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Serin’s eyes widened.
“Go,” she whispered, seeing the realization dawn on the spymaster’s face. Realization that her presence in Maridrina meant she knew the truth. That the gambit fifteen years in the making had played itself out too soon. The realization that if Lara made it out of this harbor, so would any chance of her father ever taking the bridge. “Go!” she screamed.
“Raise the sails!” Aren roared.
The Ithicanians surged into action, and in a heartbeat, the ship was drifting away from the dock, the gangplank landing in the water with a splash. Aren dragged her with him as he raced to the helm, shouting orders even as swarms of soldiers descended upon them.
“Hurry!” The gap between ship and dock was widening, but not swiftly enough. “Aren, I can’t let them take me alive.” Lara pulled one of her knives from her boot. “They’ll make me talk.”
He caught sight of her knife, realizing her intentions. “Put it away, Lara! I won’t let them take you.”
“But—”
He tore the jeweled blade from her hand and threw it, the weapon flipping end over end to land on the dock. Which was filled with sprinting soldiers, the front-runners preparing to leap.
“Come on, wind!” Aren shouted. “Don’t let this be the one damned time you refuse to blow.”
As if answering the call of its master, the wind howled in from the east, the sails snapping taut. The ship lurched as three of the soldiers jumped, their arms flailing as they fell into the water instead of onto the deck.
The ship collided with another vessel with a loud crunch, the other crew shouting and swearing as they scraped the length of it, slamming into another ship, then another, as Aren used the strength of the wind to force their way through.
Soldiers ran in all directions, leaping onto ships in an attempt to reach their target, but they were too slow. Except in the distance, naval vessels were swarming with sailors making ready for pursuit.
“Can you outrun them?” Lara demanded.
Aren nodded, his eyes fixed on their progress through the crowded harbor.
Bells clanged riotously in the city.
“Shit!” Aren shouted. “We need to get past the breakwater before they lift the chain.”
Lara’s gaze skipped across the water to the twin towers flanking the gap in the breakwater, to the heavy steel chain that was creaking upward.
“Full sail!”
The deck was organized chaos as the Ithicanians hauled on lines, white canvas streaming skyward. The ship leapt across the waves toward the gap, but the chain was rising just as fast. Even if they managed to get across, it would tear loose the rudder and they’d be easy pickings for the Maridrinian navy.
“We can’t hit that gap with full sail,” Jor shouted. “We’ll be tossed up on the rocks.”
“Get them up,” Aren ordered. “All of them.”
Lara clung to the rail, her hair whipping out behind them with the speed of their progress. Yet the expressions on the crews’ faces told her it wasn’t enough. That they were headed toward a disaster that would see them all drowned or captured, which would amount to the same thing.
And there was nothing she could do to save them. Even if she jumped overboard, the ship would be trapped. Serin and her father would never let them go free.
Slamming her fists on the rail, Lara snarled in wordless fury, despair carving her insides hollow. Despiteeverything,her father was going to win.
Aren’s hand caught hers. “The wind—it gusts around the hill and through the gap in the breakwater. If we time this just right, it might work.”
“What might work?” The chain was perilously close.
“You’ll see.” He shot her a grim smile. “Hold on to the rail, and for the love god, don’t let go!” Then he let go of her hand and heaved on the wheel.
As he did, an enormous gust of wind struck them broadside. The rigging groaned, ropes and wood and canvas straining, on the verge of snapping, and the ship heeled over. Further and further and Lara shrieked, clinging to whatever she could, certain the vessel would capsize.
The ship shuddered, a loud scraping filling Lara’s ears as the chain dragged along their port side. The noise was horrific, wood splintering and cracking, their speed flagging even as the wind eased, the ship slowly righting itself.
“Come on!” Aren shouted while Lara stared up at the soldiers manning the breakwater towers, their eyes wide with astonishment.
