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Some of the soldiers stirred, pulling her attention from the letter, and it was some moments before she could refocus. Marylyn’s code felt elusive. Lara’s eyes continually dragged out to sea. But eventually her mind pulled Serin’s message from the drivel.Valcotta has blockaded our access to Southwatch. Famine on the rise.
A wave of nausea passed over Lara, and she shoved the pages into her cloak’s pocket. With its shipbreakers, Southwatch was capable of running Valcotta off, but she could understand their reluctance to antagonize the other nation. Understood what it would cost them for Valcotta to join the ranks of kingdoms raiding Ithicana. But it was her people who paid the price.
They sat in the rain for hours, but no horns sounded. No boats appeared below requesting access to the cove. Nothing even moved in the darkness.
Eventually Taryn shifted next to her. “You should go back to the house, Lara. There’s no telling when they’ll return, and you’ll catch a chill sitting in this cold rain.”
She should go. She knew she should go. But the idea of having to wait for one of them to bring her news . . . “I can’t.” Her tongue felt thick.
“The barracks, then?” There was a plea to the other woman’s voice.
Reluctantly, Lara nodded, but every few paces up the trail, she cast a backward glance toward the sea, the roar of it beckoning, drawing her back.
“This is Aren’s bunk,” Taryn said, once they were in the confines of the stone building. “He won’t mind if you sleep here.”
Shutting the door to the tiny room, Lara set her lamp on the rough wooden table next to the narrow bed, then sat, the mattress rock hard and the blanket rough compared to her soft sheets at the house. It reminded her of the cot she’d shared with him at the safe house. How she’d fallen asleep in his arms, listening to the beat of his heart.
She pulled off her cloak and curled on her side, her head resting on the pillow.
It smelled like him.
Squeezing her eyes shut, Lara drew upon every lesson her Master of Meditation had ever taught her, measuring her breath and clearing her mind, but sleep wouldn’t come, so she sat, the blanket wrapped around her legs.
There was nothing in the room to distract her. No books or puzzles. Not even a deck of cards. The sparse quarters of a soldier, not a king. Or at least, not of the sort of king she’d believed existed. The quarters of a leader who did not hold himself above his people. Who wore their hardships like his own. Because they were his own.
Please be alive.
The door swung open, and Lara jerked around to find Taryn standing in the doorway. “They’re back.”
She followed the other woman at a run down to the cove, her chest tight with fear. It was fear for herself, her mind screamed. Fear for her mission. Fear for the fate of her people.
But her heart told her otherwise.
The sand of the beach shifted beneath her feet, and Lara squinted into the darkness. A faint voice called out, then the chain rattled, clearing the entrance to the cove.
More splashing, waves thudding against hulls and paddles carving through the water. But above all of that, Lara picked out groans of pain. Her heart skipped.
Please let him be alive.
The cove turned into a flurry of activity, boats full of bloodied men and women drifting in, those on shore tying them off and helping the injured onto land. Her eyes skipped over their shadowed faces, searching. Searching.
“Will you goddamned hurry it up?” Jor’s voice. Lara wove through the efficient traffic, trying to find the soldier. Finally, she spotted both him and Lia crouched in the bottom of a boat, a slumped figure between them.
“Aren?” Her voice came out as a croak, her feet abruptly rooted on the spot.
The pair reached down, and relief flooded her veins as Aren batted their hands away. “Get off me. I can damn well get out myself.”
He stood and the boat wobbled, both Jor and Lia easily catching their balance, but Aren nearly going over the side.
“Enough of your pride, boy,” Jor barked, and between him and Lia, they dragged their king onto land.
Lara couldn’t see what was wrong with him in the dark, the lanterns casting shadows that appeared like bloodstains, only they shifted and moved. Then Aren turned, and the lantern behind him revealed the outline of an arrow embedded in his upper arm.
“Get out of my way.” She shoved two soldiers to the side and ran toward Aren.
“What the hell are you doing down here?” Aren pushed Jor away even as he stumbled. Lara lurched forward and caught his weight, the hot tang of blood filling her nose. “I can walk on my own,” he muttered.
“Clearly.” Lara’s body quivered with the effort of holding him upright as they navigated the sloped beach to the treeline, the path leading to the barracks dimly lit with jars of algae.
