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I almost can’t believe I’m hearing this. “So you’re going to retaliate from your broken-down ship?”
“I don’t need to retaliate. I need steel.Again, I have been mostly forthright from the beginning. I don’t care about Kandala. I have no desire to go to war. Neither of our countries can sustain it. I need steel. You need to help your people. I will not get embroiled in your political scheming. Trade or not, but you have until we dock to make your decision. For now, we just need to get past Oren Crane.” His expression is tense. “With a ship that’s taken heavy damage, a hamstrung crew, and no Bella to trade for safe passage.”
“When will we reach his territory?” I say.
“It’smyterritory,” he snaps.
“Fine, when will we reachyour—”
I break off when I hear a distant whistle, and then a flaming arrow comes sailing out of the darkness to strike the sail.
Rian swears. “Right now.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Tessa
I’m woken by shouts and screaming. I sit straight up in bed just as the boat shudders with the sound of an explosion.
We’re under attack again.
I’m barefoot, in nothing more than my chemise and trousers, but I sprint for the door and find Rocco in the hallway. I stitched up the knife wound on his abdomen hours ago, but his coloring is a bit ashen instead of the warm brown I’m used to, and I’m worried he’s lost too much blood.
Another explosion rocks the ship, and I put a hand against the wall to brace myself. We have bigger problems.
“Is there another brigantine?” I say.
“We need to get above,” Rocco says.
I have to use hands and feet to climb the stairs because the water is so choppy. Rocco is right at my back. When we make it onto the deck, one of the smaller sails is on fire, red flames crawling alongthe edge to snake into the night sky. Brock is climbing the rigging with a bucket of water over one arm.
“Get that fire out!” Rian is shouting. “It’s giving them a target!”
Brock tosses the water at the fire, but it only douses half. While I watch, another flaming arrow comes sailing through the air. Rocco pushes me out of the way as it embeds itself in the deck, just where I was standing.
He swears, grabs the arrow shaft, and yanks it free to toss over the railing.
Another arrow flies through the air, aiming right for the sail.
Worse. It catches Brock right in the middle of his back. He jerks, his hands slipping from the rigging, and drops to the deck below to land, motionless. The bucket hits the deck and rolls away.
More shouts come from below—and I become distantly aware of shouts coming from somewhere to our left. TheDawn Chasershudders as one of the cannons fires, and a moment later, I hear the cannonball connect with a ship somewhere across the water.
“Corrick,” I say to Rocco desperately. “Where’s Corrick?”
But the guard is looking up at the sail. Some of the fire was doused, but it’s smoldering at the edge. “That sail needs to come down. He’s right. It’s a target—but it’ll catch the others.”
And Brock was just shot down from climbing the rigging. Half the crew is missing or manning the cannons down below.
I remember Rian telling me about the rigging, about the fouled lines. I climbed the mast once. I can do it again.
“Give me your dagger,” I say. “I’ll cut it down.”
“Miss Tessa—”
Another flaming arrow lands on the deck. Rian spots me and calls, “Tessa! You need to get below.”
Rocco grabs this arrow and throws it into the water after the other.
