“With the help of Resyries’s magic, we will protect Rhodaire. For now, I’ll offer you whatever help I can.” I looked from person to person as I spoke, meeting their tired eyes. “Will someone tell me what happened here?”
“Mercenaries,” said Jay’s father. “They came in on ships from the north. There were Illucian soldiers with them but only a handful. Most of them were Ambriellan.”
Caylus stepped forward, proffering the bit of blue cloth he’d found in the rubble. “Did their ships have a kingfisher on their flag?”
Jay’s father nodded, and Caylus paled. Samra let out a low string of curses.
“What?” I asked.
Caylus’s hand closed about the cloth so tightly, his knuckles flared white. “Malkin.”
The man who’d stolen so many years of his life, the one who’d forced him to work and to fight until it’d destroyed him physically and mentally.
He was working with Razel.
I wanted nothing more than to wrap my arms around Caylus and hold him, but I felt the weight of a hundred pairs of expectant, hopeful eyes.
“What did they want?” I asked, though I feared the answer.
Jay’s father shook his head. “They didn’t say. They didn’t really hurt anyone even. Just ransacked the town, piling everything they could out into the streets and setting it alight. It was strange, really. Even the fires were odd. It was like they just sprang up fully formed, and they ate through stone. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I had. It was just like Ronoch. The fires had come swift and fierce as the blaze of a fire crow, searing through everything like paper. We’d found oil on the stones and in the rookeries, but even that seemed inadequate to explain how fast the fires had spread and how hot they’d burned.
“We aren’t the first though,” he continued, folding his arms. “Enair burned a couple days ago, just the same way. Like a—”
“Like a signal,” I finished quietly. A signal for me. Razel didn’t know where I was, and she intended to draw me out. What better way than setting fire to towns along the coast, knowing I’d eventually have to make land to resupply? Even if I didn’t see the smoke or find a burnt town, word would spread.
“Which way did they go?” Kiva asked. “We’ll hunt the bastards down.”
“Not with my ship you won’t,” Samra said. “I agreed to take you to Trendell, not to hunt down that night-cursed spider.”
I rounded on her. “They’re not going to stop! They’ll keep burning towns unless we stop them.”
“And give Razel exactly what she wants? You’re playing straight into her hands.”
Frustration tore through me, and I forced a deep breath. “Razel thinks she can control me. She thinks I’ll come running to protect my people only to end up cowering in fear at the fire around me. But I won’t. She’s underestimated me, and I’m going to make her pay for it.”
“It’s only a matter of time before Malkin starts hurting people,” Caylus said, eyes trained on the strip of cloth clutched between his fingers. “If only for his own sick entertainment.”
Cold fury prickled down my spine. “I’ll show them what happens when they attack my home.” The connection between Res and me thrummed to life as I spoke, rising with my words. I faced the gathered crowd as a sudden wind gusted through the street. “Queen Razel wants to scare us. She thinks I’m weak. That Rhodaire is weak. She’s wrong.”
Res let out a low call, and thunder boomed in the gray sky. The wind rose, swirling slowly at first before gathering into a steady gale. It caught the smoke and the ash and carried it away, out past the shore and over the sea, leaving behind a clear, cobalt sky.
Kiva grinned up at it as someone in the crowd called out, throwing up their fist. More echoed them, a cheer filling the air.
Samra watched me with dark eyes, her frustration practically palpable.
This wasn’t over.
Three
Although we’d planned to load up on supplies in Cardail, we ended up leaving most of what we had with the villagers instead. Isair, the next town down the coast, was slightly larger and would be better suited for restocking anyway. Less than a day’s sail for a normal ship, it’d take us only a few hours with the aid of Res’s wind. He perched at the stern of the ship, wings spread, guiding a current gently into our sails until the ship all but flew across the water.
I studied the faint outline of the pale, key-shaped scar on my palm. When I’d asked Res about the other powers, he’d sent only confused, questioning pulses back along the connection. Whatever he’d done to stop that arrow and heal Kiva, it hadn’t been under his control, but I had no doubt it was the same reason I’d been able to reach into a roaring fire and still retain the use of my hand.
The idea of what he could be thrilled me. A storm crow was a force to be reckoned with, but a crow that could use all eight abilities?
Razel wouldn’t know what hit her.
I scanned the deck, expecting to find Caylus working with the crew, but found only a grizzled, sharp-faced man watching me. Onis. He was one of the oldest crew members, second only to the ship’s cook, Darya, and he hadn’t done anything but glower at Res and me since we’d boarded back in Port Maranock.
When I caught his eye, his fingers went for the colorful Ambriellan knots at his belt, his lips moving in a quiet prayer.
Kiva appeared before me with a furrowed look of annoyance.
“Make it go away,” she demanded.
I blinked at her. A moment later, a tiny kitten trotted up and sat down beside her. I grinned as Aroch licked one snow-white paw.
“He’s only following you because he knows you don’t like him.”
“He’s a cat.”
“Exactly.” I patted her on the shoulder. “Watch Res for me, will you?” Before she could object, I slipped past her and inside the ship, seeking out Caylus’s cabin. The door was open, and I found him leaning against the wall. He peered out the small window, lost in thought, his arms crossed as if to hold himself together.
“See anything interesting?” I asked.
He startled and I winced. It was so hard not to sneak up on him when he was like this.
“Is something wrong?” he asked as if he hadn’t heard my question. Knowing him, he hadn’t.
I stepped into the room and leaned back against the wall with my hands tucked behind me. “I don’t know. Is there?”
He bit his lip, averting his gaze. This wasn’t the first time he’d chosen silence in the face of my questions. Caylus had always been reserved, but since we’d left Illucia, I’d found him retreating into his thoughts more often than not. Pulling him out had become harder and harder.