“There are other routes,” Ree said. “Go right.”
Now Marin was grateful she’d asked the plant to navigate.
She poled through the canal on the right and encountered another barricade. Backing up, she felt her skin prickle. Were the canals so empty because everyone had already left? She passed another boat, loaded with belongings, that was steered by a grim-faced woman. She had two children huddled in the back of her boat.
“Hey?” Marin called to her. “What’s happening?”
“It’s burning,” the woman said flatly. “It’s all burning.”
“What’s burning?”
But the woman turned away and poled faster. Ahead, Marin saw that the sky was black between the canals, as if night had closed around a portion of the city.
“We shouldn’t be here,” Marin told Ree. “This was a mistake.”She thought of Dax with a pang—was he in this mess? His classmates and mentors were all dedicated to ensuring he was safe. Surely they were taking care of him. She didn’t need to worry about him, did she?
Perri lifted his head out of the water and splashed, agitated.
“Given the state of the city, I’m sure Dax and Rijes Velk have already left.” She wasn’t sure of that. Rijes Velk had seemed determined to stay, to do her duty, and as for Dax… He’d had no idea about the events that were unfolding. Would he have left, or was he still in his conservatory? She was less certain now that it was a safe place to be, even though it couldn’t be a military target. All the people who had already fled the city… They had the right idea of it.
Perri splashed again.
Coming here was a mistake, but it wasn’t irreversible. She could get them out again, the same way they’d come in. There hadn’t been any barricades or even many boats blocking the way. She tried to tell this to her thumping heart and sweating hands. This wasn’t her battle; all she had to do was leave. “We need to go.”
Another agitated splash, this time spraying canal water over the wrapped sails.
Perri very clearly didn’t want to leave.
Ironic, considering how he usually couldn’t wait to flee Alyssium.
Marin compromised. “Okay, how’s this: we forget about the letter for now and just check on the library and the conservatory,thenwe leave.”
He accepted that.
“Ree, guide us to the Great Library.”
Ree shouted out directions as she poled through the canals. The smoke was worse, and the ash was thicker in the air. As they poled through an intersection, she glanced to her left, and she saw the lick of flames in the distance—the fire wreathed a spire.
Perri trumpeted, a shrill, discordant sound, and he reared out of the water.
“What is it?” Marin called.
Floating in the water in front of him was a body, face down.
Her heart hammered so hard that she thought it would break through her ribs. “We’re going. Now.” She poled harder, trying not to look at it as they passed. She hadn’t thought… She hadn’t imagined… She didn’t care if the empire fell. Shedidcare if people died as it fell.
Ree was shaking so hard that leaves rained onto the deck.
“We’re getting out of here,” Marin reassured him. This conflict didn’t involve them. They weren’t guards or imperial investigators, and they weren’t revolutionaries. They were just sailors. “Forget the library and the conservatory. Ree, which way to the nearest gate?”
Still trembling, he read the map. “Straight ahead.”
She felt a jolt under the boat. “Perri? What are you doing?”
He was speeding the boat forward.Oh! This is good!He could speed them out of here. She lifted the pole out of the water as he spurted forward.
“Left!” Ree shouted.
Perri didn’t turn them left. They stayed straight.
