and looked further south, then back to me. “You know how your family got that name?”
“I know exactly nothing about my natural mother’s family,” I said. “It was a miracle I even got her name.”
“Your great-grandfather, Jaikor,” he said. “Damn fucking strong druid. Tons of magic. He loved the water, like your adoptive father. His fleet was caught up in a massive storm, and a huge rogue wave came up on them. He used his magic to cleave it in half, and the magic went up and up, and pulled the storm apart, leaving the fleet sitting in the sunset in a calm sea. They didn’t lose a single soul. He was Stormbreaker ever after that.”
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