“Then they’ll call our bluff, and we’ll have to fight, but I don’t think it will come to that.”
He leaned in and I thought he was going to kiss her. I gasped and my vision faded.
“Retger is in place,” I whispered.
Abghar nodded. “If only those fools had realized you were a resource and not a liability, we could have sat you in a room with Victore and you could have told us everything that was happening while he told us how to use that information.”
“What now?” I asked.
“When the sun is fully set, we’re going to start rolling out the barrels with the stoppers pulled out. It will look like we’re just moving them, but it should pour oil down along the path. Once it’s all poured out, we light it with the lantern, and then we run. It’s a poor plan for a distraction, but they didn’t send us out here to succeed. We’ll have fulfilled our bargain and our family will be safe. You’ll start with this barrel. Stay to the left of this shed when you roll it out and once it’s empty just stand it up beside the nearest upright and then hurry back here.”
I bit my lip. This all felt foolish to me. It felt like we were in the wrong place. It felt like the hammer was about to drop on us at any moment.
“Just hold on, little sister. I’ll have us out of here before you know it,” Abghar said in the darkness. I was glad it was too dark for him to see my face and all my doubts.
Chapter Fifteen
WE ROLLED OUR BARRELS out onto the docks. The crowds were clearing slightly, but it was still busy. People scurried across the docks with goods in barrows or began to stow nets and traps in little sheds. Some smaller boats were rowing out to the ships at anchor laden with men returning from the city and others were rowing in with their hulls full of men and women coming in on leave. All of them seemed too busy to notice the hole in my barrel or that it was leaking oil.
The barrel grew lighter until I could tell it was almost empty and then I stood it up beside a lonely looking shed that smelled of fish and made my way back the way I’d come. I was just walking into the shed when a vision hit me and I lurched, stumbling into the stack of barrels.
“Wake up, wake up!” Helissa was saying, frantically shaking Osprey.
His beautiful eyes fluttered open, but my sister was fraught with worry. She shoved his swords at him.
“It’s coming for us. If you can use these, get on your feet.”
The bee shifted – brighter than usual – and I saw my family gathering the children together in the kitchen. Every sister and brother, sister-in-law or brother-in-law who had been left behind had a weapon in hand and a sack or a toddler or baby tied to their back.
What was happening? My breath came out in bursts.
“What’s going on?” Abghar’s voice was harsh, but I couldn’t catch my breath or find my voice.
Wing Ivo hurried over to Osprey, coughing as he helped his friend up.
“Get your feet under you and your muscles will remember the rest,” he said. “Help me, Victore.”
The elderly general was there in a heartbeat, his ravens flying frantically around him.
“What’s happening?” Osprey asked muzzily.
“We’re under attack.”
I blinked back to where Abghar watched me with anxiety all over his face.
“The children,” I gasped. “Our family that we left behind – they’re under attack.”
“Who is attacking?” There was so much tension in his words – as much as I was feeling and more.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Helissa seemed worried.”
“And Gabardeen?” he asked after his wife.
“She was holding a knife.”
He cursed.
“You have to go back there,” I said, grabbing his arm. “You need to leave now!”
He glanced at the barrels around me.
“I’ll finish this,” I said. “Without my recognizable face you can get back there fast. Steal a horse. Ride all the way.”
He was staring at me, but I knew he was thinking about it. I rocked in place as a sudden burst of vision clouded my sight. Alect and Royn in the middle of a clash. Someone yelled in pain. Alect’s face went white.
Then the vision faded and it was just Abghar and me again.
“Go. I will finish this job.”
“And how will you escape again?” he asked breathlessly, his frizzled curls bouncing as he quivered with indecision.
“How were we planning to escape?”
“There would be a cart in the dye market with a spool of purple cloth hanging precariously from the back and the name “Cartsworth” painted on the side. We were to hide in that cart and the carter would drive out of the city with us.”
“Then that’s what I’ll do,” I assured him. “But someone needs to go save our family. They’re under attack.”
“They have the Wings and they’re all strong and skilled.” He was hesitating.
“The Wings are injured. The children can’t fight on their own, and you know all the plans of the Single Wing and where to find help.”
He couldn’t argue with that. He didn’t try. He just shook his head and made the sign of the bird.
“Get out of this alive or I will die of guilt,” he whispered.
“Relentless,” I replied, and then he was gone. By the time I had another barrel ready and was rolling it along the dock, I couldn’t even see him in the crowd. This distraction was my responsibility now and I’d better make it good. The Single Wing was counting on it. And Abghar was counting on me.
I was fine until the third barrel and then the visions started coming too quickly. It was hard to go more than a few steps without being rocked by one. I was afraid to call the bees back – afraid to lose this vital lifeline but I couldn’t fulfill this task and have them constantly distracting me.
“Can you simmer down a little, bees?” I whispered to myself as the bees showed me Retger sprinting across the cobblestones with Zayana at his back and then quickly shifted to show Alect again – this time white-faced, a bloody sword clutched in his hand. He was calling for help.
I swallowed down fear and brought out the next barrel and the next as I was rocked with visions of my family launching their attacks.
I was down to the last barrel when the vision overwhelmed me. Raquella was screaming as Oska turned back to her, hand spread out.
“Run!” he called, gritting his teeth and turning back to where a knot of men descended on him, swords flashing in the light of a nearby lantern. Raquella threw the lantern on a line of oil with a cry. Flames leapt up, dancing down the line of oil and bursting into orange and red curtains.
Oska screamed as a blade tore through him.
And then I was back in my own body again, gasping for breath, hoping beyond hope that I hadn’t really seen that. I fell to my knees, dizzy suddenly.
Far too soon, another vision crashed over me.
Alect was on the top of the wall fighting alongside a fierce looking woman. Brielle! I thought she’d been banished by Le Majest. Perhaps the Single Wing had found her and recruited her. I felt a small stab of joy that she was alive at the same moment that a blade bit deep into her arm. She spun, curling in under her opponent’s guard and slashing a backhand across his face before she was out of my view. Alect had his back to her, desperately knocking aside blows from two men on the wall who were pressing in on him. Behind them, more waited for their chance. Was it just the two of them back to back?