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“He’s letting us go,” said Kitay. “Hasn’t even sounded the alarm.”
“You think he’s on our side?” Venka asked.
“He’s not,” Rin said flatly. “I know he’s not.”
She knew with certainty that she’d lost Nezha forever. With Jinzha killed and Mingzha long dead, Nezha was the last male heir to the House of Yin. He stood to inherit the most powerful nation this side of the Great Ocean and become the ruler he’d prepared his entire life to be.
Why would he throw that away for a friend? She wouldn’t.
“This is my fault,” she said.
“It’s not your fault,” Kitay said. “We all thought we could trust that bastard.”
“But I think he tried to warn me.”
“What are you talking about? He stabbed you.”
“The night before the fleet came.” She took a deep breath. “He came to find me. He said I had more enemies than I thought I did. I think he was trying to warn me.”
Venka pursed her lips. “Then he didn’t try very hard.”
Two ships with deep builds and slender sides awaited them outside the channel. Both bore the flag of Dragon Province.
“Those are opium skimmers,” Rin said, confused. “Why are they—”
“Those are fake flags. They’re Red Junk ships.” Kitay helped her to her feet as the sampan bumped up against the closest skimmer’s hull. Kitay whistled up at the deck. Several seconds later, four ropes dropped into the water around them.
Venka fastened them to hooks on the four sides of the sampan. Kitay whistled again, and slowly they began to rise.
“Moag sends her regards.” Sarana winked at Rin as she helped her aboard. “We got your message. Figured you’d want a ride farther south. Just didn’t think things would get this bad.”
Rin was both deeply relieved and frankly amazed that the Lilies had come for her at all. She couldn’t remember why she’d ever hated Sarana; right now she only wanted to kiss her. “So you decided to pick a fight with a giant?”
“You know how Moag is. Always wants to snatch up trump cards, especially when they’ve been tossed out.”
“Did Gurubai make it?” Kitay asked.
“The Monkey Warlord? Yes, he’s belowdecks. Little bit bloodied up, but he’ll be fine.” Sarana’s gaze landed on Rin’s wrapped hand. “Tiger’s tits. What’s under there?”
“You don’t want to see,” Rin said.
“Do you have a physician on board?” Kitay asked. “I have triage training otherwise, but I’ll need equipment—boiling water, bandages—”
“Downstairs. I’ll take her.” Sarana put her arm around Rin and helped her across the deck.
Rin glanced over her shoulder as they walked, peering at the receding cliffs. It seemed incredible that they had not been followed out of the channel. Vaisra certainly knew she’d escaped by now. Troops should be pouring out of the barracks. She’d be surprised if the entire city weren’t put under lockdown. The Hesperians would scour the city, the cliffs, and the waters until they had her back in custody.
But the Red Junk skimmers were so clearly visible under the moonlight. They hadn’t bothered to hide. Hadn’t even turned their lamps off.
She stumbled over a bump in the floor panels.
“All right there?” Sarana asked.
“They’re going to catch us,” Rin said. Everything felt so idiotically meaningless—her escape, Ramsa’s death, the river rendezvous. The Hesperians were going to board them in an hour. What was the point?
“Don’t underestimate an opium skimmer,” said Sarana.
“Your fastest skimmer couldn’t outrun a Hesperian warship,” Rin said.
“Probably not. But we have a little time. Command miscommunications always happen when you have two armies and leaders who aren’t familiar with each other. The Hesperians don’t know it’s not a Republican ship and the Republicans won’t know if the Hesperians have given permission to fire, or if they even need it. Everyone assumes that someone else is taking care of it.”
Sarana’s plan was to escape through command chain inefficiency. Rin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “That doesn’t buy you escape, it buys you maybe half an hour.”
“Sure.” Sarana pointed to the other skimmer. “Thus the second ship.”
“What is that, a decoy?”
“Pretty much. We stole the idea from Vaisra,” Sarana said cheerfully. “In a second we’re going to cloak all of our abovedeck lights, but that ship’s going to posture like it’s ready for a fight. It’s rigged up with twice the firepower of a usual skimmer. They won’t get close enough to board, so they’ll be forced to blow it out of the water.”
That was clever, Rin thought. If the Hesperians didn’t notice the second skimmer escaping into the night, they might conclude that she’d drowned.
“Then what about its crew?” she asked. “That thing is crewed, right? You’re just going to sacrifice Lilies?”
Sarana’s smile looked carved into her face. “Cheer up. With luck, they’ll think it’s you.”
The Lilies’ physician laid Rin’s hand on a table, gingerly unwrapped it, and took a sharp breath when she saw the damage. “You sure you don’t want any sedatives?”
“No.” Rin twisted her head around to face the wall. The look on the physician’s face was worse than the sight of her mangled fingers. “Just fix it.”
“If you move, I’ll have to sedate you,” the physician warned.
“I won’t.” Rin clenched her teeth. “Just give me a gag. Please.”
The physician barely looked older than Sarana, but she acted with practiced, efficient movements that set Rin slightly more at ease.
First she doused the wounds with some kind of clear alcohol that stung so badly that Rin nearly bit through the cloth. Then she stitched together the places where the flesh had split apart to reveal the bone. Rin’s hand was already stinging so badly from the alcohol that it almost masked the pain, but the sight of the needle dipping repeatedly into her flesh made her so nauseated she had to stop in the middle to dry-heave.
At last, the physician prepared to set the bones. “You’ll want to hold on to something.”
Rin grasped the edge of the chair with her good hand. Without warning, the physician pressed down.
Rin’s eyes bulged open. She couldn’t stop her legs from kicking madly at the air. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“You’re doing well,” the physician murmured as she tied a cloth splint over the set hand. “The worst part’s over.”
She pressed Rin’s hand between two wooden planks and tied them together with several loops of twine to render the hand immobile. Rin’s fingers were splayed outward, frozen in position.
“See how that feels,” said the physician. “I’m sorry it looks so clumsy. I can build you something more lightweight, but it’ll take a few days, and I don’t have the supplies on the ship.”
Rin raised the splint to her eyes. Between the planks she could see only the tips of her fingers. She tried to wiggle her fingers, but she couldn’t tell if they were obeying her or not.
