This was worse.
Ulla’s hand now rested between his shoulder blades.He could feel each finger splayed across his back, and the faint touch of magic in her palm, like a seed not yet sprouted.
She hadn’t looked through the spyglass, but Bastion had a feeling she didn’t need to.Even if she hadn’t sensed the truth, healers knew the language of death.
He glanced at her, and she gave him a reassuring smile that didn’t reach her eyes.Bastion touched his fingers to his lips and let his hand fall forwards at the elbow.
Her fingers curled, just slightly.
More guards and a few conscripted townsfolk gathered as darkness thickened.Their anxiety jumped from one man to the next like a plague.
To Bastion’s left, a man hissed, “Fire on them, already!”
“They’re out of range,” Hywell answered.
“They knew where to anchor,” Nesrin whispered.She turned to Bastion, a hint of fear dancing with the flames reflected in her eyes.“They’ll send men ashore before the moon rises.”
Bastion nodded.
“Let’s not make it easy for them,” Nesrin continued.“Douse the torches!”
Bastion seized the nearest one and snuffed it out.Hywell followed suit, and soon, every torch along the battlements sizzled out.
Now, only starlight illuminated them, just giving shape to faces, weapons, and structures.
In the bay below, not a single flame burned aboard any of the ships.
“My lady,” Hywell said.“You should take cover.”
“No,” Nesrin barked.“I will not hide while others put themselves at risk.If we must fight, we fight together.”Silence followed.Then, “Sir Bastion.”
“Yes, Lady Nesrin?”The honorific felt strange on his tongue, like he’d put a stone in his mouth instead of a sweet.He rarely addressed her with her title, but this was why she’d knighted him.This moment here, at the beginning of this long night, would shape how their forces viewed her leadership.He’d be damned if they lost faith in her because of him.
“Remain here and take command of the west.Captain Hywell, the north.I’ll take the east and oversee the drawbridge.”
“And the south?”Hywell asked.
“I’ll find Lawrence on my way to the gate.He is not the soft scholar he pretends to be.”
Bastion dared to ask the damning question.
“Will Moonwatch hold?”
Beneath the sound of the waves, he could hear Nesrin exhale.“It’s never been captured.”
He’d seen for himself that the walls were too high and thick, and the terrain too rugged for a small group to take the keep by force.He also remembered the water beneath the drawbridge as they crossed, glittering darkly like a great black serpent.Even with three ships, it seemed futile for the pirates to attempt an attack.
The facts didn’t reassure him.They still had no idea what to expect from the weapon.
“And the townsfolk?”Hywell asked.
Ulla’s hand dropped from Bastion’s back as she moved past him to grasp Nesrin’s hand.
Nesrin hissed at the sudden contact, paused, then said, “Yes!Ulla and Minato will barricade everyone in the Great Hall.”
Bastion’s heart lurched in his chest.He clenched his fists, squashing the irrational jealousy that followed.
A moment later, cool fingertips grazed his cheek.
