“Taryn!” Ahnna shouted her cousin’s name, the ranks parting to reveal the young woman working on a shipbreaker, the wood charred, its ropes frayed and blackened. “You need to get that breaker working!”
Taryn shook her head. “I need time, Ahnna. I need to replace the ropes.”
“We don’t have time! If they pull the gate clear, Aren will be overrun. We have to take out that ship!”
Aren was down there.
Stepping away from the argument, Lara raced to the edge of the cliff and looked down. There were hundreds of soldiers in the boats, all armed to the teeth. If they made it inside the volcano crater, the battle was over.
Wind whipped at Lara’s hair, tugging it this way and that, her ears filling with the crash of thunder. The overfilled longboats rose and fell on growing swells, water spilling over the edges. And beneath, shapes moved, large fins cutting through the waves. Even fifty feet above them, Lara saw the fear on the soldiers’ faces. Yet none of the boats turned back.
“The Amaridians are retreating!”
The words were repeated over and over, and Lara looked up to see vessels flying the Amaridian flag lifting their sails, abandoning those in longboats and those already on land, fleeing ahead of the coming storm.
Ship after ship abandoned the ring around the island, but the Maridrinians remained, pressing in toward the cavern entrance as the ropes strained, another screech of metal filling the air.
It was a race against the storm. A race for her father’s fleet to gain control of the cavern and unload enough of their soldiers to hold the island while the ships fled ahead of the violent winds and rain that would see them all on the bottom of the sea.
Lara knelt frozen in place, knowing she couldn’t make it to the cavern entrance in time to do any good.
A wave swamped one of the longboats, the men swimming to cling to the edges of the other boats, all of which were in danger of sinking.
One by one the swimming men were jerked under the water, blossoms of red rising in the dark seas as Ithicana’s sharks feasted on their enemies. And yet the longboats didn’t turn back.
What made them want this island so badly that they’d risk death? Was it glory? Wealth?
Fear?
What could be worse than this storm? Worse than the sharks tearing apart their comrades before their very eyes?
A sudden certainty filled Lara’s chest, and rising, she snatched a spyglass from one of the Ithicanians’ hands. Lifting it to her face, she panned over the ship pulling the portcullis loose, freezing as a familiar man came into her line of sight.
Her father stood on the deck of the ship, arms crossed and eyes fixed on his target, no fear showing on his face.
He was what the soldiers feared. He was what kept the fleet from fleeing ahead of the storm. He was what drove the men onto those deadly waters.
Lowering the spyglass, Lara caught Ahnna by the arm, tugging her toward the cliff’s edge. She pointed out over the water. “I need you to get me on that ship.”
61
Lara
“Switching sides again?” Ahnna’s face darkened, her weapon rising.
Lara shook her head, refusing to be provoked. “My father’s on that ship. If you get me down there and I kill him, the fleet will retreat. He’s the only thing keeping them in this fight.”
Grimacing, Ahnna turned away to bark orders, sending a dozen Ithicanians running up the slopes, then her attention moved back to Lara. “It’s impossible. We can’t get a vessel out, and even if you could swim worth a damn, you wouldn’t last a minute in those waters.”
“Lower me onto the rope they’re using to pull out the portcullis. I’ll climb to the ship.”
“They’ll shoot you before you get anywhere near the ship. Aren will kill me if he finds out I agreed to it.”
Lara balled her hands into fists, feeling the first droplets of rain smack against her forehead. Hearing the screech of metal as the portcullis was pulled from the cavern, inch by inch. “He won’t be alive to care if we don’t do something.”
Jaw working back and forth, Ahnna stared at the ship rising and falling on the violent swells. “There might be a way.” Grabbing two of her soldiers, Ahnna muttered something at them. The men nodded and retreated into the chaos. Moments later, one of them returned with a familiar weapon in his hands, giving it over to the princess.
“We won’t be able to tie it off,” Ahnna explained. “Not with the way the ship is bobbing and moving. We’ll hold the line, but if the ship moves too far, we’ll have to let go or risk being dragged off the cliff. So you’ll need to be fast.”
Lara turned to eye the drop. The rough seas. The fins cutting through the water. “I’ll be fast.”
Someone handed Ahnna a slender length of rope tied to the end of a large bolt, the princess cranking the weapon with a practiced hand. Then she paused and met Lara’s gaze. “We won’t be able to get you back.”
Swallowing hard, Lara nodded and accepted a hook from the same soldier. “It’s time for me to leave anyway.”
Kneeling, Ahnna lifted the weapon, and Aster, along with several other Ithicanians, held the end of the rope, their faces grim. Training it on the bobbing ship, the princess aimed, and, without hesitation, loosed the bolt.
Lara stuck a knife between her teeth, watching as the rope trailed over the gap between cliff and ship, bolt embedding deep into the deck.
The Ithicanians pulled the line taut, then Ahnna shouted, “Now.”
Lara didn’t hesitate.
Flipping the hook over the rope, she jumped.
Wind and rain lashed against her face as she slid downward, the sea rising up to meet her with threatening speed. The line tightened and slackened as the ship rose and fell on the swells, causing Lara to bounce violently, her shoulders screaming with each jerk, her hands clenching the hook’s handle.
On the ship, soldiers were pulling on the bolt, several of them pointing at her. Not yet, she silently pleaded, terror racing through her veins. Only a few more seconds.
Then one of them gave up on trying to pull the bolt loose. Lifting his blade, he sliced the line.
Lara dropped.
She screamed, then her heels hit the deck, her injured leg giving out. Instinctively she rolled, coming up on her feet, knife in hand.
All around, soldiers and sailors were staring at her in shock, several of them muttering, “It’s the goddamned princess. The king’s daughter.”
“I’d like a word with my father.”
The soldiers parted, and her father, the King of Maridrina, strolled down the deck toward her. His silver hair was soaked with rain, his clothing equally sodden, and he had a livid bruise across one cheek. None of which made him any less regal as he stopped a dozen paces away to eye her. “Lara, darling. How good of you to join us.”
“I’m not here for conversation,” she retorted. “You need to set sail. That storm’s going to rip this fleet apart, and thousands of your soldiers will drown.”
Someone yelled, “The gate’s coming loose! Get ready to attack.”
Her father lifted one eyebrow. “It seems I’ll have my victory before the storm arrives.”
Lara risked a glance toward the cavern, but the chain was still taut, the gate still holding.