“That’s low enough, I think. Just keep circling a minute.”
The ships that had been lying out of sight of land had come in now, and were unloading soldiers and horses onto the shore. The city was a charred ruin, but the harbor was a hive of activity. The warning they’d delivered had been too little, too late.
Why horse people want to live in burned city?
“I don’t think they plan to stay long,” Jenna said. Leaning down over Cas’s shoulder, she studied the ships anchored in the harbor, looking for the three-masted ship with the siren figurehead.
Jenna’s eyesight was sharper by far than that of anyone else of her species, but not nearly as sharp as a dragon’s.
“Do you see the ship that chased the ship we burned?”
Cas swept back and forth, twice, then made a larger circle, soaring past the white cliffs with the now-silent guns and out over the ocean beyond the bay.
There.
“Are you sure?”
Cas snorted flame and smoke, vexed that she would ask that question. As they drew closer, Jenna could see that the dragon had called it right.
While the other ships were dropping anchor in the harbor, this one was sailing east under full sail.
“That’s interesting,” Jenna said. “The armies are staying, but this ship seems to be going back home. Go high, but keep them in sight, all right?”
With a few lazy wingbeats, Cas gained altitude so that the ship below, on the dark water, resembled a tiny toy boat trailing a threadlike white wake.
Jenna debated what to do. It was unlikely that a girl and a dragon could drive an army from Chalk Cliffs, though they could do plenty of damage.
They could fly back west, over the backbone of mountains, and try to find the capital in the north and warn the northerners. But if Jenna lost sight of the ship, she might never find it again. If she meant to make good on her promise to seek vengeance on the empress who had taken so much from her, now would be the time to do it. A ship at sea is highly vulnerable to an aerial assault, particularly a sneak attack.
If only they knew for sure that the empress was aboard, they could reduce it to a smear of ash on the waves.
Yet she and Cas had been training for months so they would be ready to cross the Indio and confront the empress in her lair. As Cas put it: Burn the nest, kill the hatchlings, claim the hoard.
Jenna had studied the map she’d stolen from the temple library at Fortress Rocks, tracing a path from shore to shore, past the script that said Here there be dragons. There weren’t any resting points for a dragon between the Seven Realms and the shoreline of Carthis. It would be a challenge, even though Cas used very little energy when they were soaring.
“What do you think, Cas?” she said. “Are we ready for this? Do you want to follow them home?”
Fish in the ocean?
“Yes,” she said, resting her cheek against his hot shoulder. “We can fish in the ocean.”
Without replying, the dragon turned northeast and put on speed, following the wake of the empress’s flagship across the dark northern sea.
31
GOING FOR BROKE
To Hal’s surprise, their quarters in Newgate Prison were reasonably comfortable, at the top of one of the towers of the palace’s perimeter wall. Even more surprising, he and Robert were housed together, when common practice was to isolate the subjects of interrogation to make them more pliable and to prevent them from comparing notes and working up a story.
Their guards were a cut above the usual as well, which had its pros and cons. They lacked the random cruelty and greed so often displayed by those in the trade. But they were strict, businesslike, impossible to chat up or bribe. Robert was a born charmer, but he got nowhere with them when he asked if the Matelon ladies were housed in the same building, or if they wanted to put a little money on a game of nicks and bones.
A day passed, and nobody put them to the question, or took them to the gallows or the block. Hal wondered if King Jarat had sent word to his father that he now held two more Matelons, arrested for spying, and invited him to the execution. Perhaps the king hoped that might prompt a bloodless surrender. Maybe he was waiting for an answer before he took further action against them.
Hal knew how his father would answer, and when. He would answer in the time it took his armies to march from Temple Church to Ardenscourt. Hal and Robert wouldn’t survive, but neither would the king.
Meanwhile, no doubt the empress was marching.
Look on the bright side, Halston.
Hal couldn’t find the bright side of this situation by torchlight.
That same night, just as Hal was deciding whether to lie awake in his bunk or worry upright in a chair, he heard a terse exchange of greetings outside the door, and then the bolts sliding back.
Robert pushed to his feet and stood, hands fisted. Hal closed his book and waited.
The door opened to reveal Destin Karn. He spoke a few quiet words to the guards outside, then entered, closing the door behind him.
He swiveled around to face them, looking them up and down. He no longer wore the black of the King’s Guard; he had changed into rich but subdued court dress, like a snake that had slipped from one skin into another. Whatever colors he wore, he was dangerous.
It was easy to forget that he was a mage, on top of everything else. But then, his hand inside his coat, he walked the perimeter of the room and began murmuring charms.
Hal and Robert looked at each other. Was the spymaster locking them in or soundproofing the room or what? Did he mean to put them to the question right then and there?
Finally, Karn settled onto the broad stone windowsill and extended his long legs in front of him. He crossed his legs at the ankles, the heels of his fine boots resting on the floor.
“Hello, Captain Matelon and Corporal Matelon,” he said, sounding amused.
That answered one question—the spymaster knew who they were.
“You’re a long way from Delphi. Wait—isn’t one of you supposed to be dead?” He rubbed his chin, then pointed at Hal. “You, I think.”
Robert said, “My brother has nothing to do with this. He just came to fetch me home. Let him go, and I’ll tell you everything I know.”
“Corporal, that is a brave thing to say, and exceedingly generous, but it’s no way to begin a negotiation, much less a conversation. For one thing, between the two of you, your brother is the more valuable prisoner, being more dangerous to the crown. For another, I have no doubt that if I asked you properly, you would tell me everything you know anyway, and wish that you had more to say.”
“You mean to torture us, then?” Robert folded his arms. “I don’t care what you do to me, I won’t tell you anything.”
“You would do well not to issue me a challenge,” Karn said, tilting his head back as if he were just a little bored by the situation. “You don’t want to arouse my . . . competitive spirit.”
“Lieutenant,” Hal said, “could I speak with my brother a moment?”
Karn waved his assent, and Hal pulled Robert into the far corner. “Did you mean it when you said you were sorry you got me into this?”
“Of course I am. But—”
“Then could you shut up before you get us into more trouble than we’re already in?”
Robert shot a look at Karn, then leaned in close and whispered, “Hal, listen, we can take him, I know we can. And then—”
“He’s a mage, Robert. We wouldn’t get within ten feet of him. If he questions us, he’ll use magic on us. I’d like to think I could resist it somehow, but I have no idea if that’s possible. Why don’t we find out what he wants? Don’t say no before he asks the question. When it comes to answers, I’ll speak for both of us. Is that clear, Corporal?”
“Yes, sir.” Robert stared straight ahead.