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The fabric bloomed within the black fog. Riven lifted the shadows off the sea and cast a faelight in front of our tiny armada to light our way. The fog still hung in thick blankets above our heads, shielding us from being seen from the high cliffs of the island.
I indicated for Nikolai to sail us a little south where I knew the first small break in the rocks would be. It was wide enough for our vessels to glide through but the tight turn to the north left two of the canoes stuck between the rocks.
“Cut them,” I ordered after Vrail’s attempts to shake the line loose had failed. Syrra ignited a faelight of her own and cast it along the line of canoes and row boats until the two thin vessels were visible. They had been pulled onto a jagged rock.
Syrra pulled an arrow from her quiver and aimed at the rope connecting the canoes to the main line. She released her shot and the sharp tip sliced the joining rope right through. She sat without saying a word and I filled the sails once more.
I maneuvered us through two more turns, narrowly avoiding a rowboat being forced aground along the jagged reef that surrounded the Order. We only had one more passage, but it was too small to make while towing all the vessels at once.
I lowered my hand and the sail went limp. Vrail crossed first, expertly walking along the thick towline, like it was one of the small bridges of Myrelinth, and dropped herself into a canoe. She pulled a thin blade from her belt and sliced through the guiding line. Riven went next, the shadows momentarily fading as he focused on crossing into his own canoe. He cut himself free just as Vrail did and thickened our cover once more.
Syrra had somehow already boarded her own canoe and cut herself free of the line. Nikolai and I were still towing the majority of the vessels, but now they flowed behind us in a single line. Nikolai tightened his grip on the sail rig and I used my magic one last time, gently pushing our ship along as the rocky obstacles got tighter and tighter around us.
I peered over the front of the boat as best I could and pointed to a tiny white rock sticking out of the water. “Watch the water in front of us. Some of them sit just under the surface and are sharp enough to cut through the hull even as slow as we are.”
Nikolai nodded and adjusted the sails, slowing our pace even more. I glanced at the vial along his belt and saw that it hadturned from brilliant orange to something more muted and flecked with brown.
“Nik, watch out!” I shouted too late. A large crack split through the air and suddenly I could feel water on my feet.
“I was trying to avoid the one over there!” Nikolai pointed to the sharp hook protruding from the water a few feet to our left. I glanced between its edge and the rock sticking through the hull of our boat. There was no angle that wouldn’t have left our sailboat stranded.
“Rock with me!” I shouted, standing up and swaying side to side.
Nikolai stood but didn’t match my rhythm. “Keera, there’s no saving this.” He shook the vial, and the brown flecks dispersed into the orange. “There’s no time.”
I gritted my teeth. “And there’s no way for the rest of the vessels to go through unless we can free the hull from this rock. Including on our wayback.”
Nik’s eyes widened and he matched my rhythm. We leaned to one side of the boat and quickly sidestepped to the other. Again, and then again until finally the hull popped over the jagged edge. “Walk on this side,” I told Nik, pointing at the side that now sat closest to the water. The hull was delicately propped on top of the rock, but any added pressure to the other side could pierce it once more.
Syrra was waiting at the back of the boat. Nikolai hopped in and held his hand out to me. I took it and used it to balance myself as I ran across the edge of their canoe and jumped into Riven’s.
“If we’re careful, our canoes should ferry the rowboats through,” Vrail said, assessing the space between the jagged rocks. “But how do we get that out of the way?”
My chest tightened, knowing there was no other way. “Quickly.”
I aimed a gust of wind at the lifted side of the hull. The boat flipped through the air and shattered against the tall, jagged rocks. The noise of the crash echoed off the tall rocky pillars and bounded against the cliffs like wind through chimes.
If the watch at the Order didn’t know we were here beforehand, they certainly did now. I grabbed my paddle and kneeled inside my canoe. “No use wasting time being quiet now. Reach the shore as quickly as you can.”
Riven extended his fog past the shoreline until it hit the rocky cliffs of the island. It would be obvious to anyone looking down that magic wielders were close by, but it also would give us the protection we needed to dock the vessels and scale the cliffs.
By the time Syrra and Nikolai had landed at the beach, Riven and I had already begun our climb, hammering the cliff edge with anchors for the others to use behind us. A loud horn sounded in the distance and I sighed with relief. It was too far to have been blown from the Order. Gerarda’s distraction had worked.
I only hoped that meant the guards of the island were looking to the mainland instead of the small squadron ascending to the east.
Riven reached the top of the cliff first while I added anchors for Vrail and Syrra. When I pulled myself over the top, Riven was casting spike after spike into the edge of the cliff. “We only have minutes. If we find anyone, we’ll need as many lines of descent as possible.”
My heart ached as I watched him plow another spike into the rock in one blow. I knew Riven thought the worst, but he also knew I would never forgive myself if we lost any survivors from lack of planning. It was unneeded, but touching.
“Thank you,” I whispered as I unfurled a spool of rope from my back and let it drop down the cliff below. I felt it collide with the shore and then pulled it up a few inches before tying it to the spike.
The screech of a fish owl broke through the air—I spun on my knee with my bow and arrow ready. Riven’s shadows curled around my fingers, keeping me from firing my shot.
In the distance, I saw Gerarda crouched beside the large lake. She had made the call. I smirked at Riven, knowing he must have suggested everyone use owl calls as their signal.
Syrra pulled herself over the cliff edge and grunted. “If I die tonight, Riventh Numenthira, I will haunt you as the owl haunts the mouse.”
Nikolai wheezed his laugh as Vrail pushed him over the edge from below. “I think she would rather face ten thousand of Damien’s men than fight one measly bird.”
