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THE MEMORY THIEF
My fingernails duginto the side of the Northern warship. Even with the added length and width, the ship still pitched and rocked until my insides burned up the back of my throat.
Tack on the fact that we’d been forced to sneak out to sea to meet a fae king I didn’t trust, then work with a fate witch who planned to curse our ally, while it was all meant to be done at an impossible travel speed—my nerves were burning with unease.
We were a small crew. Elise and Valen. Sol, Tor, and Halvar. Gunnar and Eryka. Herja, Hagen, and Bard. Then me and Kase.
Niklas, Junie, and the Kryv were tasked with keeping the others safe and concealed in Limericks. The day spent hidden in the trees provided Niklas time to work up a few foul-smelling elixirs that would serve as a barrier to forest creatures and trackers from the Black Palace.
“You’re certain this is where he said to meet?” Sol peered over the side of the ship into the choppy waves.
“No,” Kase said. “None of what he told us made any sense. How could he possibly travel to the Western Kingdom and back in so short a time?”
After reporting back what had happened with Thorvald, Junie and Niklas had shown us maps of the four kingdoms. If the cartographers were accurate, the Western Kingdom was a small land tucked away at a distance of at least a week from Klockglas.
“His ship burst from the sea,” Valen said. “We don’t know how they use their water magic.”
With how little we understood about the sea fae world, it was wholly possible they could travel the ocean in a blink. Or perhaps it was the vessel itself that provided the speed. I didn’t know, it didn’t matter. So long as Thorvald came through, I wouldn’t question how it was done.
My gaze jumped to Elise standing alone near the stempost. I crossed the length of the ship and gently touched her arm.
She lifted her wet eyes. “Malin.”
“Say the word,” I whispered, “and we will find another way.”
This was war. Sacrifices were made in battle. But I could not deny Elise and I shared a like mindedness when it came to our husbands. I’d sacrifice a great deal, but not Kase. Not him. No mistake, Elise would go to despicable lengths to protect her kingdom, but I had a feeling she would not give up her king, either.
She turned back to the sea, the tears in her eyes never falling. “But there isn’t another way, is there? Valen believes it, Niklas, and Kase too. Even Ari believes we could win should we attack, but the cost would be devastating.”
I despised the Black Palace and the Southern Kingdom with a fiery ache that never extinguished. A constant simmer of rage and disdain had claimed a corner of my chest. Gods, we’d felt so prepared, truly believed taking the claim to the throne was the move to make. Yet at every turn, it seemed our enemies were a step ahead. As if they could anticipate our plans before we even made them.
Elise lifted her chin, her voice had grown hoarse from the tears shed. “So, do not fret for me. I will stand by Valen if he believes this is the path we must take. But that does not mean I have not made plans of my own to ensure he does not suffer.”
A shiver prickled up the back of my neck. There was a bit of foreboding in her words. I’d intended to press her on it, but out in the darkness, a hiss rippled over the sea. The ship pitched to the side, throwing us off balance. Elise and I both clung to the rail as the dark water swirled and frothed. The foamy maelstrom spun like a cyclone until a sharp, splintered point stabbed through the surface.
Kase had described the sea swallowing Thorvald’s ship, but to see such a massive vessel simply rise from the depths of the sea, the sight of it stilled words on my tongue. I gaped as the stormy sea released the ship. Crimson sails, black laths. It looked as if the ship had endless levels and decks.
The keel shot upward for the sky until the bulky stern emerged from the sea, and the bow slammed back onto the waves, dipping below the water until the vessel righted and the surface calmed.
By the gods, it was impossible and wondrous all at once.
I took Elise’s hand as we hurried to the stern of the warship with the others.
Thorvald’s ship sailed alongside ours. The sea fae stood atop a tall deck, peering down at us with a new glow to his red eyes.
“As promised.”
Rough, bearded, oddly dressed men grunted and released a thick plank from one side of the ship. Hagen and Gunnar helped gather the end and lock the plank in place over the rail of ours.
Kase laced his fingers with mine, squeezing my hand, as three figures appeared at the top of the plank.
Ari stepped forward first, a little green in the face. “Three hells, that was bleeding disorienting. I’ll stick to the land, thank you very much.”
The ambassador was damp and ruffled the water out of his hair as we embraced him. Gods, I hadn’t expected to be so relieved over a man I’d just met. But something had linked Ari Sekundär between kingdoms. Like he had a role to play for us all. I cared fiercely about the bleeding fae.
“Well, well, well. Didn’t think you lot would miss me so soon.” A girl, no more than sixteen turns, stood in the center of the plank, another man at her side. Her hair was pale as new parchment and her grin suggested that she planned to laugh as she robbed us blind. The girl dressed in tattered trousers, cinched at her slender, bony hips with a rope belt. She hid the top of her head with a brimmed hat made of silk or satin, with bones dangling from the braid over her shoulder.
Her trousers cut off above her ankles where her leather boots began.
