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Near the helm, I snatched the spyglass from Stormbringer’s hands. The main township in the House of Blades was made of simple cottages with moss rooftops, with stone and driftwood walls. They slept on grass mats and had some of the most fertile crops that grew from the dark, fiery soil at the base of their steaming mountains.
With less land than other houses, Hesh made the townships more fortress than village. Boys were gifted their first weapon at two turns, and girls were trained to sharpen them by three.
Along the shoreline of the isle, sea walls were erected and placed atop were towering trebuchets with black iron pots of oil. Blade guards stood at the ready with torches and a pigskin-wrapped stone ready to roll onto the sling.
“They’re readying to meet the wind,” Stormbringer grumbled.
Expected.
To the western side of the isle, Hesh’s smaller wartime ships were stocked, sails at the ready, crewmen stalking up and down gangplanks, all aiming for the Chasm. But theFire Stormwas anchored in the tides, its black sails at full cover, the banner of his crossed swords raised.
“They’re making their move for the earth realms.” I leaned over the rail of the quarterdeck, observing the men below. The bustle ceased when most caught sight of me and faced the helm. “We face a traitor of the Ever today. What do we do with traitors?”
“Brand their bones!”
“Feed them to the seas!”
“Paint the sands with blood!”
Endless jeers and hissing taunts spewed over the deck with a new kind of vitriol. Betrayal, treason, mutiny, the whole of it was asin of the worst kind to a crew, blood bonded to their captain, their land.
“Pillage where you please, kill what you wish, but leave the women, littles, and the lord of blades.” I scanned the fierce gazes below. “Hesh is mine.”
Tait stood at the helm but mutely stepped aside when I took hold of a handle. “Stormbringer. Get us in the wind.”
Arms open, Stormbringer propped one foot on the rail and sang, a tenebrific sound—soft but powerful, cold but fearsome. Near the bow, Celine’s coo of a voice matched with Stormbringer’s—honey against fire. Alone they were formidable, together they created something unstoppable.
Rigging snapped and whipped against the force. The ship lurched.
We sliced through the currents rapidly. In our wake, the storm followed. Twenty paces in any direction grew violent. Booms of thunder, sharp bolts of lightning, splatters of heavy rain, followed much the same overhead.
When the shore was not more than a length away, I abandoned the helm to Skulleater, then limped to the rail.
Tait, Jonas, Sander, Gavyn, and half a dozen of my crew gathered around me. The earth bender made his way toward the hatch with Sewell, Mira, Aleksi, Stieg, and another half dozen of my crew. Over Tait’s shoulder, I caught Valen’s gaze.
For a moment, before he disappeared belowdecks, we seemed to harbor the same thought—we would get her back, no matter the cost.
With haste, I took hold of a dagger, sheathing it across the small of my back. I clamped a covered knife between my teeth and saw to it my cutlass was properly secured.
Tait shouted a little maniacally. “Let them rue the day they turned against the Ever Ship!”
I slipped one leg over the rail, then fell to the dark water below.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THE SERPENT
Whorls of bubblespopped around me as, one by one, those following the Ever King sank into the tides. I swam for the dark hull of theFire Storm, dead ahead.
Soon, if Celine and Stormbringer did their duty, they’d pull back the storm, just enough to reveal the crimson sails, enough to set the pulses of the House of Blades racing.
I dug and kicked through the current, at ease, at home. Tait pulled ahead and touched a palm to the hull first. Jonas, Sander, the warriors in our wake, were a breath behind. To see underwater was hardly a feat for sea fae. Perhaps vision was a bit distorted, but it never ached, never burned. Tait gave a nod, his signal he’d keep on my flank.
Arms out, palms open, I hummed, calling the sea to lift us up. The roll of the currents answered their king, and the water line gently rose, up and up, until I surfaced and could hook an arm over the rail.
Under the cloak of night, we crept onto the deck with predatory precision.
Damp pieces of hair slid from my headscarf, cascading waterover my curled lips, the knife between my teeth. Hesh’s crew shuffled about. Tunes of the sea flowed over the deck. Blades were stacked, some sharpened, others unpolished and tarnished in old blood.
