The cell door swung open, and the boy nearly ran out, as if it were a trick. Renard did not say anything, he simply turned and began to walk toward the exit. For all his speed in getting out of the cell, the boy hesitated this time, as if walking out behind Renard were suddenly the wrong thing to do.
“Revenge awaits and I will have it as soon as possible. If you areslow you will lose your feet. If I have truly come back from the dead, it is for a purpose and I will not have your dawdling and indecision slowing me down.”
That was all the encouragement the pirate needed, and he hurried behind, suddenly too close. Close enough that Renard could easily melt his features straight off his face with a mere flick of the torch. Again, the fury itched to do just that, as if it had a mind of its own, buzzing beneath his skin. Perhaps he lived only for the likes of that fury. Like a ghost unmoored and wandering, looking for closure unfound in the mortal body before becoming the newest star.
“It’s just… did you want to get a shirt before we do that?” Dunixi asked, not even pretending to skew his direct inspection of Renard’s naked flesh. “I could use new clothes myself, Your Highness. These smell like piss and dung, though obviously notmypiss or dung, I was in the stable and—”
Renard lunged to the side, pinning the boy with one bicep, crushing his windpipe, and the other arm holding the torch flames so close to the pirate’s filthy Pyrenee guard’s uniform that the aubergine fabric began to shimmer with heat, one step from singeing and burning.
“Keep prattling on and I’ll cut out your tongue and force you to write down your knowledge,” Renard whispered tightly in the boy’s ear as he gasped and attempted to mute his struggle, knowing that it was quite possible his reflexes were about to set him on fire. “And if you refuse, you’ll lose your hands. If you don’t figure out another way to share that knowledge, your pain will be in vain because you’ll simply lose your life and I’ll move on to another twit eager to see the sun before a journey to the stars. Understood?”
A quick nod, and Renard dropped the pirate. Dunixi doubled over, gasping for breath and aimlessly rubbing the spot in his clothes that was no doubt as warm as candle wax under a flame. Still, the boy had the wherewithal to give a more definitive answer, pinching two fingers together before bringing them across his lips as if he’d sealed them shut.
Good. Dunixi wasn’t as clever as he assumed he was, no, but he did not have a death wish. Yet.
CHAPTER 5
ASthe leaders of the three unsettled kingdoms of the Sand and Sky left for the Port of Ardenia to point their ships home, Amarande, Luca, and their allies stayed within the Itspi’s council room to discuss the biggest threat to their supposedly stable existence.
Geneva.
Amarande would have preferred the library, with its maps and tomes on strategy, for this discussion, but given how many ears were still moving about the castle, this room was the safest option for such a delicate discussion. The chairs were shifted yet again so that everyone could huddle close. Amarande, Luca, Koldo, Ferdinand, and Joseba along one side of the great oval table, and Ula, Urtzi, Osana, Tala, and General Koldo’s right-hand woman, Captain Xixi, on the other. Second Captain Pualo and the other members of the Itspi castle retinue and the Ardenian military previously in attendance were put on guard.
When the doors were closed and the people settled, Amarande addressed General Koldo.
“What word have we on Geneva?”
Beyond where she had to clarify, as she’d done in the arena, Amarande refused to call that woman anything but her name in a public capacity. Not mother, and certainly not Warlord—Geneva might see herself as Warlord still, but in Amarande’s eyes as long as Luca stood, the Warlord’s title and power had been disposed.
As usual, Koldo was prepared, and her answer was immediate. “The Itspi grounds and the Ardenian countryside are clear. She has crossed no border within sight of our regiments. Nor has she entered Torrence from any viable path—we have resistance fighters manning each of those.”
“And the water?” Amarande asked.
Here, the general inclined her head, only slightly. “The harbormaster reports all ships are accounted for that were granted a harborslip. The issue we are facing is that Inés did not obey the harbor protocol, as it were.”
“Can’t imagine anyone with an armada would deign to pay the harbor fee during a hostile takeover,” Ula joked through one corner of her mouth.
“Indeed.” Koldo’s tone shifted so slightly that anyone not familiar with her stoic professionalism might not register it as amusement. The general had become fond of the former pirate in the short time they’d known each other, this despite the fact—or possibly because of it—that Ula had threatened to run Koldo through if anything happened to Amarande when they met. “We are working to verify the numbers Inés brought with her before the ships vacate. That said, it is possible that Geneva slipped aboard a ship that left the harbor as expected, the crew none the wiser.”
Yes, Amarande was afraid of that.
“And it’s not possible the harbormaster was bribed? By Geneva or a ship knowingly carrying her?”
Koldo didn’t blink. “We have questioned harbor regulars, Your Highness, and it appears he is telling the truth.”
Amarande nodded, angry at herself for the time lost in the chaos of Geneva’s flight. If she had not been so terribly injured, the pursuit might have happened immediately. Although soldiers were sent out before her sutures had even been settled, they’d already lost valuable time. And now it had been days of searching to only find shadows. “So, as of this moment, she is a ghost.”
The Runaway Queen, once more.
Amarande swallowed the sting of frustration within her and directed every ounce of her newly gained power down the line of the oval to her brother.
“Ferdinand, as First Knight and Protector of Ardenia, I would like you to lead the investigation into where Geneva has gone.” Her brother took this news with a determined tilt to his chin, his green eyes hardening under his ginger brow. “You know her better than any of us, and the details, too—where she might go, who she might rally, how she makes and executes plans. Though she was once the Runaway Queen, I don’t believe she will go quietly into the night this time.”
“Nor do I.” Ferdinand’s voice was deep and grave.
Beside him, Koldo agreed. “As long as Geneva is able to work undetected, she is a danger. To Ardenia, to Torrence.” Around the table, heads bobbed. “We must not allow her to strike—or slip away.”
For a moment, Amarande pictured the Harea Asp nest in the Oiartzun Forest the morning she rescued Luca from the pirates. Fire and luck had bested those asps, but that copse of trees would never again feel like a refuge from the blinding Torrence sun as long as the snakes lurked in the shadows and crevices, able to strike.
