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“And go where?” she asked. “And do what?”
What did Vaisra promise you? You must know you’re being used.
Rin knew that. She’d always known that. But maybe she needed to be used. Maybe she needed someone to tell her when, and who, to fight. She needed someone to give her orders and a purpose.
Vaisra was the first person in a long, long time who had made her feel stable enough to see a point in staying alive. And if he died here, it was on her.
“Are you insane?” Chaghan shouted. “You want to live, you fucking hide.”
“Then you hide. I’m fighting.” Rin wrenched her wrists from his grasp and pushed him away. She used more force than she’d meant to; she’d forgotten he was so thin. He stumbled backward, tripped on a rock, and toppled to the ground.
“You’re crazy,” he said.
“We’re all crazy,” she muttered as she jumped over his sprawled form and set off at a run toward the council room.
Imperial guards had swarmed the council chamber, pressing steadily in against the two-man army that was Suni and Baji. The Warlords had scattered from their seats. The Hare Warlord huddled against the wall, the Rooster Warlord crouched quivering under the table, and the young Tiger Warlord was curled in a corner, head pressed between his knees as blades clashed inches from his head.
Rin faltered at the doors. She couldn’t call the fire now. She didn’t have enough control to target her flames. If she lit up the room, she’d kill everyone in it.
“Here!” Baji kicked a sword toward her. She scooped it up and jumped into the fray.
Vaisra wasn’t dead. He fought at the center of the room, battling both Jun and the Wolf Meat General. For a second it seemed like he might hold them off. He wielded his blade with a ferocious strength and precision that was stunning to watch.
But he was still only one man.
“Watch out!” Rin screamed.
The Wolf Meat General tried to catch Vaisra off guard. Vaisra spun about and disarmed him with a savage kick to the knee. Chang En dropped to the ground, howling. Vaisra reeled back from the kick, trying to regain his balance, and Jun took the opening to push his blade through Vaisra’s shoulder.
Baji barreled into Jun’s side and tackled him to the ground. Rin ran forward to catch Vaisra just as he crumpled to the floor; blood spilled over her arms, hot and wet and slippery, and she was astounded by how much of it there was.
“Are you— Please, are you—”
She prodded frantically around his chest, trying to stanch the blood with her palm. She could barely see the wound, his torso was so slick with blood, but finally her fingers pressed against the entry point in his right shoulder. Not a vital spot.
She dared to hope. If they acted quickly he might still live. But first they had to get out.
“Suni!” she shrieked.
He appeared instantly at her side. She pushed Vaisra into his arms. “Take him.”
Suni slung Vaisra over his shoulders the way one might carry a calf and elbowed his way toward the exit. Baji followed closely, guarding their rear.
Rin picked her way past Jun’s limp form. She didn’t know if he was dead or alive, but that didn’t matter now. She ducked under a guard’s arm and followed her men out, over the threshold and toward the closest well.
She leaned over the side and screamed Aratsha’s name into the dark surface.
Nothing. There was no time to wait for Aratsha’s response; he was there or he wasn’t, and Daji’s guards were feet away. All she could do was plunge into the water, hold her breath, and pray.
Aratsha answered.
Rin fought the urge to flail inside the pitch-black irrigation channels—that would only make it harder for Aratsha to propel her through the water—and instead focused on taking deep and measured breaths in the pocket of air that enveloped her head. Still, she couldn’t ward off the clenching fear that the air would run out. Already she could feel the warmth of her own stale breath.
She broke the surface. She clawed her way up the riverbank and collapsed, chest heaving as she sucked in fresh air. Seconds later Suni exploded out of the water, depositing Vaisra on the shore before climbing up himself.
“What happened?” Nezha came running up to them, followed closely by Eriden and his guard. His eyes landed on his father. “Is he—”
“Alive,” Rin said. “If we’re quick.”
Nezha turned to the two closest soldiers. “Get my father on the ship.”
They hoisted Vaisra up between them and set off at a dash toward the Seagrim. Nezha pulled Rin to her feet. “What just—”
“No time.” She spat out a mouthful of river water. “Have your crew weigh anchor. We’ve got to get out.”
Nezha slung her arm over his shoulder and helped her stagger toward the ship. “It failed?”
“It worked.” Rin stumbled into his side, trying to keep pace. “You wanted a war. We just started one.”
The Seagrim had already begun pushing away from its berth. Crewmen at both ends hacked the ropes keeping the ship tethered to the dock, setting it free to drift with the current. Nezha and Rin jumped into one of the rowboats dangling by the hull. Inch by inch the boat began to rise.
Above, deckhands lowered the Seagrim’s sails and turned them toward the wind. Below, a loud grinding noise sounded as the paddle wheel began to churn rhythmically against the water, carrying them swiftly away from the capital.
Chapter 10
The Seagrim’s crew operated under a somber silence. Word had spread that Vaisra was badly injured. But no news emerged from the physician’s office and no one dared intrude to ask.
Captain Eriden had issued only one order: to get the Seagrim far away from Lusan as quickly as possible. Any soldier not working a paddling shift was sent to the top deck to man the trebuchets and crossbows, ready to fire at first warning.
Rin paced back and forth by the stern. She didn’t have a crossbow or a spyglass, and in her state she was more of a hindrance than an asset to deck defense—she was too jumpy to hold a weapon steady, too anxious to comprehend rapid orders. But she refused to go wait belowdecks. She had to know what was happening.
She kept looking down at her body to check that it was still there, was still working. It seemed impossible to her that she had escaped an encounter with the Vipress unscathed. The ship’s physician had cursorily examined her for broken bones but found nothing. Aside from some bruising, she felt no serious pain. Yet she was convinced that something was deeply wrong with her; something deep, internal, a poison that had wrapped around her bones.
Chaghan, too, seemed badly shaken. He’d been silent, unresponsive until they pulled out of harbor, and then he had collapsed against Qara and sunk to the floor, knees drawn up against his chest in a miserable huddle while his sister bent over him, whispering words no one else could understand into his ear.
The crew, clearly unsettled, gave them a wide berth. Rin tried to ignore them until she heard gasping noises from the deck. At first she thought he was sobbing, but no—he was just trying to breathe, jagged gasps rocking his frail form.
She knelt down beside the twins. She wasn’t sure whether she ought to try to touch Chaghan. “Are you all right?”
