Page 85 of Tempest

Then her voice dropped, and she reached out, taking Ana by the wrist. Her fingers closed, forceful while she met the woman’s eyes.

“He is a monster the likes of which the Lyrian has never seen before,” Cat warned.

For once, I am not lying.

Ana stared at her. “And the Lyrian certainly has her share of monsters.”

Nodding, Cat sighed and released her grasp. She glanced back to the sea, the picture of a wistful woman waiting on a man who might never return. Or at least she hoped she looked that way.

“We are lucky another monster still lives,” Cat tested, her words filled with meaning.

“So, Valerian did escape the noose,” Ana breathed, looking torn between hope and concern.

Both were false.

The Seawolf was good at many things. Acting was not one of them. She was subtle as a shark cutting through open water.

Lady Rose was the opposite.

She did not turn, though she could feel the letters on the desk behind her, their presence burning a hole in the back of her mind. Now she was certain. Ana still wrote to Valerian, reporting on the comings and goings of Alvaris. Once she tracked treasure fleets and Esperese navy for her old captain. But now what?

Cat eyed the Arcayan letters again, then the song tower in port, imagining the priest in his indigo robes. And Ana up the mountain, manning a song tower of her own.

It’s connected, Cat thought. I’m sure of it. Whatever maneuvering they did, whatever gold the Arcayans paid to put a tower in the harbor, whatever words passed between Ana and Valerian and maybe the priest too, whatever song sung low across the waves stirring the water and winds as no man could.

But how do they reach him? Her mind spun. The Covenant will not make port long, not with the navy crawling across the Lyrian. He attacks and escapes and moves on, collecting ships of the fleet as he burns his way through the islands.

It was quite a puzzle to solve. But not so pressing as the one in front of her.

Why is Ana lying to me?

“Yes, Val is alive,” Cat offered, thinking quickly. “But not for long, if Osprin has his way. He is a terrifying man, and he will bring all the fury of the Meridian fleet down on Val when he finds him. Not to mention every surviving pirate in the Lyrian Sea,” she added, eyeing Ana with a meaningful look. “And I mean every pirate.”

Ana’s gaze darted over Cat’s shoulder, back to the desk. So obvious were her thoughts, Cat almost gestured for her to get writing and spread word of Osprin’s hunt.

“When?” the woman muttered.

Before the King of Meridia arrives. Before he comes and slams the door on everything this place once was, Cat thought. But she knew better than to play her best card too early in the game.

“It is only a matter of time.” Cat shook her head. “I wish it were not so.”

A shadow crossed Ana’s eyes, but Cat held her ground, even as the world tipped beneath her.

“I’m surprised you aren’t with Val,” Ana said. Her gaze passed over Cat slowly, from boots to her hem, then up her bodice to the freckled skin of her collarbone, before landing on her face, as if she might sift straight through her mind like a hand through soft sand.

An honest woman would not feel accused, Cat told herself. She would feel sad.

She sighed, giving her breath a well-calculated hitch.

“I should have been,” she said, her voice softer. Then she dropped her head, one hand curling at her hip, knuckles turning white with frustration. And shame. “I should have been with him when the fleet came.”

It was an easy picture to paint, and Cat was a master with her brush.

“But I understand why he did what he did,” she added, squinting her eyes as if fighting back tears. “There was no returning to Archenport, not after the Meridian navy routed Morovant’s armada. Val had to run, and I—I—” she stuttered, her voice breaking. “He left me behind.”

Ana’s scrutinizing glare softened a little. “That is not the captain I remember.”

“The years changed us all, I suppose. The years and the blood,” Cat offered. She even dabbed at her eyes, using the stolen scarf to wipe away tears unshed. “And some change more than others.”