“He doesn’t know shifters like you do,” Sonassa said. “He surely misjudged her power, yes. I doubt he thought she would be strong enough—or motivated enough—to free the dragons or do any real damage. He thinks shifters have the intelligence of animals. I’ve heard he fears the golden dragon and only the golden dragon. He doesn’t fear any of the other shifters. Not in the same way.”
“I don’t know about that,” Denski said as the wolves shifted back and we jogged along the castle wall. “He had a lot of plans for her before she killed half his guards and two of his most prized magical workers that tried to remove her bond. I think that widened his eyes a little. He kept her at more of a distance after that. That couldn’t have been a coincidence.”
“True,” Govam murmured as we reached the corner. He slowed to a stop, putting up his hand and beckoning me closer. “Time to play the prisoner, Finley. I know that you can kill me. You know that I know that you can kill me. Let’s use some civility.”
So we put on a show as we made the journey across the rain-soaked and windswept lands. Deep night had fallen, no stars visible in the cloud-choked sky. Two demons walked to our right a ways, hunched against the gale. If they noticed us, they gave no sign.
Near the beach, a handful of demons patrolled the area in pairs, their uniforms decorated with different symbols than the other guards. They did notice us approach, taking us in first and then looking to Govam.
“His highness’s orders,” Govam said, jerking his head behind him.
“What’s that, now?” the other guard replied.
More guards stepped up or walked into the area to figure out what was going on or what might be needed of them.
“His highness’s orders,” Govam said again, louder, waving his people forward. “He asked that we tell you…” Govam looked at the guards standing back a ways, clearly impatient for them to get within hearing range.
As if pulled by a string, they drifted closer, their eyebrows lifting, their focus on him.
“That you are no longer needed—”
His guards rushed forward, swords out, stabbing or slashing at the guards before they knew anything was amiss. In a blink, they lay silent or groaning on the beach, the rain washing away their blood.
“Now you are really fucked,” Vemar said with a laugh.
Govam glanced at the incline behind us, probably to see if anyone else was coming.
“Okay, hurry now.” Govam steered me toward the rowboats pulled onto the sand. In the distance, bobbing in the sea like hulking reminders of how I’d gotten here and why, waited the larger demon boats. “Finley, you can take me. And Sonassa, since her magic doesn’t affect you.”
“Dragons,” I said, watching those bobbing vessels, “set fire to the boats we don’t use and these rowboats once we’re done with them.”
“That’ll be seen from the castle,” Govam said.
“So?” I looked him straight in the face, watching his reactions closely. “They’ll figure out we’re gone soon enough, and as soon as they do, they’ll try to follow us. There’s no way to prevent them finding out about the escape, but we can hold them off for a while. I don’t see any other boats.”
Govam studied me for a moment. “Send one of your dragons—preferably one that blends into the night—around the horn of the island.” He pointed to where the land rose and turned, jutting into the sea. “Let them tell you how many boats are there.”
“Let them tell me…or do you suggest we destroy those too?” I quirked an eyebrow.
Govam pointed the other way. “There are more in the basin at the bottom of the large cliff. If you destroy all of them, which will take time, as the wood is rain-soaked and won’t be quick to burn, he can bring out the fleet in production. They are in the caves beneath the castle. Not even I know how to reach those.”
“I do,” Sonassa said. “But only through the castle. There’s no way we could get a dragon in that way without raising questions. We’d be stopped almost immediately.”
“Dolion is no fool,” Govam said as the rain beat down on us, what he said about the fire catching incredibly poignant. “He knows what he is doing—what he has done—and has the potential to incite rage from many kingdoms. His predecessors were just as bad. They have built themselves a fortress that not even dragons can penetrate. He is a paranoid, cunning ruler, desperate to hold on to his crown. Do not underestimate him as he has done you.”
“He’s right, Finley, as much as I hate to admit it,” Hadriel murmured.
Yes, he was. He could be lying about the caves, but his point about the rain-soaked wood was solid.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
While the first load of people rowed, the others gathered up the dead guards and carried them out of the way so they wouldn’t immediately be noticed.
“Fuck, this is a lot of trust for me to put in someone who’s spent the last…however many months imprisoning me,” I said as Govam stood at the boat controls, flicking switches and adjusting settings.
“And this is a very precarious position I am putting myself in,” Govam replied, “entrusting my life to the very creatures who have been trying to kill me for a lot longer than the few months you were here.”
He had a point.
When the last rowboat of people had been loaded into the largest boat, Govam glanced at Denski. He nodded and descended to help the guards tie the rowboats to our larger vessel so that we’d take them out to sea with us.
“Clever,” Hadriel said.
“I don’t want to be caught any more than you do, Mr. Entertainer,” Govam replied as the anchor was lifted and the boat cast off.
As we steered away from the castle, I wondered whether we had just walked into a trap. Or maybe, finally, we were on our way back to Nyfain.
TWENTY-FIVE
HADRIEL
I draped my head over the side of the boat as it rose and lurched, climbing up a wave and then plummeting down. No one else seemed to be freaked the fuck out by the violence of the sea. It hadn’t been violent when we came. This definitely couldn’t be normal.
“Princess, a word.”
I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand and struggled to straighten up. That voice belonged to Govam, I knew, the sort of guy who watched more than he spoke. Those types always made me nervous. You never knew what was going on in their heads.
He seemed genuine, that was true enough, but demons were crafty fuckers. He might be trying to overthrow his king, sure, but I didn’t for one moment think he cared what happened to us. We were a means to an end. Then again, they were also a means to an end for us.
“I’m not a princess,” Finley said as she stood a little way down from me, looking out into the night.
Dragons lounged on the decks, tired from the past few hours of frolicking in the air above us. The second we were far enough away from the castle, in the wide sea, they’d risen into the sky and tested out their wings. They’d rolled and swooped and spat fire while some of us would’ve liked a little peace and quiet in which to throw up what little had been in our stomachs.